Coordinates	10°24′0″N71°27′0″N
Native name	Союз Советских Социалистических Республик''Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik''
Conventional long name	Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Other names
Common name	Soviet Union
Continent	Eurasia
Status	Federation
Government type	Union socialist soviet republic, single-party communist state
Year start	1922
Year end	1991
Date start	30 December
Date end	26 December
P1	Russian SFSR
Flag p1	Flag RSFSR 1918.svg
P2	Transcaucasian SFSR
Flag p2	Flag of Transcaucasian SFSR.svg
P3	Ukrainian SSR
Flag p3	Flag of the Ukrainian SSR (1927-1937).svg
P4	Byelorussian SSR
Flag p4	Flag of the Byelorussian SSR (1919).svg
S1	Russia
Flag s1	Flag of Russia 1991-1993.svg
S2	Georgia (country)Georgia
Flag s2	Flag of Georgia.svg
S3	Ukraine
Flag s3	Flag of Ukraine.svg
S4	Moldova
Flag s4	Flag of Moldova.svg
S5	Belarus
Flag s5	Flag of Belarus.svg
S6	Armenia
Flag s6	Flag of Armenia.svg
S7	Azerbaijan
Flag s7	Flag of Azerbaijan.svg
S8	Kazakhstan
Flag s8	Flag of Kazakhstan.svg
S9	Uzbekistan
Flag s9	Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
S10	Turkmenistan
Flag s10	Flag of Turkmenistan.svg
S11	Kyrgyzstan
Flag s11	Flag of Kyrgyzstan.svg
S12	Tajikistan
Flag s12	Flag of Tajikistan.svg
S13	EstoniaEstonia3
Flag s13	Flag of Estonia.svg
S14	LatviaLatvia3
Flag s14	Flag of Latvia.svg
S15	LithuaniaLithuania3
Flag s15	Flag of Lithuania.svg
Flag	Flag of the Soviet Union
Image coat	Coat_of_arms_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg
Symbol	State Emblem of the Soviet Union
Symbol type	State Emblem
Image map size	220px
Image map caption	The Soviet Union after World War II
Capital	Moscow
Largest city	Moscow
National motto	Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!(Translit.: ''Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!'')English: Workers of the world, unite!
National anthem	''The Internationale'' (1922–1944) ''National Anthem of the Soviet Union'' (1944-1991)
Common languages	Russian, many others
Demonym	Soviet
Currency	Soviet ruble (руб) (SUR)
Currency code	SUR
Leader1	Vladimir Lenin
Leader2	Mikhail Gorbachev
Year leader1	1922–1924 (first)
Year leader2	1985–1991 (last)
Title leader	Leader
Legislature	Congress of Soviets and Central Executive Committee (1922-1937) Supreme Soviet (1937-1989; 1991)Congress of People's Deputies and Supreme Soviet (1989-1991)
Stat year1	1991
Stat area1	22402200
Stat pop1	293047571
Footnotes	1On 21 December 1991, eleven of the former socialist republics declared in Alma-Ata (with the 12th republic – Georgia – attending as an observer) that with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist. 2Assigned on 19 September 1990, existing onwards. 3The governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania view themselves as continuous and unrelated to the respective Soviet republics.Russia views the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian SSRs as legal constituent republics of the USSR and predecessors of the modern Baltic states.The Government of the United States and a number of other countries did not recognize the annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the USSR as a legal inclusion.
Utc offset	+2 to +13
Cctld	.su2
Calling code	7 }}

The Soviet Union (), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, , abbreviated СССР, ''SSSR''), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991. An informal name used among its residents was the Union (''Soyuz'').

The Soviet Union had a single-party political system dominated by the Communist Party until 1990. Although the USSR was nominally a union of Soviet republics (15 in all after 1956) with the capital in Moscow, it was actually a highly centralized state with a planned economy.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 brought about the downfall of the Russian Empire. Its successor, the Russian Provisional Government, was short-lived. After the Bolsheviks won the ensuing Russian Civil War, the Soviet Union was founded in December 1922 with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Following the death of the first Soviet leader, Vladimir Lenin, in 1924, Joseph Stalin eventually won a power struggle and led the country through a large-scale industrialization with a command economy and political repression. In World War II, in June 1941, Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union, a country with which it had signed a non-aggression pact. After four years of brutal warfare, the Soviet Union emerged victorious as one of the world's two superpowers, the other being the United States.

The Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states engaged in the Cold War, a prolonged global ideological and political struggle against the United States and its Western Bloc allies, which it ultimately lost in the face of economic troubles and both domestic and foreign political unrest. In the late 1980s, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform the state with his policies of ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost'', but the Soviet Union collapsed and was formally dissolved in December 1991 after the abortive August coup attempt. The Russian Federation assumed its rights and obligations.

Geography, climate and environment

With an area of , the Soviet Union was the world's largest state. Covering a sixth of the Earth's land surface, its size was comparable to that of North America. The European portion accounted for a quarter of the country's area, and was the cultural and economic center. The eastern part in Asia extended to the Pacific Ocean to the east and Afghanistan to the south, and was much less populous. It spanned over east to west across 11 time zones, and almost north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains.

The Soviet Union had the world's longest border, measuring over , two-thirds of it a coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Across the Bering Strait was the United States. The Soviet Union bordered Afghanistan, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Hungary, Iran, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Turkey from 1945 to 1991.

The Soviet Union's longest river was the Irtysh. Its highest mountain was Communism Peak (now Ismail Samani Peak) in Tajikistan, at . The world's largest lake, the Caspian Sea, lay mainly within the Soviet Union. The world's largest freshwater and deepest lake, Lake Baikal, was in the Soviet Union.

History

The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, ruled the Russian Empire until his abdication in March 1917, due in part to the strain of fighting in World War I. A short-lived Russian provisional government took power, to be overthrown in the 1917 October Revolution (N.S. November 1917) by revolutionaries led by the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.

The Soviet Union was officially established in December 1922 with the union of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics, each ruled by local Bolshevik parties. Despite the foundation of the Soviet state as a federative entity of many constituent republics, each with its own political and administrative entities, the term "Soviet Russia"strictly applicable only to the Russian Federative Socialist Republicwas often incorrectly applied to the entire country by non-Soviet writers and politicians.

Revolution and foundation

Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. Although serfdom was abolished in 1861, it was done on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament—the State Duma—was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar resisted attempts to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities.

A spontaneous popular uprising in Saint Petersburg, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in the February Revolution and the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917. The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Russian Provisional Government, which intended to conduct elections to the Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue fighting on the side of the Entente in World War I.

At the same time, workers' councils, known as Soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the Soviets and on the streets. In November 1917, during the October Revolution, they seized power. In December, the Bolsheviks signed an armistice with the Central Powers, though by February 1918, fighting had resumed. In March, the Soviets quit the war for good and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

A long and bloody Russian Civil War ensued between the Reds and the Whites, starting in 1917 and ending in 1923 with the Reds victorious. It included foreign intervention, the execution of Nicholas II and his family and the famine of 1921, which killed about five million. In March 1921, during a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga was signed, splitting disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union had to resolve similar conflicts with the newly established Republic of Finland, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, and the Republic of Lithuania.

Unification of republics

On 28 December 1922, a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by the heads of the delegations, Mikhail Kalinin, Mikha Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Aleksandr Chervyakov, on 30 December 1922.

On 1 February 1924, the USSR was recognized by the British Empire. The same year, a Soviet Constitution was approved, legitimizing the December 1922 union.

An intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was done according to the Bolshevik Initial Decrees, government documents signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, which envisioned a major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The plan was developed in 1920 and covered a 10- to 15-year period. It included construction of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous electric-powered large industrial enterprises. The plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.

Stalin era

From its beginning, the government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks). After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist alongside nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy).

Soviet leaders argued that one-party rule was necessary to ensure that "capitalist exploitation" would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for a power struggle in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. Initially, Lenin was to be replaced by a "troika" consisting of Grigory Zinoviev of Ukraine, Lev Kamenev of Moscow, and Joseph Stalin of Georgia.

On 3 April 1922, Stalin was named the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lenin had appointed Stalin the head of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, which gave Stalin considerable power. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating and out-maneuvering his rivals within the party, Stalin became the undisputed leader of the Soviet Union and, by the end of the 1920s, established totalitarian rule. In October 1927, Grigory Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were expelled from the Central Committee and forced into exile.

In 1928, Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. While encompassing the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the course of the Revolution, it also aimed to build socialism in one country. In industry, the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization. In agriculture, collective farms were established all over the country.

Famines ensued, causing millions of deaths; surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Stalin's Great Purge resulted in the execution or detainment of many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. The death toll is uncertain, with a wide range of estimates. According to declassified Soviet archives, in 1937 and 1938, the NKVD arrested more than one and a half million people, of whom 681,692 were shot – an average of 1,000 executions a day. The excess deaths during the 1930s as a whole were in the range of 10–11 million. Yet despite the turmoil of the mid-to-late 1930s, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II.

The 1930s

The early 1930s saw closer cooperation between the West and the USSR. From 1932 to 1934, the Soviet Union participated in the World Disarmament Conference. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established. In September 1934, the Soviet Union joined the League of Nations. After the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces against the Nationalists, who were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

In December 1936, Stalin unveiled a new Soviet Constitution. The constitution was seen as a personal triumph for Stalin, who on this occasion was described by ''Pravda'' as a "genius of the new world, the wisest man of the epoch, the great leader of communism." By contrast, western historians and historians from former Soviet occupied countries have viewed the constitution as a meaningless propaganda document.

The late 1930s saw a shift towards the Axis powers. In 1938, after the United Kingdom and France had concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the USSR dealt with the Nazis as well, both militarily and economically during extensive talks. The two countries concluded the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact and the German–Soviet Commercial Agreement. The nonaggression pact made possible Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland. In late November of the same year, unable to coerce the Republic of Finland by diplomatic means into moving its border back from Leningrad, Joseph Stalin ordered the invasion of Finland.

In the east, the Soviet military won several decisive victories during border clashes with the Japanese Empire in 1938 and 1939. However, in April 1941, USSR signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact with the Empire of Japan, recognizing the territorial integrity of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state.

World War II

Although it has been debated whether the Soviet Union had any intention of invading Germany once it was strong enough, Germany itself broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, starting what was known in the USSR as the "Great Patriotic War". The Red Army stopped the seemingly-invincible German Army at the Battle of Moscow, aided by an unusually harsh winter. The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from late 1942 to early 1943, dealt a severe blow to the Germans from which they never fully recovered and became a turning point of the war. After Stalingrad, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945. The German Army suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.

The same year, the USSR, in fulfillment of its agreement with the Allies at the Yalta Conference, denounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 and invaded Manchukuo and other Japan-controlled territories on 9 August 1945. This conflict ended with a decisive Soviet victory, contributing to the unconditional surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.

The Soviet Union suffered greatly in the war, losing around 27 million people. Despite this, it emerged as a military superpower. Once denied diplomatic recognition by the Western world, the Soviet Union had official relations with practically every nation by the late 1940s. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the Soviet Union became one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which gave it the right to veto any of its resolutions (see Soviet Union and the United Nations).

The Soviet Union maintained its status as one of the world's two superpowers for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern Europe, military strength, economic strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially in space technology and weaponry.

Cold War

During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union rebuilt and expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictly centralized control. It aided post-war reconstruction in the countries of Eastern Europe, while turning them into satellite states, binding them in a military alliance (the Warsaw Pact) in 1955, and an economic organization (The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance or Comecon) from 1949 to 1991, the latter a counterpart to the European Economic Community. Later, the Comecon supplied aid to the eventually victorious Chinese Communist Party, and saw its influence grow elsewhere in the world. Fearing its ambitions, the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, became its enemies. In the ensuing Cold War, the two sides clashed indirectly using mostly proxies.

Khrushchev era

Stalin died on 5 March 1953. In the absence of a mutually-agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly. Nikita Khrushchev, who had won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of repression in 1956 and eased repressive controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization.

Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders, and ensured its control of the region by transforming the East European countries into satellite states. Soviet military force was used to suppress anti-communist uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956.

In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's rapprochement with the West and what Mao Zedong perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism led to the Sino–Soviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Communist movement, with Communist regimes in Albania, Cambodia and Somalia choosing to ally with China in place of the USSR.

During this period, the Soviet Union continued to realize scientific and technological exploits: launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1; a living dog, Laika; and later, the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into Earth's orbit. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space, and Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space, in 1965.

Khrushchev initiated "The Thaw" better known as Khrushchev's Thaw, a complex shift in political, cultural and economic life in the Soviet Union. That included some openness and contact with other nations and new social and economic policies with more emphasis on commodity goods, allowing living standards to rise dramatically while maintaining high levels of economic growth. Censorship was relaxed as well.

Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive. In 1962, he precipitated a crisis with the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union backed down after the United States initiated a naval blockade, causing Khrushchev much embarrassment and loss of prestige. He was removed from power in 1964.

Brezhnev era

Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of collective leadership ensued, consisting of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary, Alexei Kosygin as Premier and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium, lasting until Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent Soviet leader. In 1968 the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to halt the Prague Spring reforms. Brezhnev presided over a period of ''détente'' with the West (see SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) while at the same time building up Soviet military might.

In October 1977, the third Soviet Constitution was unanimously adopted. The prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. The long period of Brezhnev's rule had come to be dubbed one of "standstill", with an aging and ossified top political leadership.

Reforms and dissolution

Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in ''Beyond Oil'' that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit selling their oil, so that the USSR's hard currency reserves became depleted.

Brezhnev's next two successors, transitional figures with deep roots in his tradition, did not last long. Yuri Andropov was 68 years old and Konstantin Chernenko 72 when they assumed power; both died in less than two years. In an attempt to avoid a third short-lived leader, in 1985, the Soviets turned to the next generation and selected Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy and party leadership, called ''perestroika''. His policy of ''glasnost'' freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. Gorbachev also moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the Soviet Union abandoned its nine-year war in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its forces. In the late 1980s, he refused military support to the Soviet Union's former satellite states, resulting in the toppling of multiple communist regimes. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and with East Germany and West Germany pursuing unification, the Iron Curtain came down.

In the late 1980s, the constituent republics of the Soviet Union started legal moves towards or even declaration of sovereignty over their territories, citing Article 72 of the USSR constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede. On 7 April 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of its residents voted for it in a referendum. Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as the "War of Laws".

In 1989, the Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about half of the population) convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected its chairman. On 12 June 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the USSR's laws. The period of legal uncertainty continued throughout 1991 as constituent republics slowly became de facto independent.

A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on 17 March 1991, with the majority of the population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out of the 15 republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost. In the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty, which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation, was agreed upon by eight republics.

The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup—an attempted coup d'état by hardline members of the government and the KGB who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin was seen as a hero for his decisive actions, while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared the restoration of their full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example), while the other twelve republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union.

On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords, which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the accords to do this, on 21 December 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the accords. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev yielded to the inevitable and resigned as the President of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that had been vested in the presidency over to Yeltsin, the President of Russia.

The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as marking the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state. Many organizations, such as the Soviet Army and police forces, continued to remain in place in the early months of 1992, but were slowly phased out and either withdrawn from or absorbed by the newly independent states.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, Russia was internationally recognized as its legal successor on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt and claimed overseas Soviet properties as its own. Since then, the Russian Federation has assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations.

Politics

There were three power hierarchies in the Soviet Union: the legislative branch represented by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the government represented by the Council of Ministers and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only legal party and the ultimate policymaker in the country.

Communist Party

At the top of the Communist Party was the Central Committee, elected at Party Congresses and Conferences. The Central Committee in turn voted for a Politburo (called the Presidium between 1952–1966), Secretariat and the General Secretary (First Secretary from 1953 to 1966), the highest office in the USSR. Depending on the degree of power consolidation, it was either the Politburo as a collective body or the General Secretary, who always was one of the Politburo members, that effectively led the party and the country (except for the period of the highly personalized authority of Stalin, exercised directly through his position in the Council of Ministers rather than the Politburo after 1941). They were not controlled by the general party membership, as the key principle of the party organization was democratic centralism, demanding strict subordination to higher bodies, and elections went uncontested, endorsing the candidates proposed from above.

The Communist Party maintained its dominance over the state largely through its control over the system of appointments. All senior government officials and most deputies of the Supreme Soviet were members of the CPSU. Of the party heads themselves, Stalin in 1941–1953 and Khrushchev in 1958–1964 were Premiers. Upon the forced retirement of Khrushchev, the party leader was prohibited from this kind of double membership, but the later General Secretaries for at least some part of their tenure occupied the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal head of state. The institutions at lower levels were overseen and at times supplanted by primary party organizations.

In practice, however, the degree of control the party was able to exercise over the state bureaucracy, particularly after the death of Stalin, was far from total, with the bureaucracy pursuing different interests that were at times in conflict with the party. Nor was the party itself monolithic from top to bottom, although factions were officially banned.

Government

The Supreme Soviet (successor of the Congress of Soviets and Central Executive Committee) was nominally the highest state body for most of the Soviet history, at first acting as a rubber stamp institution, approving and implementing all decisions made by the party. However, the powers and functions of the Supreme Soviet were extended in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including the creation of new state commissions and committees. It gained additional powers when it came to the approval of the Five-Year Plans and the Soviet state budget. The Supreme Soviet elected a Presidium to wield its power between plenary sessions, ordinarily held twice a year, and appointed the Supreme Court, the Procurator General and the Council of Ministers (known before 1946 as the Council of People's Commissars), headed by the Chairman (Premier) and managing an enormous bureaucracy responsible for the administration of the economy and society. State and party structures of the constituent republics largely emulated the structure of the central institutions, although the Russian SFSR, unlike the other constituent republics, for most of its history had no republican branch of the CPSU, being ruled directly by the union-wide party until 1990. Local authorities were organized likewise into party committees, local Soviets and executive committees. While the state system was nominally federal, the party was unitary.

The state security police (the KGB and its predecessor agencies) played an important role in Soviet politics. It was instrumental in the Stalinist terror, but after the death of Stalin, the state security police was brought under strict party control. Under Yuri Andropov, KGB chairman in 1967–1982 and General Secretary from 1982 to 1983, the KGB engaged in the suppression of political dissent and maintained an extensive network of informers, reasserting itself as a political actor to some extent independent of the party-state structure, culminating in the anti-corruption campaign targeting high party officials in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Separation of power and reform

The Soviet constitutions, which were promulgated in 1918, 1924, 1936 and 1977, did not limit state power. No formal separation of powers existed between the Party, Supreme Soviet and Council of Ministers that represented executive and legislative branches of the government. The system was governed less by statute than by informal conventions, and no settled mechanism of leadership succession existed. Bitter and at times deadly power struggles took place in the Politburo after the deaths of Lenin and Joseph Stalin, as well as after Khrushchev's dismissal, itself due to a coup in both the Politburo and the Central Committee. All Soviet party leaders before Gorbachev died in office, except Georgy Malenkov and Khrushchev, both dismissed from the party leadership amid internal struggle within the party. In 1988–1990, facing considerable opposition, Mikhail Gorbachev enacted reforms shifting power away from the highest bodies of the party and making the Supreme Soviet less dependent on them. The Congress of People's Deputies was established, the majority of whose members were directly elected in competitive elections held in March 1989. The Congress now elected the Supreme Soviet, which became a full-time parliament, much stronger than before. For the first time since the 1920s, it refused to rubber stamp proposals from the party and Council of Ministers. In 1990, Gorbachev introduced and assumed the position of the President of the Soviet Union, concentrated power in his executive office, independent of the party, and subordinated the government, now renamed the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR, to himself.

Tensions grew between the union-wide authorities under Gorbachev, reformists led in Russia by Boris Yeltsin and controlling the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, and Communist Party hardliners. On 19–21 August 1991, a group of hardliners staged an abortive coup attempt. Following the failed coup, the State Council of the Soviet Union became the highest organ of state power "in the period of transition". Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary, only remaining President for the final months of the existence of the USSR.

Judicial system

The judiciary was not independent of the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts (People's Court) and applied the law as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union utilized the inquisitorial system of Roman law, where the judge, procurator, and defense attorney collaborate to establish the truth.

Political divisions

Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), although the rule of the highly centralized Communist Party made the union merely nominal. The Treaty on the Creation of the USSR was signed in December 1922 by four founding republics, the RSFSR, Transcaucasian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR and Belorussian SSR. In 1924, during the national delimitation in Central Asia, the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs were formed from parts of the RSFSR's Turkestan ASSR and two Soviet dependencies, the Khorezm and Bukharan SSR. In 1929, the Tajik SSR was split off from the Uzbek SSR. With the constitution of 1936, the constituents of the Transcaucasian SFSR, namely the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijan SSRs, were elevated to union republics, while the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs were split off from the RSFSR. In August 1940, the Soviet Union formed the Moldavian SSR from parts of the Ukrainian SSR and parts of Bessarabia annexed from Romania. It also annexed the Baltic states as the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian SSRs. The Karelo-Finnish SSR was split off from the RSFSR in March 1940 and merged back in 1956. Between July 1956 and September 1991, there were 15 union republics (see map below).

On 16 November 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR passed the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration that asserted Estonia's sovereignty and declared the supremacy of Estonian laws over those of the Soviet Union. In March 1990, the newly-elected Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR declared independence, followed by the Georgian Supreme Soviet in April 1991. Although the symbolic right of the republics to secede was nominally guaranteed by the constitution and the union treaty, Soviet authorities at first refused to recognize it. After the August coup attempt, most of the other republics followed suit. The Soviet Union ultimately recognized the secession of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on 6 September 1991. The remaining republics were recognized as independent with the Soviet Union's final dissolution in December 1991.

! #	! Republic	! Map of the Union Republics between 1956–1991
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Economy

The Soviet Union became the first country to adopt a planned economy, whereby production and distribution of goods were centralized and directed by the government. The first Bolshevik experience with a command economy was the policy of War Communism, which involved nationalization of industry, centralized distribution of output, coercive requisition of agricultural production, and attempts to eliminate the circulation of money, as well as private enterprises and free trade. As it had aggravated a severe economic collapse caused by the war, in 1921, Lenin replaced War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP), legalizing free trade and private ownership of smaller businesses. The economy recovered fairly quickly.

Following a lengthy debate among the members of Politburo over the course of economic development, by 1928–1929, upon gaining control of the country, Joseph Stalin abandoned the NEP and pushed for full central planning, starting forced collectivization of agriculture and enacting draconian labor legislation. Resources were mobilized for rapid industrialization, which greatly expanded Soviet capacity in heavy industry and capital goods during the 1930s. Preparation for war was one of the main driving forces behind industrialization, mostly due to distrust of the outside capitalistic world. As a result, the USSR was transformed from a largely agrarian economy into a great industrial power, leading the way for its emergence as a superpower after World War II. During the war, the Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation and required extensive reconstruction.

By the early 1940s, the Soviet economy had become relatively self-sufficient; for most of the period up until the creation of Comecon, only a very small share of domestic products was traded internationally. After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, external trade rose rapidly. Still the influence of the world economy on the USSR was limited by fixed domestic prices and a state monopoly on foreign trade. Grain and sophisticated consumer manufactures became major import articles from around the 1960s. During the arms race of the Cold War, the Soviet economy was burdened by military expenditures, heavily lobbied for by a powerful bureaucracy dependent on the arms industry. At the same time, the Soviet Union became the largest arms exporter to the Third World. Significant amounts of Soviet resources during the Cold War were allocated in aid to the other socialist states.

From the 1930s until its collapse in the late 1980s, the way the Soviet economy operated remained essentially unchanged. The economy was formally directed by central planning, carried out by Gosplan and organized in five-year plans. In practice, however, the plans were highly aggregated and provisional, subject to ''ad hoc'' intervention by superiors. All key economic decisions were taken by the political leadership. Allocated resources and plan targets were normally denominated in rubles rather than in physical goods. Credit was discouraged, but widespread. Final allocation of output was achieved through relatively decentralized, unplanned contracting. Although in theory prices were legally set from above, in practice the actual prices were often negotiated, and informal horizontal links were widespread.

style="background:#d3d3d3;" colspan="3"	Comparison between USSR and US economies (1989)according to 1990 CIA World Factbook
!	USSR
GNP (Purchasing power parity	PPP adjusted, 1989)	US$2.6595 trillion
Population (July 1990)	290,938,469
GNP	GNP per capita (PPP adjusted)	US$9,211
Labour force (1989)	152,300,000

A number of basic services were state-funded, such as education and healthcare. In the manufacturing sector, heavy industry and defense were assigned higher priority than the production of consumer goods. Consumer goods, particularly outside large cities, were often in short supply, of poor quality and limited choice. Under command economy, consumers had almost no influence over production, so the changing demands of a population with growing incomes could not be satisfied by supplies at rigidly fixed prices. A massive unplanned second economy grew up alongside the planned one at low levels, providing some of the goods and services that the planners could not. Legalization of some elements of the decentralized economy was attempted with the reform of 1965.

Although statistics of the Soviet economy are notoriously unreliable and its economic growth difficult to estimate precisely, by most accounts, the economy continued to expand until the mid 1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet economy experienced comparatively high growth and was catching up to the West. However, after 1970, the growth, while still positive, steadily declined, much more quickly and consistently than in other countries, despite a rapid increase in the capital stock, (the rate of increase in capital was only surpassed by Japan).

