634 An American Black in the Soviet Union (from 1930 to 1974). What was it really like?

An American Black in the Soviet Union (from 1930 to 1974). What was it
really like?

Newsletter published on 3 January 2014

Robert Robinson, a (Black) toolmaker at the Ford Motor Company, was
enticed (like a lot of other Americans) to go to Russia to work on
industrial projects during the 1930s. He renewed his contract there,
because of the difficulty in finding work in America during the
Depression. The US Embassy cancelled his American passport, so he had to
become a citizen of the Soviet Union. When he wished to visit his dying
mother in Jamaica, he discovered that it was much harder to get out than
to get in, and came to see the USSR as a prison. He narrates his
experience of racism both in America and Russia, but pays tribute to
Black and White individuals who helped him escape and return to the
United States. NB: the America of today is not the one he returned to;
all the good jobs have been Offshored, and the 1% have cornered the
wealth of the country for themselves. It's more like the 1930s.

BLACK ON RED: My 44 Years Inside the SOVIET UNION, by Robert Robinson
with Jonathan Slevin

http://mailstar.net/Black-On-Red.doc