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Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union
The author, a toolmaker who accepted a one-year contract to work in the Soviet Union in 1930 and lived there, mostly against his will, for the next forty-four years, vividly depicts Soviet life and Soviet events during that period
435 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1988
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714 people want to read
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Robert Robinson
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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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April 12, 2013
Some years ago, I read Black On Red: My 44 Years Inside The Soviet Union, a book by Robert Robinson, An African-American who lived in Detroit during the Depression. I had to read it again, for it is about as gripping an autobiography as one can find. Hired in 1927 as a floor sweeper by Ford Motor Company, he became a toolmaker there. In April 1930, through Amtorg, a Soviet trade agency based in New York, a Russian delegation toured the plant. A Russian asked if he would like to work in the Soviet Union. At Ford he earned $140 a month--good wages--but was offered $250 a month, free living quarters, maid service, 30 days vacation a year and a car. All of this for a one year contract. At 23 and recently from Cuba, where he grew up, he was ready for some adventure. Like most things Soviet, the promises were eventually to mark a tragic life, his.
So in 1930 Robinson went, and thereon hangs his tale. He describes various discrimination against blacks while the Soviet government painted itself as an ethnically tolerant utopia.
Robert Robinson was a highly talented, even gifted toolmaker and mechanical engineer. (He graduated from The Moscow Evening Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Despite its clumsy name, its training was excellent.) He received numerous Soviet medals, citations, and awards. As one instance of his ability, managers didn't think he could quickly design, develop, and fabricate 13 indicators used for checking precision gauges, but he did in three and one half months. This increased production seventy-two fold. All the time, a jealous colleague was undermining his efforts by stealing pieces or sabotaging machines.
Despite his education, training, and ability, he was repeatedly passed over. Through the years he witnessed many less able men move up the ladder to become plant director or branch manager, but he did not get a promotion or pay raise.
During the 1930s Moscow purges, he never undressed until 4 AM, nervously awaiting a Secret Police knock at his door. Next day, he and others would silently take note of fellow employees who did not show up for work. He was aware of the foreigners who disappeared from the First State Ball Bearing Factory. When he started there, he found 362 foreigners. By 1939 only he and a Hungarian were left. Because he was a foreigner, friends begged him not to visit them.
Informers lurked everywhere. If a Russian was asked to spy on neighbors he dared not refuse else he became a suspect. Informants watched a neighbor's comings and goings from his apartment, as well as who visited him, or what he bought at the store.
Late one night in 1943, Robinson did hear a knock on his door. He thought his time had finally come, his hand shaking as he opened it. Two agents were startled to see his face, then mumbled "Excuse us. There was some mistake."
As I read the book, I could only feel immense sadness for this man, who lost the best years of his life in a dull, dreary, police state. He learned to control his feelings, to confide in nobody. Many times he would be sounded out--perhaps innocently--over his views on this or that, and always he responded with neutrality or political correctness. He could not afford to trust anybody. That was how he survived finally to leave the Workers' Paradise.
Born in Jamaica about 1907, he became acclimated to bitter Moscow winters. He was there when Hitler's wermacht and luftwaffe invaded Russia, the German army 44 miles from Moscow. The Russian government recruited every able-bodied man to age 60. In 1941 he was called for his draft physical, but was not inducted because of a bad left eye. Under fierce aerial bombardment, the streets of Moscow were barricaded against the coming onslaught as he and others were told that the factory would be moved to Kuybyshev. On the train, he beheld thousands upon thousands of people fleeing Moscow--men, women, and children, young and old--shivering while trudging icy roads carrying suitcases tied with cord. In Kuybyshev whole families shared horse stalls, with over 70 people using one toilet and one wash basin.
During the war with Germany, black bread was rationed at 600 grams (21.1 oz) a day. A sack of potatoes cost 900 rubles ($180). Robert Robinson made 1100 rubles month. He ate 7 or 8 cabbage leaves soaked in lukewarm water. Others at the factory became so weak that they could not control their bladders and urinated in their pants. Some died, collapsing on the floor in front of their machines. Every passing moment the men thought of food, its smell, its taste. After months of hunger, he began losing all energy, felt listless, and went to a doctor. As he took his shirt off, she went behind a screen and cried. He at first thought she was shocked to see his skin color, but she wept because his arms were toothpicks, his stomach stretched tight against corrugated ribs. He had not looked in a mirror for months. She told him he was at death's doorway. She invited him to her house to dine each Sunday with her, her husband, and daughter.
He never joined the communist party because of his religious faith. He could not accept atheist doctrine. He saw through a racist, repressive system, and was watchful that he not suggest even a nuance of deviant political behavior. He was made to act in a Mosfilm propaganda movie, Deep Are The Roots, then considered a classic in Russia, about racism in the United States. When asked as an "expert," Robinson told the director that the movie was over-the-top, extremely overdone, but the director had his own career at stake and probably could not listen.
During 44 years in Soviet society, Robert Robinson found that the deepest discrimination was against blacks and orientals. In his book he notes that in the USA people may or may not condone institutional and racial discrimination but they do recognize that it exists. In the USSR, officially and socially, such discrimination did not occur. To admit the contrary would have been to violate the Soviet agenda of equality and brotherly love. He states that he "could never get used to Russian racism. They prided themselves on freedom from prejudice, so racism was especially virulent."
During the 1930s he met and chatted on a park bench with black American poet Langston Hughes. He met and spent evenings with the hugely talented and internationally famous American Paul Robeson (athlete, actor, orator, concert singer, lawyer, social activist), and his wife Eslanda each time they visited Moscow. He asked Robeson as a fellow black man to intervene for him so he could escape Russia. Robeson avoided him on the issue. Eventually Robert Robinson learned from Eslanda that Paul did not want to do it because that would sour his relationship with the Soviet leadership.
After many years of trying, and through the extended efforts of Ugandan ambassadors Mathias Lubega, and Michael Ondoga, Robert Robinson was granted a visa for a vacation in Uganda. He was careful. He bought an Aeroflot round trip ticket although he never wanted to return. To reduce suspicion he took just a few rubles, packed few clothes.
