ABSTRACT
The political life of the great artist and human rights campaigner Paul Robeson was to a significant extent defined by his close association with the Soviet Union. From his very first visit to the country in the mid-1930s, Robeson developed an abiding affection for the first socialist state and its people; he tended to see the former as his close political ally and protector of the rights of non-white populations around the globe, while the latter constituted his most cherished and appreciative audience. Robeson’s political commitments became problematic at the height of the Cold War, with the rise of the Red Scare in the United States; yet he never wavered from his support of the Soviet Union and never modified his stance to account for the revelations of Stalin’s crimes. Even after it came to light that some of his close Russian Jewish friends had perished in the purges, Robeson found it difficult to condemn the regime that he viewed as essential to the emancipation of the oppressed populations of colour—in the United States and in the developing world. His was a torturous moral dilemma that he ultimately failed to resolve.
