No 12 (2024)

The article treats the crisis situation on the Mexican-American border. The migration flow new characteristics analysis shows that two sources of migration tension in the Western Hemisphere – the Venezuelan and Central American crises - are partly united. The migration policy externalization pursued by the US in Mexico as well as other countries of the region has become an important element of the flow containment strategy. In turn, Mexico is beginning to take steps to implement development programs in some migrant origin countries. While the US and Mexico’ actions are forced to synchronize by the current crisis situation, each country focuses on its own strategy to reduce tension on the shared border.

The conflict in Ukraine makes us believe that Russian force projection is concentrated in Europe, but what we observe is the Russian attempt to build a Eurasian security scheme that allows it to have influence in Europe and the Pacific Ocean. In this context, Mexico plays a key role for an international geopolitical rearrangement due to its strategic position on the American continent. Mexico and Russia established their first contacts across the Pacific Ocean and this region is a geographical alternative for both countries to reconfigure their economic and political relations.

The purpose of the work is to establish the authorship of the manuscript "The History of the Mexican adventure of the Soviet government in 1919", stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (SARF). It is considered a very important historical source containing essential details of the preparation and implementation of the socalled "Mikhail Borodin’s mission" aimed at establishing diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and Mexico and creating a foothold for the Comintern in America. Since its introduction into scientific circulation in the late 1990s, this document was attributed by default to the tsarist consul in Mexico City, V.B. Wendhausen-Rosenberg, who recorded the whole story from the words of Mexican Jorge de Villardo, who arrived from Russia, while the exact dating of the manuscript was not carried out. The conducted research, including handwriting expertise, made it possible to unequivocally establish that the author of the manuscript is Georgy Vladimirovich Tsebrikov, who participated in this operation under the name Jorge de Villardo. The document was also dated more precisely based on a comparison of the information contained in it with data on admission to the Russian Foreign Historical Archive in Prague. As a result, it became possible to limit the completion dates of the manuscript to the period between November 19 and December 4, 1924. This makes it possible to assess in a new way both the reliability of the information contained in the manuscript and its place in a number of sources on the history of Russian-Mexican relations.

The article examines the perception of political transformation in Mexico in the 1970s. by the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the academic community of the USSR. Soviet analysts sought to understand the state of the dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party and its motives for carrying out electoral reforms. The work shows that an important object of research was tracking the possible strengthening of opposition from the right to the national reformist course of the PRI. The emergence of new parties and their tendency to unite was initially viewed with skepticism, as it was seen as leading to a “dispersion of progressive forces” and an even greater weakening of the Mexican Communist Party. However, the PCM’s ability to benefit from the government course, revise its own attitudes, and get closer to other left-wing parties and public organizations gradually changed Moscow’s position. At the same time, Soviet observers tended to somewhat downplay the political changes in Mexico that had been achieved by the early 1980s.

From March 19 to 22, 2024, Mexican Week was held in St. Petersburg, dedicated to the opening of the representative office of the Honorary Consulate of Mexico in the Northern capital and the 100th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Russia. This project was aimed at introducing Mexican culture and expanding the partnership of the United Mexican States with Russian cities. The events were held at several venues in St. Petersburg, organized by students and teachers of universities in the Northern Capital, as well as diplomatic representatives.