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Racism in a “Raceless” Society: The Soviet Press and Representations of American Racial Violence at Stalingrad in 1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2007

Meredith Roman
Meredith Roman
Affiliation:
State University of New York, College at Brockport
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Abstract

In late August 1930, two white American workers from the Ford Motor Company in Detroit were tried for attacking a black American laborer at one of the Soviet Union's prized giants of socialist industry, the Stalingrad Traktorostroi. Soviet trade-union authorities and all-union editors used the near month-long campaign to bring the two assailants to “proletarian justice,” in order to cultivate the image that workers in the USSR valued American technical and industrial knowledge in the construction of the new socialist society, but vehemently rejected American racism. They reinforced this image in publications by juxtaposing visual depictions of Soviet citizens' acceptance of black Americans as equals against those which portrayed the lynching of black workers in the United States.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , Spring 2007 , pp. 185 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The International Labor and Working-Class History Society 2007

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References

NOTES

1. Chamberlin, William Henry, Russia's Iron Age (Boston, 1934), 362–4Google Scholar.

2. On Soviet leaders' interest in portraying the USSR as a superior, modern society amidst the rise of fascism and the Great Depression, see Kotkin, Stephen, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism As a Civilization (Berkeley, 1995)Google Scholar. For officials' pride in Soviet nationality policy as distinguishing them from Western imperialists, see Hirsch, Francine, “The Soviet Union as a Work-in-Progress: Ethnographers and the Category nationality in the 1926, 1937, and 1939 Censuses,” Slavic Review 56 (Summer 1997): 251–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martin, Terry, Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939 (Ithaca, 2001)Google Scholar; and Slezkine, Yuri, “The USSR as a Communal Apartment or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism,” Slavic Review 53 (Summer 1994): 414–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Foreign workers played a critical role in the development of Soviet industry in the early 1930s. According to Sergei Zhuravlev, during the most intensive phase of industrialization, nearly 35,000 foreign workers, specialists, and their families were living in the Soviet Union, most of whom were Germans followed by Americans. See “Malen'kie liudi” i “bol'shaia istoriia”: Inostrantsy moskovskogo Elektrozavoda v sovetskom obshchestve 1920-kh-1930-kh gg. (Moskva, 2000), 29–31. Besides John Scott who wrote about his experiences in Magnitogorsk in Behind the Urals, the most notable American to work in a socialist giant was Walter Reuther. Before he began his long tenure as president of the United Auto Workers in 1936, Reuther had worked with his brother in the Nizhnii-Novgorod State Automobile Factory (GAZ) from roughly 1933–1935. See Lichtenstein, Nelson, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor (New York, 1995)Google Scholar.

4. Only two scholars have briefly discussed the trial. See Blakely, Allison, Russia and the Negro: Blacks in Russian History and Thought (Washington, DC, 1986), 101Google Scholar; and McClellan, Woodford, “Africans and Black Americans in the Comintern Schools, 1925–1934,” International Journal of African Historical Studies 26 (1993): 371–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The contemporary press claimed that the trial had the country's “unabated interest,” see “Rabochii sud nad amerikantsami izbivshimi negra,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, August 24, 1930, 4; “Attack on Negro Red still stirs Moscow,” New York Times, August 11, 1930, 4; “Moscow stirred by attack on Negro,” Daily Worker, August 13, 1930, 2; “Russia acts to halt racial prejudice,” Afro-American, August 23, 1930, 1; and “Moscow stirred by attack on Negro,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 23, 1930, 1.

5. On the Soviet press, see Lenoe, Matthew, Closer to the Masses: Stalinist Culture, Social Revolution and Soviet Newspapers (Cambridge, 2004)Google Scholar.

6. On the persistence of ethnic animosity and anti-Semitism, see, for example, Davies, Sarah, Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia: Terror, Propaganda and Dissent, 1934–1941 (Cambridge, 1997), 82–90, 135–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoffmann, David, Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929–1941 (Ithaca, 1994), 124–5Google Scholar; Kuromiya, Hiroaki, Freedom and Terror in the Donbass: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s (Cambridge, 1992), 147–8, 160, 198, 246Google Scholar; Martin, Terry, “The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing,” Journal of Modern History 70 (1998): 813–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Siegelbaum, Lewis H. and Sokolov, Andrei, Stalinism as a Way of Life: A Narrative in Documents (New Haven, 2000), 42–43, 71–72, 259–67, 364, 369–70Google Scholar.