Overall, between 1960 and 1989, the growth rate of per capita income in the Soviet Union was slightly above the world average (based on 102 countries). However, given the very high level of investment in physical capital, high percentage of people with a secondary education, and low population increase, the economy should have grown much faster. According to Stanley Fischer and William Easterly, the Soviet growth record was among "the worst in the world". By their calculation, per capita income of Soviet Union in 1989 should have been twice as high as it was, if investment, education and population had their typical effect on growth. The authors attribute this poor performance to low productivity of capital in the Soviet Union.

In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev tried to reform and revitalize the economy with his program of ''perestroika''. His policies relaxed state control over enterprises, but did not yet allow it to be replaced by market incentives, ultimately resulting in a sharp decline in production output. The economy, already suffering from reduced petroleum export revenues, started to collapse. Prices were still fixed, and property was still largely state-owned until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. For most of the period after World War II up to its collapse, the Soviet economy was the second largest in the world by GDP (PPP), though in per capita terms the Soviet GDP was behind that of the First World countries.

Energy

The need for fuel declined in the Soviet Union from the 1970s to the 1980s, both per ruble of gross social product and per ruble of industrial product. At the start, this decline grew very rapidly, but gradually slowed down between 1970 and 1975. From 1975 and 1980, it grew even slower, only 2.6 percent. David Wilson, a historian, believed that the gas industry would account for 40 percent of Soviet fuel production by the end of the century. His theory did not come to fruition because of the USSR's collapse. The USSR, in theory, would have continued to have an economic growth rate of 2–2.5 percent during the 1990s because of Soviet energy fields. However, the energy sector faced many difficulties, among them the country's high military expenditure and hostile relations with the First World (pre-Gorbachev era).

In 1991, the Soviet Union had a pipeline network of for crude oil and another for natural gas. Petroleum and petroleum-based products, natural gas, metals, wood, agricultural products, and a variety of manufactured goods, primarily machinery, arms and military equipment, were exported. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union heavily relied on fossil fuel exports to earn hard currency. At its peak in 1988, it was the largest producer and second largest exporter of crude oil, surpassed only by Saudi Arabia.

Science and technology

The Soviet Union placed great emphasis on science and technology within its economy, however, the most remarkable Soviet successes in technology, such as producing the world's first space satellite, typically were the responsibility of the military. Lenin believed that the USSR would never overtake the developed world if it remained as technologically backward as it was. Soviet authorities proved their commitment to Lenin's belief by developing massive networks, research and development organizations. By 1989, Soviet scientists were among the world's best-trained specialists in several areas, such as energy physics, selected areas of medicine, mathematics, welding and military technologies. Due to rigid state planning and bureaucracy, the Soviets remained far behind technologically in chemistry, biology, and computers when compared to the First World.

Project Socrates, under the Reagan administration, determined that the Soviet Union addressed the acquisition of science and technology in a manner that was radically different than what the US was using at that time. In the case of the US, economic prioritization was being used for indigenous R&D; as the means to acquire science and technology in both the private and public sectors. In contrast, the Soviet Union was offensively and defensively maneuvering in the acquisition and utilization of the worldwide technology, to increase the competitive advantage that they acquired from the technology, while preventing the US from acquiring a competitive advantage. However, in addition, the Soviet Union's technology-based planning was executed in a centralized, government-centric manner that greatly hindered its flexibility. It was this significant lack of flexibility that was exploited by the US to undermine the strength of the Soviet Union and thus foster its reform.

Transport

Transport was a key component of the nation's economy. The economic centralisation of the late 1920s and 1930s led to the development of infrastructure on a massive scale, most notably the establishment of Aeroflot, an aviation enterprise. The country had a wide variety of modes of transport by land, water and air. However, due to bad maintenance, much of the road, water and Soviet civil aviation transport were outdated and technologically backward compared to the First World.

Soviet rail transport was the largest and most intensively used in the world; it was also better developed than most of its Western counterparts. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Soviet economists were calling for the construction of more roads to alleviate some of the burden from the railways and to improve the Soviet state budget. The road network and automobile industry remained underdeveloped, and dirt roads were common outside major cities. Soviet maintenance projects proved unable to take care of even the few roads the country had. By the early to mid-1980s, the Soviet authorities tried to solve the road problem by ordering the construction of new ones. The underdeveloped road network led to a growing demand for public transport.

Despite improvements, several aspects of the transport sector were still riddled with problems due to outdated infrastructure, lack of investment, corruption and bad decision-making. Soviet authorities were unable to meet the growing demand for transport infrastructure and services.

The Soviet merchant fleet was one of the largest in the world.

Demographics

The first fifty years of the 20th century in tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union were marked by a succession of disasters, each accompanied by large–scale population losses. Excess deaths over the course of World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million, some 10 million in the 1930s, and more than 26 million in 1941–5. The postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than it would have been if pre-war demographic growth had continued.

The crude birth rate of the USSR decreased from 44.0 per thousand in 1926 to 18.0 in 1974, largely due to increasing urbanization and the rising average age of marriages. The crude death rate demonstrated a gradual decrease as well – from 23.7 per thousand in 1926 to 8.7 in 1974. In general, the birth rates of the southern republics in Transcaucasia and Central Asia were considerably higher than those in the northern parts of the Soviet Union, and in some cases even increased in the post–World War II period, a phenomenon partly attributed to slower rates of urbanization and traditionally earlier marriages in the southern republics. Soviet Europe moved towards sub-replacement fertility, while Soviet Central Asia continued to exhibit population growth well above replacement-level fertility.

The late 1960s and the 1970s witnessed a reversal of the declining trajectory of the rate of mortality in the USSR, and was especially notable among men of working age, but was also prevalent in Russia and other predominantly Slavic areas of the country. An analysis of the official data from the late 1980s showed that after worsening in the late-1970s and the early 1980s, adult mortality began to improve again. The infant mortality rate increased from 24.7 in 1970 to 27.9 in 1974. Some researchers regarded the rise as largely real, a consequence of worsening health conditions and services. The rises in both adult and infant mortality were not explained or defended by Soviet officials, and the Soviet government simply stopped publishing all mortality statistics for ten years. Soviet demographers and health specialists remained silent about the mortality increases until the late-1980s, when the publication of mortality data resumed and researchers could delve into the real causes.

Education

Prior to 1917, in the Russian Empire, education was not free, and was therefore either inaccessible or barely accessible for many children from lower-class working and peasant families. Estimates from 1917 recorded that 75–85 percent of the Russian population was illiterate.

Anatoly Lunacharsky became the first People's Commissariat for Education of Soviet Russia. At the beginning, the Soviet authorities placed great emphasis on the elimination of illiteracy. People who were literate were automatically hired as teachers. For a short period, quality was sacrificed for quantity. By 1940, Joseph Stalin could announce that illiteracy had been eliminated. In the aftermath of the Great Patriotic War, the country's educational system expanded dramatically. This expansion had a tremendous effect. In the 1960s, nearly all Soviet children had access to education, the only exception being those living in remote areas. Nikita Khrushchev tried to make education more accessible, making it clear to children that education was closely linked to the needs of society. Education also became important in creating the New Soviet Man.

Access to higher education was restricted, however; only 20 percent of all applicants were accepted. The rest entered the labor market or learned a skill at a vocational technical school or technicum. Students from families of dubious political reliability were barred from higher education. The Brezhnev administration introduced a rule that required all university applicants to present a reference from the local Komsomol party secretary. According to statistics from 1986, the number of students per 10,000 population was 181 for the USSR, compared to 517 for the US.

Ethnic groups

The Soviet Union was a very ethnically diverse country, with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. According to a 1990 estimate, the majority were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%).

All citizens of the USSR had their own ethnic affiliation. The ethnicity of a person was chosen at the age of sixteen by the child's parents. If the parents did not agree, the child was automatically assigned the ethnicity of the mother. Partly due to Soviet policies, some of the smaller minority ethnic groups were considered part of larger ones, such as the Mingrelians of the Georgian SSR, who were classified with the linguistically related Georgians. Some ethnic groups voluntarily assimilated, while others were brought in by force. Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians shared close cultural ties, while other groups did not. With multiple nationalities living in the same territory, ethnic antagonisms developed over the years.

Health

In 1917, before the Bolshevik uprising, health conditions were significantly behind the developed countries. As Lenin later noted, "Either the lice will defeat socialism, or socialism will defeat the lice". The Soviet principle of health care was conceived by the People's Commissariat for Health in 1918. Health care was to be controlled by the state and would be provided to its citizens free of charge. Article 42 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution gave all citizens the right to health protection and free access to any health institutions in the USSR. However, the Soviet Union's health care system was not able to fulfill all the needs of its people. Before Leonid Brezhnev rose to power, Soviet socialised medicine was held in high esteem by many foreign specialists. This changed however, from Brezhnev's accession and Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as leader, the Soviet health care system was heavily criticised for many basic faults, such as the quality of service and the unevenness in its provision. Minister of Health Yevgeniy Chazov, during the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while highlighting such Soviet success as having the most doctors and hospitals in the world, recognised the system's deficiencies and felt that billions of Soviet rubles were squandered.

After the communist takeover, the life expectancy for all age groups went up. This statistic was used by authorities to "prove" that the socialist system was superior to the capitalist system. These improvements continued into the 1960s, when the life expectancy in the Soviet Union surpassed that of the United States. It remained fairly stable during most years, although in the 1970s, it went down slightly, probably because of alcohol abuse. Most western sources put the blame on growing alcohol abuse and poor health care; this theory was also implicitly accepted by the Soviet authorities. At the same time, infant mortality began to rise. After 1974, the government stopped publishing statistics on this. This trend can be partly explained by the number of pregnancies rising drastically in the Asian part of the country where infant mortality was highest, while declining markedly in the more developed European part of the Soviet Union.

Language

The Soviet government headed by Vladimir Lenin gave small language groups their own writing systems. The development of these writing systems was very successful, even though some flaws were detected. During the later days of the USSR, countries with the same multilingual situation implemented similar policies. A serious problem when creating these writing systems was that the languages differed dialectally greatly from each other. When a language had been given a writing system and appeared in a notable publication, that language would attain "official language" status. There were many minority languages which never received their own writing system, therefore their speakers were forced to have a second language. There are examples where the Soviet government retreated from this policy, most notable under Stalin's regime, where education was discontinued in languages which were not widespread enough. These languages were then assimilated into another language, mostly Russian. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), some minority languages were banned, and their speakers accused of collaborating with the enemy.

As the most widely-spoken of the Soviet Union's many languages, Russian ''de facto'' functioned as an official language as the "language of interethnic communication" (), but only assumed the ''de jure'' status of the official national language in 1990.

Religion

Christianity and Islam had the greatest number of adherents among the Soviet state's religious citizens. Eastern Christianity predominated among Christians, with Russia's traditional Russian Orthodox Church being the Soviet Union's largest Christian denomination. About 90 percent of the Soviet Union's Muslims were Sunnis, with Shiites concentrated in the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. Smaller groups included Roman Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, and a variety of Protestant sects.

Religious influence had been strong in the Russian Empire. The Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed a privileged status as the church of the monarchy and took part in carrying out official state functions. The immediate period following the establishment of the Soviet state included a struggle against the Orthodox Church, which the revolutionaries considered an ally of the former ruling classes.

In Soviet law, the "freedom to hold religious services" was constitutionally guaranteed, although the ruling Communist Party regarded religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism. Among further restrictions, those adopted in 1929, a half-decade into Stalin's rule, included express prohibitions on a range of church activities, including meetings for organized Bible study.

Convinced that religious anti-Sovietism had become a thing of the past, the Stalin regime began shifting to a more moderate religion policy in the late 1930s. Soviet religious establishments overwhelmingly rallied to support the war effort during the Soviet war with Nazi Germany. Amid other accommodations to religious faith, churches were reopened, Radio Moscow began broadcasting a religious hour, and a historic meeting between Stalin and Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Sergius I of Moscow was held in 1943.

The Soviet establishment again clashed with the churches under General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's leadership in 19581964, a period when atheism was emphasized in the educational curriculum, and numerous state publications promoted atheistic views. The number of working mosques also declined, falling from 1,500 to 500 within a decade. Official relations between the Orthodox Church and the Soviet government again warmed to the point that the Brezhnev government twice honored Orthodox Patriarch Alexey II with Soviet decorations, including the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

Culture

The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's 70-year existence. During the first eleven years following the Revolution (1918–1929), there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles in an effort to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. On the other hand, hundreds of intellectuals, writers, and artists were exiled or executed, and their work banned, for example Nikolay Gumilev (shot for conspiring against the Bolshevik regime) and Yevgeny Zamyatin (banned).

