On November 11, Angola celebrates forty years of independence. This African state, located very far from Russia, is nevertheless associated with much in both Soviet and modern Russian history. Indeed, the very independence of Angola became possible precisely thanks to the political, military, economic support of the Angolan national liberation movement from the Soviet Union. Moreover, thousands of Soviet servicemen - military advisers and specialists - have visited Angola. This was another "unknown war" in which the Soviet Union helped the Angolan government in the fight against the rebel organization UNITA operating in the country. Therefore, for Russia, the Independence Day of Angola, which is celebrated on November 11 of each year, also has a certain meaning.
Portugal's African Diamond
Angola's road to independence was long and bloody. Portugal stubbornly did not want to part with its largest (after the liberation of Brazil in the 19th century) overseas colony. Even the economic backwardness of Portugal and the loss of a serious position in world politics did not force Lisbon to abandon territories in Africa and Asia. For too long, Portugal owned its colonies to part with them painlessly and easily. So, the lands of Angola were developed and colonized for almost five centuries. Since the expedition of the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cana arrived in the Kingdom of the Congo (which existed in the northern part of modern Angola and on the territory of the modern Republic of the Congo) in 1482, these lands have become the object of the economic, and later military-political interests of the Portuguese state. In exchange for manufactured goods and firearms, the kings of the Congo began to sell ivory to the Portuguese, and most importantly - black slaves, demanded in another important Portuguese colony - Brazil. In 1575, another Portuguese navigator, Paulo Dias de Novais, founded the city of São Paulo de Luanda. A fortification was built - the fort of San Miguel, and the land was occupied for the settlement of Portuguese colonists. Together with Novais arrived one hundred families of colonists and 400 soldiers of the Portuguese army, who became the first European population of Luanda. In 1587, the Portuguese built another fort on the Angolan coast - Benguela. Both outposts of Portuguese colonization soon received the status of a city - Luanda in 1605, and Benguela in 1617. It was with the creation of Luanda and Benguela that the Portuguese colonization of Angola began. Mastering the coast, the Portuguese gradually moved inland. Local rulers were bribed or won in wars.
In 1655 Angola officially received the status of a Portuguese colony. Over the centuries of Portuguese rule in Angola, countless numbers of Angolans were taken into slavery - primarily to Brazil. One of the leading styles of Brazilian martial art, capoeira, is called "Angola" because it was developed and cultivated by people from the central and eastern regions of Angola, taken into Brazilian slavery. The number of Africans exported from Angola reached 3 million - a whole small country. At the same time, until the middle of the 19th century, the Portuguese controlled only the Angolan coast, and raids for slaves into the interior of Angola were carried out with the help of local kings and professional slave traders. The leaders of the tribal formations of Inner Angola resisted Portuguese colonization for a long time, so the Portuguese colonial troops were able to finally complete the conquest of the country only by the 1920s. Such a long process of colonization of Angola inevitably affected the formation of social and cultural differences in the Angolan population. The African population of Luanda, Benguela and some other coastal cities and regions lived under Portuguese rule for several centuries. During this time, it was Christianized and switched to Portuguese not only in official, but also in everyday communication. "Asimilados" - this is how the Portuguese called the Europeanized part of the Angolan population, who professed Catholicism and spoke Portuguese. The population of the interior regions of Angola was practically not subjected to the processes of cultural assimilation and continued to lead an archaic lifestyle, speak tribal languages and profess traditional beliefs. Of course, the Portuguese language gradually spread in the interior regions and the Christian religion was established, but this happened rather slowly and superficially.
