Russia, including the Soviet Union, horribly mistreated Jews for millenia. You really think they were inclusive? Cuba has been great on racial relations - blacks have the same right to vote and starve as white Cubans. How many are in leadership? I've read 3 articles in this series. Stalin was great for the environment- reducing the population really helped with that, I'm sure, sex was so much better for women in East Germany - you'd think West German women would have been jumping the Berlin Wall instead of what happened - and it was such a good place to be Black. I'm not saying it was good for Blacks in this country, there was, and still is, more to do. But Langston Hughes was not ignored and his poetry lives on. Read "Let America Be America Again"
3
Sheep is right.
This is a fascinating chapter of history when the Soviet Union seemed far ahead of American culture at least in intention if not in carry through. While the 1932 fiasco of Moscow's heralded epic that promised to expose "the exploitation of the Negro in America from the days of slavery to the present" never cast the twenty-two black Americans that boarded the Europa ship at their own expense, the same film studio did produce a film on American race relations the same year under the same title. I tell the story of this film in my book Drawing the Iron Curtain: Jews and the Golden Age of Soviet Animation (Rutgers, 2016). Mezhrabpom, disappointed with the reality of the black actors it had wanted to cast in a particularly Soviet fantasy of black American workers, decided to use the medium of animation. It is a spell-binding and prophetic take on the fate that the American penal system played on the body of the black man. To Hughes, Thompson, and the other twenty black intellectuals, who had hoped that Mezhrabpom could do for civil liberties what Eisenstein's Battle Potemkin did for the Revolution, an animated short was a poor consolation. After all, American animation, with its roots in vaudeville and minstrelsy, was at the opposite end of cinematic respectability. In the Soviet Union, however, animation, would be the site of the country's most progressive visions over the rest of its history.
2
The 1936 film "Circus" mentioned in this article is one of the old movies still shown on Russian TV from time to time. The American circus star flees the USA--the opening shows her running with her baby in arms, chased by a white mob (the men dressed in business suits and ties!), because the press has revealed she is the mother of a black child.
In the USSR she has a notable career and finds love, until she rejects the advances of her German manager, who then exposes her, holding up her black child. Instead of condemnation of the mother, the manager is condemned for his slanderous outburst and is told that in the USSR there is no racism. The child is then passed from person to person in the audience, each person smiling and caressing him.
Well worth viewing--look for Tsirk (the Russian title) and 1936 to find it on Youtube. Many top-notch circus performances, and reflecting the official Soviet view that presented the USSR as it wanted to be seen, in contrast to the US.
In the USSR she has a notable career and finds love, until she rejects the advances of her German manager, who then exposes her, holding up her black child. Instead of condemnation of the mother, the manager is condemned for his slanderous outburst and is told that in the USSR there is no racism. The child is then passed from person to person in the audience, each person smiling and caressing him.
Well worth viewing--look for Tsirk (the Russian title) and 1936 to find it on Youtube. Many top-notch circus performances, and reflecting the official Soviet view that presented the USSR as it wanted to be seen, in contrast to the US.
5
For all his musical accomplishments, you should have been honest enough to mention the others who would become communist party members, like Paul Robeson. That sort of thing matters.
This kind of bias is why people can't trust you, even with history items, anymore.
The McCarthy period was not fair or pretty but it HAD a true basis in fact - that we had a lot of people in the U.S. government bureaucracy - like today - whose primary interest was NOT serving or protecting the people paying their salaries.
There WERE people who were found to be agents of foreign gov'ts who had come from the same Hard-Left campuses that are STILL so dangerous that the leader at Berkeley had an escape door built for his to get out of his office when attacked.
This kind of bias is why people can't trust you, even with history items, anymore.
The McCarthy period was not fair or pretty but it HAD a true basis in fact - that we had a lot of people in the U.S. government bureaucracy - like today - whose primary interest was NOT serving or protecting the people paying their salaries.
There WERE people who were found to be agents of foreign gov'ts who had come from the same Hard-Left campuses that are STILL so dangerous that the leader at Berkeley had an escape door built for his to get out of his office when attacked.
4
Don't be surprised that art and music opened detente between the Soviet Union and the United States. A lovely Marxist named Rose Rubin worked tirelessly to make sure Russian folk music and their traditional sound survived. She lived and died in the Lower Eastside. She was a lifetime communist and a lovely lady to talk to if you had a thick skin and a big heart. She was so cool . . .
