Anti-colonial revolutions depended on Soviet material and diplomatic support

Evidence

By the 1980s, this global configuration was undergoing a historic seachange. … While the revolutionary wars were going on, it had been difficult for the more truthful even within the anti-communist Left to ignore entirely the contradiction that an internally bureaucratized society was in every single case the main supplier of the material and diplomatic support which made those wars possible; it was, after all, in the so-called ‘period of stagnatwn’ (the Brezhnev years) that so many of the revolutions had in fact taken place, with direct Soviet assistance, and it is at least arguable that the crisis of the apartheid regime was intensified somewhat later owing to the demise of the racist regimes in the surrounding countries and to the tenacity of the ANC itself, all facilitated by Soviet arms. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 149

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s tracing of material-structural conditions against purely discursive/postcolonial explanations — Soviet logistical backing is the kind of material fact Ahmad argues discourse-first theory obscures. — connects to: Soviet military spending enabled Third World revolutions while strangling Soviet society — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 618; Cold War superpower rivalry distorted the development of postcolonial states — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 1203; Postwar revolutionary success depended heavily on regimes’ international connections. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1089

Broader Connections

• Soviet military spending enabled Third World revolutions while strangling Soviet society #qualifies (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 618
• Cold War superpower rivalry distorted the development of postcolonial states #qualifies (0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1203