Black in the USSR: African diasporan pilgrims, expatriates and students in Russia, from the 1920s to the first decade of the twenty-first century

Abstract

From the 1920s through the collapse of the USSR, Blacks have found the Soviet Experiment fascinating. The Soviets’ solidarity against oppression, and rapid industrialization programs of the 1920s and 1930s attracted a core of highly skilled Blacks, many of whom contributed their talents to helping build the new ‘Soviet’ Russia. Others took models home to wage struggles in their homeland. After World War II, the Soviets offered training to students from Africa, Latin America and Asia, and, for decades, generations went to study at Soviet universities. There were overwhelmingly positive public sentiments and a sense of common struggle in the post-War euphoria around the independence movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Yet, relations began to sour as the student numbers rose into the hundreds. By the 1980s with numbers in the thousands, racist acts had risen from the occasional to the dramatic. This paper explores the changing socio-political dynamics.

Keywords:

• Blacks
• Russia/USSR
• expatriates

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.