The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maksim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were active during this time. Film, as a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, received encouragement from the state; much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period.

Later, during Stalin's rule, Soviet culture was characterised by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions, for example Mikhail Bulgakov's works. Many writers were imprisoned and killed.

Following the Khrushchev Thaw of the late 1950s and early 1960s, censorship was diminished. Greater experimentation in art forms became permissible once again, with the result that more sophisticated and subtly critical work began to be produced. The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. An underground dissident literature, known as ''samizdat'', developed during this late period. In architecture the Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to the highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch.

In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost'' significantly expanded freedom of expression in the media and press.

See also

Index of Soviet Union-related articles

Evil empire

Notes

Bibliography

Madhavan K. Palat, Social Identities in Revolutionary Russia, ed. (Macmillan, Palgrave, UK, and St Martin’s Press, New York, 2001)

Further reading

;Surveys

''A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former)''. Library of Congress Country Studies, 1991.

Brown, Archie, et al., eds.: ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982).

Gilbert, Martin: ''The Routledge Atlas of Russian History'' (London: Routledge, 2002).

Goldman, Minton: ''The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe'' (Connecticut: Global Studies, Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1986).

Grant, Ted: ''Russia, from Revolution to Counter-Revolution'', London, Well Red Publications,1997

Howe, G. Melvyn: ''The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey'' 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and Evans, 1983).

Pipes, Richard. ''Communism: A History'' (2003), by a leading conservative scholar

;Lenin and Leninism

Clark, Ronald W. ''Lenin'' (1988). 570 pp.

Debo, Richard K. ''Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918–1921'' (1992).

Marples, David R. ''Lenin's Revolution: Russia, 1917–1921'' (2000) 156pp. short survey

Pipes, Richard. ''A Concise History of the Russian Revolution'' (1996) excerpt and text search, by a leading conservative

Pipes, Richard. ''Russia under the Bolshevik Regime.'' (1994). 608 pp.

Service, Robert. ''Lenin: A Biography'' (2002), 561pp; standard scholarly biography; a short version of his 3 vol detailed biography

Volkogonov, Dmitri. ''Lenin: Life and Legacy'' (1994). 600 pp.

;Stalin and Stalinism

Daniels, R. V., ed. ''The Stalin Revolution'' (1965)

Davies, Sarah, and James Harris, eds. ''Stalin: A New History,'' (2006), 310pp, 14 specialized essays by scholars excerpt and text search

De Jonge, Alex. ''Stalin and the Shaping of the Soviet Union'' (1986)

Fitzpatrick, Sheila, ed. ''Stalinism: New Directions,'' (1999), 396pp excerpts from many scholars on the impact of Stalinism on the people (little on Stalin himself) online edition

Hoffmann, David L. ed. ''Stalinism: The Essential Readings,'' (2002) essays by 12 scholars

Laqueur, Walter. ''Stalin: The Glasnost Revelations'' (1990)

Kershaw, Ian, and Moshe Lewin. ''Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison'' (2004) excerpt and text search

Lee, Stephen J. ''Stalin and the Soviet Union'' (1999) online edition

Lewis, Jonathan. ''Stalin: A Time for Judgement'' (1990)

McNeal, Robert H. ''Stalin: Man and Ruler'' (1988)

Martens, Ludo. ''Another view of Stalin'' (1994), a highly favorable view from a Maoist historian

Service, Robert. ''Stalin: A Biography'' (2004), along with Tucker the standard biography

Trotsky, Leon. ''Stalin: An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence,'' (1967), an interpretation by Stalin's worst enemy

Tucker, Robert C. ''Stalin as Revolutionary, 1879–1929'' (1973); ''Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1929–1941.'' (1990) online edition with Service, a standard biography; online at ACLS e-books

;World War II

Bellamy, Chris. ''Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War'' (2008), 880pp excerpt and text search

Broekmeyer, Marius. ''Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945.'' 2004. 315 pp.

Overy, Richard. ''Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945'' (1998) excerpt and text search

Roberts, Geoffrey. ''Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953'' (2006).

Seaton, Albert. ''Stalin as Military Commander,'' (1998) online edition

;Cold war

Brzezinski, Zbigniew. ''The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century'' (1989)

Edmonds, Robin. ''Soviet Foreign Policy: The Brezhnev Years'' (1983)

Goncharov, Sergei, John Lewis and Litai Xue, ''Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao and the Korean War'' (1993) excerpt and text search

Gorlizki, Yoram, and Oleg Khlevniuk. ''Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, 1945–1953'' (2004) online edition

Holloway, David. ''Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956'' (1996) excerpt and text search

Mastny, Vojtech. ''Russia's Road to the Cold War: Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism, 1941–1945'' (1979)

Mastny, Vojtech. ''The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity: The Stalin Years'' (1998) excerpt and text search; online complete edition

Nation, R. Craig. ''Black Earth, Red Star: A History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917–1991'' (1992)

Sivachev, Nikolai and Nikolai Yakolev, ''Russia and the United States'' (1979), by Soviet historians

Taubman, William. ''Khrushchev: The Man and His Era'' (2004), Pulitzer Prize; excerpt and text search

Ulam, Adam B. ''Expansion and Coexistence: Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917–1973'', 2nd ed. (1974)

Zubok, Vladislav M. ''Inside the Kremlin's Cold War'' (1996) 20% excerpt and online search

Zubok, Vladislav M. ''A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev'' (2007)

;Collapse

Beschloss, Michael, and Strobe Talbott. ''At the Highest Levels:The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War'' (1993)

Bialer, Seweryn and Michael Mandelbaum, eds. ''Gorbachev's Russia and American Foreign Policy'' (1988).

Garthoff, Raymond. ''The Great Transition: American–Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War'' (1994), detailed narrative

Grachev, A.S. ''Gorbachev's Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War'' (2008) excerpt and text search

Hogan, Michael ed. ''The End of the Cold War. Its Meaning and Implications'' (1992) articles from ''Diplomatic History''

Kotkin, Stephen. ''Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000'' (2008) excerpt and text search

Matlock, Jack. ''Autopsy on an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union'' (1995)

Pons, S., Romero, F., ''Reinterpreting the End of the Cold War: Issues, Interpretations, Periodizations'', (2005) ISBN 978–0–7146–5695–X

Remnick, David. ''Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', (1994), ISBN 978–0–679–75125–4

;Specialty studies

Armstrong, John A. ''The Politics of Totalitarianism: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1934 to the Present.'' New York: Random House, 1961.

Katz, Zev, ed.: ''Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities'' (New York: Free Press, 1975).

Moore, Jr., Barrington. ''Soviet politics: the dilemma of power.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950.

Dmitry Orlov, ''Reinventing Collapse'', New Society Books, 2008, ISBN 978–0–86571–606–3

Rizzi, Bruno: "The Bureaucratization of the World : The First English edition of the Underground Marxist Classic That Analyzed Class Exploitation in the USSR", New York, NY : Free Press, 1985.

Schapiro, Leonard B. ''The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917–1922.'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966.

External links

Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey.

Documents and other forms of media from the Soviet Union: 1917–1991.

A Country Study: Soviet Union (Former)

Soviet Union Exhibit at Global Museum on Communism with essay by Richard Pipes

The Soviet Union

Category:History of the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia Category:Communism in Russia Category:Communist states Category:Early Soviet republics Category:States and territories established in 1922 Category:Former Slavic countries Category:Single-party states Category:History of Russia Category:Former polities of the Cold War Category:Superpowers Category:Former member states of the United Nations

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Coordinates	10°24′0″N71°27′0″N
Title	Государственный гимн СССР
Transcription	Gosudarstvenniy Gimn SSSR
English title	The National Anthem of the Soviet Union
Country	Russian SFSR Soviet Union
Composer	Alexander Alexandrov, 1938 (?)
Author	Sergey Mikhalkov, 1943 and 1977
Adopted	1 January 19441 September 1977 (new version)
Until	26 December 1991(as anthem of the Soviet Union)23 November 1990(as anthem of the Russian SFSR)
Sound	USSR Russia Anthem instr.ogg
Sound title	Instrumental }}

The National Anthem of the Soviet Union or the State Anthem of the USSR (or Hymn, , ''Gosudarstvenniy Gimn SSSR'') was introduced during World War II on March 15, 1944, replacing ''The Internationale'' as the official national anthem of the Soviet Union as well as the national anthem of the Russian SFSR. The lyrics were written by Sergey Mikhalkov (1913–2009) in collaboration with Gabriel El-Registan (1899–1945) and the music was composed by Alexander Alexandrov (1883–1946). It was believed that Soviet soldiers would respond more to an anthem that was dedicated only to the Soviet Union rather than to a worldwide movement. The song was originally written as the Anthem of the Bolshevik Party with lyrics in the Alexandrine meter by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach in 1939.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia adopted a new national anthem called Patriotic Song without any lyrics, although there were made suggestions for adopting them and few versions were made. In 2000, the Soviet national anthem (tune) was restored with Mikhalkov writing new lyrics. See National Anthem of Russia.

Also, the same music was used for a proposal of the anthem of the State Union of Russia and Belarus entitled Derzhavny Soyuz Narodov (Union of Sovereign Nations). Although never officially adopted, the lyrics of that piece were not tied to any specific nationality, and could be adopted for a broader union. However, there appears to be no plans to utilize that piece in any official role. The anthem also had official versions in the languages of every Soviet republic and in several other Soviet languages.

Versions

The actual version of the Anthem was played for the first time on the Soviet radio at midnight of the 1st January 1944. The 1944 lyrics had three different refrains following three different stanzas; in each refrain, the second line was consequently modified with references to friendship, then happiness and finally the glory. Later on, in 1977, these refrains were replaced by a uniform refrain following all stanzas. Joseph Stalin was originally mentioned in the lyrics; however, after his death in 1953 and the process of Destalinization, the lyrics referring to Stalin were considered unacceptable. Because of this, from that time until 1977, the anthem was played without lyrics. Revised lyrics without the references to Stalin and World War II were approved in 1977.

1944

{| cellpadding="20" |- ! Russian ! Transliteration ! English translation |- style="vertical-align:top; white-space:nowrap;" || Союз нерушимый республик свободных Сплотила навеки Великая Русь. Да здравствует созданный волей народов Единый, могучий Советский Союз!

:''ПРИПЕВ'': :Славься, Отечество наше свободное, :''Дружбы'' народов надёжный оплот! :Знамя советское, знамя народное :Пусть от победы к победе ведёт!

Сквозь грозы сияло нам солнце свободы, И Ленин великий нам путь озарил: Нас вырастил Сталин — на верность народу, На труд и на подвиги нас вдохновил!

:''ПРИПЕВ'': :Славься, Отечество наше свободное, :''Счастья'' народов надёжный оплот! :Знамя советское, знамя народное :Пусть от победы к победе ведёт!

Мы армию нашу растили в сраженьях. Захватчиков подлых с дороги сметём! Мы в битвах решаем судьбу поколений, Мы к славе Отчизну свою поведём!

:''ПРИПЕВ'': :Славься, Отечество наше свободное, :''Славы'' народов надёжный оплот! :Знамя советское, знамя народное :Пусть от победы к победе ведёт! || Soyuz nyerushimyiy ryespublik svobodnyikh Splotila navyeki Vyelikaya Rus’. Da zdravstvuyet sozdannyiy volyey narodov Yedinyiy, moguchiy Sovyetskiy Soyuz!

:''PRIPEV'': :Slavsya, Otyechyestvo nashye svobodnoye, :''Druzhby'' narodov nadyozhnyiy oplot, :Znamya sovyetskoye, znamya narodnoye :Pust’ ot pobyedyi k pobyedye vyedyot!

Skvoz’ grozyi siyalo nam solntsye svobodye, I Lyenin vyelikiy nam put’ ozaril, Nas vyirastil Stalin – na vyernost’ narodu, Na trud i na podvigi nas vdokhnovil!

:''PRIPEV'': :Slavsya, Otyechyestvo nashye svobodnoye, :''Shchastiya'' narodov nadyozhnyiy oplot, :Znamya sovyetskoye, znamya narodnoye :Pust’ ot pobyedyi k pobyedye vyedyot!

Myi armiyu nashu rastili v srazhyen’yakh, Zakhvatchikov podlyikh s dorogi smyetyom! Myi v bitvakh ryeshayem sud’bu pokolyeniy, Myi k slavye Otchiznu svoyu povyedyom!

:''PRIPEV'': :Slavsya, Otyechyestvo nashye svobodnoye, :''Slavy'' narodov nadyozhnyiy oplot, :Znamya sovyetskoye, znamya narodnoye :Pust’ ot pobyedyi k pobyedye vyedyot! || An unbreakable union of free republics, Great Rus' joined together forever. Long live the creation of the will of the peoples, The united, the mighty Soviet Union!

