Soviet Aid in the Development of Secondary Education in Tanzania in 1960s–1980s

Based on the documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the article examines the issue of Soviet aid to Tanzania in the field of secondary education from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. The bilateral relations between the USSR and Tanzania in the field of education were chosen as the research topic due to the growing relevance of studies of Russian-African relations in all fields, on the one hand, and to the insufficient study in Russian and global historiography, on the other hand. The analysis of Soviet aid to Tanzania is preceded by an overview of the reasons why the Tanzanian leadership made such a request. The principal reasons for the appeal for aid were the lack of local specialists in the field of education and the leftist orientation of the Tanzanian government. After lengthy negotiations, the USSR and Tanzania agreed to sign a contract in 1969 to send Soviet teachers to work in Tanzanian secondary schools. Under the agreement, the USSR provided Tanzanian secondary schools and colleges with teaching equipment and materials and offered financial and technical assistance to Tanzania in building secondary schools. While providing aid, the USSR encountered a number of problems, the solution of which fell primarily on the shoulders of the Soviet teachers dispatched to the country. According to the author of the article, the persistent difficulties that Soviet teachers and agencies had to deal with were directly related to the internal political situation in Tanzania, namely the prioritization of primary education and economic policy under the Ujamaa concept. Despite the fact that the aid provided by the Soviet Union was ultimately successful in achieving its intended goals, it was very limited in nature and influenced by trends in Tanzania’s domestic political life.