From the airport gate to the aircraft he took a bus. Then it happened. In freezing cold, a coatless woman ran after the bus shouting his name. He dared not turn around. But the bus stopped and the driver called back for him. He got off. She told him he could not go because he had no vaccination papers. This was false; he had shown them and had been vaccinated. He trembled, wept inwardly, was totally devastated, but he repeated the process, the doctor this time simply signing the form without using a needle. Again he waited months and finally got approval.
The day came, and he climbed on the bus, praying silently as it neared the airplane. He boarded and feared that somebody would again call his name before the plane began taxiing. Or the pilot would be ordered to turn the aircraft around. It did not happen. He landed in Uganda. We are left to imagine the feelings that must have overwhelmed him as he stepped off, out of a police state and into the warm African sun.
This was 1974 and he found himself at the hotel feted as personal guest of Idi Amin, Ugandan President For Life. When Robinson visited Amin the President offered him Ugandan citizenship, but Robinson declined, fearing that it would bring violent wrath of the KGB down on him in this relatively unprotected country. For several years he taught at Uganda Technical College outside Kampala. In Uganda he met Zylpha Mapp, an African-American lecturer at the Teacher College. They married in 1976. Tensions and suppression grew in Uganda as Idi Amin became mentally unstable. Through the unrelenting efforts of an African-American US Information Service Officer, William B. Davis, in 1980 he and Zylpha were able to fly to the United States, where he was declared a legal U.S. resident, as he had to forfeit his U.S. citizenship many years before. On December 6, 1986, they became U.S. citizens. living in Washington, DC. He died in 1994 of cancer. Zylpha Mapp-Robinson died in 2001, age 87. (She was born August 25, 1914.)
Even in the United States he could not rid himself of a life lived in fear, caution, and suspicion. Robinson hoped that his book would reveal the USSR for the oppressive society it was. "Even now," he said, "I have to be careful because so many people do not understand the Russian psychology, that once you have offended the Russians, you are never forgiven. Never forgiven."
He did not intend that statement to detract from the countless ordinary Russians who befriended and helped him. He understood them as victims of the same system. He had fond memories of people such as the lady doctor who invited him to her house to dine during the Great Patriotic War against Germany.
He was aware of the immense suffering of his Russian friends. He tells the story of a lovely sixteen year old girl on her way to school. She was stopped by an aide of Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, Soviet Secret Police. The aide wanted her to climb in his car, but she refused. At the end of the school day, she looked out the window. The aide was still there. She knew she couldn't call her parents, else they would be visited and probably sent to a labor camp. She had no choice. For two years she was raped by Beria, her parents in despair and anguish. After Beria tired of her, he forced the family to give up their belongings and move to Lithuania.
If you want to know about the Stalinist purges, and about the horrible sacrifices Russians made during WWII, read this book. Robinson was there. Spending most of his life in the Soviet Union, he suffered, struggled, silently wept, but endured. He lived through it all, an eye witness to history from the purges to Hitler's invasion to Sputnik and the Cold War.
So in 1930 Robinson went, and thereon hangs his tale. He describes various discrimination against blacks while the Soviet government painted itself as an ethnically tolerant utopia.
Robert Robinson was a highly talented, even gifted toolmaker and mechanical engineer. (He graduated from The Moscow Evening Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Despite its clumsy name, its training was excellent.) He received numerous Soviet medals, citations, and awards. As one instance of his ability, managers didn't think he could quickly design, develop, and fabricate 13 indicators used for checking precision gauges, but he did in three and one half months. This increased production seventy-two fold. All the time, a jealous colleague was undermining his efforts by stealing pieces or sabotaging machines.
Despite his education, training, and ability, he was repeatedly passed over. Through the years he witnessed many less able men move up the ladder to become plant director or branch manager, but he did not get a promotion or pay raise.
During the 1930s Moscow purges, he never undressed until 4 AM, nervously awaiting a Secret Police knock at his door. Next day, he and others would silently take note of fellow employees who did not show up for work. He was aware of the foreigners who disappeared from the First State Ball Bearing Factory. When he started there, he found 362 foreigners. By 1939 only he and a Hungarian were left. Because he was a foreigner, friends begged him not to visit them.
Informers lurked everywhere. If a Russian was asked to spy on neighbors he dared not refuse else he became a suspect. Informants watched a neighbor's comings and goings from his apartment, as well as who visited him, or what he bought at the store.
Late one night in 1943, Robinson did hear a knock on his door. He thought his time had finally come, his hand shaking as he opened it. Two agents were startled to see his face, then mumbled "Excuse us. There was some mistake."
As I read the book, I could only feel immense sadness for this man, who lost the best years of his life in a dull, dreary, police state. He learned to control his feelings, to confide in nobody. Many times he would be sounded out--perhaps innocently--over his views on this or that, and always he responded with neutrality or political correctness. He could not afford to trust anybody. That was how he survived finally to leave the Workers' Paradise.
Born in Jamaica about 1907, he became acclimated to bitter Moscow winters. He was there when Hitler's wermacht and luftwaffe invaded Russia, the German army 44 miles from Moscow. The Russian government recruited every able-bodied man to age 60. In 1941 he was called for his draft physical, but was not inducted because of a bad left eye. Under fierce aerial bombardment, the streets of Moscow were barricaded against the coming onslaught as he and others were told that the factory would be moved to Kuybyshev. On the train, he beheld thousands upon thousands of people fleeing Moscow--men, women, and children, young and old--shivering while trudging icy roads carrying suitcases tied with cord. In Kuybyshev whole families shared horse stalls, with over 70 people using one toilet and one wash basin.
During the war with Germany, black bread was rationed at 600 grams (21.1 oz) a day. A sack of potatoes cost 900 rubles ($180). Robert Robinson made 1100 rubles month. He ate 7 or 8 cabbage leaves soaked in lukewarm water. Others at the factory became so weak that they could not control their bladders and urinated in their pants. Some died, collapsing on the floor in front of their machines. Every passing moment the men thought of food, its smell, its taste. After months of hunger, he began losing all energy, felt listless, and went to a doctor. As he took his shirt off, she went behind a screen and cried. He at first thought she was shocked to see his skin color, but she wept because his arms were toothpicks, his stomach stretched tight against corrugated ribs. He had not looked in a mirror for months. She told him he was at death's doorway. She invited him to her house to dine each Sunday with her, her husband, and daughter.