:''CHORUS'': :Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free! :The sure bulwark of the ''friendship'' of the peoples! :Flag of the Soviets, Flag of the people, :Let it lead from victory to victory!

Through storms the sun of freedom has shined upon us, And the great Lenin has lighted the way Stalin has taught us faithfulness to the people, To labour, and inspired us to great feats!

:''CHORUS'': :Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free! :The sure bulwark of the ''happiness'' of the peoples! :Flag of the Soviets, Flag of the people, :Let it lead from victory to victory!

We brought our army to the battles. We shall brave the despicable invaders from the street! In battles we shall decide the fate of generations, We shall lead to the glory of the Motherland!

:''CHORUS'': :Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free! :The sure bulwark of the ''glory'' of the peoples! :Flag of the Soviets, Flag of the people, :Let it lead from victory to victory! || |}

1977

{| cellpadding="0" |- ! Russian ! Transliteration ! English translation ! Phonetic transcription |- style="vertical-align:top; white-space:nowrap;" || Союз нерушимый республик свободных Сплотила навеки Великая Русь! Да здравствует созданный волей народов Единый, могучий Советский Союз!

:''ПРИПЕВ'': :Славься, Отечество наше свободное, :Дружбы народов надёжный оплот! :Партия Ленина—сила народная :Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведёт!

Сквозь грозы сияло нам солнце свободы, И Ленин великий нам путь озарил: На правое дело он поднял народы, На труд и на подвиги нас вдохновил!

:''ПРИПЕВ''

В победе бессмертных идей коммунизма Мы видим грядущее нашей страны, И Красному знамени славной Отчизны Мы будем всегда беззаветно верны!

:''ПРИПЕВ'' || Soyuz nerushimy respublik svobodnykh Splotila naveki velikaya Rus'! Da zdravstvuyet sozdanny volley narodov Yediny, moguchy Sovetsky Soyuz!

:''PRIPEV'': :Slav'sya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye, :Druzhby narodov nadyozhny oplot! :Partiya Lenina sila narodnaya :Nas k torzhestvu kommunizma vedyot!

Skvoz' grozy siyalo nam solntse svobody, I Lenin veliky nam put' ozaril, Na pravoye delo on podnyal narody, Na trud i na podvigi nas vdokhnovil!

:''PRIPEV''

V pobede bessmertnykh idey kommunizma My vidim gryadushcheye nashey strany, I krasnomu znameni slavnoy otchizny My budem vsegda bezzavetno verny!

:''PRIPEV'' || An unbreakable union of free republics, Great Rus' has welded forever to stand! Created in struggle by the will-of-the-people, The united, the mighty Soviet Union.

:''CHORUS'': :Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free! :Bulwark of people, in brotherhood strong! :Party of Lenin, the strength of the people, :It leads us to the triumph of Communism.

Through tempests the sun of freedom shone to us, And the great Lenin lighted us the way. He raised peoples to the righteous cause, Inspired us to labour and to acts of heroism.

:''CHORUS''

In the victory of the immortal ideas of Communism We see the future of our country, And to the Red banner of our glorious Fatherland We shall always be selflessly true.

:''CHORUS'' || | |

:''CHORUS'': : : : :

:''CHORUS''

:''CHORUS'' || |}

Media

See also

Grom pobedy, razdavajsya! ("Let the thunder of victory sound!")

God Save the Tsar!

Worker's Marseillaise, Russian version of La Marseillaise

The Internationale

Patrioticheskaya Pesnya

National Anthem of Russia

References

External links

Russian Anthems museum - extensive set of downloadable recordings and official sheet music.

20 Most popular Soviet songs

The author of Russian national anthem: sources of the USSR's anthem in Russian. by K.Kovalev - Eng. Bortniansky's anthem "Kol slaven" - Eng.

Category:National anthems Category:National symbols of the Soviet Union Category:Russian songs Category:Soviet state Category:Soviet songs Category:1939 songs

ar:نشيد السوفييت az:SSRİ-nin himni ba:СССР гимны be-x-old:Гімн Савецкага Саюзу bs:Himna Sovjetskog Saveza bg:Химн на Съветския съюз ca:Himne de la Unió Soviètica cs:Hymna Sovětského svazu cy:Emyn yr Undeb Sofietaidd da:Hymne til Sovjetunionen de:Hymne der Sowjetunion et:Nõukogude Liidu hümn el:Ύμνος Σοβιετικής Ένωσης es:Himno nacional de la Unión Soviética eo:Nacia himno de Sovetunio fr:Hymne de l'Union soviétique gl:Himno da Unión Soviética ko:소비에트 연방의 국가 hy:ԽՍՀՄ հիմն hr:Himna Sovjetskog Saveza id:Lagu Kebangsaan Uni Soviet it:Inno dell'Unione Sovietica he:המנון ברית המועצות ka:სსრკ-ის ჰიმნი la:Hymnus Unionis Sovieticae lt:Tarybų Sąjungos himnas hu:A Szovjetunió himnusza arz:نشيد السوفييت ms:Lagu kebangsaan Kesatuan Soviet nl:Gimn Sovjetskogo Sojoeza ja:ソビエト連邦の国歌 no:Hymne til Sovjetunionen uz:Sovet Ittifoqi Madhiyasi pl:Hymn ZSRR pt:Hino nacional da União Soviética ro:Imnul Uniunii Sovietice ru:Гимн СССР sk:Gosudarstvennyj gimn Sojuza Sovetskich Socialističeskich Respublik sl:Himna Sovjetske zveze sr:Химна Совјетског Савеза fi:Neuvostoliiton hymni sv:Hymn till Sovjetunionen tl:Pambansang Awit ng Unyong Sobyet th:เพลงชาติสหภาพโซเวียต tg:Суруди миллии Иттиҳоди Ҷумҳуриҳои Сосиалистии Шӯравӣ tr:Sovyetler Birliği Marşı tk:Sowet Soýuzynyň gimni uk:Гімн СРСР vi:Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza yo:National Anthem of the Soviet Union zh-yue:蘇聯國歌 zh:牢不可破的联盟

Coordinates	10°24′0″N71°27′0″N
Name	Paul Robeson
Birth name	Paul Leroy Robeson
Born	April 09, 1898Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	January 23, 1976Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	SpiritualsInternational folkMusicals
Occupation	Actor, concert singer, athlete, lawyer, social activist
Years active	1917–63
background	solo_singer }}

Name	Paul "Robey" Robeson
Position	End
Birth date	April 9, 1898
Death date	January 23, 1976
Heightft	6
Heightin	3
Weight	219
Debutyear	1921
Debutteam	Akron Pros
Finalyear	1922
Finalteam	Milwaukee Badgers
College	Rutgers
Teams	Akron Pros () Milwaukee Badgers ()
Statseason	1922
Statlabel1	Games played
Statvalue1	15
Statlabel2	Games started
Statvalue2	13
Statlabel3	TD
Statvalue3	1
Nfl	ROB361120
Collegehof	10080 }}

Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American concert singer (bass-baritone), recording artist, athlete and actor who became noted for his political radicalism and activism in the civil rights movement. Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals. He was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray Shakespeare's ''Othello'' in a production with an otherwise all-white cast.

A nationally renowned football player from 1917 to the early 1920s, Robeson was an All-American athlete, and Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate during his years at Rutgers University. In 1923, Robeson drifted into amateur theater work, and within a decade he had become an international star of stage, screen, radio and film. Robeson was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the Stalin Peace Prize and honorary memberships in over half a dozen trade unions. James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte have cited Robeson's lead film roles as being the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage. Though one of the most internationally famous people of the 20th century, Robeson was blacklisted during the Cold War and his activism was nearly erased from mainstream accounts of that period.

At the height of his career, Paul Robeson chose to become primarily a political artist. In 1950, Robeson's passport was revoked under the McCarran Act over his work in the anti-imperialism movement and what the U.S. State Department called Robeson's "frequent criticism while abroad of the treatment of blacks in the US." Under heavy and daily surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA and publicly condemned for his beliefs, Robeson's income fell dramatically and he was blacklisted from performing on stage, screen, radio and television. Robeson's right to travel was restored in 1958, but his already faltering health broke down under controversial circumstances in 1963. By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He spent his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, unapologetic about his political views and career. Advocates of Robeson's legacy have restored his name to history books and sports records, honoring his memory with posthumous recognitions.

Early life

Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1898. His father, William Drew Robeson I, was descended from the Igbo people of Nigeria, and had run away during the American Civil War from the Robeson plantation in North Carolina where he was born a slave. He served in the Union Army in Pennsylvania, earned a degree from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), and became a minister of the gospel. His mother Maria Louisa Bustill was from a prominent black abolitionist Quaker family of mixed ancestry: African, Anglo-American, and Lenape.

From 1881 until 1901, William Robeson was minister of the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton. Robeson refused to bow to pressure from the "white residents of Princeton" to cease his tendency to "speak out against social injustice." Louisa Robeson was nearly blind from cataracts and died in a house fire in 1904 when her son Paul was six years old.

The Robesons had four other children: William Drew Robeson II, a physician who practiced in Washington, D.C.; Rev. Benjamin C. Robeson, Pastor of Mother AME Zion Church in NY City, the oldest Black Church in NY State; Reeve Robeson (called Reed); and Marian Robeson, who lived in Philadelphia. William Drew Robeson was said to be a stern disciplinarian when it came to the children's studies and behavior. When he was eight years old, Robeson moved with his family to Westfield, New Jersey, where he attended the public schools together with white children. In 1910, when the family relocated to Somerville, New Jersey, he continued to impress upon Paul that he could achieve anything that white people could.

Scholarship

Robeson was only the third African-American student accepted at Rutgers, and the only black student during his time on campus. Robeson was also one of three classmates at Rutgers accepted into Phi Beta Kappa in his third year, and one of four students selected in 1919 to Cap and Skull, Rutgers' honor society.

Campus clubs and racism

Paul Robeson was also active on the Rutgers debate team and in oratorical contests both on and off campus, winning the statewide prize four years in a row. He sang with the campus Glee club, but due to the racist climate at the time, he was not welcome to travel with the latter group out of town or at social events following its on-campus performances. He was elected to the Rutgers literary society, the Philoclean Society, but was not allowed to fully share in its festivities.

All-American and varsity sports

At Rutgers he also excelled as a sportsman. Robeson earned a total of 15 varsity letters in American football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. For his accomplishments as an end in football, he was named a first-team All-America in 1917 and 1918. He was Rutgers' first All-American football player (of any race). During scrimmages while Robeson initially tried out for the football team, he faced both racism and harsh physical injury: for instance, a senior member of the team injured Robeson's hand with a cleated foot, tearing off fingernails. He was benched on more than one occasion when Southern teams William and Mary and Georgia Tech refused to play against a black man.

Though Robeson later said he gave thought to quitting, he persevered and was described by football coach Walter Camp as "the greatest defensive end to ever trot the gridiron." Lou Little of Columbia University football said of him, "there has never been a greater player in the history of football than Robeson."

Graduation honors

Chosen to be the 1919 class valedictorian, during his oration Robeson exhorted his classmates to "catch a new vision", while the "class prophecy" envisioned that he would become a governor of New Jersey by 1940 and "leader of the colored race in America." Robeson's senior thesis was entitled "The Fourteenth Amendment, the Sleeping Giant of the American Constitution", in which he expressed optimism about white intentions to end segregation. Sports historian Francis C. Harris wrote that Robeson "...established a level of excellence as a scholar-athlete that few others, if any, have ever attained."

Columbia Law School

After graduation from Rutgers, Robeson moved to Harlem and entered Columbia Law School. Between 1920 and 1923, Robeson helped pay his way through law school by working both as an athlete and as a performer.

He played professional football in the American Professional Football Association (later called the National Football League) with the Akron Pros and Milwaukee Badgers. He served as assistant football coach at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. There he was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha, the fraternity for African-American college men, of which Noble Sissle and W.E.B Du Bois were also members. He also played for the St. Christopher Club traveling basketball team during their 1918–19 season.

His first entry into stage performance was as a Columbia law student. He played Simon in ''Simon the Cyrenian'' at the Harlem YMCA in 1920, followed in 1922 by Jim in ''Taboo'' by Mary Hoyt Wiborg at the Sam Harris Theater in Harlem. Also in 1922, Eubie Blake heard Robeson sing casually and encouraged him to appear in his production of ''Shuffle Along'' and Lew Leslie's ''Plantation Revue'' as a member of the close-harmony singing quartet the Harmony Kings. The production of ''Taboo'', renamed ''Voodoo'', was taken to cities in Britain in summer 1922. Directed by Mrs Patrick Campbell, it gave greater prominence to Robeson's singing, which was praised by critics. In London, Robeson was able to meet with prominent African-American expatriates.