7. In his study on the Soviet League of the Militant Godless, Daniel Peris argues that the objective of most propaganda campaigns during this era was to glorify the enlightened nature of the Soviet state. See Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless (Ithaca, NY, 1998).

8. For this important discussion, see Eric Weitz, “Racial Politics without the Concept of Race: Reevaluating Soviet Ethnic and National Purges,” Francine Hirsch, “Race without the Practice of Racial Politics,” and Weiner, Amir, “Nothing But Certainty,” in Slavic Review 61 (Spring 2002): 1–29, 30–43, 44–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also note 2.

9. Robinson was a naturalized United States citizen born in Jamaica. See note 41. On the identities of Lewis and Brown, see “Obvinitel'noe zakliuchenie po delu izbieniia rabochego negra na Stalingradskom traktornom zavode,” Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF), fond 5469, opis' 14, delo 382, listy 18–19; and Polk's City Directory, 1929–1930: People's Wayne Country Bank serving Detroit, Highland Park, Hamtramck, Dearborn, River Rouge, Ecorse, (Detroit, n.d.), 1316; “To deport Americans for attack on Negro,” New York Times, August 31, 1930, 10; “American worker who attacked Negro now regrets his act,” Daily Worker, August 25, 1930, 2; “Detroit and Toledo race-haters must return to America,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 6, 1930, 1; and “Prejudiced Americans in Russia to be deported,” Amsterdam News, September 3, 1930, 3.

10. On the propagandistic significance of the Traktorostroi, see Schultz, Kurt, “The American Factor in Soviet Industrialization: Fordism and the First Five-Year Plan, 1928–1932,” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1992), 136–48Google Scholar.

11. For arrivals, see GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 382, ll. 15–16; and “Opyt massovogo primenenia truda amerikanskikh rabochikh i tekhnikov na Stalingradskom traktornom zavode,” Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'noi i politicheskoi istorii (RGASPI), f. 495, op. 30, d. 648, ll. 120–126. For the population total, see “Zasedanie Sekretariata TsK VSRM ot 17 avgusta 1930 g.,” GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 382, l. 4; and Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, 1930–1939, 861.5017—Living Conditions (Reel 37).

12. GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 382, ll. 1, 15–18. Robinson had become disillusioned with the Soviet project by the time he recorded his autobiography but still claimed that Russian workers in Stalingrad had respected him and had intervened during the assault. See Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union (Washington, DC, 1988), 65–73.

13. Local authorities were held just as culpable for the assault on Robinson as Lewis and Brown. See, for example, “Obzor raboty soiuznykh organizatsii metallistov,” GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 383, ll. 3–38. Pravda provided the description of the altercation that corresponded most closely to that found in the trial transcript; “19 avgusta—sud nad amerikanskimi rabochimi, izbivshimi negra,” Pravda, August 17, 1930, 5. US papers and the Times of London continued to erroneously report that Lewis had expelled Robinson from the cafeteria. See Walter Duranty, “Americans essay color bar in Soviet,” New York Times, August 10, 1930, 9; “More Americans face accusations in Soviet,” ibid., August 30, 1930, 5; “Russ workers won't stand US prejudice,” Afro-American, August 16, 1930, 4; “Americans to be tried in Russia; evicted worker,” Amsterdam News, August 20, 1930, 1; “Russians to deport prejudiced American,” Chicago Defender, August 23, 1930, 3; and “Soviet and colour prejudice,” Times, August 13, 1930, 9.

14. See Zhuravlev, “Malen'kie liudi,” 47, 143–5.

15. “Pozornyi fakt na traktornom vskryl slabost' internatsional'noi raboty profsoiuzov Stalingrada,” Trud, August 10, 1930,1; “‘Ia ostaius’ na traktornom,'” ibid., August 12, 1930, 1; and “My vsetselo na storone tov. Robinsona,” ibid., August 14, 1930, 1.

16. “Pis'mo rabochikh Elektrozavoda gazete ‘Trud,’” Trud, August 14, 1930, 1; “‘Trud’ prinial predlozhenie Elektrozavoda,” ibid., August 14, 1930, 1.