He never joined the communist party because of his religious faith. He could not accept atheist doctrine. He saw through a racist, repressive system, and was watchful that he not suggest even a nuance of deviant political behavior. He was made to act in a Mosfilm propaganda movie, Deep Are The Roots, then considered a classic in Russia, about racism in the United States. When asked as an "expert," Robinson told the director that the movie was over-the-top, extremely overdone, but the director had his own career at stake and probably could not listen.
During 44 years in Soviet society, Robert Robinson found that the deepest discrimination was against blacks and orientals. In his book he notes that in the USA people may or may not condone institutional and racial discrimination but they do recognize that it exists. In the USSR, officially and socially, such discrimination did not occur. To admit the contrary would have been to violate the Soviet agenda of equality and brotherly love. He states that he "could never get used to Russian racism. They prided themselves on freedom from prejudice, so racism was especially virulent."
During the 1930s he met and chatted on a park bench with black American poet Langston Hughes. He met and spent evenings with the hugely talented and internationally famous American Paul Robeson (athlete, actor, orator, concert singer, lawyer, social activist), and his wife Eslanda each time they visited Moscow. He asked Robeson as a fellow black man to intervene for him so he could escape Russia. Robeson avoided him on the issue. Eventually Robert Robinson learned from Eslanda that Paul did not want to do it because that would sour his relationship with the Soviet leadership.
After many years of trying, and through the extended efforts of Ugandan ambassadors Mathias Lubega, and Michael Ondoga, Robert Robinson was granted a visa for a vacation in Uganda. He was careful. He bought an Aeroflot round trip ticket although he never wanted to return. To reduce suspicion he took just a few rubles, packed few clothes.
From the airport gate to the aircraft he took a bus. Then it happened. In freezing cold, a coatless woman ran after the bus shouting his name. He dared not turn around. But the bus stopped and the driver called back for him. He got off. She told him he could not go because he had no vaccination papers. This was false; he had shown them and had been vaccinated. He trembled, wept inwardly, was totally devastated, but he repeated the process, the doctor this time simply signing the form without using a needle. Again he waited months and finally got approval.
The day came, and he climbed on the bus, praying silently as it neared the airplane. He boarded and feared that somebody would again call his name before the plane began taxiing. Or the pilot would be ordered to turn the aircraft around. It did not happen. He landed in Uganda. We are left to imagine the feelings that must have overwhelmed him as he stepped off, out of a police state and into the warm African sun.
This was 1974 and he found himself at the hotel feted as personal guest of Idi Amin, Ugandan President For Life. When Robinson visited Amin the President offered him Ugandan citizenship, but Robinson declined, fearing that it would bring violent wrath of the KGB down on him in this relatively unprotected country. For several years he taught at Uganda Technical College outside Kampala. In Uganda he met Zylpha Mapp, an African-American lecturer at the Teacher College. They married in 1976. Tensions and suppression grew in Uganda as Idi Amin became mentally unstable. Through the unrelenting efforts of an African-American US Information Service Officer, William B. Davis, in 1980 he and Zylpha were able to fly to the United States, where he was declared a legal U.S. resident, as he had to forfeit his U.S. citizenship many years before. On December 6, 1986, they became U.S. citizens. living in Washington, DC. He died in 1994 of cancer. Zylpha Mapp-Robinson died in 2001, age 87. (She was born August 25, 1914.)
Even in the United States he could not rid himself of a life lived in fear, caution, and suspicion. Robinson hoped that his book would reveal the USSR for the oppressive society it was. "Even now," he said, "I have to be careful because so many people do not understand the Russian psychology, that once you have offended the Russians, you are never forgiven. Never forgiven."
He did not intend that statement to detract from the countless ordinary Russians who befriended and helped him. He understood them as victims of the same system. He had fond memories of people such as the lady doctor who invited him to her house to dine during the Great Patriotic War against Germany.
He was aware of the immense suffering of his Russian friends. He tells the story of a lovely sixteen year old girl on her way to school. She was stopped by an aide of Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, Soviet Secret Police. The aide wanted her to climb in his car, but she refused. At the end of the school day, she looked out the window. The aide was still there. She knew she couldn't call her parents, else they would be visited and probably sent to a labor camp. She had no choice. For two years she was raped by Beria, her parents in despair and anguish. After Beria tired of her, he forced the family to give up their belongings and move to Lithuania.
If you want to know about the Stalinist purges, and about the horrible sacrifices Russians made during WWII, read this book. Robinson was there. Spending most of his life in the Soviet Union, he suffered, struggled, silently wept, but endured. He lived through it all, an eye witness to history from the purges to Hitler's invasion to Sputnik and the Cold War.
February 7, 2017
This is the autobiography of engineer Robert Robinson, who moved to the Soviet Union in 1930. He enjoyed his time as a visitor, but after he became a citizen of the Soviet Union, he had to worry about being taken away and sent to Siberia. He talks about the red tape and his neighbors spying on him. He compares racism in the U.S. to Russia. Robinson delivers a very well written autobiography.
August 11, 2011
Another book I was through quite quickly. I have become absolutely fascinated with the former Soviet Union and what the past (and possibly present) goings on are in Russia. Socialism is a very scary thing. We must not let this happen in our country - but it's scary how people are so easily brainwashed. A lot to think about. And then to have the whole racism issue to deal with besides.
July 25, 2022
If I could have given 6 stars I would have given it. It has been quite a while I've read a book this immersive, this eye opening, this moving. I literally read the entire thing on the edge of my seat, several times almost missed my metro stops... I found myself grinding my teeth in anger as I read his despair.
I myself have studied mechanical engineering (in Russian) in the post Soviet era in a Soviet institution with Soviet teachers still working in it, I have seen the traces of what the Soviets did and my journey destroyed the last bit of posion of marxism that was left inside me. I entered that academy as a fervent, faithful communist and returned a determined classical libertarian hell bent on fighting marxism in all its forms.
Reading Robinson finally helped me realize how what experience connected to Soviet history and helped me trace back all the things I saw and lived through to their origins.
Robinson was not just a brilliant engineer, he was a brilliant analyst, deep thinker and a great writer. Imagine, the man swallows his pride, his anger, his sadness, his lust, his passion and soldiered on for 44 years and managed to free himself from the hell hole that was the Soviet Union. Incredible.
