![]() For many white Americans, Robinson represented one of their greatest fears: Communist exploitation of racial grievances to produce mass discontent among American blacks.Īt the end of the 1920s, the Soviet Union embarked on a propaganda offensive to convince the world of the superiority of the Communist system. ![]() For some black Americans, Robinson's experiences were proof that the Soviet Union was living up to its progressive ideals, at least as a haven free of racial prejudice. For the Soviet regime he became a symbol of racial oppression under capitalism and of communism's promise of racial equality. Yet within a short time after his arrival in Russia, he achieved unintended fame, becoming one of the best-known Americans residing in Russia, a cause celebre for the Soviets and an object of both condemnation and admiration in the United States. A Jamaican-born immigrant, Robinson was a reserved and unassuming man with little interest in politics. ![]() ROBERT NATHANIEL ROBINSON was a twenty-three-year-old toolmaker in Detroit when he decided, like many thousands of Americans and Europeans in the early 1930s, to take a job in the booming industries of the Soviet Union. ![]()
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