Robeson graduated from Columbia in 1923, in the same law school class as William O. Douglas — later a United States Supreme Court Justice. Robeson's academic record was not as stellar as it had been at Rutgers, and he had a mostly C average. He was not enthusiastic about the law after graduation. His broken tenure at the school due to his work in theater made him ineligible for the ''Columbia Law Review''. Editor-in-chief Charles Ascher in later years said that the "Southerners on the board would have put up a fight..."

Marriage and family

In August 1921, Robeson married Eslanda Cardozo Goode, who headed the pathology laboratory at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. She came from a distinguished family of a mixed-race ancestry. Her father Cardozo Goode was related to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Essie encouraged Robeson in his career and became his business manager.

Early in their marriage, Eslanda learned that her husband was not dedicated to monogamy and domesticity. Wanting to retain her marriage and status as Robeson's wife, she tolerated his extramarital affairs while also having her own at times. Robeson felt that Essie was instrumental to his success both as his manager and his intellectual partner. Eslanda's diaries and their shared correspondence demonstrates that at times there was anger and recrimination on both sides of their partnership. Despite his ambivalence at times about marriage, Robeson knew that divorcing Eslanda would hurt his stature in the black community. In the 1930s, the couple began legal proceedings toward divorce when Robeson fell in love with Yolanda Jackson, a British woman, but the relationship ended abruptly. Eslanda and Robeson stayed together, continuing an open marriage until Eslanda died on December 23, 1965. Eslanda wrote the first biography of Paul Robeson, ''Paul Robeson: Negro''. Told in the third person, she wrote part fiction, part memoir about the problems in their marriage and Robeson's early life and career. She incorrectly added "Bustill" as Robeson's middle name in this book.

They had one son, Paul Robeson, Jr., born November 2, 1927. He has spent much of his life safeguarding his father's legacy by founding ''The Robeson Family Archives'' and ''The Paul Robeson Foundation''. Paul Robeson also had two grandchildren, David Robeson (1951–1998) and Susan Robeson (1953- ), who became a documentary filmmaker. In 1980, Susan Robeson published a pictorial biography of her grandfather.

Religious views

Robeson did not follow in his father's footsteps as a regular congregant in the African Methodist Episcopal church, but he had a lifelong reverence for the black church. In 1998, close family friend Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard, who eulogized Robeson at his funeral, stated, "He was a Christian, he believed in God, which is why he is one who could sing the great hymns of the church, they come out of his soul." In a 1929 entry in his diary, Robeson expressed the thought that his career and marriage were part of a "higher plan", writing: "God watches over me and guides me. He's with me and let's me fight my own battles and hopes I'll win." Later when his left-wing activism became controversial, accusations that he was a "'godless' Communist" were not accepted by his black churchgoing audiences, who felt he "personified the spirituals in his music". Robeson never expressed "even the remotest allegiance to 'materialistic atheism'". According to his biographer Martin Duberman, Robeson was "not a religious man in any formalistic sense ... nonetheless an intensely spiritual one, convinced that some higher force watched over him." In a 1958 BBC television interview, Robeson reminisced of his days growing up in his father's church, "every Sunday morning there would be a rolling up of a great sermon and 'bow down on bended knees, oh Lord and hail Mary' and it became very much like an opera."

Early career (1920–1928)

Robeson started working for the law firm of Stotesbury (a Rutger's alumnus) and Miner in New York City, assisting on a litigation trial over Jay Gould's estate. Though his brief was used in the Gould trial, Robeson, the only black person in the law firm, quit after a white secretary refused to take dictation from him, saying: "I never take dictation from a nigger."

In the 1920s, Robeson found fame as an actor and singing star of both stage and radio with his bass voice and commanding presence. His voice could descend as low as C below the bass clef. Robeson and his accompanist and arranger Lawrence Brown were the first to bring spirituals to the concert stage; their association lasted through four decades.

Robeson was acclaimed for his 1924 Provincetown Playhouse performance in the title role of Eugene O'Neill's ''The Emperor Jones''. Charles Sidney Gilpin had premiered the role in 1920. He also gained recognition for his starring performance in the premier production of O'Neill's ''All God's Chillun Got Wings'' (1924). He portrayed the husband of an abusive white woman (played by Mary Blair). Resenting him, she destroys his promising career as a lawyer. The interracial marriage was controversial for many members of both black and white audiences. He next played Crown in the stage version of DuBose Heyward's novel ''Porgy''. This work was later adapted by George and Ira Gershwin as the opera ''Porgy and Bess''.

During his days at Columbia Law School, Robeson had sung professionally though giving little thought to a career. In 1924 when unable to whistle for a performance in ''Taboo'', he sang a spiritual instead, pleasing both the cast and audiences. He had reconnected with the accompanist and arranger Lawrence Brown in 1924, and they rapidly established a successful musical partnership. Robeson later credited Brown for guiding him "...to the beauty of my own folk music and to the music of all other Peoples so like our own."

Lawrence Brown had previously worked with the gospel singer Roland Hayes, and he had an extensive repertoire of African-American folk songs. His partnership with Robeson helped bring these works to much wider attention both in the U.S. and abroad. Robeson became a hugely popular concert draw in New York City, and his wife Esland acted as his agent and manager. Carl Sandburg distinguished between Robeson's interpretation of spirituals and that of Roland Hayes, saying that "Hayes imitates white culture... Robeson is the real thing...." Robeson was broadcast in performance on New York radio, usually performing Negro spirituals; on June 7, 1927 he was a featured performer on the ''Edison Hour''. Robeson became interested in the folk music of the world; his standard repertoire after the 1920s included songs in Chinese, Russian, Yiddish and German.

Robeson's earliest film was ''Body and Soul'' (1925), a silent American race film directed by Oscar Micheaux. Robeson played both a conniving preacher, and his twin brother. Disapproving of seeing a preacher as a negative character, the New York Motion Pictures Commission ordered Micheaux to reduce that part.

Move to Britain and political involvement (1928–1939)

In the late 1920s, the Robesons moved to England, where they lived until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Robeson made extended singing tours of the United States and Europe and appeared in nine films, all but two of them British productions.

''Show Boat''

In 1928 Robeson played the role of Joe, which was written for him, in the London production of the American musical ''Show Boat''. His rendition of ''Ol' Man River'' is widely considered the definitive version of the song. Robeson sang the song as written when he performed in the musical, but in later recitals, he altered the lyrics to transform it to a song of black defiance and perseverance. While ''Show Boat'' was immensely popular with white audiences, black theater reviewers were less than impressed. J.A. Rodgers of ''The Amsterdam News'' wrote that he had spoken to "fully some thirty Negros of intelligence and self respect" who urged "their disapprobation of the play" and he had "heard many harsh things said against Robeson... if anyone had called him (Robeson) a 'nigger', he'd be the first to get offended and there he is singing 'nigger, nigger' before all these white people."

Involvement with Welsh miners

While performing in ''Show Boat'', Robeson met a group of unemployed miners, who had taken part in a hunger march from South Wales. After taking them for their first meal in days, he decided to help their cause. He visited the Rhondda Valley and the Talygarn Miners' Rest Home, and performed for miners and their families in Cardiff, Neath and Aberdare. At the invitation of a group of Labour MPs, he was the first actor to be invited for lunch at the House of Commons.

''Othello''

In 1930, Robeson starred for the first time in the title role in William Shakespeare's ''Othello'' in England. Peggy Ashcroft co-starred as Desdemona. When the play opened on May 19, Robeson became the first black actor in nearly a century, since Ira Aldridge, to play Othello opposite a white cast. The production met with mostly positive reviews with a few lukewarm notices pointing out Robeson's "highly civilized quality" and lack of the "grand style." He had an affair with Ashcroft that lasted on and off until the late 1950s.

Political activities

In an interview with W. R. Titterton in 1930, Robeson rejected "political activism, political advocacy and commitment to a 'cause' as suitable modes for an artist", believing that the artist must be "ultimately accountable only to himself and his art; the prophet and the warrior are by definition at odds with the artist." His son Paul Robeson, Jr. later said, "In 1930, Paul had not yet jettisoned the 'don't upset white folks' dictum of his boyhood days, thus interfering with his ability to project the regal and commanding posture that Othello should deliver from the outset..." In 1938, he performed for an audience of 7,000 at the Welsh International Brigades National Memorial in Mountain Ash, to commemorate the 33 men from Wales killed while fighting on the side of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War. Because of his public stands, he became a popular cultural figure in Wales. Robeson often stayed in Tiger Bay with his American uncle by marriage, Aaron Mossell, a black Communist active in Pan-Africanism.

In 1940, Robeson appeared in ''The Proud Valley'', playing a black laborer who arrives in the Rhondda and wins the hearts of the local people.

While continuing his professional singing and acting career, through 1939 Robeson became increasingly involved with the struggles of British workers. He performed for them on numerous occasions, entered the pits with miners to see their working conditions, and befriended them. Returning to England in 1949, he said his earlier time there had a profound influence on his political development:

I learned my militancy and my politics, from your Labor Movement here in Britain.... That was how I realized that the fight of my Negro people in America and the fight of oppressed workers everywhere was the same struggle.

Film work

Robeson's second film was the experimental classic ''Borderline''. Shot in Switzerland in 1930 by a trio of ''avant garde'' artists known as the Pool Group, and co-starring his wife, Eslanda, the film chronicles race relations in a small European village. In 1933, he returned briefly to the U.S. where he reprised his title role in Dudley Murphy's film version of Eugene O'Neill's ''The Emperor Jones''. The American version of ''The Emperor Jones'' was censored to leave out a dramatic scene featuring Robeson's killing a white prison guard who had ordered his character to beat a fellow prisoner who had been caught escaping. The 1936 Universal Pictures film ''Show Boat'' was a box office hit for Robeson. It is the most frequently shown of all his films, and his performance of the main song "Ol' Man River" was particularly notable.

At the height of his popularity in the 1930s, Robeson became an international box office attraction in British films such as ''Song of Freedom'' (1936) and ''Sanders of the River'' (1935). He was also King Umbopa in the 1937 version of ''King Solomon's Mines''. In films such as ''Jericho'' and ''Proud Valley'', he portrayed strong black American male leading roles without the subservience typical of roles for blacks at the time. Because of his growing political and racial consciousness, he was one of the first actors of any race to demand (and receive) final cut approval on a film (''Song of Freedom''). He was the first black actor to have roles that expressed both dignity and pride in African heritage.

Theatre work

Robeson played the role of Toussaint L'Ouverture in the 1936 play ''Black Majesty'' by C.L.R. James, alongside the actor Robert Adams. He had long wanted to play the role, but the production closed after two weeks. Adams went on to co-star in two of Robeson's films, ''Song of Freedom'' and ''King Solomon's Mines'', and founded the Negro Repertory Arts Theater.

In 1938, Robeson appeared in a well-received two-month run of Herbert Marshall's ''Plant in the Sun''. The play dealt with sit-down strikes and union organizing in the US, and was produced by the Unity Theatre.

Identification with African anti-imperialism

Living in London, Robeson became aware of knowledge about African history and culture that was not available in the United States. During the 1930s he met with African students in London, who urged him to travel to the Soviet Union. Paul and Eslanda Robeson were named honorary members of the West African Students' Union in London, where they became good friends with future national presidents Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta. In essays such as "I want to be African", Robeson wrote of his desire to embrace his heritage. He compared the issues of peoples in the colonial possessions of Western Europe and African Americans. Robeson's experiences during the 1930s caused him to alter how he felt about the relationship between art and activism. His African studies, contacts in the anti-imperialism movement, and half-decade association with British socialists led him to visit the Soviet Union. He did not make any public declaration of support for socialism, saying: "In England they call me a 'Communist' because of my views, but I'm certainly not a member of the Communist Party." He was so disappointed by the final cut of the ''Sanders of the River'' (1935) , a stereotypical portrayal of Africa under imperialist rule, that he became "more conscious politically." By the end of the 1930s, Robeson had become an outspoken artist-activist.

Though officially enrolled in phonetics and Swahili at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1934, Robeson also studied other languages there and independently while in London, including Igbo, Yoruba, Zulu, Chinese, Russian and Hindi. Robeson is honoured at SOAS through the Paul Robeson House, opened in 1998. In the 1940s he was studying Chinese, when the FBI stole one of his notebooks and had it translated in an unsuccessful attempt to link him to Communist activities. When asked how many languages Robeson spoke, historian Sterling Stuckey answered, "Some claim twelve, others claim twenty; he certainly sang in a great many."