He then turns to write every damn last detail out as if vomiting out all the things he had to swallow and hold in all those years, shares his deep insights and accurate analyses of everything he saw, cleansing himself of them in the process.
I am so damn glad his story had a gloriously happy ending for him.
Of course you wont see pseudo-marxist Hollywood "elites" making a movie about this actual AFRICAN-JAMAICAN HERO. Hell If I had the coin I'd build a full size statue of this man in my front porch.
I myself have studied mechanical engineering (in Russian) in the post Soviet era in a Soviet institution with Soviet teachers still working in it, I have seen the traces of what the Soviets did and my journey destroyed the last bit of posion of marxism that was left inside me. I entered that academy as a fervent, faithful communist and returned a determined classical libertarian hell bent on fighting marxism in all its forms.
Reading Robinson finally helped me realize how what experience connected to Soviet history and helped me trace back all the things I saw and lived through to their origins.
Robinson was not just a brilliant engineer, he was a brilliant analyst, deep thinker and a great writer. Imagine, the man swallows his pride, his anger, his sadness, his lust, his passion and soldiered on for 44 years and managed to free himself from the hell hole that was the Soviet Union. Incredible.
He then turns to write every damn last detail out as if vomiting out all the things he had to swallow and hold in all those years, shares his deep insights and accurate analyses of everything he saw, cleansing himself of them in the process.
I am so damn glad his story had a gloriously happy ending for him.
Of course you wont see pseudo-marxist Hollywood "elites" making a movie about this actual AFRICAN-JAMAICAN HERO. Hell If I had the coin I'd build a full size statue of this man in my front porch.
July 30, 2019
Несколько дней назад наткнулся на выдержку из этой книги в одной из социальных сетей:
"Я так никогда и не примирился с расизмом в Советском Союзе. Расизм постоянно испытывал мое терпение и оскорблял человеческое достоинство. Поскольку русские кичатся тем, что они свободны от расовых предрассудков, расизм их более жесток и опасен, чем тот, с которым я сталкивался в годы юно��ти в Соединенных Штатах. Мне редко доводилось встретить русского, считавшего черных — а также азиатов или любых людей с небелой кожей — ровней себе. Пытаться их переубедить — все равно что ловить призрак. Я кожей чувствовал их расизм, но как можно бороться с тем, что официально не существует?"
Достаточно жесткие слова от автора, плюс затронута тема, о которой мне приходилось слышать только от родителей, да и то, лишь обрывками из их воспоминаний. Автор "Black on red", Робин Робинсон - темнокожий выходец из Ямайки, который в начале XX века переехал в США. В тот момент начиналась Великая Депрессия, высокооплачиваемой работы не было, а отношения между СССР и США были далеки от времен "Холодной Войны", которая наступит позже. В результате Робинсон, подвергавшийся дискриминации на рабочем месте (а работал он станочником), принял предложение из СССР и заключил контракт на один год на работу в Сталинградском тракторном заводе. Шел 1930 год - до массовых репрессий, до Второй Мировой Войны, до Хрущева и Брежнева. Но все это автор книги переживет на территории СССР. И именно свои впечатления об этом времени он и описывает в этой книге.
К слову, выдержка из книги, которую я привел в начале этого отзыва, не описывает главной темы произведения. Про расизм автор упоминает, посвящает ей отдельную главу, но это лишь часть его воспоминаний. Так, что если это вас мало интересует, не пугайтесь - в книге кроме этого много интересного. В простом стиле Робинсон рассказывает о том, как люди в СССР жили, как они одевались, во что верили, как работала пропаганда, как они реагировали на пропажи людей в конце 30-х годов, как жили во время войны, как переживали успехи и неудачи страны в космической гонке. Все это - через глаза темнокожего американца-христианина. Это чрезвычайно интересная точка зрения и полезная для общего понимания истории СССР книга. О Казахстане там лишь пара абзацев про рабочих, приехавших из Средней Азии на завод в Москву, но даже это - очень занимательно.
В целом, книга небольшая, прочитать можно за пару недель, если уделять немного времени каждый день. Рекомендую.
"Я так никогда и не примирился с расизмом в Советском Союзе. Расизм постоянно испытывал мое терпение и оскорблял человеческое достоинство. Поскольку русские кичатся тем, что они свободны от расовых предрассудков, расизм их более жесток и опасен, чем тот, с которым я сталкивался в годы юно��ти в Соединенных Штатах. Мне редко доводилось встретить русского, считавшего черных — а также азиатов или любых людей с небелой кожей — ровней себе. Пытаться их переубедить — все равно что ловить призрак. Я кожей чувствовал их расизм, но как можно бороться с тем, что официально не существует?"
Достаточно жесткие слова от автора, плюс затронута тема, о которой мне приходилось слышать только от родителей, да и то, лишь обрывками из их воспоминаний. Автор "Black on red", Робин Робинсон - темнокожий выходец из Ямайки, который в начале XX века переехал в США. В тот момент начиналась Великая Депрессия, высокооплачиваемой работы не было, а отношения между СССР и США были далеки от времен "Холодной Войны", которая наступит позже. В результате Робинсон, подвергавшийся дискриминации на рабочем месте (а работал он станочником), принял предложение из СССР и заключил контракт на один год на работу в Сталинградском тракторном заводе. Шел 1930 год - до массовых репрессий, до Второй Мировой Войны, до Хрущева и Брежнева. Но все это автор книги переживет на территории СССР. И именно свои впечатления об этом времени он и описывает в этой книге.
К слову, выдержка из книги, которую я привел в начале этого отзыва, не описывает главной темы произведения. Про расизм автор упоминает, посвящает ей отдельную главу, но это лишь часть его воспоминаний. Так, что если это вас мало интересует, не пугайтесь - в книге кроме этого много интересного. В простом стиле Робинсон рассказывает о том, как люди в СССР жили, как они одевались, во что верили, как работала пропаганда, как они реагировали на пропажи людей в конце 30-х годов, как жили во время войны, как переживали успехи и неудачи страны в космической гонке. Все это - через глаза темнокожего американца-христианина. Это чрезвычайно интересная точка зрения и полезная для общего понимания истории СССР книга. О Казахстане там лишь пара абзацев про рабочих, приехавших из Средней Азии на завод в Москву, но даже это - очень занимательно.