"Racial democracy" and people of three kinds
However, the Portuguese colonial authorities liked to talk about how Portugal worried about the well-being of black people in Angola. However, until Professor Oliveiro Salazar came to power in Portugal, the Portuguese elite did not think about the ideological justification for the need to be present in African and Asian colonies. But Salazar was a politically literate man who was concerned about maintaining control over overseas possessions. Therefore, during his reign in Portugal, the concept of lusotropicalism became widespread. Its foundations were formulated by the Brazilian scientist Gilberto Freire in his work "The Big Hut", published in 1933. According to Freire's point of view, the Portuguese occupied a special place among other European peoples, since they have long been in contact, interacted and even mixed with representatives of African and Asian peoples. As a result of their civilizing mission, the Portuguese managed to form a unique Portuguese-speaking community uniting representatives of various races and peoples. This happened, among other things, because the Portuguese, according to Freire, were much more racial than other European nations. These views impressed Salazar - not because the Portuguese professor saw his kinship with the Angolan peasants or fishermen of East Timor, but because with the help of the popularization of lusotropicalism it was possible to overcome the growing anti-colonial sentiments in African and Asian possessions and prolong the rule of Portugal for some time. However, in reality, the policy of the Portuguese power in the colonies was far from the ideal of racial democracy advertised by the philosopher Freire and supported by Salazar. In particular, in Angola there was a clear division into three "varieties" of local residents. At the top of the social hierarchy of Angolan society were white Portuguese - immigrants from the metropolis and Creoles. Then came the same "assimilados", which we mentioned a little higher. It was from the "assimilados", by the way, that the Angolan middle strata were gradually formed - the colonial bureaucracy, the petty bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia. As for the majority of the inhabitants of the colony, they constituted the third category of the population - "indigenush". The largest group of Angolan residents was also the most discriminated against."Indizhenush" made up the bulk of the Angolan peasants, "contract dush" - hired workers on plantations and mines, in fact, were in the position of half-slaves.
The best indicator of the true "racial democracy" of the Portuguese colonialists remained the colonial troops of Portugal stationed in its African possessions - not only in Angola, but also in Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe and Cape Verde. In colonial units, officers and non-commissioned officers were sent from Portugal itself, and junior sergeants and corporals were recruited from among the Portuguese Creoles living in the colonies. As for the rank and file, they were recruited by recruiting white settlers and by hiring black volunteers. At the same time, the soldiers were divided into three categories - white, "assimiladus" - mulattoes and "civilized blacks", and "indigenush" - volunteers from among the inhabitants of the inner provinces. The Portuguese generals did not trust black soldiers and even mulattos, so the number of Africans in the ranks of the Portuguese colonial troops never exceeded 41%. Naturally, in the army units, discrimination existed in a very harsh form. On the other hand, military service gave black Angolans the opportunity not only to acquire military training, but also to get to know more about the European way of life, including socialist sentiments, which, one way or another, took place among some of the Portuguese conscripts and even officers. Colonial troops played a major role in suppressing the constantly flaring uprisings of the indigenous population.
However, it was not only the natives who posed a threat to Portuguese rule in Angola. A much greater threat to the colonial order was precisely the very "assimilados" whom the Portuguese elite considered the conductors of the cultural influence of Portugal and the ideas of Lusotropicalism among the Angolan population. Indeed, many black Africans, even during the reign of Salazar, had the opportunity to study in the metropolis, including in higher educational institutions. Compared to some other countries, this was undeniable progress. But access to education, in turn, opened the eyes of the indigenous Angolans and immigrants from other African colonies of Portugal to the true state of affairs. Young "assimilados" who went to study in Lisbon and Coimbra with the aim of a subsequent bureaucratic career in the colonial administration, work as a doctor or engineer, got acquainted in the metropolis with national liberation and socialist ideas. Thus, from among educated young people who had certain ambitions, but would never have been able to realize them in practice under the conditions of Portuguese colonial rule, the Angolan "counter-elite" was formed. Already in the 1920s. the first anti-colonial circles appear in Luanda. Naturally, they were created by "assimilados". The Portuguese authorities were very worried - in 1922 they banned the Angolan League, which advocated improving working conditions for representatives of the "indigenush" - the most disenfranchised part of the African population. Then the Movement of Young Intellectuals of Angola, led by Viriato da Cruz, appeared - it advocated the protection of Angolan national culture, and later turned to the UN with a request to turn Angola into a protectorate of the United Nations. The intellectual core of the Angolan national liberation movement, meanwhile, began to form precisely in the metropolis - among African students studying at Portuguese universities. Among them were such future key figures in the war of independence of Angola as Agostinho Neto and Jonas Savimbi. Despite the fact that later the paths of the leaders who became the leaders of the MPLA and UNITA diverged, then, in the 1940s, while studying in Portugal, they formed a single circle of supporters of the independence of Angola.
