The Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in Silver

Vladimir Gennadyevich Shubin (1939 - ) Awarded for:

Excellent contribution to the struggle against Apartheid and Colonialism in southern Africa.

Profile of Vladimir Gennadyevich Shubin

Vladimir Gennadyevich Shubin was born in-1939 in Ivanovo, Russia. He was involved in political and practical support for the liberation movement in southern Africa and South Africa, in particular from the late 1960s.

As Secretary of the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee, he actively participated in the solidarity actions in the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, including granting scholarships to South African students and maintaining contacts with them during their studies; providing solidarity assistance in kind; and receiving wounded and sick African National Congress (ANC) members for medical treatment and rest in the Soviet Union. He was a member of several Soviet delegations to important international conferences on southern Africa, and took part in preparation for a number of them, such as the International Emergency Anti-Apartheid Conference (Addis Ababa, 1976) and the World Conference against Colonialism and Apartheid (Lisbon, 1977) together with the ANC representatives, Josiah Jele and Joseph Nhlanhla in particular.

Later, between 1982 and 1991, as an official and Head of the Section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union International Department, he was responsible also for the Soviet support for Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), including taking and implementing decisions on personnel training, providing advisers and instructors for the MK camps in Angola, and supplies of military and civilian goods and other 'sensitive' issues.

Shubin maintained close personal contact with Oliver Tambo, Alfred Nzo, Thomas Nkobi, Moses Mabhida, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo and other leaders of the ANC and the South African Communist Party.

His practical work in those years was combined with writing popular and academic books and articles on the problems of the liberation struggle. These activities were intensified after he joined the academia in 1992. In particular, his book ANC: A View from Moscow was based both on his personal experience and research carried out in Russia and in South Africa during his three years with the University of the Western Cape. He is currently working on A Hot 'Cold' War: Southern Africa (1960-1990).