2
One interesting note of Robeson's relationship with the USSR was his friendship with the Itzhak Feffer and Solomon Mikhoels of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. He met them when they toured the US during WWII, raising money for the Soviet war effort. After the war, JAC members were accused of treason, arrested and killed. When Robeson returned to the USSR in 1949, he was disturbed that many of his Jewish comrades from that tour could not be found. He asked about them, but Mikhoels had already been executed and Feffer was in prison. The government arranged to have Robeson meet with Feffer, after nursing him back to health from torture and starvation in prison, explaining the delay by saying Feffer was on tour. There are conflicting accounts of the meeting. Afterward, when Robeson performed in Tchaikovsky Hall, he sang the Vilna Partisan song in Yiddish and spoke about his friendship with Feffer, Mikhoels and the Jewish people. The audience erupted in an ovation after a stunned silence. The concert was carried on live radio all over the USSR, but that section was omitted from versions of the recording later released. Feffer was executed in 1952 in Lubyanka Prison along with other members of JAC after a closed trial. Robeson never spoke of this publicly in the US, choosing never to criticize the USSR. His biographers have never linked this incident to his later depression and mental illness, but I think it was one of the causes.
9
Yelena Khanga's book "Soul to Soul" is an interesting account of her family's journey -- a Jewish-American grandmother and an African-American grandfather who chose to make their home in the USSR. Robeson is mentioned several times; if I recall correctly, her grandfather was a friend of Robeson. This was my first foray into reading about Americans who chose to emigrate to the USSR, and I found many more memoirs after Khanga's.
Of course, many Americans (black or not) who chose to make their home in the USSR found their hopes profoundly dashed, their US passports confiscated, and themselves under arrest, sent to prison camps, or even executed. Tim Tzouliadis' book "The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia" is a good overview of the stories of those Americans who went to live in the USSR and found themselves largely abandoned by the American government. There are also many memoirs written by these immigrants from America (and other countries) that can be found. I see a previous poster already recommended "Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union" by the Jamaican-born Robert Robinson -- this is one of several that are definitely worth a read.
It's a complicated period in American history, and the racial issues that black Americans dealt with are another layer of complexity. I'm glad to see it receiving attention in the NYT, but dismayed that it doesn't discuss the realities of life for those who (black or white) chose to emigrate to the USSR.
Of course, many Americans (black or not) who chose to make their home in the USSR found their hopes profoundly dashed, their US passports confiscated, and themselves under arrest, sent to prison camps, or even executed. Tim Tzouliadis' book "The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia" is a good overview of the stories of those Americans who went to live in the USSR and found themselves largely abandoned by the American government. There are also many memoirs written by these immigrants from America (and other countries) that can be found. I see a previous poster already recommended "Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union" by the Jamaican-born Robert Robinson -- this is one of several that are definitely worth a read.
It's a complicated period in American history, and the racial issues that black Americans dealt with are another layer of complexity. I'm glad to see it receiving attention in the NYT, but dismayed that it doesn't discuss the realities of life for those who (black or white) chose to emigrate to the USSR.
9
America savagely mistreated its African-American population. If they weren't being lynched or imprisoned they were exploited economically and subjected to racist segregationist treatment on every imaginable level.
But the Russians used them for sheer geopolitical propaganda, hoping to score points in countries far away from Russia where folks have more melanin. The fact is the Russians are probably as racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic as any country. Hillary had the election stolen from her, but I can't recall a single Russian politician of note. Their club of billionaire oil oligarchs seem to solely consist of men. We know how they treat gays in their country. And Putin rallies his base with appeals to ancient and mostly unfounded appeals to the inherent greatness of Mother Russia. That means white Russian orthodox to the exclusion of everyone else. The great Russian novelists wrote about their country's long standing inferiority complex. Mostly in Asia but always looking west towards Europe with envy.
It's a bit like North Korea inviting noted political intellectual Dennis Rodman over for meaningful chats about world affairs. The visits are publicized by both sides, but strangely the content of their conversations are never revealed.
