title: The Soviets and the Right to Self-Determination of the Colonized
abstract: Abstract This chapter suggests that the right of people to self-determination is the ‘revolutionary kernel’ of post-Second World War international law, and which both reflected and energized the struggles of national liberation movements for independence from colonial empires. The USSR played a leading role in bringing about this extraordinary success against fierce resistance from the great colonial powers. In particular, the USSR, by leading the newly independent states and a sustained diploma