Formation of the national liberation movement
A new page in the history of the national liberation movement in Angola was opened in the 1950s. It was at the beginning of this decade that Professor Salazar decided to intensify the settlement of Angola by European colonists. On June 11, 1951, Portugal passed a law granting all colonies the status of overseas provinces. But in the real situation of the local population, this decision did not change much, although it gave impetus to the further development of the national liberation movement in Angola. In 1953, the Union for the Struggle of Africans of Angola (Partido da Luta Unida dos Africanos de Angola) - PLUA - was created, which was the first political party of the black population to advocate the complete independence of Angola from Portugal. In the next year, 1954, the Union of the Peoples of Northern Angola appeared, which united Angolans and Congolese who advocated the restoration of the historical Kingdom of the Congo, whose lands were partly part of Portuguese Angola, partly part of the French and Belgian Congo. In 1955, the Communist Party of Angola (CPA) was founded, and in 1956 the PLUA and CPA merged into the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). It was the MPLA who was destined to play a key role in the struggle for independence and win the post-colonial civil war in Angola. At the origins of the MPLA were Mario Pinto de Andrade and Joaquim de Andrade - the founders of the Communist Party of Angola, Viriato de Cruz, Ildiu Machado and Lucio Lara. Agostinho Neto, who returned from Portugal, also joined the MPLA. Viriato de Cruz became the first chairman of the MPLA.
Gradually, the situation in Angola was heating up. In 1956, after the creation of the MPLA, the Portuguese authorities intensified repression against supporters of the country's independence. Many MPLA activists, including Agostinho Neto, ended up in prison. At the same time, the Union of the Peoples of Angola was gaining strength, headed by Holden Roberto (1923-2007), aka Jose Gilmore, a representative of the Congolese royal family of the Bakongo tribe.
It was the Bakongo who once created the Kingdom of the Congo, whose lands were then occupied by the Portuguese and French colonial possessions. Therefore, Holden Roberto advocated the liberation of only the territory of Northern Angola and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of the Congo. The ideas of a common Angolan identity and anti-colonial struggle with other peoples of Angola were of little interest to Roberto. And he was alien to the rest of the leaders of the Angolan independence movement. First, the life path of Holden Roberto - a representative of the Bakongo aristocracy - was different. Since childhood, he lived not in Angola, but in the Belgian Congo. There he graduated from a Protestant school and worked as a financier in the Belgian colonial administration. Secondly, unlike the rest of the fighters for the independence of Angola, Holden Roberto was not a socialist and republican, but advocated the revival of African traditionalism. The Union of the Peoples of Angola (UPA) has established its bases on the territory of the Belgian Congo. Ironically, it was this organization that was destined to open the first page of the long and bloody war for the independence of Angola. Unrest broke out after cotton workers in Baixa de Cassange (Malange) went on strike on January 3, 1961, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. Workers burned their passports and attacked Portuguese businessmen, for which Portuguese aircraft bombed several villages in the area. From several hundred to several thousand Africans were killed. In retaliation, 50 MPLA militants attacked the Luanda police station and the São Paulo prison on February 4, 1961. Seven police officers and forty MPLA militants were killed in the clashes. Clashes between white settlers and blacks continued at the funeral of dead police officers, and on February 10, MPLA supporters attacked a second prison. The unrest in Luanda took advantage of Holden Roberto's Union of the Peoples of Angola.
The beginning of the war of independence
On March 15, 1961, about 5 thousand militants under the command of Holden Roberto himself invaded Angola from the territory of the Congo. The rapid UPA raid caught the Portuguese colonial troops by surprise, so Roberto's supporters managed to capture a number of villages, destroying the officials of the colonial administration. In Northern Angola, the UPA massacred about 1,000 white settlers and 6,000 non-Bakongo Africans accused by Roberto of also occupying the lands of the "Kingdom of the Congo". This is how the War of Independence for Angola began. However, the Portuguese troops soon managed to take revenge and on September 20, Holden Roberto's last base in northern Angola fell. The UPA began a retreat into the territory of the Congo, and the Portuguese colonial troops indiscriminately destroyed both militants and civilians. In the first year of the war of independence, 20-30 thousand civil Angolans were killed, about 500 thousand people fled to neighboring Congo. One of the refugee convoys was accompanied by a detachment of 21 MPLA militants. They were attacked by Holden Roberto's fighters, who captured the MPLA militants, and then executed them on October 9, 1961. From that moment on, the confrontation between the two national organizations began, which then grew into a civil war, which went parallel to the anti-colonial war. The main reason for this confrontation was not even so much the ideological differences between the nationalist monarchists from the UPA and the socialists from the MPLA, but the tribal discord between the Bakongo, whose interests were represented by the Union of the Peoples of Angola, and the northern Mbundu and Asimilados, who made up the majority of the activists of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola …
In 1962, Holden Roberto created a new organization on the basis of the Union of the Peoples of Angola and the Democratic Party of Angola - the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA). He enlisted the support of not only the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), where the nationalist Mobutu, who took over as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, was gaining an ever stronger position. In addition, the Israeli special services began to provide assistance to Roberto, and the United States of America undertook secret patronage. 1962 was also a decisive year for the further political path of the MPLA. This year Viriato da Cruz was re-elected from the post of chairman of the MPLA. Agostinho Neto (1922-1979) became the new chairman of the MPLA. By Angolan standards, he was a very educated and unusual person. The son of a Methodist preacher in Catholic Angola, from a young age, Neto was doomed to be in opposition to the colonial regime. But he studied brilliantly, received a complete secondary education, which was a rarity for an Angolan from an ordinary family, and in 1944, after graduating from the lyceum, began to work in medical institutions.
