Gestrandetes Flaggschiff. Die Universität der Völkerfreundschaft in Moskau

Abstract

The Peoples’ Friendship University in Moscow celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2010. This showpiece of Soviet internationalism cultivated the ideal of being ideologically neutral and rendering pure development assistance. Students from Asia, Africa, and Latin America received generous full scholarships and were then to form a new, pro- Soviet elite in their home countries. The largely positive experiences of the students were confronted by the oft heard suspicion that the university was a training ground for future Communist cadres and an incubator for revolutionaries, something that could never be proven, however. The upheaval of the political system in Russia was accompanied by a massive increase in racially motivated attacks and created new conflicts.