But the Russians used them for sheer geopolitical propaganda, hoping to score points in countries far away from Russia where folks have more melanin. The fact is the Russians are probably as racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and xenophobic as any country. Hillary had the election stolen from her, but I can't recall a single Russian politician of note. Their club of billionaire oil oligarchs seem to solely consist of men. We know how they treat gays in their country. And Putin rallies his base with appeals to ancient and mostly unfounded appeals to the inherent greatness of Mother Russia. That means white Russian orthodox to the exclusion of everyone else. The great Russian novelists wrote about their country's long standing inferiority complex. Mostly in Asia but always looking west towards Europe with envy.
It's a bit like North Korea inviting noted political intellectual Dennis Rodman over for meaningful chats about world affairs. The visits are publicized by both sides, but strangely the content of their conversations are never revealed.
4
We can thank God that those Democrats who so cheated black Americans of their rights are gone and forgotten. The socially punished black voices of today are the independently-minded ones on the political Right.
Hillary never did even a passable job of running campaigns. She is why she LOST. She was clueless about how close the poll numbers were getting in the fall of 2016 in the old manufacturing communities because she was the worn-out senior citizen needing help into cars and up stairs when she needed to be the judge of numbers and where to spend money.
Then, when the one thing the country needed her to do was admit that she lost her race, she refused and that ended up with hundreds of thousands of disturbed progressive dolts refusing to move on.
Hillary never did even a passable job of running campaigns. She is why she LOST. She was clueless about how close the poll numbers were getting in the fall of 2016 in the old manufacturing communities because she was the worn-out senior citizen needing help into cars and up stairs when she needed to be the judge of numbers and where to spend money.
Then, when the one thing the country needed her to do was admit that she lost her race, she refused and that ended up with hundreds of thousands of disturbed progressive dolts refusing to move on.
3
Between 1932 and 1976 20 million people were killed in the USSR: enslaved in the gulags, executed, tortured and starved, in 1933 Stalin unleashed a man-made famine in Ukrai e, in which more than a million people died,.jim Crow was bad but not as bad as this famine genicide. Read Robert Conquest 'Harvest of Sorrow' for the heart-wrenching descriptions of dying babies and worse horrors, People who whitewashed the crimes of the Soviet regime are no better than Nazi collaborators, be they black or white.
7
Must be hard for all the American leftists who still worship Communism (even after all its failures) but now have to hate Russia.
7
It must be challenging for conservative Americans who considered themselves anti-Communist to support a President with an uncritical view of Russia and a deep admiration for Vladimir Putin who admires Stalin.
12
No fan of Putin, but the USSR is gone. Thank God.
Khrushchev famously said "When it comes time to hang the capitalist, he will gladly sell you the rope."
i wish he'd mentioned robeson singing "old man river", in moscow, as a rebuke to stalin's face. made up for a lot of his going along before that.
3
Let's see, 1920s America -- African Americans lynched once every three days; Hollywood padlocked shut for Black writers and directors and editors and crew; American apartheid so strong and pervasive that White American military fighting with the French in WWI urged and counseled the French in how to treat the Black soldiers as second class citizens; African Americans, no matter how educated, kept out of industries except for janitors, cooks, and mailmen; American homegrown white terrorism, not only the ubiquitous Klan but "ordinary" white Americans who went on American pograms and razed Black communities in Chicago, in Tulsa, in Rosewood, etc, etc
Why not give another country and political system a chance?
Why not give another country and political system a chance?
27
Let's see. In the 1930s a million Ukrainians were deliberately starved in the famine genocide known as Kholodomor. The Moscow show trials in which former Communust leaders were tortured or brainwashed into outlandish self-incrimination and later executed. 1937 was the year if the Great Terror, in which hundreds of thousands were randomly arrested and sent to die in the gulags. In 1939 the Molotov-Ribbentrop act between Hitler and Stalin that dismembered Poland was signed. So sure, why not give a chance to this system? Who cares about dead babies and concentration camps ? You insult African Americans by suggesting they so lack in moral sense that must if them would overlook these crimes as long as they were flattered by the Soviet regime.
3
Nicely put!
Thank you, Ms. Wilson.
One quibble: Richard Wright's disillusion with the Communist Party dates to 1937, when he was physically ejected from the Chicago Mayday Parade.
