This book explores the relationship between Russia and South Africa from 1918 to 2025 as a window into the transformation of the global order. It examines how two very different societies interacted across four successive eras: the revolutionary age, the Cold War, the post-Cold War unipolar moment, and the emerging multipolar world.
The chapters trace the influence of the Russian Revolution in South Africa, Soviet support for the anti-apartheid movement, the role of Southern Africa in Cold War diplomacy, and the impact of democratic transition in the Soviet Union and of its collapse. The book then analyses contemporary relations through the lenses of BRICS, foreign policy, security cooperation, domestic politics, trade, investment, and responses to the war in Ukraine. Moving beyond traditional bilateral history, it shows how ideas, identities, and competing visions of world order have shaped relations between the two countries and their place in international politics.
