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140 Chapter 9 Paul Robeson’s Search for a Society Free of Racism  I was not prepared for the feeling of safety and abundance and freedom that I find here.1 —Paul Robeson (1935) Recalling his first visit to the Soviet Union, black cartoonist Ollie Harrington wrote, “I was invited by the satirical Krokodile [journal] to see the Soviet Union.” He was in Tashkent and mapping out a scene in his mind: I sat on a parkbench where I could drink in the breathtaking oriental beauty of the opera house. I was thinking of coming back the next day with my sketchpad when a little Uzbek girl came to me holding out a flower. Of course, I couldn’t understand what she was saying but Yuri, my interpreter explained, “She asks if you are Paul Robeson?” Her mother appeared and suddenly it seemed there were hundreds of Uzbek children with their mothers, all carrying hastily picked flowers. I was terribly flustered but I managed to explain that I wasn’t Paul Robeson but that he was my friend. And then one Uzbek mother, proud of her English said, “Here, he is our beloved Pauli.”2 For the Uzbeks, some of the many people of color of the Soviet Union, Paul Robeson was almost a saint, and even those black visitors who might only vaguely resemble him became “our beloved Pauli” in the minds of ordinary people. For many of these visitors, it was at first perplexing but also, as is evident in Harrington’s telling of the story, it was an honor and a pleasure to enjoy some of the adulation Robeson engendered. Myth versus Reality Robeson has been associated with the Soviet Union and the Russian people more than any other black person, both in the United States and around the world. Yet Robeson was far from the first black person to do a sojourn there. People whom he admired, like McKay, Du Bois, William L. Patterson (who Paul Robeson’s Search 141 went in the 1920s), and Hughes (who went in the early 1930s) helped draw his attention there. In England, too, he heard accounts of the Soviet experiment that intrigued him. Over the years of travel back and forth, Robeson clearly developed an intense interest to settle in the Soviet Union and talked freely about the warmth of the Russian people, but he never stayed longer than several months at a stretch. Despite repeated returns to the Soviet Union, England ultimately became his permanent residence away from the United States.3 Robeson was also both the subject of and the manipulator of a vast media campaign in the East and in the West that brought his ideas, image, and story into people’s living rooms. Although he ultimately fell victim to the antiCommunist pressures in the United States and his memory was virtually erased in the mainstream American mind, his persona continued to grow in other parts of the world. His campaigns in support of the world’s oppressed, no matter their color, religion, or location, made him the model of global solidarity for all peoples. The occasion of his sixtieth birthday, in April 1958, gave nations as diverse as Japan, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Mexico, England, Hungary, East Germany, and India, along with twenty-seven others, the opportunity to show him their gratitude. Among the many messages and tributes came a proclamation from Prime Minster Jawaharlal Nehru of India: “Paul Robeson is [not only] one of the greatest artists of our generation, but also . . . has represented and suffered for a cause which should be dear to all of us—the cause of human dignity.”4 And support for Robeson meant support for those whom he admired. As he continued to express solidarity with the Soviet experiment, other peoples began to look favorably on the Soviet Union too. Attraction to the Soviet Experiment Many have speculated about Robeson’s interest in Russian culture and the Soviet experiment. He had once stated, “I came in contact with Russians at college [Rutgers University]. I heard them sing their native songs and was struck by their likeness to Negro music.” This encounter made him reflect on the difference between the Russian’s appreciation of their music and the disparaging attitudes toward black music. “What was wrong with our despised music if it was akin to the revered Russian? Had we a value that had been passed by?”5 No doubt he had read the many accounts of McKay’s...

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