Engineering friendship? Komsomol work with students from the developing world inside the USSR in the 1950s and 1960s

Following the death of Stalin in 1953, the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev again began to embrace internationalism not just with rhetoric but also in practice. Much as in the West, Soviet authorities used higher education as a means to build influence and strengthen relationships. This article explores the ways in which the USSR’s Communist Youth League (Komsomol) worked with and responded to incoming students from the developing world, both in mainstream universities and at the Central Komsomol School in Moscow. It shows that key dynamics of the Cold War contest both shaped and undermined this facet of internationalist activity, and that institutional interests and competencies remained important in understanding the idiosyncrasies of Soviet internationalism.