Soviet Economic and Military Aid to the Less Developed Countries, 1954–78

The USSR launched its aid program in the mid-1950s to promote Moscow’s foreign policy interests in the Third World. In the 24 years since then the USSR has responded to aid opportunities in target areas throughout the world with nearly $47 billion of economic and military pledges to 73 countries. It has trained 50,000 students from 98 developing countries in academic disciplines and nearly 75,000 LDC nationals in military and technical skills. The record for Soviet personnel serving in LDCs in a single year (1978) was nearly 28,000 economic technicians and 11,000 military technical personnel (not including troops stationed in Egypt in the early 1970s).