On the basis of the materials of the Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Federation and National Archives of India, as well as published official Soviet, Pakistan, Indian, British and American documents, the author examines the problem of relations between the new dominions Pakistan and India with the great powers, the USSR and USA, in the very first years of their independence. The article focuses on the failed visit of the Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to the Soviet Union in 1949. The author analyses the aims of the visit, its political and diplomatic history, reasons and consequences of the failure of the bilateral Soviet-Pakistani project.