In 1947, the twenty-five-year-old Neto went to Portugal, where he entered the medical faculty of the famous University of Coimbra. Being in anti-colonial positions, Neto established contacts not only with Africans living in Portugal, but also with Portuguese anti-fascists from the United Democratic Movement. Agostinho Neto's wife was the Portuguese Maria-Eugena da Silva. Neto not only combined his studies as a doctor with social activities, but also wrote good poetry. Subsequently, he became a recognized classic of Angolan poetry, singled out among his favorite authors the French poets Paul Eluard and Louis Aragon, the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. In 1955-1957. for his political activities, Neto was imprisoned in Portugal, and after his release, in 1958 he graduated from the University of Coimbra and returned to Angola. In Angola, Neto opened a private clinic in which most patients received medical services free of charge or at very little cost. In 1960 g.he was arrested again, and during the arrest of Neto, the Portuguese police killed more than thirty patients of the clinic, who were trying to protect their chief doctor. The politician was convoyed to Lisbon and imprisoned, then allowed to go under house arrest. In 1962, Neto fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the party congress in the same 1962, the main points of the program of the national liberation movement in Angola were adopted - democracy, multi-ethnicity, non-alignment, nationalization, national liberation struggle, and the prevention of the creation of foreign military bases in the country. The progressive political program of the MPLA helped to gain support from the Soviet Union, Cuba and the German Democratic Republic. In 1965, Agostinho Neto's historic meeting with Ernesto Che Guevara took place.
In 1964, a third national liberation organization appeared in Angola - the National Union for the Complete Independence of Angola (UNITA), which was created by Jonas Savimbi, who by that time had left the FNLA. The Savimbi organization expressed the interests of the third largest people of Angola, the Ovimbundu, and operated mainly in the southern provinces of Angola, fighting against the FNLA and the MPLA. Savimbi's political concept was a "third way" alternative to both Holden Roberto's traditionalist conservatism and Agostinho Neto's Marxism. Savimbi professed a bizarre mixture of Maoism and African nationalism. The fact that UNITA soon entered into open confrontation with the pro-Soviet MPLA provided this organization with the support of the United States, and then South Africa.
However, thanks to serious financial and military assistance from the USSR, Cuba, the GDR, other socialist countries and even Sweden, the MPLA finally won the leading position in the national liberation movement of Angola. This was facilitated by the presence of a coherent political program, and the absence of primitive nationalism, characteristic of the FNLA and UNITA. The MPLA openly proclaimed itself a leftist, socialist organization. Back in 1964, the MPLA banner was adopted - a red and black cloth with a large yellow star in the center, based on the red and black flag of the Cuban Movement on July 26, combined with a star borrowed from the flag of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. The MPLA rebels underwent military training in the socialist countries - the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, as well as in Algeria. On the territory of the USSR, MPLA militants studied at the 165th training center for the training of foreign military personnel in Simferopol. In 1971, the leadership of the MPLA began to form mobile squadrons of 100-150 fighters each. These squadrons, armed with 60mm and 81mm mortars, used the tactics of surprise attacks on the posts of the Portuguese colonial forces. In turn, the Portuguese command responded with the merciless destruction of not only the MPLA camps, but also the villages where the militants could be hiding. The South African Defense Forces came to the aid of the Portuguese colonial troops, since the South African leadership was extremely negative about the possible victory of the national liberation movement in Angola. According to the Boer nationalists in power in South Africa, this could become a bad and contagious example for the African National Congress, which also fought against the apartheid regime. With the help of South African troops, by the beginning of 1972, the Portuguese managed to significantly press out the MPLA troops, after which Agostinho Neto, at the head of a detachment of 800 fighters, was forced to leave Angola and retreat to the Congo.