First visit to the Soviet Union

Robeson journeyed to the Soviet Union in December 1934, via Germany, having been given an official invitation. He and Eslanda were nearly attacked by Nazi ''Sturmabteilung'' (Storm troopers) at the stopover in Berlin. In the Soviet Union, Robeson was welcomed by playwrights, artists and filmmakers, among them the film director Sergei Eisenstein, who became a close friend. Robeson also met with African Americans who had migrated to the USSR, including his two brothers-in-law. He found the USSR free of racism and racial segregation; Russians ran up to greet him in the streets. He spoke of the "joy and happiness and friendliness, this utter absence of any embarrassment over a 'race question' is all the more keenly felt by me because of the day I spent in Berlin on the way here, and that was a day of horror—in an atmosphere of hatred, fear and suspicion."

Robeson declared that African American spiritual music resonated to Russian folk traditions. He told the press: "Here, I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity."

The Spanish Civil War

Robeson had a long association with the International Brigades who served in the Spanish Civil War. This close association endures to present day. Throughout his life he cited the struggle against fascism in Spain as an essential part of shaping his transformation into a political artist and activist, writing in his autobiography that Spain was "the turning point of my life." Robeson is one of only three people to have been given honorary membership in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War for the International Brigades.

As fascism escalated in Europe, "Save Spain" rallies were organized. The first rally was at the Albert Hall in 1937 sponsored by W.H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, and H.G. Wells, among others, as a benefit concert for the National Joint Committee for Spanish Refugees in Aid of the Basque Refugee Children's Fund. The program cover was designed by Pablo Picasso. In Moscow Robeson recorded a message to be related by radio to the concert, but when Germany threatened to jam the broadcast, and the Albert Hall managers did not wish it to be received, he decided to fly to London to attend the rally in person. In his performance, he changed the lyrics of "Old Man River" from "I'm tired of livin' and scared of dyin'" to "I must keep fightin' until I'm dyin'." He also stated, "The liberation of Spain from the oppression of fascist reactionaries is not a private matter of the Spaniards, but the common cause of all advanced and progressive humanity." Robeson's recorded message included this statement, which became his epitaph:

The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people: despoiled of their lands, their culture destroyed, ... denied equal protection under law, and deprived their rightful place in the respect of their fellows. Not through blind faith or coercion but conscious of my course, I take my place with you.

By December 1937 Robeson had addressed four rallies for the Republican cause. He had also denounced fascist attacks on Ethiopia by Italy and spoke out in favor of the emerging Communist revolution in China. His British entertainment manager was concerned about the implications of his becoming a political artist. Robeson decided to establish his political events as primary, explaining to the press that, "something inside me has turned". No longer would he appear in "decadent Hollywood films", he stated, but instead would portray "the life, hopes and aspirations of the struggling people from which I come."

Visiting Spain in 1938, Robeson met with the American men and women of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade on the battlefields, including about ninety-five African Americans. Back in Europe, he raised funds for the Spanish Republic, and to aid returning wounded Lincoln veterans in need of medical care.

The Council on African Affairs

Robeson co-founded with Max Yergan the International Committee on African Affairs in 1937 (from 1941, the Council on African Affairs, CAA). The CAA provided information about Africa across the U.S., particularly to African-Americans. During World War II, it functioned as a coalition including a variety of activists from varying leftist backgrounds. Its most successful campaign was probably that for South African famine relief in 1946. Under the weight of internal disputes, government repression, and financial hardships, the CAA disbanded in 1955.

Height of fame and World War II (1939–1945)

Ballad for Americans

After his return from Europe in 1939, Robeson quickly became a national celebrity once again when he performed ''Ballad for Americans'', an American patriotic cantata with lyrics by John La Touche and music by Earl Robinson. Originally titled ''The Ballad for Uncle Sam'', it was written for a Works Progress Administration theatre project called ''Sing for Your Supper''. Robeson performed "Ballad" on the CBS radio network in 1943, accompanied by chorus and orchestra. Bing Crosby made a commercially successful recording of the piece, but the song is closely associated with Robeson, standing at the pinnacle of his music and radio career prior to the Cold War.

He sang Ballad for Americans at The Hollywood Bowl to the largest sold-out crowd in its history. The Beverly Wilshire was the only hotel in Los Angeles willing to accommodate Robeson, at the then exorbitant rate of $100 per night and only if he would register under an assumed name. He complied with the requirements, but then arranged to spend two hours every afternoon sitting in the lobby, where he could easily be recognized. When asked why, he responded, "To ensure that the next time Black singers and actors come through, they'll have a place to stay." During that period, Collier's magazine named him both "favorite male Negro singer" and "America's no.1 entertainer."

Wartime performances

When Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war, Robeson was among the first performers to give benefit concerts on behalf of the American war effort, making him one of the top American actors and singers of that era. In an interview published in all the black weeklies and the July–August issue of ''TAC'', magazine of the Theatre Arts Committee, Robeson was asked what prompted his decision to return to the US to live, he replied:

I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed. That it is the same for Jews or Chinese as for Negroes, and that such prejudice has no place in a democracy. I have sung my songs all over the world, and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs, as to their own....{A]ll oppressed people cry out against their oppressors....[These experiences] have made me come home to sing my songs so that we will see that our democracy does not vanish. If I can contribute to this as an artist, I shall be happy.

Film work

In 1942 Robeson lent his speaking and singing talents to the Frontier Films production of ''Native Land''. A combination of a documentary format and staged reenactments, the film depicted the struggle of trade unions against anti-union corporations. It was based on the 1938 report of the La Follette Committee's investigation of the repression of labor organizing. The FBI labeled it "...obviously a Communist project."

The same year, in Hollywood, Robeson participated in the anthology film ''Tales of Manhattan''. His segment depicted black people's living conditions under the sharecropping system. Robeson was dissatisfied, calling it "very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition". He attempted to remove the film from distribution but buying up all prints proved far too expensive. Robeson held a press conference, announcing that he would no longer act in Hollywood films because of the demeaning roles available to black actors and would gladly join others in picketing the film. During this period, Robeson also turned down roles in ''Moby Dick'', ''Gone With The Wind'', ''Song of the South'' and ''Porgy and Bess''.

Japanese Americans

In February 1942, Robeson was approached by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi to join a panel of prominent non-Asians testifying before Congress to the loyalty of Japanese Americans, in order to avert mass removal. Robeson volunteered but the panel idea was dropped once Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.

Robeson remained attentive to Nisei concerns. In a 1943 speech, he praised "the workers from Mexico and from the east--Japan and the Philippines--whose labor has helped make the west and the southwest a fruitful land." In 1946, he opposed a move by the Canadian government to deport thousands of Japanese Canadians. Robeson accepted honorary life membership of the Japanese Canadian Committee for Democracy and gave a concert in Salt Lake City, then home to the Japanese American Citizens League.

Civil Rights activism

In winter 1943, Robeson traveled to Boston where he called for a full investigation into the recent rash of antisemitic acts of vandalism against a Jewish cemetery and a synagogue. The following month he spoke at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, at 12th Annual ''Herald Tribune'' Forum, on the participation of African Americans in the fight against the Axis powers. In December, 1943, Robeson addressed an annual meeting of Major League Baseball club owners, demanding they admit black players to major league baseball, helping to pave the way for Jackie Robinson to break the "color bar" in baseball two years later.

The Broadway Othello

Robeson reprised the role of Othello in New York in 1943 under the direction of Margaret Webster, and toured the US with it until 1945. , his run of ''Othello'' is the longest of any Shakespeare play on Broadway, running for 296 performances. Uta Hagen played Desdemona, and José Ferrer played Iago. For his portrayal, Robeson received a Donaldson Award, as well as the Gold Medal for the best diction in the American theater, which had only been awarded nine times since its inception in 1924. The eighteen-disc 78 RPM record album made by Columbia Masterworks from this production was the longest spoken word album made until then, and the first two-hour album ever made of a Shakespeare play. It was later transferred to LP, where it appeared on a three-disc album set, and has been issued on CD by the company Pearl. Unfortunately, its career on LP was extremely brief, since the recording was made in the 1940's and Robeson was blacklisted shortly after. thumb|right|250px|Paul Robeson with Uta Hagen in the Theatre Guild production of ''Othello''.The play had its Broadway run at the Shubert Theatre, and Robeson was the first African American to play the role with a white supporting cast on the Broadway stage. At the opening night performance, the audience gave the cast a twenty-minute standing ovation, for ten curtain calls. Despite his popularity, Robeson was not permitted to dine at Sardi's, a once-segregated restaurant located just across the street from the Theatre. Robeson toured with Othello in the US and Canada until 1945 and continued to perform solo excerpts from the play at his concert performances for the remainder of his career.

Civil rights activism and post war politics (1945–1948)

During World War II, Robeson's support for the Allied War effort had made him the world's most famous African-American and his previous statements and advocacy for socialism had been ignored by both the media and the white establishment. The start of the Cold war led to a social climate in which most civil rights and anti-imperialist groups in the United States were considered "Communist affiliated."Many of Robeson's closest friends and associates including Benjamin Davis, Howard Fast and William L. Patterson, were CPUSA members.

Spingarn medal

In 1945, Robeson was awarded the Spingarn medal by the NAACP for his "distinguished achievements in the theatre and concert stage as well as his active concern for the rights of the common man for every race, color, religion and nationality."

American Crusade to End Lynching

In July 1946, as Chairman of the Council on African Affairs, Robeson telegramed President Truman on the lynching of four African Americans in Georgia, demanding that the federal government "take steps to apprehend and punish the perpetrators ... and to halt the rising tide of lynch law.

In September of that year, Robeson spoke at a large rally against lynching, at Madison Square Gardens. Also that September, Robeson headed a protest at the Lincoln Memorial, for the American Crusade Against Lynching, a coalition of organizations and public figures, including Albert Einstein. Following the rally, he led a delegation to the White House to present a legislative and educational program to President Truman aimed at ending mob violence; demanding that lynchers be prosecuted and calling on Congress to enact a federal anti-lynching law. Robeson then warned Truman that if the government did not do something to end lynching, "the Negroes will". He contrasted the United States lead in prosecuting Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials with the continuation of lynching at home. Truman refused the request to issue a formal public statement against lynching, stating that it was not "the right time." Robeson also gave a radio address, calling on all Americans of all races to demand that Congress pass civil rights legislation.

Tenney Committees

On October 7, 1946, Robeson testified before the Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California (Tenney Committee) that he was not a Communist Party member. He was never identified as an official member of any Communist organization.

Civil Rights Congress

In 1947 Robeson met with leaders of the NAACP to form a coalition to coordinate anti-lynching efforts with the Civil Rights Congress, an organization close to the Communist Party of the United States of America, regarded as "subversive and communist" by the Truman administration.

Robeson sang and spoke in 1948 at an event organized by the Los Angeles Civil Rights Congress and labor unions to launch a campaign against job discrimination, for passage of the federal Fair Employment Practices Act also known as Executive Order 8802, anti-lynching and anti-poll tax legislation, and citizens’ action to defeat the county loyalty oath climate.

Robeson again sought an appointment with President Truman to confer on anti-poll tax, anti-lynching and fair employment legislation, but repeated requests were rejected.

The Progressive Party

In 1948, Robeson was very active as co-chairman of the presidential campaign to elect Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace, who had served as Vice-President under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wallace was running on an anti-lynching, pro-civil rights platform and had attracted a diverse group of voters including Communists, liberals and trade unionists. On the campaign trail in June of that year, Robeson went to the deep south, including Georgia, where he sang before "overflow audiences... in Negro churches in Atlanta and Macon." At the party's convention in Philadelphia, Robeson joined forces with the delegates from the Nisei for Wallace. The Progressive Party went on record in favor of evacuation claims for former camp residents, repeal of discriminatory laws against Japanese aliens, plus equal immigration and naturalization rights. During the campaign, Robeson organized a fund-raising concert tour in Hawaii under the auspices of the Longshoreman's Union.

Trade union activism

Robeson's belief that the labor movement and trade unionism were crucial to the civil rights of oppressed people of all races became central to his political beliefs. Many unions during the 1940s and 1950s were still characterized by segregation. Robeson's close friend, the union activist Revels Cayton, pressed for "black caucuses" in each union, with Robeson's encouragement and involvement. Domestically and internationally, Robeson enjoyed long friendships with various unions for his devotion to their causes.

Robeson also supported "Camp Wo-Chi-Ca" (Workers' Children's Camp) in New Jersey, an interracial summer camp for working class children established by the International Workers Order. Robeson would visit the camp every summer from 1940 to 1949, singing playing baseball with the children and developing an extensive musical program. In summer of 1949, Robeson also visited the largely Jewish Camp Kinderland in New York.

Mundt-Nixon bill and Smith Act

Robeson opposed anti-communist legislation. In 1948, he opposed a bill calling for registration of Communist Party members and appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Questioned about his affiliation with the Communist Party, he refused to answer, stating "Some of the most brilliant and distinguished Americans are about to go to jail for the failure to answer that question, and I am going to join them, if necessary." (The bill was ultimately defeated in the Senate.) In 1949, he spoke in favor of the liberty of twelve Communists (including his long-time friend Benjamin Davis, Jr.) convicted under the Smith Act, which criminalized various left- and right-wing activities as seditious.