В целом, книга небольшая, прочитать можно за пару недель, если уделять немного времени каждый день. Рекомендую.
July 19, 2016
This book was immensely fascinating - Robinson's story alone is amazing. But it is also written in an honest voice. A meticulous Russian voice. I'm certain some of it is idealized or interpreted in light of the context. I could feel his experience vividly. As well as the ridiculousness of both the Soviet and American systems during the Cold War. So glad to have stumbled on this glimpse into history.
November 16, 2016
I thought this was a great book. I could feel the fear and despair throughout the book. Having made two trips to Russia, I recognized the resilience and resignation of the Russian people. The half dozen people we saw that were not white we were told were probably "foreigners". So glad he was able to escape and tell his story.
March 30, 2019
Robert Robinson (1906–1994) lived a remarkable life. This African-American was one of a number of American workers who, in 1930 during the Great Depression, left the USA for Soviet Russia, where they were promised higher salaries by a government in need of skilled personnel. Yet after a series of unfortunate turns of fate that Robinson seems to have sleepwalked into, Robinson ended up losing his American citizenship, and then being captive inside the USSR for 44 years as his requests to travel abroad were repeatedly denied. Only in 1974, at the age of 69, did he finally manage to escape when he was granted a vacation in Uganda. There he received asylum, and a few years later he managed to return to the USA.
Robinson’s autobiography, published in 1988, reportedly ran to a thousand pages of typescript that might have covered all kinds of experiences, but naturally it had to be cut down for publication. The resulting book focuses mainly on how regimented Soviet life was, the sort of restrictions that Robinson repeatedly ran up against in where he could live, who he could socialize with, what he could eat, etc. It is interesting to hear how a foreigner survived the immense privation of World War II, and Robinson notes how employee after employee disappeared from his workplace during Stalin’s purges. The book also discusses race relations, and Robinson’s conclusion is that the USSR, while it made token efforts to claim that racism there was eradicated unlike in the capitalist West, it was actually far more racist than the USA, where people at least admit there is a problem.
Personally, I would have preferred to read the 1000-page typescript, because with the resulting book one detects gaps, subjects are not covered here that would perhaps be covered in other biographies. For example, we learn little about Robinson’s own life, his hobbies and interests, what made him laugh and how he spent most of his time with friends. Were such details there even in the original manuscript, though? Robinson, who worked as a toolmaker at the State First Ballbearing Plant for most of his 44 years in Russia, seems to have been obsessed with technical matters, blocking out the outside world somewhat as he invented new technologies and solved problems at work. I found myself wondering if he were on the autistic spectrum.
The last chapter of the book is Robinson’s predictions of where the USSR will go in the future. He predicts glasnost failing, with a turn back to repression, and worries that the USSR will still manage to be a competitor with the USA and Western Europe in terms of technological development. Naturally he got this wrong, as the USSR began to come apart just a year later.
Robinson’s autobiography, published in 1988, reportedly ran to a thousand pages of typescript that might have covered all kinds of experiences, but naturally it had to be cut down for publication. The resulting book focuses mainly on how regimented Soviet life was, the sort of restrictions that Robinson repeatedly ran up against in where he could live, who he could socialize with, what he could eat, etc. It is interesting to hear how a foreigner survived the immense privation of World War II, and Robinson notes how employee after employee disappeared from his workplace during Stalin’s purges. The book also discusses race relations, and Robinson’s conclusion is that the USSR, while it made token efforts to claim that racism there was eradicated unlike in the capitalist West, it was actually far more racist than the USA, where people at least admit there is a problem.
Personally, I would have preferred to read the 1000-page typescript, because with the resulting book one detects gaps, subjects are not covered here that would perhaps be covered in other biographies. For example, we learn little about Robinson’s own life, his hobbies and interests, what made him laugh and how he spent most of his time with friends. Were such details there even in the original manuscript, though? Robinson, who worked as a toolmaker at the State First Ballbearing Plant for most of his 44 years in Russia, seems to have been obsessed with technical matters, blocking out the outside world somewhat as he invented new technologies and solved problems at work. I found myself wondering if he were on the autistic spectrum.
The last chapter of the book is Robinson’s predictions of where the USSR will go in the future. He predicts glasnost failing, with a turn back to repression, and worries that the USSR will still manage to be a competitor with the USA and Western Europe in terms of technological development. Naturally he got this wrong, as the USSR began to come apart just a year later.
July 10, 2022
A must-read for all those commies dreaming of 'socialism with a human face'. It should be required reading in middle school.
December 20, 2017
Интересно было узнать мнение человека со стороны о советской системе, о самих людях живших тогда и о их мыслях, переживаниях.
Первое впечатление у о СССР 30-х годов у Роберта было сугубо положительное -- приветливые люди, вкусная еда, интересная работа, хорошая зарплата и перспективы. Окружающие люди заражали энтузиазмом, оптимизмом и верой в светлое будущее. Роберт удивлялся насколько самоотверженно трудятся окружающие его люди.
Очень жутко было читать описание чисток при Ежове, когда забирали всех без разбора. Лишь из-за доноса какого-то подонка людей забирали и ссылали на север или убивали. Это очень угнетало рабочих и былой оптимизм у людей пропал...
Также Роберт рассказывал про его знакомых идеалистов, которые приезжали в СССР со всего мира, привозили оборудование и технику купленную за свои деньги. Они верили в социализм и хотели помочь в его построении. Но практически герои книги погибли в кровавой машине репрессий.
Еще один удар который деморализовал людей было объявление о союзе с нацистской Германий. Люди не понимали почему они заключили союз с их врагами, которые ненавидят идеи коммунизма. После заключения пакта о ненападении с полок магазинов пропали яйца, мясо и другие продукты, ведь теперь они эшелонами шли в Германию.
Следующим ударом по духу рабочих было нападение Германии на СССР. Люди не могли понять, почему они напали, как мог Сталин не предугадать этот ход. Но приняв все тяготы рабочие начали самоотверженно трудится для победы.
Во время войны было очень трудно, но у правительства не было времени на репрессии, слежки за собственным народом и поэтому людям было проще. В послевоенное время чекисты опять взялись за старое.
Вместо возгласов мирового коммунизма и братства народов начали провозглашать националистические идеи и превозносить первенство "русских" во всех отраслях. Роберт начал чаще ощущать проявления расизма в свой адрес после этого изменения.
