Cold War Liberation

“An innovative reinterpretation of the relationships forged between African revolutionaries and the countries of the Warsaw Pact, Cold War Liberation is a bold addition to debates about policy-making in the Global South during the Cold War.”—Portuguese American Journal

“An essential book for scholars as well as Africa-focused policymakers. It offers not only an excellent and nuanced historical exploration of Soviet-African relations during a tumultuous time, but also multiple useful insights for how policy is formed, mediated, executed, and interpreted both within and between a global power and a local partner.”—The Strategy Bridge

“[Telepneva] trace[s] with regret the arc of movements that started off calling for freedom and self-determination but ended up running neocolonial or authoritarian regimes . . . . a sober assessment of the tough and sometimes impossible choices facing left-wing anti-colonial activists who were under pressure from foreign enemies and foreign allies alike. ”—London Review of Books

“Telepneva’s path-breaking work helps illuminate the Soviet 'internationalists' at the taproot of these tragedies. In doing so, she reminds us that Moscow’s African engagements—past and present—have often been shaped less by grand strategy than by the convictions and calculations of men on the ground.”—Small Wars Journal

“This book will change the way historians think about diplomacy and African agency in the era of decolonization and quickly become required reading for historians of Cold War decolonization and the end of Portugal’s empire in Africa.”—James Robert Brennan, author of Taifa: Making Nation and Race in Urban Tanzania