Soviet Union and South Africa: Allies in World War II

IOL News

08-05-2025

Roman Ambarov, Ambassador of Russia to South Africa.
Image: MFA of Russia
Russia's Ambassador Ambarov on the 80th anniversary of the victory that crushed Nazism, liberated Europe, and laid the foundations of the African national freedom movement
May 9, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, the most important and dramatic part of World War II, a triumph that came at an immense human cost and shaped the course of modern history.
These days, we are celebrating the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the victory over Hitler's Germany and the liberation of Europe from Nazism. Lest we forget that nearly 90% of all Nazi military casualties occurred on the Eastern Front, and it was the Red Army that stormed and single-handedly captured Berlin.
We are honouring not only a military victory, but also the extraordinary courage and sacrifice of the Soviet people who endured the deadliest conflict in human history. Nearly 27 million lives were lost in the Soviet Union alone – one in every seven citizens.
In contemporary Russia, it is almost impossible to find a family whose relatives did not go through ordeals of the war. Practically everyone has some kind of personal connection to that era of righteous struggle and sacrifice.
Even though my own grandfather did not serve on the front lines, he was one of the principal designers of the T-34, a legendary Soviet-made battle tank. His expertise and persistence enabled the creation of one of the most reliable and efficient combat vehicles of its time. Mass production and deployment of tens of thousands of T-34 tanks had literally turned the tide of the war.
As the world celebrates the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi Germany by the Red Army and its allies, I would like to seize this opportunity to recall another significant chapter of WWII history – South Africa's contribution to our common victory.
Lend-Lease transit, arctic convoys, and tea in Crimea
We will always remember that during World War II South Africa was our ally and an important member of the Anti-Hitler Coalition. South African waters were of strategic importance during the period when the supply route through the Dardanelles was closed. Cape Town, for example, played a crucial role in the Lend-Lease freight, being a principal port of call for Anglo-American ships delivering war goods to the Soviet Union via the Persian Gulf.
'Crush the Fascist Reptile!', a poster by The Medical Aid for Russia, a South African charity (early 1940s)
Image: DISA
Around 3,000 South African seamen served in the Royal navy, many of them – on board Allied vessels carrying valuable supplies to our northern ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk to relieve besieged Leningrad. Those long and perilous sea journeys were carried out in harsh weather conditions and under constant threat of being attacked and sank. I have warm memories of my encounters with South African veterans of the Arctic Convoys, whom I had a privilege to meet while serving as Russia's Consul General in Cape Town in 2015–2019.
In late January 1945, SAAF's DC-3 transport airliner flew a secret mission from Cairo to Soviet Russia via Libya's Tobruk and Athens. The job was to transfer passengers and observe weather during some top brass talks. Oddly enough, South African aircrew found themselves in the recently liberated Crimea to witness the historic Yalta Conference of Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. Held in the imperial Livadia Palace, the meeting shaped Europe's geopolitical landscape for decades to come. Many years later, the flight engineer of that mission shared his Crimea reminiscences in a brief interview. Not to forget, he told a journalist that the wife of Simferopol airfield's officer-in-command invited the South Africans for tea and cake.
Grassroots humanitarian aid and Shostakovich's African premiere
Moscow and Pretoria re-established diplomatic relations on 21 February 1942, just weeks after Hitler had failed to capture Russia's capital city. Due to the unprecedentedly fierce resistance put up by the Soviet troops, the Red Army repelled the Nazi onslaught and went into a massive counter offensive. At that dramatic time ,more than 9,000km away from the Eastern Front, in South Africa, a number of local pro-Soviet groups were running prominent campaigns of solidarity with the USSR and its people.
Between 1942 and 1945, South African charities such as the Medical Aid for Russia and the Friends of the Soviet Union, raised about £1m (approximately R1.2 billion today) to purchase and donate to the Soviet Red Cross much needed medications, surgical equipment, food, clothes, footwear, and other essential goods. In the fall of 1943, for instance, we received 2,200 tons of such aid delivered by the Hoperange cargo ship. South African humanitarian relief, especially anti-typhoid vaccine and blood serum, reached many hospitals and orphanages in war-torn areas of the USSR, helping to save thousands of lives.
In our embassy in Pretoria, we keep a stack of copies of declassified diplomatic correspondence dating those years. Looking through these faded typewritten pages gives me a peculiar moving feeling. Among the reports of Soviet Consul General's encounters with top officials of the Union of South Africa like Prime Minister J.C. Smuts and Secretary of External Affairs D.D. Forsyth, there are numerous records regarding public diplomacy and fundraising events organised by pro-Soviet groups all around South Africa.
To name a few. In July 1944, the University of the Witwatersrand hosted the two-day African-Soviet friendship congress attended by 600 delegates from SA and some neighbouring countries. In November 1944, in Johannesburg, the Friends of the Soviet Union launched the Soviet Pavilion with exhibition halls, open-air tea garden, and, of course, a vodka bar. Up to 250,000 people visited the pavilion to learn more about life and the struggle of the USSR during World War II.
The Medical Aid for Russia, run by its relentless chairman Haim Schneier, a physiologist from Johannesburg, organised anti-fascist rallies, screened Soviet feature films and documentaries, and even introduced Russian classical music to local audiences. Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh 'Leningrad' Symphony, a work that became a musical manifesto of resistance to Nazism, was premiered on 9 July 1944 in Joburg and, two months later, in Cape Town. The proceeds from the ticket sales were donated to the Soviet Union's war effort.
Such solidarity events were often attended by South Africans of all races, including prominent activists of the CPSA and ANC.
Victory that secured our future
Today, it is frustrating to see that some people begin to perceive Nazism as some sort of abstract evil of the past. In fact, the ideology of Nazism has always been rooted in particular concepts of racial superiority and European colonialism, things that South Africans may understand better than anyone else.
Given this vile nature of Nazism, its ultimate defeat in 1945 laid the foundations of the world as we used to know it. The UN Charter, the era of decolonisation and independence in Africa and Asia, the fall of apartheid, and the rise of the Global South – none of these, indeed, would be possible without our victory in the Great Patriotic War 80 years ago.
Written by Roman Ambarov, Ambassador of Russia to South Africa
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of The Star, IOL or Independent Media.