The Carnation Revolution gave freedom to the colonies
Most likely, the war for the independence of Angola would have continued further if political changes had not begun in Portugal itself. The decline of the Portuguese right-wing conservative regime began in the late 1960s, when in 1968. Salazar suffered a stroke and actually retired from government. After the 81-year-old Salazar passed away on July 27, 1970, Marcelo Caetano became the country's new prime minister. He tried to continue the policy of Salazar, including in terms of retaining the colonies, but it became more and more difficult to do this every year. Let us recall that Portugal waged protracted colonial wars not only in Angola, but also in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. In each of these countries, significant military units were concentrated, the maintenance of which required colossal funds. The Portuguese economy simply could not withstand the pressure that fell on it in connection with the almost fifteen years of colonial war. Moreover, the political expediency of the colonial war in Africa was becoming less and less clear. It was clear that after fifteen years of armed resistance, the Portuguese colonies would no longer be able to maintain the social and political order that existed in them before the start of the anti-colonial wars. The Portuguese conscripts were not eager to go to war in Africa, and many officers of the colonial troops were embittered with the command, because they did not receive the desired promotion and, risking their lives in foreign African lands, grew in ranks much slower than the "parquet" officers from headquarters units in Lisbon. Finally, the deaths of thousands of military personnel in African wars caused natural discontent among their families. The socio-economic problems of the country, which was forced to wage long wars, were also aggravated.
As a result of the dissatisfaction of the military, an illegal organization was created among the junior and middle command staff of the Portuguese army, called the "Captains Movement". She gained great influence in the country's military and secured support from civic organizations, most notably the Portuguese left and democratic youth organizations. As a result of the activities of the conspirators, on April 25, 1974, the "captains", among whom were, of course, lieutenants, and majors, and lieutenant colonels, appointed an armed uprising. The opposition secured support for itself in a number of units of the Portuguese armed forces - an engineer regiment, an infantry regiment, a cavalry regiment, a light artillery regiment, a Kazadorish light infantry battalion, a 10th commando group, an artillery training center, a special operations training center, a military administrative school and three military schools. The conspiracy was led by Major Otelu Nuno Saraiva di Carvalho. On April 26, 1974, the Captains Movement was officially renamed the Armed Forces Movement, headed by the ICE Coordination Commission consisting of Colonel Vashku Gonsalves, Majors Vitor Alves and Melu Antunis from the ground forces, Lieutenant Commanders Vitor Kreshpu and Almeida Contreras for the Navy, Major Pereira Pinto and Captain Costa Martins for the Air Force. The government of Caetanu was deposed, a revolution took place in the country, which went down in history as the “revolution of carnations”. Power in Portugal was transferred to the Council of National Salvation, headed by General Antonio de Spinola, the former Governor General of Portuguese Guinea and one of the main theorists of the concept of colonial war in Africa. On May 15, 1974, the interim government of Portugal was formed, headed by Adelino da Palma Carlos. Almost all the instigators of the "carnation revolution" demanded the granting of independence to the African colonies of Portugal, which would put an actual end to the Portuguese colonial empire that had existed for almost half a millennium. However, General di Spinola opposed this decision, so he had to be replaced by General Francisco da Costa Gomes, also a veteran of African wars, who commanded Portuguese troops in Mozambique and Angola. The Portuguese leadership agreed to grant in 1975 political independence to all African and Asian colonies in the country.
Battles for Luanda and the declaration of independence
As for Angola, it was envisaged that the country would gain political independence on November 11, 1975, but before that, the three main military-political forces of the country - the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA - were to form a coalition government. In January 1975, the leaders of the three leading military-political organizations of Angola met on the territory of Kenya. But already in the summer of 1975, there was a serious aggravation of relations between the MPLA on the one hand and UNITA and the FNLA on the other. The confrontation between organizations was very simple to explain. The MPLA hatched plans to turn Angola into a socialist-oriented country under the auspices of the Soviet Union and Cuba and did not want to share power with the nationalists from the FNLA and UNITA. As for the latter groups, they also did not want the MPLA to come to power, especially since foreign sponsors demanded that they not allow pro-Soviet forces to come to power in Angola.