And a small note that may prove useful to some researcher: by the late 1920s the poets of the Harlem Renaissance were being read in Vienna; the poet Josef Luitpold Stern, who was active in the Socialist Art Section of "Red" Vienna, ended up translating a number of Harlem poets into German.
Finally, it should be remembered that the Communist project of encouraging resistance from African Americans led to Communists, black and white, being the first to organize what would eventually become the Civil Rights movement. Credit where credit is due.
Best of luck with your project(s).
One quibble: Richard Wright's disillusion with the Communist Party dates to 1937, when he was physically ejected from the Chicago Mayday Parade.
And a small note that may prove useful to some researcher: by the late 1920s the poets of the Harlem Renaissance were being read in Vienna; the poet Josef Luitpold Stern, who was active in the Socialist Art Section of "Red" Vienna, ended up translating a number of Harlem poets into German.
Finally, it should be remembered that the Communist project of encouraging resistance from African Americans led to Communists, black and white, being the first to organize what would eventually become the Civil Rights movement. Credit where credit is due.
Best of luck with your project(s).
13
Robert Robinson's remarkable book "Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union" is a unique account of a Jamaica-born factory machinist who in 1930 signed a short-term contract to train Soviet machinists--and who was refused an exit visa until 1974.
One chapter is titled "Racism in Russia."
Robinson met Paul Robeson on each of his visits and Robeson apparently rejected criticism of Soviet Communism and the USSR until a 1961 confrontation with Khrushchev at which Robeson asked if Western press stories about Soviet anti-Antisemitism were true. Khrushchev reportedly exploded at Robeson and admonished him not to meddle in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union.
That was Robeson's last visit to the Soviet Union.
One chapter is titled "Racism in Russia."
Robinson met Paul Robeson on each of his visits and Robeson apparently rejected criticism of Soviet Communism and the USSR until a 1961 confrontation with Khrushchev at which Robeson asked if Western press stories about Soviet anti-Antisemitism were true. Khrushchev reportedly exploded at Robeson and admonished him not to meddle in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union.
That was Robeson's last visit to the Soviet Union.
10
The Soviet Union, for all its ills and they were many, did not enslave people because of their colour with unspeakable and still unspoken, inhumane savagery for centuries so that even today that minority has to remind American society that their lives do matter. The Soviet Union is long dead, but today, the thirteenth amendment of the United States Constitution still permits slavery and it is in the prison cells of the country that black Americans can be found living that enslavement in disproportionate number.
9
This piece does not directly enough ask, much less remotely answer the overhanging question "Why did so many inter-War African American artists embrace or admire Communism?"
To even sensibly ask the the question one would have to address the larger question of why so many artists of all races did. Indeed, the list of those of ANY repute who did NOT-- F. S. Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, John O'Hara, James Could Cozzens (or digging deep Kenneth Roberts and Margaret Mitchell)-- grows short.
To even sensibly ask the the question one would have to address the larger question of why so many artists of all races did. Indeed, the list of those of ANY repute who did NOT-- F. S. Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, John O'Hara, James Could Cozzens (or digging deep Kenneth Roberts and Margaret Mitchell)-- grows short.
3
Nice piece. Also interesting is Robeson Taj Frazier's excellent book on the topic, "The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination" (Duke) https://www.dukeupress.edu/The-East-Is-Black
2
In the 'sixties, when the Soviet Union was trying to groom young people from third world countries to become instruments of the Kremlin's "anti-imperialist" war with the West, students from developing countries--unlike their counterparts from Europe and the United States--were accommodated at Moscow’s "Lumumba Friendship University.” So much so, that Lumumba soon became known among Russian students at Moscow State University (MGU) and other more prestigious Soviet institutions, as "Apartheid U."
Towards Lumumba students, Soviets often expressed a clearly racist-born anxiety and hostility. In the winter of 1967, for example, the university's "grapevine", often more credible than Pravda and Izvestia, buzzed with the apocryphal rumor that Friendship University students were rioting in the streets, demanding the privilege of having their student stipends be paid in both rubles and much more valuable Western hard currency. (“valuta.”) All this, they said enviously, was so that Lumumba students in possession of hard currency could gain a competitive edge in dating Russian girls.
Certainly by the 'sixties--and probably much earlier--Soviet ideology, on race as on every other issue, had become a mile wide and an inch deep. Ideology seldom penetrated beyond the Soviet elite, and even there it was usually just for political show.