Когда советы запустили первый искусственный спутник земли, рабочие очень гордились достижением своей страны и постоянно подтрунивали Роберта на этот счет. Люди во всей стране выходили на улицу как завороженные, что бы посмотреть на пролетающий искусственный спутник, посмотреть на его огни и услышат его звуковые сигналы. Пропаганда преподносила достижения СССР как самые передовые и что американцы отстают на десятки лет, но когда через месяц США запустили свой спутник рабочие опять начали подозревать что пропаганда их обманывает.
Интересно что до момента принятия гражданства СССР, гос. служащие относились к нему с уважением, а после более наплевательски.
Из-за своего цвета кожи и убеждений (он верил в Бога и не был членом КПСС) он не продвинулся дальше начальника цеха. Из-за постоянного вмешательства чекистов он не мог создать семью. Девушкам которые заводили с Робертом знакомство запрещали продолжать общение, угрожая высылкой в Сибирь.
Вообще была очень угнетающая атмосфера жизни под колпаком. Когда твоей жизнью распоряжается партия и государство.
Но все же ему удалось вырваться. Но даже по возвращению в США он не обрел спокойствие, в чем сам признавался. Он попался на уловку ЖН, на ложную надежду светлого будущего вне СССР, но от себя не убежишь.
Первое впечатление у о СССР 30-х годов у Роберта было сугубо положительное -- приветливые люди, вкусная еда, интересная работа, хорошая зарплата и перспективы. Окружающие люди заражали энтузиазмом, оптимизмом и верой в светлое будущее. Роберт удивлялся насколько самоотверженно трудятся окружающие его люди.
Очень жутко было читать описание чисток при Ежове, когда забирали всех без разбора. Лишь из-за доноса какого-то подонка людей забирали и ссылали на север или убивали. Это очень угнетало рабочих и былой оптимизм у людей пропал...
Также Роберт рассказывал про его знакомых идеалистов, которые приезжали в СССР со всего мира, привозили оборудование и технику купленную за свои деньги. Они верили в социализм и хотели помочь в его построении. Но практически герои книги погибли в кровавой машине репрессий.
Еще один удар который деморализовал людей было объявление о союзе с нацистской Германий. Люди не понимали почему они заключили союз с их врагами, которые ненавидят идеи коммунизма. После заключения пакта о ненападении с полок магазинов пропали яйца, мясо и другие продукты, ведь теперь они эшелонами шли в Германию.
Следующим ударом по духу рабочих было нападение Германии на СССР. Люди не могли понять, почему они напали, как мог Сталин не предугадать этот ход. Но приняв все тяготы рабочие начали самоотверженно трудится для победы.
Во время войны было очень трудно, но у правительства не было времени на репрессии, слежки за собственным народом и поэтому людям было проще. В послевоенное время чекисты опять взялись за старое.
Вместо возгласов мирового коммунизма и братства народов начали провозглашать националистические идеи и превозносить первенство "русских" во всех отраслях. Роберт начал чаще ощущать проявления расизма в свой адрес после этого изменения.
Когда советы запустили первый искусственный спутник земли, рабочие очень гордились достижением своей страны и постоянно подтрунивали Роберта на этот счет. Люди во всей стране выходили на улицу как завороженные, что бы посмотреть на пролетающий искусственный спутник, посмотреть на его огни и услышат его звуковые сигналы. Пропаганда преподносила достижения СССР как самые передовые и что американцы отстают на десятки лет, но когда через месяц США запустили свой спутник рабочие опять начали подозревать что пропаганда их обманывает.
Интересно что до момента принятия гражданства СССР, гос. служащие относились к нему с уважением, а после более наплевательски.
Из-за своего цвета кожи и убеждений (он верил в Бога и не был членом КПСС) он не продвинулся дальше начальника цеха. Из-за постоянного вмешательства чекистов он не мог создать семью. Девушкам которые заводили с Робертом знакомство запрещали продолжать общение, угрожая высылкой в Сибирь.
Вообще была очень угнетающая атмосфера жизни под колпаком. Когда твоей жизнью распоряжается партия и государство.
Но все же ему удалось вырваться. Но даже по возвращению в США он не обрел спокойствие, в чем сам признавался. Он попался на уловку ЖН, на ложную надежду светлого будущего вне СССР, но от себя не убежишь.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2019
Watching an automotive design segment of Netflix's documentary series "Abstract" brought Robert Robinson's book to the forefront of my memory. I read it shortly after its publication and Mr. Robinson's story still resonates. At the time, I was moved to send a letter to him through his publisher, and we corresponded for a while. Black on Red deserves to find a current audience, and would be a rich and worthy selection for high school or college students due to its applicability to myriad areas of study.
January 15, 2012
The true and interesting story of a young Black who was offered a chance to escape the bigotry and oppression of the USA for the promise of equality on the USSR, only to find bigotry and oppression in a different form behind the iron curtain.
August 13, 2020
Yesterday I finished Black on Red: My 44 Years in the Soviet Union, a memoir by Robert Robinson, a Jamaican-born African American man who went to the Soviet Union to work as a toolmaker on a one-year contract. Suffice to say, this is not how it transpired.
Robinson credits his faith in God with maintaining his resolve to leave the Soviet Union. Guilelessly, he accepts the Soviet citizenship and becomes unable to renew his American papers. Except for God, he is entirely alone, fear of espionage and prosecution precluding the possibility of speaking openly with another person, be they Western or Soviet, foreign or Russian, black or white.
For decades, he does not fail to submit an application for permission to vacation abroad, only to be prevented or denied on a technicality. The fact that he survived to escape, let alone published this book is a testament to his resilience, and a worthy culmination to his work.
The book is decidedly biased against the Soviet system, understandable considering the author’s experiences and the context of its publication — the decade of 1980, with the Cold War still ongoing.
Though not expecting a post-racial paradise as other African Americans had upon leaving the United States, he was disappointed to find that racism was alive and well among the Soviets. Like others, he had imagined that he would find better opportunities for success, but despite his hard work and skill was denied them for being foreign-born and American at that, as well as for being black.