17. The trial had been scheduled to begin as early as August 19, 1930; “Stalingrad, Moskva,” GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 382, l. 11.

18. By “conscious,” trade union officials meant Americans who were sympathetic to Communism; GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 382, ll. 3–4. For brigade members, see “‘Trud’ prinial predlozhenie Elektrozavoda,” 1; “Inostrannye rabochie Leningrada posylaiut obshchestvennogo obvinitelia na stalingradskii protsess,” Trud, August 17, 1930, 2; “Kak byl izbit tovarishch Robinson,” ibid., August 18, 1930, 4; “Zavkom traktornogo budet dosrochno pereizbran,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 18, 1930, 6; “Internatsional'naia rabochaia brigada ‘Truda’ vchera vyekhala na stalingradskii protsess,” Trud, August 19, 1930, 1; “Inostrannye rabochie Khar'kova i Rostova poslali obshchestvennykh obvinitelei na stalingradskii protsess,” ibid., August 20, 1930, 1; and “Luis i Braun pytalis' perenesti na sovetskuiu pochvu fashistskie nravy,” ibid., August 28, 1930, 1.

19. GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 382, l. 17; “Prigovor eshche ne vynesen,” Trud, August 30, 1930, 1. For Lewis's original apology, see “Protsess ob izbienii negra tov. Robinsona otlozhen do 22 avgusta,” Pravda, August 21, 1930, 5; “‘Nikogda bol'she ne budu storonnikom natsional'noi rozni,’” Izvestiia, August 22, 1930, 2; “‘Nikogda bol'she ne budu storonnikom rozni ras i natsii,’” Rabochaia gazeta, August 22, 1930, 6; and “Apologizes to Russians,” New York Times, August 22, 1930, 4.

20. “V SSSR net mesta rasovoi vrazhdebnosti,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 11, 1930, 4; Knut, Ferdinand, “Rasovaia nenavist',” Trud, August 19, 1930, 1Google Scholar; “Segodnia v Stalingrade nachinaetsia protsess ob izbienii negra tov. Robinsona,” Trud, August 20, 1930, 1.

21. “Delo ob izbienii tov. Robinsona,” Pravda, August 24, 1930, 3; “Nachalsia sud nad L'iuisom i Braunom,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 24, 1930, 4; Chamberlin, Russia's Iron Age, 362–3.

22. “Vyslat' amerikanskikh fashistov iz predelov SSSR,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 27, 1930, 6; “Luis i Braun pytalis' perenesti na sovetskuiu pochvu fashistskie nravy,” 1; Ferdinand Knut, “Pered sudom vsia sistema kapitalizma,” Trud, August 29, 1930, 1; “V Ameriku, k organizatoram sudov lincha!,” ibid., August 30, 1930, 1.

23. “Nachalsia sud,” 4; “Sud nad L'iuisom i Braunom, amerikantsam na traktornom ‘ne nraviatsia negry,’” Rabochaia gazeta, August 25, 1930, 6.

24. Padmore, George, “The Socialist Attitude to the Invasion of the USSR,” Left 60, (September 1941): 193–9 (quotation, 196)Google Scholar.

25. On “proletarianness” and the “New Soviet Person,” see especially, Peris, Storming the Heavens, 78–83; Petrone, Karen, Life Has Become More Joyous, Comrades: celebrations in the time of Stalin (Bloomington, IN, 2000), 1–5, 11–13, 66–69, 125Google Scholar; Hoffmann, David L., Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity, 1917–1941 (Ithaca, NY, 2003), 45–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Siegelbaum, Lewis H., “The Shaping of Soviet Workers' Leisure: Workers' Clubs and Palaces of Culture in the 1930s,” International Labor and Working-Class History 56 (Fall 1999): 78–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26. “My ne dopustim v SSSR nravov burzhuaznoi Ameriki,” Trud, August 9, 1930, 1.

27. “My obrashchaemsia k amerikanskim rabochim,” ibid., August 10, 1930, 1; “‘Okruzhim negra Robinsona samym druzhestvennym vnimaniem,’” Rabochaia gazeta, August 15, 1930, 6; “Pozor khuliganam s traktorostroia, izbivshim negra Robinsona, MOPR zaiavliaet reshitel'nyi protest,” ibid., August 14, 1930, 6.

