The material in this online exhibit documents Black peoples’ engagement with the Soviet Union and countries behind the Iron Curtain, as well as how these countries conceptualized race (as distinct from national identity) and how they observed and commented on race relations in the United States.
There were activists and intellectuals who visited or lived in the Soviet Union and published first-hand accounts of their experiences and travels. Others wrote about the Russian Revolution and its significance for the Black proletariat; Afro-Asian solidarity societies (and the de-centering of Soviet Russia within global Marxism); and the impact of the Cold War on African independence movements.
The publications featured include translations of works by Black writers; other texts depict western society as morally corrupt in its treatment of minorities.
