Africa Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Union of Soviet

a scientific research institution in Moscow engaged in the study of sociopolitical, international, historical, cultural, and ethnographic problems of development of the countries of Africa today. It coordinates research in the field of Soviet African studies. It was established in Moscow in October 1959.

The institute focuses on the problems of generalizing the experience of the national liberation movement in Africa, studying the natural laws by which the liberation movement of African countries passes into social revolution and social development by a noncapitalist route, working out principles for Soviet-African cooperation, and studying the forms and methods of neocolonialism in Africa. The institute maintains scientific ties with foreign scientific centers of African studies, participates in the activities of the International Congress of Africanists, and organizes international conferences and seminars. It publishes the yearbook Afrika ν sovetskikh issledovaniiakh (Africa in Soviet Research; in Russian, English, and French). In 1970 it began publication of the series Biblioteka zarubezhnoi afrikanistiki (Library of African Studies Abroad). It publishes, with the Institute of Oriental studies, Narody Azii i Afriki (Peoples of Asia and Africa) and Aziia i Afrika segodnia (Asia and Africa Today).