In a later chapter, Robinson relates how the Soviet-born children of migrants of African descent, just like their parents, were prevented from succeeding in their careers in order to favour their Slavic compatriots. Furthermore, the racial incidents suffered by Robinson and other black people were initially exploited in anti-American propaganda to demonstrate how primitive was their system of segregation. This is still without going into the discrimination inflicted upon the non-Slavic peoples that are native to the territories of Russia.
His disillusionment reached the point that he went on to say that racism was worse in the Soviet Union than in the States. The Soviet Union’s claims of anti-racism — officially, racism did not exist there — had given false hopes to black migrants, whereas in the United States anti-black racism was institutionalised and, already being expected, allowed a person the knowledge to navigate a segregated society.
On this point I have to disagree with Robert Robinson — while in the United States, people were being lynched for the colour of their skin, in the Soviet Union persons of every background were purged without distinction. (Small comfort to be had in this equality.)
Robert Robinson could not have known what has happening in his home country during the half century that he was abroad. Near the end of the book, he reunites with his brother, who is living in the predominantly African American neighbourhood where they grew up. Against all expectations, with all things being better in the West, he finds the neighbourhood and its inhabitants diminished and impoverished since the time that he left it. He does not expand on the reasons that might have caused this.
image
With veiled threats, acquaintances revealed to be spies and friends and co-workers disappearing without a warning, disenfranchisement for being foreign-born as well as having to face a bureaucratic nightmare every time he made an attempt to change his life, Soviet Russia had not an environment conducive to life, either. I found this to be a strengthening book. The ordeals that he went through gave me a great anxiety, I’m not going to deny it. But at the same time I found myself thinking, If Robert Robinson could face all of this, and he could face it alone, who am I to despair at my situation? I recommend anyone to read it.
Robinson credits his faith in God with maintaining his resolve to leave the Soviet Union. Guilelessly, he accepts the Soviet citizenship and becomes unable to renew his American papers. Except for God, he is entirely alone, fear of espionage and prosecution precluding the possibility of speaking openly with another person, be they Western or Soviet, foreign or Russian, black or white.
For decades, he does not fail to submit an application for permission to vacation abroad, only to be prevented or denied on a technicality. The fact that he survived to escape, let alone published this book is a testament to his resilience, and a worthy culmination to his work.
The book is decidedly biased against the Soviet system, understandable considering the author’s experiences and the context of its publication — the decade of 1980, with the Cold War still ongoing.
Though not expecting a post-racial paradise as other African Americans had upon leaving the United States, he was disappointed to find that racism was alive and well among the Soviets. Like others, he had imagined that he would find better opportunities for success, but despite his hard work and skill was denied them for being foreign-born and American at that, as well as for being black.
In a later chapter, Robinson relates how the Soviet-born children of migrants of African descent, just like their parents, were prevented from succeeding in their careers in order to favour their Slavic compatriots. Furthermore, the racial incidents suffered by Robinson and other black people were initially exploited in anti-American propaganda to demonstrate how primitive was their system of segregation. This is still without going into the discrimination inflicted upon the non-Slavic peoples that are native to the territories of Russia.
His disillusionment reached the point that he went on to say that racism was worse in the Soviet Union than in the States. The Soviet Union’s claims of anti-racism — officially, racism did not exist there — had given false hopes to black migrants, whereas in the United States anti-black racism was institutionalised and, already being expected, allowed a person the knowledge to navigate a segregated society.
On this point I have to disagree with Robert Robinson — while in the United States, people were being lynched for the colour of their skin, in the Soviet Union persons of every background were purged without distinction. (Small comfort to be had in this equality.)
Robert Robinson could not have known what has happening in his home country during the half century that he was abroad. Near the end of the book, he reunites with his brother, who is living in the predominantly African American neighbourhood where they grew up. Against all expectations, with all things being better in the West, he finds the neighbourhood and its inhabitants diminished and impoverished since the time that he left it. He does not expand on the reasons that might have caused this.
image
With veiled threats, acquaintances revealed to be spies and friends and co-workers disappearing without a warning, disenfranchisement for being foreign-born as well as having to face a bureaucratic nightmare every time he made an attempt to change his life, Soviet Russia had not an environment conducive to life, either. I found this to be a strengthening book. The ordeals that he went through gave me a great anxiety, I’m not going to deny it. But at the same time I found myself thinking, If Robert Robinson could face all of this, and he could face it alone, who am I to despair at my situation? I recommend anyone to read it.
November 1, 2022
This book is beyond worth reading. It is as relevant today as when Mr. Robinson gained freedom (1974) and wrote this book (1988). It is a story of how arduous a journey one Black man traveled to leave a place that promised many ideals and was never close to that. The fear of the long tentacles of the system that gripped him took many years and U.S. citizenship to allow him to write his memoirs.
Mr. Robinson was a fully-trained toolmaker (four years in Cuba) when he first faced racism in the U.S.--Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1927. In order to gain any employment there as a Black man, he had to take a job sweeping floors. He could not show his outstanding skills when first "learning" toolmaking at Ford. As a trained designer, he could probably have run circles around anyone in the plant, but due to egos and rampant discrimination, he had to dumb himself down. He was subjected to sabotage of his workstation machinery, had parts of his projects stolen, and was called demeaning names by co-workers. He endured it all.
in 1930, he was approached by a delegation of recruiters from the Soviet Union during its fledgling years following the Bolshevik Revolution. The Soviets were desperate for trained labor and offered Mr. Robinson a salary twice what he was making in Depression Era America at Ford. He had a mother to support, and along with the huge wage increase, was also promised many impressive perks--free passage to and from the USSR, free accommodation, a car, a maid, vacation--and,
he believed, freedom from racism, (the propaganda of the USSR was that everyone was equal and discrimation based on race was outlawed). Mr. Robinson accepted a one-year contract as an opportunity too good to pass up.
As Mr. Robinson came to find, many Americans were also enamored with the promising idea of building a "new paradise" in the Soviet Union while in the U.S. the Depression had its grip on everyone. Many of these Americans brought their prejudices with them and inflicted them on Mr. Robinson, and so did the Soviet system, (while on paper practicing no discrimination).
Mr. Robinson's story is so poignant and heart-rending in its telling that even though this is my second read, I had to pause reading at times because it's so painful. To think of having your best years stolen by a system of pettiness, self-importance and power, jealousy, starvation, true evil, and daily fear of death, and how he endured, is an inspiration. His telling of the deviousness of the Soviet system and warning of the naivety of Americans to this system is still so relevant, today in 2022.
