Dr Natalia Telepneva

Lecturer

History

Personal statement

I joined the University of Strathclyde in 2019 as Lecturer in International History. My main research lies in the history of the Soviet Union and the Cold War and the history of socialism, especially in Africa. My first book, entitled "Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975" (UNC, 2022) examines Soviet support for anticolonial movements in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.

I have published on the history of Soviet and Czechoslovak involvement in Africa in a number of peer-reviewed journals and co-edited the “Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World" (2018), a special issue for the International History Review, "Secret Struggle for the Global South" (2020) and "Globalising Independence Struggles in Lusophone Africa" (Bloomsbury, 2024).

Before moving to the University of Strathclyde, I taught at the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics. I was the recipient of the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2017-2020.

I am currently working on Soviet military relations with the African continent.

Publications

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Publications

Cold War Liberation : The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961–1975: Telepneva Natalia; New History of the Cold War New History of the Cold War (2022); https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469665887_Telepneva
Globalizing Independence Struggles of Lusophone Africa : Anticolonial and Postcolonial Politics: Lopes Rui, Telepneva Natalia; (2024); https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350378339
Soviet policy toward the Third World in the global 1980s: Telepneva Natalia; The Routledge Handbook of the Global 1980s (2024) (2024)
Moscow as an anti-colonial hub for Lusophone African activists : power hierarchies and solidarity networks: Telepneva Natalia, Zelenova Daria; The Liberation of Portuguese Africa. Exile and International Solidarity (2024) (2024)
Helder Adegar Fonseca, Lena Dallywater, Chris Saunders, eds. Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa: New Perspectives on the Era of Decolonization, 1950s to 1990s. Munchen: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2023. 372 pp. $93.99 (cloth), ISBN 978-3-11-077926-4.: Telepneva Natalia; (2023)
[Book Review] Remembering African labor migration to the Second World: Socialist mobilities between Angola, Mozambique, and East Germany, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics by Marcia Schenck, Springer, 2022, xxvii + 377, $49.99 (softcover), ISBN 9783031067785: Telepneva Natalia; Commonwealth & Comparative Politics Vol 61, pp. 496-498 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2023.2267241

More publications

Teaching

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Teaching

The courses I teach correspond to my research interests. I teach courses on the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union and the Cold War in Africa.

Undergraduate Level

V1711/V1712 The Russian Revolution and its Global Impact, 1917-1928 (course convener)

V1707/1708 The Last Empire: The History of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 (course convener)

Postgraduate level

V1993 Diplomacy: Evolution, Theory and Practice (co-taught course)

V1999 Red Continent: Africa and the Global Cold War (course convener)

Research

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Research Interests

I am a historian of Soviet foreign policy with a particular interest in the history of socialism and the Global Cold War in Africa. My first book, "Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the End of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1976” explores Soviet support for anti-colonial movements in the Portuguese colonies. The book recovers the role of Soviet bureaucratic and military elites in the Soviet Cold War and re-interprets the internationalisation of the Angolan Civil War in 1974-75. My current research interests lie in the following inter-related fields:

Soviet and Eastern European Security and Military in Africa. I have written extensively on Soviet and Czechoslovak intelligence in Ghana, the Congo and Guinea-Bissau. In collaboration with Dr. Daniela Richterova at Brunel, I have co-edited a special issue, "Secret Struggle for the Global South" for the International History Review. The special issue explores the role of espionage, military assistance, and state security in the 'Global Cold War'. I am currently working on the impact of Soviet military engagement in Africa, including military/security training and the arms trade. My chapter on Soviet military training for the edited volume "Socialist Internationalism and the Gritty Politics of the Particular", ed. by Kristin Roth-Ey, explores the ways in which African militants related to lived experiences of Soviet socialism.

East and Central Europe/Diplomacy in Africa. In collaboration with Phil E. Muehlenbeck, I have drawn out the role of Soviet East and Central European allies in Africa, specifically looking at the role of Czechoslovakia. Our jointly edited volume "Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World (I.B. Tauris, 2018) explores the role of Soviet allies in the Third World. I have published on Soviet and Czechoslovak intelligence in the Journal of Cold War Studies, and International History Review.

Development and the End of the Cold War. My new research project seeks to investigate the political economy of the Soviet Cold War in Africa between 1974 and 1991. In particular, it focuses on Soviet development assistance in Africa and on how Moscow’s experience of engagement with modernisation and state-building of key allies in the region affected debates about reform in the Soviet Union. My main case study looks at the post-war history of Guinea-Bissau to explore how different groups of people understood and related to Soviet socialism. The first part of my research was to conduct oral history interviews with former guerilla fighters who studied in the USSR. The interviews were conducted in Bissau in 2019. The project was funded by the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2017-2020.

I tweet at @nat_telepneva