Towards Lumumba students, Soviets often expressed a clearly racist-born anxiety and hostility. In the winter of 1967, for example, the university's "grapevine", often more credible than Pravda and Izvestia, buzzed with the apocryphal rumor that Friendship University students were rioting in the streets, demanding the privilege of having their student stipends be paid in both rubles and much more valuable Western hard currency. (“valuta.”) All this, they said enviously, was so that Lumumba students in possession of hard currency could gain a competitive edge in dating Russian girls.
Certainly by the 'sixties--and probably much earlier--Soviet ideology, on race as on every other issue, had become a mile wide and an inch deep. Ideology seldom penetrated beyond the Soviet elite, and even there it was usually just for political show.
4
My understanding is that many/most of the young people brought to study in the Soviet Union were chosen from the elites of those Third World countries, from already-privileged backgrounds. No wonder they expected a certain standard of living.
2
In 1934, just prior to entering the Soviet Union for the first time (via train), Paul Robeson had experienced a genuine nightmare during a stopover in then-Nazi Germany.
As he recounted in his memoirs, he was often either treated like a subhuman or propositioned by gay Nazis who were tremendously aroused by a handsome, strapping black man.
Then he crossed the border into the USSR. During a lengthy stop for passport inspections, Robeson and his traveling group played some of his recordings on a portable Victrola. Hearing the songs, citizens gravitated toward Robeson's train compartment. They recognized him and began loudly exclaiming "Pavla Robesona! Pavla Robesona!"
He later declared that in Moscow -- for the first time in his life -- he had the experience of walking down a street in perfect dignity.
No wonder the great Paul Robeson unfortunately clung to his love of the Soviet Union and its people long after Stalin's murderous crimes had been exposed.
As he recounted in his memoirs, he was often either treated like a subhuman or propositioned by gay Nazis who were tremendously aroused by a handsome, strapping black man.
Then he crossed the border into the USSR. During a lengthy stop for passport inspections, Robeson and his traveling group played some of his recordings on a portable Victrola. Hearing the songs, citizens gravitated toward Robeson's train compartment. They recognized him and began loudly exclaiming "Pavla Robesona! Pavla Robesona!"
He later declared that in Moscow -- for the first time in his life -- he had the experience of walking down a street in perfect dignity.
No wonder the great Paul Robeson unfortunately clung to his love of the Soviet Union and its people long after Stalin's murderous crimes had been exposed.
12
Looking forward to the article about America's defeat of Communism. The rest is lame.
4
America's defeat of Communism? Taking a lot of credit for yourself, aren't you?
African American artists had to choose between an apartheid American culture and a Soviet system intolerant of individual expression - not much of a choice; and, if we look dare look closely at American society and ourselves, we'll discover that, when it comes to race, the only thing that changes around here is the weather.
10
We just had two terms of our first African-American president.
Things do change over time. Just not as quickly as we would like or need to.
Things do change over time. Just not as quickly as we would like or need to.
If anyone wants the ultimate of what Blacks faced in the US, there is a powerful, symbolic moment that defined that oppression, the hypocrisy of it all. Marian Anderson, the great singer, was supposed to sing at the DAR hall in Washington, DC, but those "Daughters of the Revolution" refused to allow, in the words of one blue blood who shall remain nameless, "That ***** ***** from singing in that space" (the exact words were the N word followed by the name for a female dog), she ended up singing at the Lincoln Memorial thanks to the efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt. Think about that, the people who were so proud their ancestors created this country of freedom and equality denied a woman the right to use the space because they considered her sub human. While not holding anything for the sham that was the USSR, who was the more hypocritical? This is the same US that fought Nazis in WWII and did so with segregated troops where the black troops were often not allowed to fight in combat but were given every dirty, menial job that could be found, that were 'too good' to give to white soldiers......that doesn't mean the US was the same as the USSR, it wasn't, it simply means that you can understand why some might feel the way they did at the time, frustrated with being second class citizens to most people, and denied what was supposed to be their birthright as US citizens, including basic things like the right to vote.
35
Excellent comment Bill; thank you.
5
Exactly! Great comment.
