This book is the first to cover the history of People's Friendship University in Moscow (UDN), founded in 1960 with the express goal of training international students from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Though UDN is well known, to date no stand-alone monograph has tackled its history. The monograph draws on archival research in several Russian archives, supplemented with oral testimony and published material.

Thomas Loyd, Augusta University, USA

History of the Cold War remains incomplete without the story of one of the era's most iconic institutions-the People's Friendship University in Moscow, named after the martyred Congolese nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Celebrated by the Soviet Union and its allies as a powerful symbol of socialist internationalism and anti-imperialist solidarity yet denounced in the West as a factory of ideological indoctrination, the university captured both the aspirations of the age and its profound contradictions. In this richly researched study, Riikkamari Muhonen finally provides the comprehensive institutional history the famed university deserves. This book is destined to become an indispensable resource for scholars and students seeking to understand the Cold War struggle for the “hearts and minds” of the Global South – a story whose relevance resonates strongly today.

Maxim Matusevich, Seton Hall University, USA