The soviet Experience with International students: The Geopolitical Aspect

Abstract

The relevance of this topic is due to the aggravated geopolitical confrontation in the contemporary world, as well as an increasingly noticeable emphasis on “soft power” and “smart power”. The purpose of this article is to briefly analyse the Soviet experience of using higher education as a tool of “soft power”. In this article, we divided this experience into two main stages. The first was the formation of Communist ideology as only one in the world and the beginning of its expansion (1920–1940s of the XX century.). The second one — was the stage of the bipolar world, when the USSR dealt with international students who came from the countries of “victorious socialism”. At the first stage, the education of international students could not be considered as a full-fledged tool of “soft power”, since it was more about the propaganda treatment of international students than a more subtle impact . Interaction with international students in Soviet universities at the second stage (during the cold war) had another serious flaw. Since it was about the representatives of the countries of “victorious socialism”, the ideological work was carried out on the residual principle, and the primary stress state placed on the training of technical personnel. Thus, it can be concluded that, taking into account the Soviet experience and the vagueness of spheres of influence in the contemporary world, it is advisable to rely on the involvement of international students in the Humanities, who after returning home are more likely to occupy senior positions in the state apparatus and/or become leaders of public opinion.