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{ 138 } \ Understanding Paul Robeson’s Soviet Experience —L auren McConnell Paul Robeson—the African Ameri­ can singer, actor, and political activist—was a controversial figure during his lifetime, and continues to be to this day. There are now numerous articles and books reevaluating both his accomplishments as an artist and his stand on political issues. While there is general agreement about his tremendous gifts as an actor, singer, athlete, and scholar, much of the debate about his life centers on his controversial politics. This essay adds to the existing analysis on Robeson by focusing on an understudied part of his life: the time he spent in the Soviet Union, and the impact that his performances and interaction with the Russian people had on his political beliefs and his feelings about himself. Robeson (1898–1976), after an inspirational visit to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1934, embraced socialist ideology and became a vocal advocate of the Soviet Union. What was unusual about this was not Robeson’s interest in the ideals of socialism and his attraction to the “great social experiment ” taking place in the Soviet Union, for many people had a similar interest, but the fact that he remained a supporter of Stalin and the USSR in the face of mounting evidence that the great experiment had gone terribly wrong. Because Robeson fought for human rights and racial equality throughout the world, his support of Stalin, whose policies led to the death of over twenty million people in the Soviet Union and who specifically targeted religious and ethnic minorities for abuse, seemed contradictory. While getting accurate information about what was happening in the Soviet Union was sometimes difficult, because the United States tended to exaggerate the evils of communism and the USSR did not allow uncensored reporting, the atrocities committed there were widely { 139 } Paul Robeson’s Soviet Experience documented in time. In spite of this, throughout his life Robeson remained a staunch supporter of the Soviet leadership and said so in articles, speeches, and his 1958 book, Here I Stand. Explanations for Robeson’s loyalty to the Soviet Union vary. Many of his supporters do not address the issue directly, preferring to focus on his many accomplishments and contributions as an African Ameri­ can activist. Those who do, however, argue that his loyalty to the USSR was understandable, considering how badly he was treated in the United States because of racial discrimination and harassment by the House Un-­ Ameri­ can Activities Committee during the cold war. Robeson’s critics also have varying reasons for their disappointment in him. Dissidents in the formerly Soviet-­ dominated eastern Europe felt Robeson betrayed them; they viewed themselves as fighting for freedom in much the same way that Robeson professed to be, yet Robeson was on the side of the oppressors . As Czech novelist Josef Škvorecký explained: “How we hated that black apostle who sang, of his own free will, at open-­ air concerts . . . at a time when they were raising the Socialist leader Milada Horakova to the gallows . . . and at a time when great Czech poets . . . were pining away in jails. Well, maybe it was wrong to hold it against Paul Robeson. No doubt he was acting in good faith, convinced that he was fighting for a good cause. . . . May God rest his—one hopes—innocent soul.”1 Ameri­ can cultural critic Lee Siegel argues that Robeson was cowardly and knew the truth but “didn’t much care” because he enjoyed hobnobbing with the Soviet elite during his visits to the Soviet Union.2 African Ameri­ can engineer Robert Robinson,who lived in the USSR most of his life and knew Robeson, expressed a more charitable point of view. He felt that Robeson knew very little about what was really going on in the Soviet Union because he actively avoided talking with people who, like Robinson, might disabuse him of his faith in the Soviet system.3 In other words, Robeson, as journalist Barry Gewen suggests, may have “willed his own ignorance” about the negative side of socialism so that he could remain loyal.4 This essay will argue that it is not so much what Robeson knew that is at...

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