4
Actually, I think we owe a debt of gratitude to those old dames who denied Anderson the use of the hall. Had she given her concert I would certainly not heard it. I was tucked away in a crib in Iowa still a month away from my first birthday. Chances are that concert would never have been recorded, or if it was it would have gone unnoticed. As it happened, I have had the opportunity to hear that magnificent voice more than once and been thrilled by it each time.
3
Just to add a little to Langston Hughes' time in Russia. Hughes gives a detailed account of his time there in the autobiography "I Wonder as I Wander." He said was paid more for the Russian gig than any other previous job. What sank the production for Black and White wasn't creative differences, but cultural ones. The movie was meant to be shown to American audiences to stoke a revolution. Langston read the script laughed, telling the creators the premise didn't meet American reality. There was a scene when a black man danced a waltz with the plantation owner's daughter. Russia's class lines may blur between land owners and peasants during celebrations, but Hughes had to convince the Russian theater board that that simply wouldn't occur in 1932 America. Another improbable scene: White laborers joining black to revolt against the oppression of their corporate bosses. The Russians looked at poverty as class warfare, having no idea how ingrained the oppressive ideas of segregation and Jim Crow were in the US. After months of discussion and revision, the show was cancelled.
19
“Russia has long served as a repository for different kinds of mythology....The myth of Russia as a racial paradise was perhaps one its best….”
No nation surpasses these “yet to be United States,” in perpetuating mythologies. The mythology of democracy that has been perpetuated by this country is one of the greatest myths the world has ever witnessed.
Russia gave these great artist and advocates for racial justice, particularly the iconic Paul Roberson, something the country of their birth did not—basic humanity and respect.
While refusing to respect their artistic greatest, America spared no resources in trying to destroy them as they advocated for an inclusive society, as it did to the great Paul Roberson.
As James Baldwin wrote, “the Republic, an institution which could always find a way to use us, though it has yet to find a way to respect us.”
No nation surpasses these “yet to be United States,” in perpetuating mythologies. The mythology of democracy that has been perpetuated by this country is one of the greatest myths the world has ever witnessed.
Russia gave these great artist and advocates for racial justice, particularly the iconic Paul Roberson, something the country of their birth did not—basic humanity and respect.
While refusing to respect their artistic greatest, America spared no resources in trying to destroy them as they advocated for an inclusive society, as it did to the great Paul Roberson.
As James Baldwin wrote, “the Republic, an institution which could always find a way to use us, though it has yet to find a way to respect us.”
15
A magical moment is when Arthur Koestler walks into a desolate Uzbek station where Langston Hughes has opened up his gramophone and is listening to his 78's while waiting for the train.
6
All organized societies - economically developed and underdeveloped - have a triangular shape: their low-percentage but forever richer elites on the top, while their forever impoverished masses remain exploited at the bottom. If we compared a contemporary typical, lower-middle class African-American, with a typical lower-middle class native African in two fairly developed, post-colonial, new sovereign nation states, South Africa and Nigeria, what conclusion would we draw about which of these two - or of at numbers of them - are better off, with their living standards and expectations concerning a better future? Personally, I would without hesitation throw in my lot with the African-Americans, very promising survivors of their enslaved ancestors.
Respectfully submitted, Adalbert Lallier
Respectfully submitted, Adalbert Lallier
2
But it's not just about living standards and expectations of a better future, it's about being considered less even were you to rise to the top of your field - even were you to rise and become leader of the free world! Ask Obama, the William sisters, or just about any African-American who has excelled. I stand open to correctionn but to me there is simply no comparison to this phenomenon among white people other than, to some extent, Jews. So you can make your comparisons of black people across nations and times, but I can tell you there's something to be said for trekking barefoot to school if your stomach is filled with the knowledge that your country has had leaders just like you.
13
Lest we forget, it was America who deemed Blacks who wanted equality as Communists. It would be at least 40 more years after the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance that American law even recognized Blacks as Americans who deserved equality and that was after Black Americans were slaughtered in the streets during the Civil Rights movement. During the Harlem Renaissance, voting rights had not even been given to Black Americans and when it was, it was only given for 40 years, which expired in 2008 and a GOP-led Congress has stood as a barrier to approval of voting rights for Black Americans from that time until now in 2017.