28. “‘Protestuem protiv zverinogo natsionalizma,’” Trud, August 11, 1930, 1; “Amerikanskie rabochie osuzhdaiut izdevatel'stvo nad rabochim-negrom na traktorostroe,” Izvestiia, August 18, 1930, 3; “Rabochie amerikantsy osuzhdaiut nedevatel'stvo nad rabochim-negrom,” Trud, August 18, 1930, 4; “Stalingradskaia prokuratura zamalchivaet delo amerikantsa Luisa,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 17, 1930, 6; “Inostrannye rabochie Khar'kova i Rostova,” 1.

29. “Nuzhen vsesoiuznyi smotr internatsional'nogo vospitaniia,” Trud, August 28, 1930, 1; “Pionery Ameriki, Anglii, Bel'gii, Ukrainy o stalingradskom dele,” ibid., August 20, 1930, 1.

30. “Delo ob izbienii rabochego-negra,” Izvestiia, August 18, 1930, 2; “Usilit' internatsional'nuiu rabotu,” Put' MOPR'a 23–24 (August 1930): 1; “Obshchestvennyi sud nad grazhdaninom Tsiprusom,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, August 18, 1930, 4.

31. “Amerikanskie rabochie dolzhny osudit' postupok Nuisa,” Trud, August 20, 1930, 2. On the “fascist-minded” American committee, see GARF, f.5469, op. 14, d. 382, l. 4; Knut, Ferdinand, “Prigovor proletariata,” Trud, August 31, 1930, 1Google Scholar; and Dunne, Bill, “Detroit racketeers on the Volga,” New Masses (September 1931): 10–12Google Scholar.

32. “Takie ne mogut nazyvat'sia rabochimi,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 11, 1930, 4; “O chem govorit sluchai na traktornom zavode,” Trud, August 12, 1930, 1; “Amovtsy trebuiut vysylki vinovnikov iz predelov SSSR,” ibid., August 13, 1930, 1; “Na traktornom pobezhdaet solidarnost' proletariata,” ibid., August 14, 1930, 1; “Postavit' izbivshikh negra pod ugrozy boikota,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 15, 1930, 6; “Stalingradskaia prokuratura,” 6; Knut, “Rasovaia nenavist',” 1; “Protest amerikanskikh rabochikh avtozavoda,” Trud, August 19, 1930, 1; “Inostrannye rabochie Khar'kova i Rostova,” 1; “Voina shovinizmu,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 20, 1930, 4.

33. “Vyslat' amerikanskikh fashistov iz predelov SSSR,” 6; “Prikhvostniam fashizma ne mesto v sovetskoi strane! Luis i Braun—agenty amerikanskogo fashizma,” Trud, August 29, 1930, 1; Knut, “Pered sudom vsia sistema kapitalizma,” 1; “Prigovor proletariata,” 1.

34. “Rabochie fabriki ‘Moskvoshvei’ no. 5 reshitel'no osuzhdaiut amerikanskikh khuliganov,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 11, 1930, 4; “Moskva, 31 avgusta,” Trud, August 31, 1930, 1.

35. “Izbienie negra Robinsona – kontr-revoliutsionnyi vypad,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 15, 1930, 6; “Amerikanets Nuis ne tol'ko khuligan, no i fashist,” Trud, August 25, 1930, 1; “Vylazka kontrrevoliutsionerov,” ibid., August 29, 1930, 1; “Luis i Braun pytalis' perenesti na sovetskuiu pochvu fashistskie nravy,” 1; “V Ameriku, k organizatoram sudov lincha!,” 1.

36. “Fashist Luis vysylaetsia iz SSSR,” Trud, August 31, 1930, 1; “Posledovateli lincha v Stalingrade Liuis i Braun dolzhny byt' osuzhdeny,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, August 30, 1930, 1; “Prigovor po delu ob izbienii negra Robinsona,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 31, 1930, 2; and “Liuis i Braun vysylaiutsia iz SSSR,” Pravda, August 31, 1930, 7. Several weeks after he was deported, Lewis charged in the Chicago Tribune (September 21, 1930, A7) that the Stalingrad Americans were ill and starving. A member of the Stalingrad American colony refuted his accusations in the Moscow News, November 16, 1930, 7.

