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The London School of Economics and Political Science Our Sacred

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The London School of Economics and Political Science Our Sacred The London School of Economics and Political Science Our Sacred Duty: The Soviet Union, the Liberation Movements in the Portuguese Colonies, and the Cold War, 1961-1975 Natalia Telepneva A thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, October 2014 2 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 99,990 words. I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Clare FitZsimmons. I have followed the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, for referencing. In the body of this thesis, Russian place and personal names are transliterated using the simplified version of BGN/PCGN (the British Standard) system, with soft signs, apostrophes, and diacritical marks omitted throughout. In the notes and bibliography, all works that appear in Russian are cited in standard, contemporary Russian, transcribed according to the BGN/PCGN system, with appropriate diacritical marks. I have followed the conventions of American punctuation and spelling. 3 Abstract In 1961, a series of uprisings exploded in Angola, Portugal’s largest colony in Africa. A struggle for the independence of all the Portuguese colonies in Africa followed, organized by the national liberation movements: the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA in Angola, FRELIMO in MoZambique, and the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau. The wars would end in 1974, following a military coup d'état in Lisbon and the dissolution of the Portuguese dictatorship during the Carnation Revolution. This thesis explores fourteen years of anti-colonial campaigns: the people who led the liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies, the cadres these leaders encountered in Moscow, East Berlin, Prague, Sofia, and Warsaw, and the international environment they faced. It begins by looking at contacts forged between Soviet cadres and African nationalist leaders from Portuguese colonies in the late 1950s, before offering detailed analysis of why the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia offered assistance to the MPLA and the PAIGC in 1961, the same year Angola erupted into spasms of racial violence and the Soviet Union and the United States locked horns over the status of West Berlin. The subsequent chapters analyze the evolution of Soviet relations with the liberation movements during the 1960s and 1970s, the role this relationship played in shaping Soviet attitudes and policy in Africa, and the significance of Soviet bloc assistance in anti-colonial campaigns. This thesis also looks at the diplomacy of the liberation movements and their ideological and organiZational transformations over fourteen years of guerrilla war. The final chapter evaluates the Soviet role in the decolonization of Portuguese Africa following the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship and investigates why the Soviets decided to intervene on behalf of the MPLA in the pivotal event of this thesis – the beginning of the civil war in Angola in 1975. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 List of Abbreviations 7 Introduction 9 Prologue 24 Chapter One 62 Our Sacred Duty: The Angolan Uprising and its Aftermath, 1960-1963 Chapter Two 109 Transitions: The Military Campaigns Unfold, 1963-65 Chapter Three 148 Zenith: MobiliZation, Governance, and Conflict in the Liberated Areas, 1966-69 Chapter Four 186 Setbacks: Portuguese Offensives and Détente, 1969-1974 Chapter Five 223 Triumph: Revolution in Portugal and Its Fallout, 1974-75 Conclusion 277 Bibliography 285 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people and institutions made this thesis possible. First and foremost, I want to thank my academic supervisor, Professor Odd Arne Westad, for believing in my work and for supporting me every step of the way with insightful comments. His confidence and inspiration ultimately allowed me to complete this project. This work would not have been possible without the generous backing of the Maurice Pinto PhD Scholarship and Maurice Pinto personally, who has given his enthusiastic support. This thesis has been the product of a lengthy intellectual journey, and I therefore wish to thank my colleagues at the International History Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Cold War History Research Seminar at LSE IDEAS, whose insightful comments, suggestions, and advice helped shape this project. I want to particularly thank Dr. Artemy Kalinovsky for pointing me, as a rather chaotic undergraduate student in 2008, in the direction of this topic. I also thank Dr. Rui Lopes for consistently reminding me that this project was exciting and important. This thesis has also taken me on a physical journey to many countries in Eastern Europe and Russia, where I tied the story together with materials from multiple archives. In Moscow, I am especially grateful to Vladimir Shubin, who gave extremely valuable advice on primary and secondary sources, answered my multiple questions and queries, and helped reach interviewees. In this respect, I want to thank Alexander Dzasokhov, who found the time to talk to me about his work as the Secretary of the Soviet Solidarity Committee. I also want to thank Professor Anita PraZmowska and František Damián Novotný, who helped me source invaluable documents from the archives in Prague. My special thanks goes to my two dear friends, Adela Gjorgjioska and Corina Mavrodin, who acted as a source of constant encouragement, psychological counselling, and last-minute proof-readers, and to an exceptional group of close friends who did not discuss the thesis with me, but who provided a much-needed 6 sense of perspective. You know who you are. Of the many, many people who contributed with support of different kinds, very special thanks go to Dr. Tanya Harmer, Dr. Jordan Baev, Paul Horsler, Daria Siganova, and Dr. Andrey Frolov. I thank Dr. SvetoZar Rajak for his comments on an early draft of this PhD thesis Last but not least, I wish to thank my father, Yevgeniy Telepnev, who helped me a great deal with deciphering the Polish and Czech documents, and my mother, Irina Belyakova, whose unconditional love sustains me. 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AAPSO Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity OrganiZation ANC Armée Nationale Congolaise (Congolese National Army) ANC African National Congress BCP Bulgarian Communist Party CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CCP Chinese Communist Party CC Central Committee CEL Comité Executivo da Luta (Executive Committee of the Struggle, PAIGC) CIA Central Intelligence Agency (US) CIR Centro de Instrução Revolucionário (Centre for Revolutionary Instruction) Comintern Communist International CONCP Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias Portuguesas (Conference of Nationalist OrganiZations of the Portuguese Colonies) CSL Conselho Superior da Luta (Higher Council of the Struggle, PAIGC) FAPLA Forças Armadas Popular para Libertação de Angola (Popular Armed Forces the Liberation of Angola, MPLA) FARP Forças Armadas Revolucionarias do Povo (Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People, PAIGC) FLEC Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) FLN Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front, Algeria) FNLA Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola) FRG Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) FRELIMO Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (MoZambique Liberation Front) GDR German Democratic Republic (East Germany) GRAE Governo Revolucionário Angolano no Exílio (Revolutionary Angolan Government in Exile) GRU Glavnoe Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenie (Chief Intelligence Directorate, USSR) KGB Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security, USSR) KMO Komitet Molodezhnykh Organizatskiy (Committee of Youth OrganiZations, USSR) CPC Communist Party of Czechoslovakia MAC Movimento Anti Colonialista (Anti-Colonial Movement) MANU MoZambique African National Union 8 MfAA Ministerium für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten (Ministry of Foreign Relations, GDR) MFA Movimento das Forças Armadas (Armed Forces Movement, Portugal) MPLA Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) NESAM Núcleo dos Estudantes Africanos Secundários de Moçambique (Nucleus of Secondary African Students of Mozambique) OAU OrganiZation of African Unity PCP Portuguese Communist Party PIDE Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (International and State Defense Police, Portugal) PUWP Polish United Workers’ Party PAIGC Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (Party for Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) SADF South African Defense Force SKSNAA Sovetskiy Komitet Solidarnosti s Narodami Azii i Afriki (Soviet Committee for Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia and Africa) StB Státní Bezpečnost (State Security, CZechoslovakia) SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, GDR) SWAPO South
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