USSR, 30 years later: what has happened to the thousands of young Africans who went to study there?

Audio 19:30

Camara Sayon, electronic engineer of Guinean origin with his Slovak passport.

Bratislava, Slovakia, 2016. Alberto Campi

By: Clémentine Pawlotsky

1 min

Thirty years ago, the USSR disappeared.

On December 25, 1991, its last leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation in a televised speech.

A historic moment which marked the beginning of a new planetary era.

The opportunity to take an interest this evening in a little-known, sometimes forgotten, part of the relations between the African continent and the Soviet Union.

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Before its dislocation in 1991, several thousand African students went to Russia and the satellite countries to train, to follow a university course.

What was their journey?

What was their experience of this now-defunct world?

And above all, what happened to them?

Decryption with:

Gabrielle Chomentowski

, researcher in history at the CNRS, permanent member of the

, called CHS.

Lecturer at the

and at the

.   

Alama Kandé

, Guinean left to study in the USSR from October 1977, author of the book, 

.

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• Fall of the USSR, 30 years later

• Africa

• Guinea

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