Drawing on documents housed in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVP RF), the article examines the motives of the Soviet support for the territorial integrity of Nigeria during the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970), the attempts of seceded Eastern Nigeria (Biafra) to make the Soviet Union a neutral side in the Nigerian crisis, the attitude of the Soviet authorities to the Nigerian students in the USSR, who took the side of Biafra.

The decision of the Soviet leadership to provide military aid for the federal government of Nigeria was primarily motivated by geopolitical considerations, justified by fears of the strengthening of the positions of the United States and Great Britain in the breakaway Biafra. The Soviet Ambassador to Nigeria called the Biafran leader Ojukwu “primarily a creature of American imperialism, who is fighting against the federal government with American money”.

The Biafrans through personal contacts, messages by Ojukwu and propaganda tried to convince the Soviet leadership to acknowledge the legitimacy of Biafra’s bid to self-determination, to stop the supply of weapons to the federal army and to become a mediator in a peaceful settlement. Since the dissemination of Biafran propagandists’ production was banned in the USSR, they tried to reach the Soviet audience through appeals from Biafran public organizations. The Soviet side ignored the appeals and did not make them public.

The Soviets were neutral in the conflict between the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow and Nigerian students in the USSR who supported Biafra. Soviet authorities usually refused the Embassy’s requests to expel students allegedly involved in “separatist activity”.