Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought

217 Pages·1986·3.579 MB·English

by  Allison Blakely

Proximity of Russia to black Africa. Prepared by Department of
Geography Cartographic Services Laboratory, University of Maryland.
RUSSIA
AND THE
NEGRO
Arab, an alphabet card from nineteenth-century Russia. As in other
European societies, early Russian conceptions of blacks often fused
disparate racial and cultural types. (Courtesy fames L. Rice)
ALLISON
BLAKELY
RUSSIA
AND THE
NEGRO
BLACKS
IN
RUSSIAN
HISTORY
AND
THOUGHT
jilt
HOWARD UNIVERSITY PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. 1986
Copyright © 1986 by Allison Blakely
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to
Howard University Press, 2900 Van Ness Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20008.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Blakely, Allison, 1940-
Russia and the Negro.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Blacks—Soviet Union—History. I. Title.
DK34.B53B55 1986 947'.00496 85-5251
ISBN 0-88258-146-5
TO MY MOTHER, ALICE
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword xi
Preface xiii
Part One: IMPERIAL RUSSIA 1
1. Negroes of the Black Sea Region 5
2. Negro Servants in Imperial Russia 13
3. Russia and Black Africa 26
4. Negro Immigrants and Visitors
and the Russian Response 39
5. The Negro in Russian Art 50
Part Two: SOVIET RUSSIA 71
6. Black Sea Negroes in Soviet Society 75
7. The Black "Pilgrims" 81
8. The Soviet Perception
of the American "Negro Question" 105
9. The USSR and Black Africa 123
10. The Negro in Soviet Art 144
Conclusion 153
Notes 158
Selected Bibliography 182
Index 191
vii

LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS
Arab—Alphabet card from nineteenth century Russia frontispiece
Rosim Ababikov of Batumi Oblast (1913) 6
A Negro Adzhar, Adzhi-Abdul-Ogly, of Batumi Oblast (1912) 7
Engraving of Peter the Great with a Negro servant
by A. Schoonebeeck 14
Engraving of Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukaia with a
Negro servant 14
Engraving depicting tsar Paul I's prison visit to the rebellious
General T. Kosciuszko (1801) 15
General Abram Hannibal 23
Ira Aldridge in formal dress 41
Richard T. Greener 45
Portrait of Alexander Pushkin by Orest Kiprenskii 51
Countess Samoilova and Her Foster Daughter
by Karl Briullov (c. 1832) 58
Detail from The Sisters A. A. and O. A. Shishmareva (1839) 60
Bathsheba by Karl Briullov (1832) 61
Negro Boy by K. E. Makovskii 62
Ira Aldridge as Mungo in Isaac Bickerstaff's opera
The Padlock 67
Ira Aldridge drawn by Taras Shevchenko (1858) 70
IX
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Claude McKay portrait by Carl Van Vechten 83
Claude McKay with the Red Army in 1923 85
Langston Hughes portrait by Carl Van Vechten 94
Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois with
U.S. Congressman Vito Marcantonio 103
James Ford 110
Richard Wright portrait by Carl Van Vechten 114
Soviet cartoon accusing the United States of hypocrisy
on social justice 117
Soviet cartoon criticizing white resistance to school
desegregation in the United States 118
Kwame Nkrumah 129
Soviet cartoon condemning European colonialism in Africa 130
Soviet cartoon celebrating the end of European
colonialism in Africa 131
Soviet cartoon opposing the United States' attitude
toward the United Nations 132
Soviet cartoon treating the Congolese Civil War 133
Scene from a Soviet student social 136
Wayland Rudd 145
Paul Robeson in stage garb 148
A Negro Concert by Aleksandr Deineka (1935) 156
A Negro Youth by Aleksandr Deineka (1935) 157