p The first trips of Soviet scientists to Africa in the period from 1950 to 1960 helped to establish scientific contacts and laid a firm foundation for further Soviet-African scientific cooperation. In the next phase this cooperation became considerably broader and deeper. More Soviet scientists visited Africa primarily for the purpose of generalising the independent development of its countries. . Soviet scientists who visited Guinea, Algeria, the People’s Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania collected material for 266 generalising the experience and practice of non-capitalist development. Thanks to them it was possible to ascertain the general laws of development of the socialist-oriented countries, the main factors, trends and difficulties of this development, and to study and evaluate the socio-economic and ideological changes taking place on the continent.

p Analysis of data accumulated by Soviet scientists in Africa shows that the state of affairs in African countries fully confirms the basic propositions of the Marxist- Leninist* theory of non-capitalist development, including those formulated in the documents of CPSU congresses.

p The efficiency of Soviet-African economic and scientific and technical cooperation was also studied. Soviet scientists thoroughly assessed the forms of this cooperation, worked out criteria for determining its efficiency and outlined prospects for the further expansion of scientific contacts between the USSR and African countries.

p Great attention is attached to the basic problems of the economic development of African countries, particularly to planning and the role it plays in the solution of the key problems of economic and social development, and also to the methods of drawing up and implementing plans under the conditions prevailing in Africa. All Soviet experts on African economy who visit Africa are set the task of studying conditions and requisites for the young sovereign states of the continent to overcome their backwardness and win economic independence.

p Soviet scientists also investigate social and political problems such as the changes which take place in the social structure following the liquidation of the colonial domination, the formation of classes and nations, the solution of the national problem in African countries, the specific features of the imperialist policy on the continent, and critically analyse the Western doctrines and conceptions of development, traditionalist ideas and various types of nationalism.

p In the sphere of history the central place is assigned to the study of the national liberation struggle in Africa. Soviet scholars have accumulated numerous facts on this subject in the archives of Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, the People’s Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and other countries.

p Soviet scientific expeditions in Africa are an important element of Soviet-African scientific cooperation. They help 267 to solve many pressing scientific problems which are of great significance for African countries.

p In 1961 a Soviet archaeological expedition headed by Corresponding Member (now full member) of the USSR Academy of Sciences B. B. Piotrovsky went to Africa. It was organised by the institutes of ethnography and archaeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences in response to the UNESCO-sponsored international campaign to save the ancient Nubian monuments in the flood zone of the Aswan High Dam. The excavations which were conducted from December 1961 to March 1962 in the Dacca region yielded important information about Nubian culture and monuments of the’Roman and Byzantine periods. The expedition also studied drawings and hieroglyphics on rocks which considerably enriched the basis for research into the history of Nubia.

p The Soviet expedition maintained close contacts with Egyptian scientists and had the full cooperation of the local authorities at the time. The detailed maps and air photographs of the region which the Documentation Centre of Ancient Monuments of Egypt placed at the disposal of the expedition proved to be a great asset.

p The second stage of the Nubian expedition (December 1962-April 1963) can justly be qualified as a joint SovietEgyptian expedition since Egyptian scientists and officials played an even greater part in it and helped it to obtain important scientific results.

p The Nubian expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences paved the way for the establishment of useful scientific contacts with Egyptian archaeologists, historians and ethnographers.

p Important practical work in developing the national written languages of the peoples of Africa was conducted by the linguistic expedition to Mali headed Toy D. A. Olderogghe which was organised by the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1963 the Sixth Congress of the Sudanese Union Party decided to introduce primary education inAfrican languages in Mali and to launch a mass campaign to combat illiteracy. Taking into account the Soviet Union’s great experience in the development of national languages, including the creation of written languages, the Mali Government turned to Soviet scientists for assistance. This job was entrusted to the linguistic expedition. Its investigations were designed to help 268 local scientists in developing written systems for Mali’s basic oral languages.

p The expedition closely cooperated with the linguistic section of the National Institute of the Humanities which prior to the arrival of Soviet scientists conducted a linguistic survey in the main regions of the country. The data collected by Mali specialists proved to be most useful.

p As a result of three months’ work the expedition gathered extensive linguistic data which served as an adequate basis for its final recommendations. The work performed by Soviet scientists considerably facilitated the creation of basic written languages in the country.

p Apart from linguistic research the expedition carried out ethnographic studies with the major Mali experts in local mores and culture participating.

p The activity of Soviet Africanists and their joint field work with their local counterparts were highly praised by the Mali Government and were an important contribution to Soviet-Malian scientific cooperation.

