In the period after 1945, liberation and anti-colonialist movements made massive gains globally. The support of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries in that struggle was crucial to establishing a new world order which rolled back imperialism and looked towards developing socialist systems of government with an internationalist outlook. Along with the military, economic and political support provided by the Soviet Union solidarity networks were established in which culture played a significant role. That unique phenomenon is at the core of a new two-year project at the Calvert 22 gallery in London's east End which begins tomorrow.

The inaugural seminar Maputo-Tashkent-Havana: Art Education And International Solidarity In The Cold War investigates the links developed through scholarships to the Soviet Union for African artists and filmmakers during that era and the cultural legacy which remains.

It will cover the internationalist foreign policy initiative of the Warsaw Pact countries in providing educational, cultural and ideological support to artists and film-makers from the global south as part of their support for anti-colonial struggles.

The Soviet Union offered free education to foreign scientists, doctors and cultural workers and many were key African filmmakers such as Ousmane Sembene, Souleymane Cisse and Abderrahmane Sissako and artists Seyoum Wolde and Bekele Mekonnen also studied there.

To explore those connections, the project is undertaking research in the former Soviet Union and a number of African countries, including collecting film and archival material, and commissioning new works for an exhibition in 2015.

Following the experiences of art students from post-independence Mozambique who studied in the Soviet Union tomorrow's session, led by academic and curator Polly Savage, will consider how notions of socialist friendship fostered a spirit of international resistance in the arts.

Her focus is on Frelimo (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) which, she says, received "generous backing" from the socialist world in the form of military equipment and financial aid, as did many of Africa's anti-colonial nationalist groups.

Once independence had been secured in 1975, Cuba and the USSR sent trained workers to help build the emergent nation and established extensive scholarship programmes aimed at training a new generation of Mozambican decision-makers and professionals to lead their country.

Savage is looking to explore how the links between communist and post-colonialism movements were made visual and how "the imagery of anti-imperialism was implemented in Frelimo's state-building project."

And she'll investigate how Mozambique's artists and designers managed the competing claims of nationalism and transnationalism, along with the demands of the state and their own artistic independence.

The legacy of the alternative political communities forged in this process and what is their future in an increasingly neoliberal Africa is another acute question Savage is posing. "Ultimately, we're asking whether perceptions of socialist friendship fostered a spirit of international resistance in the arts which continues to resonate today," she says.

A laudable aim - watch this space.

The seminar Maputo-Tashkent-Havana: Art Education And International Solidarity In The Cold War runs from 11am-2pm on Sunday November 10 at Calvert 22 Gallery, 22 Calvert Avenue, London E2, details: www.calvert22.org

Len Phelan