How Russia tried to colonise Africa and failed

The Kremlin would have you believe that Russia was always an anti-colonial power in its relations with Africa. “Remember, you are white, a man of the superior race,” this was one of the rules Lieutenant Grigorii Chertkov espoused while deployed in Africa in the service of the Russian Empire in 1897. Leontiev managed to get into Ethiopian Emperor Menelik’s closest circle and helped establish Russian diplomatic relations with Ethiopia. Diplomacy and colonialism In 1897, while Leontiev was still enjoying good standing in Menelik’s court, the Russian foreign ministry sent its first official diplomatic mission to Addis Ababa. This mission, which is seen as laying the foundation for Russia’s relations with Africa, is also touted today by Moscow’s official historical narrative as a symbol of the Russian Empire’s purported anti-colonial sensibilities.