p The development of joint studies by Soviet and African scientists was further stimulated by an expedition to Somali in 1971. In fact it was the first joint expedition of Soviet and African scientists and its distinctive feature was that it studied not only the contemporary stage of the country’s development but also the history of the Somali people.

p One of the results of this expedition was the publication of Transactions of the Soviet-Somali Expedition (Moscow, 1974) and other joint works.

p Between 1964 and 1968 the USSR Academy of Sciences organised several expeditions of naturalists on the African continent. Their results were very important for the economies of the African countries and for science in general. For instance, the gravimetric surveys conducted in Mali in 1964 and 1965 by a geophysical expedition help to prognosticate mineral deposits and ascertain the laws of their formation. A botanical expedition which worked in Algeria in 1967-68 compiled geobotanical and pasture maps and also studied the country’s soils. A geological and geophysical expedition which stayed in Africa from 1967 to 1969 surveyed the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Ruanda and compiled geological and tectonic maps of the region. The work of Soviet geologists 269 and geophysicists was highly praised by African states and universities in East Africa and was a definite contribution to world science and to the International Programme of Studies of the Earth Upper Mantle.

p All these expeditions aroused great interest in African academic circles and spurred the development of new scientific trends on the continent.

p On their part, African scientists visit the Soviet Union at the invitation of the USSR Academy of Sciences and its institutes, and also to attend international forums. As a rule, they visit centres of African studies and familiarise themselves with the work of Soviet Africanists. Between 1960 and 1978 approximately 3,000 African state, political and public figures, scientists, cultural workers, postgraduates and students studying in the USSR visited the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

p During this period Soviet scientists were hosts to numerous official guests, including delegations from the Academies of Sciences of the Democratic Republic of Madagascar, Ghana and East Africa, scientific delegations from Sudan, Guinea, Ghana, Egypt, Zaire and Algeria, scientists from research and educational centres in Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, the People’s Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Upper Volta, Tanzania, Togo, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola, Benin, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Tunisia, GuineaBissau, and the Cape Verde Islands. The African scientists had every opportunity to familiarise themselves with Soviet science and successes in building socialism.

p They lectured at the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences and other Soviet scientific and educational institutions and informed their Soviet counterparts about the state of science on the African continent and about some of the research programmes in their respective countries. They met members of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences and directors of Soviet research centres and discussed prospects for further development of Soviet-African scientific cooperation.

p Soviet-African studies play an important part in increasing the world knowledge of Africa. The works by Soviet Africanists and Arabists, the assistance offered by the USSR Academy of Sciences to the newly free African states in promoting science and training national personnel received deserved praise. In 1968 the then President of the USSR 270 Academy of Sciences M. V. Keldyshand Director of the Africa Institute V. G. Solodovnikov were awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science of Lagos University in Nigeria, and the Director of the African Department of theJLeningrad branch of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of ^Sciences D. A. Olderogghe was awarded an international prize in Ethiopia. Another Soviet scholar, L. A. Korneyev, author of several works on Madagascar, was elected Corresponding Member of the Malagasy Academy of Sciences for compiling and publishing a MalagasyRussian Dictionary. Still earlier, in 1961, E. A. Belyaev, a prominent Soviet Arabist, was made Corresponding Member of the Academy of the Arab Language in Cairo. In recent years Gamal Abdel Nasser prizes were awarded to Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences E. M. Primakov, I. P. Belyaev, Dr. Sc. (Econ.), G. Sh. Sharbatov, Dr. Sc. (Philology), A. F. Sultanov, Cand. Sc. (Hist.), and others.

p The social, political, scientific and organisational activity of leading African scientists has received high praise in the Soviet Union. In 1958 the USSR Academy of Sciences elected as its foreign member President of the National ResearchlCentre in Cairo, Prof. Ahmad Turki. In₄1964 Dean of Ibadan University Prof. Onwuke Dike (Nigeria) was made Honorary Doctor of History of Moscow University. The degree of Honorary Doctor of the Institute of Africa, the USSR Academy of Sciences, was conferred upon Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos Saburi Biabaku in 1971. In 1972 this degree was conferred upon the prominent scientist and outstanding fighter for the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands Amilcar Cabral who was assassinated in 1973 by agents of the reaction.

In his speech during the presentation of the diploma at the Africa Institute on 22 December 1972, Amilcar Cabral emphasised the important contribution of Soviet scientists, Africanists in particular, to the struggle for a new and free Africa.