In July 1975, in Luanda, the capital of Angola, where by this time the armed formations of all three groups were present, clashes began between the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA fighters, which rapidly escalated into real street battles. The superior units of the MPLA managed to quickly knock out the detachments of their opponents from the territory of the capital and establish full control over Luanda. Hopes for a peaceful solution to the conflict between the three military-political organizations and the creation of a coalition government were completely dispelled. Angola faced a long and even bloodier than the war of independence, a civil war "all against all." Naturally, all three organizations, after the July battles in Luanda, turned to their foreign patrons for help. Other states entered the Angolan confrontation. So, on September 25, 1975, units of the armed forces of Zaire invaded the territory of Angola from the northern direction. By this time, Mobutu Sese Seko, who had become the president of Zaire, had been providing military assistance to the FNLA since the sixties, and Holden Roberto was a relative of the Zaire leader, prudently back in the early 1960s. by marrying a woman from the clan of his wife Mobutu. On October 14, units of the armed forces of South Africa invaded Angola from the south and stood up for UNITA. The South African leadership also saw a danger in the coming to power of the MPLA, since the latter supported the national liberation movement SWAPO, operating in the territory of Namibia controlled by South Africa. Also, armed formations of the Portuguese Liberation Army (ELP), opposing the MPLA, invaded from the territory of Namibia.
Realizing the danger of his position, the chairman of the MPLA, Agostinho Neto, officially appealed to the Soviet Union and Cuba with a request for help. Fidel Castro reacted instantly. In Cuba, the registration of volunteers in the expeditionary corps began, which was soon taken to Angola - to the aid of the MPLA. Thanks to the military support of Cuba, the MPLA was able to form 16 infantry battalions and 25 anti-aircraft and mortar batteries, which entered the hostilities. By the end of 1975, about 200 Soviet military advisers and specialists arrived in Angola, and warships of the USSR Navy approached the shores of Angola. The MPLA received a significant amount of weapons and money from the Soviet Union. The preponderance was again on the side of the Angolan socialists. Moreover, the FNLA armed forces opposing the MPLA were much weaker armed and poorly trained. The only full-fledged combat unit of the FNLA was a detachment of European mercenaries led by a certain "Colonel Callan". This is how the young Greek Kostas Georgiou (1951-1976), a native of Cyprus, who served as a soldier in a British paratrooper regiment, but retired from military service due to problems with the law, was introduced. The core of the detachment was made up of mercenaries - the Portuguese and the Greeks (later the British and Americans also arrived, who, however, had no experience of combat operations, and many of them had no military service, which significantly worsened the combat capability of the detachment). The involvement of European mercenaries did not help Holden Roberto oppose the MPLA. Moreover, well-trained Cuban servicemen were on the side of the MPLA. On the night of November 10-11, 1975, the troops of the FNLA and units of the armed forces of Zaire in the Battle of Kifangondo suffered a crushing defeat, which predetermined the further fate of Angola. The capital of the country remained in the hands of the MPLA. The next day, November 11, 1975, the independence of the People's Republic of Angola was officially proclaimed. Thus, the declaration of independence was carried out under the rule of the MPLA and the movement became ruling in the newly independent Angola. Agostinho Neto was proclaimed the first president of Angola on the same day.
The next two decades of Angolan independence were marred by a bloody civil war, which in its intensity was comparable to the war of independence. The civil war in Angola killed at least 300,000 people. Cuban troops and Soviet military advisers and specialists took an active part in the war on the side of the Angolan government. The MPLA managed to retain power in a military confrontation with the forces of opposition groups supported by the United States and South Africa. Modern Angolan statehood is rooted precisely in the national liberation struggle of the MPLA, although at present Angola is no longer a country with a socialist orientation. Jose Eduardo dos Santos (born 1942) is still the country's president - one of the closest associates of Agostinho Neto, who at one time graduated from the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry in the USSR (in 1969) and took over as President of Angola in 1979 - after the death of Agostinho Neto. The ruling party of Angola, up to the present time, remains the MPLA. The party is officially considered to be Social Democratic and is a member of the Socialist International.
By the way, at the same time, November 11, 1975, the independence of Angola was recognized by the Soviet Union and on the same day Soviet-Angolan diplomatic relations were established. So, this day marks the fortyth anniversary of the official relations of our country with Angola.