This story of one man's perseverance for 44 years of never being able to trust anyone lest they inform on him, of constantly being watched, of deprivation, of hunger, of his trials at fulfilling a dream of gaining a mechanical engineering degree amidst numerous roadblocks, of never being able to speak freely, of always being a foreigner though having lived there for 44 years, and of desperately attempting to return to America, is a book everyone should read. It makes you think about what we take for granted.
Mr. Robinson was a fully-trained toolmaker (four years in Cuba) when he first faced racism in the U.S.--Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1927. In order to gain any employment there as a Black man, he had to take a job sweeping floors. He could not show his outstanding skills when first "learning" toolmaking at Ford. As a trained designer, he could probably have run circles around anyone in the plant, but due to egos and rampant discrimination, he had to dumb himself down. He was subjected to sabotage of his workstation machinery, had parts of his projects stolen, and was called demeaning names by co-workers. He endured it all.
in 1930, he was approached by a delegation of recruiters from the Soviet Union during its fledgling years following the Bolshevik Revolution. The Soviets were desperate for trained labor and offered Mr. Robinson a salary twice what he was making in Depression Era America at Ford. He had a mother to support, and along with the huge wage increase, was also promised many impressive perks--free passage to and from the USSR, free accommodation, a car, a maid, vacation--and,
he believed, freedom from racism, (the propaganda of the USSR was that everyone was equal and discrimation based on race was outlawed). Mr. Robinson accepted a one-year contract as an opportunity too good to pass up.
As Mr. Robinson came to find, many Americans were also enamored with the promising idea of building a "new paradise" in the Soviet Union while in the U.S. the Depression had its grip on everyone. Many of these Americans brought their prejudices with them and inflicted them on Mr. Robinson, and so did the Soviet system, (while on paper practicing no discrimination).
Mr. Robinson's story is so poignant and heart-rending in its telling that even though this is my second read, I had to pause reading at times because it's so painful. To think of having your best years stolen by a system of pettiness, self-importance and power, jealousy, starvation, true evil, and daily fear of death, and how he endured, is an inspiration. His telling of the deviousness of the Soviet system and warning of the naivety of Americans to this system is still so relevant, today in 2022.
This story of one man's perseverance for 44 years of never being able to trust anyone lest they inform on him, of constantly being watched, of deprivation, of hunger, of his trials at fulfilling a dream of gaining a mechanical engineering degree amidst numerous roadblocks, of never being able to speak freely, of always being a foreigner though having lived there for 44 years, and of desperately attempting to return to America, is a book everyone should read. It makes you think about what we take for granted.
April 1, 2025
Wow.. one of the most engrossing, easiest books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. So many emotions, even after reading this book it is almost impossible to imagine what this man has went through because it was just so much. I'm glad he lived long enough to witness the offiical dissolution of the Soviet Union in his lifetime but even now I feel sorrow that essentially near enough his entire life was robbed from him.. like a man sentenced to life in prison and released decades later, found to be innocent stuck in a place he didn't belong.
August 3, 2020
What a story.
Unfortunately, I could not get a copy of the book in English (shipping to Russia during COVID constitutes a problem), and AMAZON does not have a digital version, so I had to read it in Russian.
The story is fascinating!!!!! And I never knew about this dude, who has spend 44 (!!!) years in Soviet Union. He worked not far from my childhood house (I know the plant very good).
Believe it or not, but I did learn something new about Stalin era Moscow from Robinson.
Unfortunately, I could not get a copy of the book in English (shipping to Russia during COVID constitutes a problem), and AMAZON does not have a digital version, so I had to read it in Russian.
The story is fascinating!!!!! And I never knew about this dude, who has spend 44 (!!!) years in Soviet Union. He worked not far from my childhood house (I know the plant very good).
Believe it or not, but I did learn something new about Stalin era Moscow from Robinson.
February 15, 2022
interested in knowing what was cut from the larger manuscript, as there is the glaring omission of robinson's thoughts on daily life and politics when he returned to the states. in particular, how he assessed the reagan and hw bush administrations in relation to black americans. i get the sense that he, understandably, hadn't fully appraised the last 58 or so years of us domestic and foreign policy, since his recommendations for the ussr could have been applied to the us as well.
October 26, 2025
Very much appreciated this fantastically real story. I enjoyed getting to know Robinson throughout his telling. He made many mistakes early on that landed him in a 44-year heap of trouble. In the end I was quietly overjoyed for Robinson for finding his freedom and peace after enduring such mistreatment in the Soviet Union.
July 24, 2018
If anyone wants to emigrate to a communist/socialist state please read this first.
I understand the author's attraction with communism but he found out that even in the United States with the prejudice he faced it is still better than living in the USSR!
I understand the author's attraction with communism but he found out that even in the United States with the prejudice he faced it is still better than living in the USSR!
March 3, 2020
Потрясающая книга, написана без всякого пристрастия человеком на которого выпало так много испытаний. Читая его книгу о жизни в СССР, в стремление вырваться из этого социалистического ада, чувствую себя на его месте и понимаю его, как и свою радость когда самолет приземляется на свободе.
March 25, 2019
Loved this book, an excellent story about Robert Robinson who goes to the Soviet Union in 1930. Great Story!!!!
March 26, 2020
Тот самый взгляд, который никогда не продемонстрируют рождённые в СССР.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 4, 2022
What a story and how beautifully written this book is. This is a must read for nonfiction readers.
April 14, 2024
4.5 stars
December 27, 2015
I loved this book. Robinson's voice was objective and sincere and he provided a valuable insight into life in a Soviet country during communism. The story is of a black man who spent 44 years living in (and trying to get out of) Russia. Certainly he focuses on the way he, as a black man, was treated, but I found that to be less prominent than the account of everyday aspects of communist Russia. Very engaging, worth your time to read if you have any interest at all in Russia and/or the former Soviet Union.
December 10, 2009
This should be required reading for all students, but especially minority students who think they and their ancestors have been treated worse than they would have been elsewhere.
April 16, 2016
Five stars for the unique story. This is more of a "Kleiner Mann – was nun" real life story, however, rather than an objective narration on the life in the Soviet Union.
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