Arrested development: the Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955-1968

The book examines the USSR's involvement in West Africa during the 1950s and 1960s as aid donor, trade partner, and political inspiration for the first post-independence governments in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. Based on extensive archival research, it follows Soviet engagement in West Africa from Ghana's independence in 1957 until Khrushchev's fall from power in 1964. The author traces the design and implementation of Soviet-sponsored modernization projects in agriculture, industry, and infrastructure. Soviet internationalism was both ideology and practice, and this book explores how postwar socialist ideas about economic growth became practice in Africa, exploring the implications for both Soviet and African actors. That experiment gives us a lens through which to examine the socialist politics of development, trade, and globalization.