Blacks, Reds, and Russians [electronic resource] : sojourners in search of the Soviet promise / Joy Gleason Carew.

ISBN:

9780813545776

Title:

Author:

Carew, Joy Gleason.

Personal Author:

Carew, Joy Gleason.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 273 pages)

Contents:

A journey begins -- Early sojourners Claude McKay and Otto Huiswood : shaping the "Negro question" -- Harry Haywood, Kutva, and training black cadres -- W.E.B. Du Bois and the Soviet experiment -- Robert Robinson and the technical specialists -- George Washington Carver, Oliver Golden, and the Soviet experiment -- The agricultural specialists journey to the Soviet Union -- Langston Hughes and the black and white film group -- Paul Robeson's search for a society free of racism -- The expatriates : the purges, the war years, and beyond -- William "Bill" Davis, the American national exhibit, and U.S. public diplomacy -- The Cold War, solidarity building, and the recruitment of new sojourners.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

African Americans -- Soviet Union -- History.

African Americans -- Soviet Union -- Biography.

African American intellectuals -- Soviet Union -- Biography.

African American scientists -- Soviet Union -- Biography.

Visitors, Foreign -- Soviet Union -- History.

Intercultural communication -- Soviet Union.

Geographic Term:

Soviet Union -- Race relations.

Soviet Union -- Intellectual life -- 1917-1970.

Soviet Union -- Relations -- United States.

United States -- Relations -- Soviet Union.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2008

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
947.0842092396073 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

One of the most compelling, yet little known stories of race relations in the twentieth century is the account of blacks who chose to leave the United States to be involved in the Soviet Experiment in the 1920s and 1930s. Frustrated by the limitations imposed by racism in their home country, African Americans were lured by the promise of opportunity abroad. A number of them settled there, raised families, and became integrated into society. The Soviet economy likewise reaped enormous benefits from the talent and expertise that these individuals brought, and the all around success story became a platform for political leaders to boast their party goals of creating a society where all members were equal.
In Blacks, Reds, and Russians, Joy Gleason Carew offers insight into the political strategies that often underlie relationships between different peoples and countries. She draws on the autobiographies of key sojourners, including Harry Haywood and Robert Robinson, in addition to the writings of Claude McKay, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Langston Hughes. Interviews with the descendents of figures such as Paul Robeson and Oliver Golden offer rare personal insights into the story of a group of emigrants who, confronted by the daunting challenges of making a life for themselves in a racist United States, found unprecedented opportunities in communist Russia.

Author Notes

Joy Gleason Carew is the resident linguist and Professor of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Between 1967 and 1979, Carew (Pan-African studies, Univ. of Louisville) visited the Soviet Union as student, teacher, and guide. Her curiosity about links between people of African descent and the Soviet Union spawned this biographical synthesis of 14 black sojourners/expatriates to the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1960s. The book comprehensively covers early and late visitors, technical and agricultural specialists, artists and intellectuals, famous and not-so-famous travelers, and Afro-Russian progeny. Carew synthesizes key autobiographical accounts by sojourners Claude McKay, W. E B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Homer Smith, William L. Patterson, Harry Haywood (this reviewer's favorite), and expatriate Afro-Russians Yelena Khanga and Lily Golden. Strangely enough, the book does not cite Communist International and CPUSA documents, nor Carew's own personal experiences. Although the number of sojourners/expatriates was always tiny, the authors present a persuasive dual argument that the Soviet Union proved attractive to African Americans because it promised fulfilling work, social equality, and escape from economic want, and that black Americans offered the Soviet Union expertise and useful propaganda material. The book's most memorable passages describe encounters between ordinary African Americans and Soviets. Collections in African American history and biography, the African diaspora, and Afro-European studies. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, undergraduates, and graduate students. J. R. Kerr-Ritchie Howard University