Social media and the internet were not available during the Harlem Renaissance limiting access to information that would have made a difference in forming opinions. Soviet propaganda was rampant, as was American propaganda, evidenced in each nation stating the oppressed were happy with their lot in life: America stating Blacks were happy with segregation, and Russians stating Soviets were happy with Communism. Since the literary agents of the Harlem Renaissance were hosted by the Soviet government, there's no reason to believe these literary agents were exposed to any independent experiences that would have allowed them to discover otherwise.
Finally, it would do good for most to remember that unlike their non-Black American counterparts, the literary wealth of Black Americans came out lived experiences, not books.
Social media and the internet were not available during the Harlem Renaissance limiting access to information that would have made a difference in forming opinions. Soviet propaganda was rampant, as was American propaganda, evidenced in each nation stating the oppressed were happy with their lot in life: America stating Blacks were happy with segregation, and Russians stating Soviets were happy with Communism. Since the literary agents of the Harlem Renaissance were hosted by the Soviet government, there's no reason to believe these literary agents were exposed to any independent experiences that would have allowed them to discover otherwise.
Finally, it would do good for most to remember that unlike their non-Black American counterparts, the literary wealth of Black Americans came out lived experiences, not books.
10
The NYT nostalgia for Communism continues! Not a word about the 'show trials' underway during this same period of the 1930's, nor the millions executed by Stalin or exiled to Siberia. Readers await the next series on the joys of Nazi Germany during the 1930's! Jobs for all and no depression! Of course the author also fails to mention that Soviet documents released after 1989 show clearly that the American Communist was entirely controlled from Moscow, with every action taken in the US designed to further the goal of the USSR's domination.
7
No, It isn't the NY Times nostalgia for communism, what this shows is that for a country that promoted equality and the dream for all, that a good number of our citizens were desperate to find something that worked. These were people because of their skin color denied a fair shake in this country, where if you were a black actor unless they were hiring parts for maids and janitors, you didn't work, and where black artists of all kinds were denied access to things. The promise of the Soviet Union in the 1920's was just that, and the reality is that most people who flirted with communism soon realized its true nature, especially once Stalin took over...but that doesn't change the desperation that blacks felt in the uS, nor does it change the fact that the US, supposedly this harbinger of freedom, allowed an odious system like Jim Crow to dominate and refused to pass any kind of federal anti lynching laws, despite the fact that in the 1930's lynching reached its peak. The USSR was an oppressive, bleak regime, but it tells how desperate the plight of blacks of all kinds in this country, especially but not limited to the South and Jim Crow, that they even thought that this was a refuge. And unlike Donald Trump nation today, blacks realized pretty quickly the sham that was the uSSR and abandoned it and communism.
41
Donna, you've missed the point. This article is not a puff piece about the joys of communism and I'm puzzled how you could have reached the conclusion that it is. This is a look back at a piece of history that is not often talked about. Nothing in this piece is made up and it does refer to the disillusionment experienced by a number of the African-American artists who were initially hopeful.
Yet another recitation of the, by now well-known, horrors of the gulag would have been out of place in this piece -- if for no other reason than limitations of space.
Yet another recitation of the, by now well-known, horrors of the gulag would have been out of place in this piece -- if for no other reason than limitations of space.
12
Donna Gray history is not a high school football game with home team and away fighting, its not good guys vs. bad guys. There is no nostalgia here. The propaganda efforts in your education seem to have brainwashed you to see history as simple and black & white. There are many factors in the histories of people and societies. During the Harlem Renaissance years African American guest artists had more opportunities in the Soviet Union than they did in their country of birth, the country which enslaved their ancestors. So did women have more opportunities for professional training and employment in the early days of the Soviet Union than they did at the time in the USA. This is just interesting and not an article about Stalin´s later abuses.
6
The House Un-American Activities Committee wasn't Joseph McCarthy's. He served in the Senate. Besides, HUAC was damaging lives and careers a few years before McCarthyism, including mine in 1951. Coincidentally, I interviewed Paul Robeson for the Rutgers student paper in 1947 and was outraged when Rutgers, his alma mater, turned its back on him over his beliefs and outspokenness. An interesting time. May we never see the likes of it again.
23
Joe McCarthy had no role on the House Un-American Activities Committee. As a member of the Senate, he couldn't be a member of a House committee. His most potent role was on the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
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And perhaps they had a found a place where they weren't likely to be lynched for the color of their skin.
