This book is about our country’s participation in the events in the Congo in 1960–1964, which went down in history as the Congo crisis. Congo became the first Cold War hotspot in sub-Saharan Africa. The battle for a vast territory in the “heart of Africa,” rich in strategic minerals, is filled with events that “shocked the world.” The unrest that engulfed the country a week after the declaration of independence, the secession of the province of Katanga and the entry of UN troops (July 1960). The assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, one of the symbols of independent Africa (1961). A dramatic three-year struggle for the return of Katanga to the Congo (1960–1963), full of unexpected twists, which cost the life of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. The powerful uprising of Lumumba's supporters (1964), which was suppressed only with the help of external military intervention, which resulted in the death of dozens of white hostages. Based on documents from the archives of Russia, Great Britain and the United States, the role of the Soviet Union in the Congo crisis, its motives, intentions and actions in context of the policies of other players, foreign and Congolese. The author analyzed the factors that forced the Soviet leadership to refrain from taking steps to escalate the crisis. For historians, teachers and students.