37. Argenbright, Robert, “Marking NEP's Slippery Path: The Krasnoshchekov Show Trial,” Russian Review 61 (April 2002): 249–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J. Arch Getty, “Samokritika Rituals in the Stalinist Central Committee, 1933–38,” ibid. 58 (January 1999): 49–70.

38. For the equation of blackness with the absence of purity, see, for example, Davis, David Brion, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (Ithaca, NY, 1966), 447–9, 452–64Google Scholar; McClintock, Anne, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Conquest (New York, 1993), 5–7; 56–60Google Scholar; and Lawrence, Erol, “Just Plain Common Sense: the ‘Roots’ of Racism,” in The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in ’70s Britain (London, 1982), 31Google Scholar.

39. Danilov, Mikhail, “Nuis i Robinson,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 11, 1930, 4Google Scholar. For a similar sentiment, see “V Stalingrade gruppoi amerikanskikh rabochikh izbit negra,” Put’ MOPR'a 23–24 (August 1930): 13.

40. “O chem govorit sluchai na traktornom zavode,” 1; “‘Ia ostaius’ na traktornom'”, 1; “Pozornyi fakt na traktornom,” 1.

41. Editors could have bolstered Robinson's image as the ideal international black laborer by elaborating on his work experience in Cuba, Jamaica, and Brazil, hotbeds of Marxist labor activity during this era. See, for example, James, Winston, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean radicalism in early twentieth-century America (London, 1998)Google Scholar. Robinson who was never a member of the Communist Party was elected to the Moscow city soviet in December 1934. See “Mandat deputata Robinsona,” Vecherniaia Moskva, December 14, 1934, 2; and Robinson, Black on Red, 95–111.

42. “My ne dopustim v SSSR,” 1; “Amerikantsy ne byvali na rabochikh sobraniiakh,” Trud, August 13, 1930, 1. See also, “Obshchestvennyi sud nad grazhdaninom Tsiprusom,” ibid., August 18, 1930, 4; “O chem govorit sluchai,” 1; “My vsetselo na storone tov. Robinsona,” 1; and “Pionery Ameriki, Anglii, Bel'gii, Ukrainy,” 1.

43. Danilov, “Nuis i Robinson,” 4; “V SSSR net mesta rasovoi vrazhdebnosti,” 4.

44. “V redaktsiiu zhurnala ‘Metallist’”, GARF, f. 5469, op. 14, d. 381, ll. 84–85; “My vsetselo na storone tov. Robinsona,” 1.

45. The Fifth Profintern Congress was intended to demonstrate that the organization had made good on its pledge to make the mobilization of black workers a priority. See “V RILU Congress, 17.8.30,” RGASPI, f. 534, op. 1, d. 137, ll. 171–176; and “O rabote sredi negrov rabochikh,” RGASPI, f. 534, op. 1, d. 154, ll. 78–79.

46. “My ne dopustim v SSSR,” 1.

47. “Jenny Reid” is verified as Helen McClain in the list of United States delegates to the Congress in RGASPI, f. 534, op. 1, d. 170, l. 41; and in Haywood's, HarryBlack Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist (Chicago, 1978), 328–9Google Scholar. McClain's image also appeared in Trud, August 15, 1930, 2; Komsomol'skaia pravda, August 21, 1930, 1; and Pravda, August 27, 1930, 2.

48. See Trud, August 10, 1930, 1, and ibid., August 13, 1930, 1. The first photograph was published in the Negro Worker 2 (February 1931): 17. For other images of Ford in the press, see Trud, August 15, 1930, 2; ibid., August 24, 1930, 2; and Izvestiia, August 19, 1930, 2.

49. Trud, August 23, 1930, 1; Komsomol'skaia pravda, August 23, 1930, 1. For other images of Hawkins, see Pravda, August 16, 1930, 2; and Izvestiia, August 22, 1930, 2. For verification of Hawkins' identity, see RGASPI, f. 534, op. 1, d.170, l. 42.

50. For Ford's and Hawkins's speeches, see “Negritianskie rabochie i Profintern,” Trud, August 16, 1930, 2; “Negritianskii proletariat vystupaet na revoliutsionnuiu arenu,” ibid., August 20, 1930, 3; “Revoliutsionnoe dvizhenie sredi negrov,” Izvestiia, August 19, 1930, 2; “Piatyi kongress Profinterna,” Pravda, August 22, 1930, 2; and “Opyt millionov - na organizatsiiu revoliutsionnykh boev,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 21, 1930, 1.