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One only needs to remember how talented these individuals were to understand their creative frustration with America. Further, the Renissance really started circa 1920 and some think before then. So, following the Wall Street crash the idea that the American pie had too few slices seemed obvious to many. What matters most about this story is that the artist cannot be derailed and will go to any extreme to practice their craft and find an audience.
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According to the research of a student of mine, who was raised in Kasakhstan, about 80 000 Black Americans emigrated to the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik revolution. Her mother recalled having attended college with Black students whose parents had emigrated from the USA. The Soviet cotton industry was, for example, mainly developed by (African) American emigrés.
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The author might want to consider how the average Soviet citizen viewed these people. I suspect they were widely regarded as fools for having little to no appreciation for what the Soviet system was truly like and perhaps even despised for giving aid and comfort to the dictatorship. This latter reaction was likely quite common as someone like Robeson, one of America's greatest vocal artists, continued to praise Stalin well after the worst of the dictator's crimes were quite well known. This entire series is rather devoid of the voices of those who suffered under Communism and quite heavy on gauzy, and wildly misinformed romanticism of and about Western fellow travelers.
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You overestimate people's allegiance to freedom; note how popular Putin appears to be in Russia today.
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Gauzy and misinformed?? Interesting. I would like to think that people like Robeson and Hughes - who were actually there - are pretty valid voices and opinions to look to about this time.
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Take Russian popularity polls with a box of salt.
The last independent scientific polling organization in Russia was shut down in 2016.
If a government-controlled pollster asked me if I liked the Dear Leader, what would I answer?
The last independent scientific polling organization in Russia was shut down in 2016.
If a government-controlled pollster asked me if I liked the Dear Leader, what would I answer?
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Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, saw in the development of a black proletarian consciousness the greatest potential for revolution in America.
Russia is still dreaming of a revolution in America. Only now they are using the alt-right. And because of America's racial history they don't need to exert too much effort. Trump may not be winning but Russia is.
Russia is still dreaming of a revolution in America. Only now they are using the alt-right. And because of America's racial history they don't need to exert too much effort. Trump may not be winning but Russia is.
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Thanks for this depiction of what is a neglected historical era in the US because of later severe ideological rants and differences. The early days of Lenin and the Russian Revolution were indeed marked by a huge wave of creative energy. Eisenstein´s work is extremely influential to filmakers to this day, and it is obvious why the African American writers, actors, singers, poets would want to work in a supportive interested setting, loads of all creatives worldwide were attracted to the hopes and budgets ... many of the Cuban artists I know here in Mexico before 1989 regularly toured and worked in the eastern bloc as well as W Europe, Africa and Asia where the "commie" no-go idea was not so unduly brainwashed into the mentality as in USA. Artists want to make art, it is that simple. Making movies has always been expensive so filmakers go to where they are paying the price to make the work.
It is also fairly sad that the USA, with all its rhetoric about "freedoms" is so repressed when even discussing its own intellectual history and record of censorship of ideas, points of view, individuals and their creative work. Thanks for your article that begins to remedy this neglect & self censorship. It is pretty wild actually that the words "socialism" and "communist" still rank so high in evil power in the US among the non-thinking rant classes, well employed by power brokers.
It is also fairly sad that the USA, with all its rhetoric about "freedoms" is so repressed when even discussing its own intellectual history and record of censorship of ideas, points of view, individuals and their creative work. Thanks for your article that begins to remedy this neglect & self censorship. It is pretty wild actually that the words "socialism" and "communist" still rank so high in evil power in the US among the non-thinking rant classes, well employed by power brokers.
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The article does not mention why Paul Robeson went to the Soviet Union; he faced the McCarthy era witch hunts back in the U.S. and had his career derailed by the blacklist.
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Paul Robeson visited the Soviet Union to perform in 1934 and 1936, at which time he enrolled his son in school in Moscow. He returned in 1939 only to take his son out of school as war was looming. His next visit was a decade later in 1949, and his final visit was in 1961.
In short, Robeson's first visits predated the McCarthy era. He went because he, like other African-American artists, was attracted by a warm official and popular welcome.
In short, Robeson's first visits predated the McCarthy era. He went because he, like other African-American artists, was attracted by a warm official and popular welcome.
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