51. A portion of this photograph appeared in Ogonek on June 20, 1931 (no. 7): 13, with articles about the Scottsboro legal lynching. This was one of the few images or articles printed in Ogonek from 1930–1936 which exposed Americans’ “enlightened” treatment of black Americans. On the Marion lynching, see Madison, James H., A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America (New York, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52. “Posledovateli lincha na traktornom zavode,” Komsomol'skaia pravda, August 26, 1930, 4.

53. See Daily Worker, August 12, 1930, 2; “Headlines About Negroes,” ibid., August 11, 1930, 1.

54. For the Sherman, Texas lynching, see Dray, Philip, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (New York, 2002), 328–30Google Scholar.

55. “Grazhdanin Tsiprus iskliuchen iz soiuza,” Trud, August 18, 1930, 1.

56. On the comrades-disciplinary courts and agit-trials, see, for example, Siegelbaum, Lewis H., “Defining and Ignoring Labor Discipline in the Early Soviet Period: The Comrades-Disciplinary Courts, 1918–1922,” Slavic Review 51, (Winter 1992): 705–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Mally, Lynn, “The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Youth Theater TRAM,” Slavic Review 51 (Autumn 1992): 411–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. “Rabochie fabriki Moskvoshvei no. 5 vozmushcheny vystupleniem gr. Tsiprusa,” Rabochaia gazeta, August 13, 1930, 6; “V otvet na antiproletarskuiu vykhodku Tsiprusa dopolnitel'no podpishemsia na zaem,” ibid., August 17, 1930, 6; and “Prigovor rabochikh mass,” ibid., August 18, 1930, 6.

57. Quoted in “SSSR-otechestvo dlia chernykh, zheltykh i belykh ras,” Trud, August 11, 1930, 1.

58. On the “display” of non-Russian nationalities in Moscow, see, for example, Brooks, Jeffrey, Thank You, Comrade Stalin! Soviet Public Culture from Revolution to Cold War (Princeton, 2000)Google Scholar; Slezkine, “USSR as a Communal Apartment,” 430–52; and Zhuravlev, “Malen'kie liudi”, 255–8.

59. For the Scottsboro protest, see Miller, James A., Pennybacker, Susan D., and Rosenhaft, Eve, “Mother Ada Wright and the International Campaign to Free the Scottsboro Boys, 1931–1934,” American Historical Review 106 (April 2001): 387–430CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Roman, Meredith L., “Another Kind of ‘Freedom,’: The Soviet Experiment with Antiracism and Its Image as a ‘Raceless’ Society, 1928–1936,” (Ph.D. Diss., Michigan State University, 2005), 169–230Google Scholar.

60. On the connection between the Stalingrad and Yokinen trials, see “V Congress - 19th Session, 25.8.30,” RGASPI, f. 534, op. 1, d. 145, ll. 115–116; Race Hatred on Trial (New York, 1931); I. Amter, “Significance of the Yokinen Trial,” Daily Worker, March 9, 1930, 4; and Roman, “Another Kind of ‘Freedom,’” 113–121.

61. On Soviet citizens' enthusiasm in building a new socialist society, see, for example, Fitzpatrick, Sheila, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (Oxford, 1999), 67–75, 132–8Google Scholar; and Hellbeck, Jochen, “Speaking Out: Languages of Affirmation and Dissent in Stalinist Russia,” Kritika 1 (Winter 2000): 71–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62. On foreign workers' role as “big brother,” see Schultz, “The American Factor in Soviet Industrialization,” 146–8; and Zhuravlev, “Malen'kie liudi”, 236–40, 272–4.

63. See especially, Straus, Kenneth M., Factory and Community in Stalin's Russia: The Making of An Industrial Working Class (Pittsburgh, 1997)Google Scholar.

64. For interpretations of the Comintern's declaration, see Solomon, Mark, The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans, 1917–1936 (Jackson, MS, 1998), 68–89Google Scholar; and Naison, Mark, Communists in Harlem During the Depression (New York, 1983), 17–20Google Scholar.