Controversies and international travels (1949)

Following a successful U.S. and Caribbean tour during late 1948, Robeson took a Christmas break at the family home in Enfield, Connecticut, planning to join accompanist Lawrence Brown in the spring of 1949 for scheduled US concert dates. He soon was informed, however, that the performances were canceled by local booking agents whom the FBI had threatened to brand "pro-Communist." For the first time in his professional life, Robeson was without a U.S. concert audience and his recordings were now banned from radio and stores. Robeson had also become the target of conservative journalists Walter Winchell and Hedda Hopper. With the United States government and media pressuring the entertainment industry into blacklisting him, in 1949 Robeson had to go overseas to work. Robeson's 1949 tour of Europe, took him to France, Britain, Scandinavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Soviet Union.

There had been travel conditions put on him by the U.S. State Department upon the renewal of his passport and he signed a waiver to not make any "political or charitable appearances while on tour." Robeson was also under heavy surveillance by the CIA while abroad.

The Paris Peace Congress

As an authorized speaker for the Coordinating Committee of the Colonial Peoples of London, in April 1949, Robeson attended the Paris Peace Congress sponsored by the Soviet Union and by pro-Communist and Communist organizations. There he sang Joe Hill and spoke extemporaneously about why he thought the progressives in America did not want war. The widely publicized speech caused extreme controversy in the United States when it was misquoted by the Associated Press. Numerous biographers and historians concur that this one single event signaled the start of Robeson's status as an "enemy" of the United States government and the end of his popularity with mainstream America during the Cold War. A direct translation from the French transcripts of the live audio is as follows,

"We in America do not forget that it was the backs of white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of Blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong. We shall not make war upon the Soviet Union. We oppose those who wish to support imperialism Germany and to establish fascism in Greece. We wish peace with Franco's Spain despite her fascism. We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the People's Republics. "

What came over the wires to news agencies via the AP in the United States was as follows,

"We colonial peoples have contributed to the building of the United States and are determined to share its wealth. We denounce the policy of the United States government which is similar to Hitler and Goebbels. We want peace and liberty and will combat for them along with the Soviet Union and the Democracies of Eastern Europe, China and Indonesia. It is unthinkable that American Negros would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against the Soviet Union which in one generation has lifted our people to full human dignity. "

Research has shown that AP had put the dispatch on the wires as Robeson was starting his speech. The misquote was very similar in structure to previous Robeson speeches and his questioning at the Mundt-Nixon Bill hearings with the difference being that at the hearing Robeson had claimed to be only speaking for himself. The reaction by the press, both liberal and right wing, in the United States was nearly universal condemnation with radio commentator Walter Winchell broadcasting daily vitriolic attacks at Robeson approved by J Edgar Hoover. ''Jersey Home'' newspaper called for Robeson to be "executed in the electric chair"and Boston Sunday called him "an undesirable citizen", regretting that he had been "U.S. born."

At the urging of the State Department to make a formal statement, NAACP leaders dissociated themselves from Robeson. Roy Wilkins stated that regardless of the number of lynchings that were occurring or would occur, Black America would always serve in the armed forces. The black-owned ''Chicago Defender'' was one of the few American newspapers willing to question accuracy of the AP bulletin, while the progressive ''National Guardian'' and the Communist ''Daily Worker'' printed quotes of Robeson's speech verbatim.

USSR and Itzik Feffer

In June, he arrived in the Soviet Union, where he participated in celebrating Alexander Pushkin's 150th anniversary, including performances at Bolshoi Theatre and Tchaikovsky Hall. According to his son, Robeson was disturbed as to why he could not find his many Jewish friends, most notably Itzik Feffer, a Yiddish poet, and Solomon Mikhoels, an actor and director. As Robeson persisted, the KGB brought Feffer to Robeson who told him that the room was bugged and that Solomon Mikhoels had been murdered by the NKVD. Feffer also communicated that his own life was in danger. As neither Robeson nor Feffer ever went public about the meeting, the event and its details remains a matter of both conjecture and controversy. During his concert in Tchaikovsky Hall on June 14 - which was broadcast across the entire country - Robeson publicly paid tribute to Feffer and the late Mikhoels, singing the Vilna Partisan song "Zog Nit Keynmol" in both Russian and Yiddish. Recordings of the concert survived but Robeson's spoken words are lost.

Back in the United States, Robeson stated that he did not encounter any persecution of Jews and other political prisoners, stating that he "met Jewish people all over the place.... I heard no word about it". Herbert Hill, former labor director of the NAACP, commented on the reputed event fifty years later stating "just think what it would have meant if he had denounced this evil while in the Soviet Union and instead he comes back and he lies, he lies again and again and he knows better." Paul Robeson, Jr. said "he wasn't about to come to the United States and criticize the Soviet Union which in his mind was a barrier to world domination by the right wing of the United States."

Congressional statement by Jackie Robinson

This subsequent controversy over Robeson's remarks in Paris caused the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate Robeson.

HUAC sought Jackie Robinson's testimony on the subject. Robinson was reluctant to testify to HUAC on these matters, in part because of Robeson's prior advocacy on behalf of integration in professional baseball. In July 1949, Robinson eventually agreed to testify before HUAC, fearing that declining to do so might negatively and permanently damage his career. His testimony was a major media event, with Robinson's carefully worded statement appearing on the front page of ''The New York Times'' the following day. While Robeson declined to comment on Robinson personally: "I am not going to permit the issue to boil down to a personal feud between me and Jackie. To do that, would be to do exactly what the other group wants us to do."

Civil Rights Congress and Trotskyists

In January 1949, Robeson led a conference of delegates to march on the White House, again demanding government action against lynching; President Truman refused to see them. Robeson spoke at the "Bill of Rights Conference", in New York, sponsored by CRC, again calling for an end to segregation and lynching. The 1,200 delegates issued a statement which said, in part, "We declare that Robeson does, indeed, speak for us, not only in his fight for full democratic rights, but also in his fight for peace." Robeson also spoke at a mass meeting of 1,500 sponsored by the Civil Rights Congress in support of the Trenton Six. At a Bill of Rights Conference in New York in July 1949, Robeson denounced a motion, which called for the freeing of nineteen members of the Socialist Workers Party convicted in 1941, calling the imprisoned Trotskyists- who were at odds with the Soviet leadership-"the allies of Fascism who want to destroy the new democracies of the world...let's not get confused, they are the enemies of the working class. Would you give civil rights to the Ku Klux Klan?" Biographer Martin Duberman wrote, "it was not Robeson's finest hour." On August 4, 1949 Robeson also led a picket line in front of White House, called by United Public Workers of America to protest racist hiring practices at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, challenging President Truman to make good on his civil rights promises and enforce the Fair Employment Practices Act.

Peekskill Riots

In 1949, a popular concert by Robeson in Peekskill, New York, to benefit the Civil Rights Congress resulted in the Peekskill Riots caused by anti-Communist and anti-civil rights members of local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion chapters and also by local residents. The concert, organized as a benefit for the Civil Rights Congress, was scheduled to take place on August 27 in Lakeland Acres, just north of Peekskill. Before Robeson arrived, a mob of locals attacked concert-goers with baseball bats and rocks. Thirteen people were seriously injured before the police intervened. The concert was postponed until September 4.

The rescheduled event, on September 4, 1949, was attended by 20,000 people and went off without incident but, after the concert, a violent mob, caught on film by the press, chanting "Go back to Russia you white Niggers" and "Dirty Kikes", threw rocks through the windshields of cars and buses. Standing off the angry mob of rioters, some of the concertgoers, and union members, along with writer Howard Fast and others assembled a non-violent line of resistance, locked arms, and sang the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." Some people were reportedly dragged from their vehicles and beaten. Over 140 people were injured and numerous vehicles were severely damaged as police stood by. Following the riots, more than 300 Robeson supporters went to Albany to voice their indignation to Governor Thomas Dewey, who refused to meet with them, blaming "Communists for provoking the violence." Twenty-seven plaintiffs filed a civil suit against Westchester County and two veterans groups. The charges were dismissed three years later. Paul Robeson called the actions of the New York state troopers, who were caught on film beating concert goers, including World War I veteran and first decorated Black aviator, Eugene Bullard, as "Fascist stormtroopers who will knock down and club anyone who disagrees with them" Photographs of Eugene Bullard being beaten by two policeman, a state trooper and concert-goer were later published in Susan Robeson's pictorial biography of her grandfather.

Passport confiscation and Communist associations (1950–1955)

In March 1950, NBC canceled Robeson's scheduled appearance on former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's television program, ''Today with Mrs. Roosevelt''. A spokesman for NBC declared that Robeson would "never appear on NBC." Press releases of the Civil Rights Congress objected that "censorship of Mr. Robeson's appearance on TV is a crude attempt to silence the outstanding spokesman for the Negro people in their fight for civil and human rights" and that our "basic democratic rights are under attack under the smoke-screen of anti-Communism." Protesters picketed NBC offices and protests arrived from numerous public figures, organizations and others.

Passport confiscated

In 1950, the State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports, effectively confining him within the United States. Robeson was not allowed to travel to Canada or Mexico, countries that US citizens could visit without a passport. Far from seeking to revoke his U.S. citizenship and deport him, the FBI and state department records indicate that the US government believed that a blacklisted existence inside the United States borders would offer Robeson less freedom of expression than his presence internationally would. When Robeson and his lawyers met with officials at the State Department on August 23, 1950 and asked why it was "detrimental to the interests of the United States Government" for him to travel abroad, they were told that "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries"—it was a "family affair." When Robeson inquired about being re-issued a passport, the State Department declined, citing Robeson's refusal to sign a statement guaranteeing "not to give any speeches while outside the U.S."

In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, labor unions in the U.S. and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia on May 18, 1952. Paul Robeson stood on the back of a flat bed truck on the American side of the U.S.-Canada border and performed a concert for a crowd on the Canadian side, variously estimated at between 20,000 and 40,000 people. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years two further concerts were scheduled. In this period, with the encouragement of his friend the Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan, Robeson recorded a number of radio concerts for supporters in Wales. In 1956, Robeson left the United States for the first time since the travel ban was imposed, performing concerts in two Canadian cities, Sudbury and Toronto, in March of that year. The travel ban ended in 1958 when Robeson's passport was returned to him after eight years of protracted legal struggles and defeats.

"We Charge Genocide" petition

Although unable to travel outside the United States, Robeson continued to be politically active. He presented to the United Nations in New York on December 17, 1951 an anti-lynching petition, "We Charge Genocide". It was also presented to a UN delegation in Paris. The document asserted that the U.S. federal government, by its failure to act against lynching in the United States, was "guilty of genocide" under Article II of the UN Genocide Convention.

"Paul Robeson - the Lost Shepherd"

In 1951 an article titled "Paul Robeson - the Lost Shepherd" was published in ''The Crisis'', the official magazine of the NAACP, under the pseudonym "Robert Alan", described as "a well known New York journalist". In actuality, the author was NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins.

J. Edgar Hoover and the United States State Department arranged for the article to be printed and distributed in Africa. Guidelines issued through the US Consulate in Accra, Ghana, on how to deal with Robeson's reputation included the following instructions:

"USIE in the Gold Coast, and I suspect everywhere else in Africa, badly needs a through-going, sympathetic and regretful but straight talking treatment of the whole Robeson episode...there's no way the Communists score on us more easily and more effectively out here, than on the US. Negro problem in general, and on the Robeson case in particular. And, answering the latter, we go a long way toward answering the former. "

Another article by Roy Wilkins, called "Stalin's Greatest Defeat", denounced Robeson as well as the Communist Party of the USA in terms consistent with the FBI's information. In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Robeson penned a eulogy entitled ''To You Beloved Comrade'', praising Stalin as being dedicated to peace and a guidance to the world: "Through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage."

After Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalinism at the 1956 Party Congress, Robeson neither publicly denounced nor praised Stalin, though he continued to praise the Soviet Union. In 1956, Robeson, along with close friend W. E. B. Du Bois, compared the anti-Stalinist revolution in Hungary to the "same sort of people who overthrew the Spanish Republican Government" and supported the Soviet invasion and suppression of the revolt.

Robeson is often criticized for accepting the Stalin Peace Prize, eulogizing Stalin, and continuing to support the Soviet Union and not formally denouncing the regime, despite conflicting accounts that show his awareness of state-sponsored intimidation and murder.

Robeson refused pressure to publicly censure the Soviet Union, although it would ostensibly eased his passport restrictions and possibly allowed him back into the mainstream of the entertainment world and the mainstream of the civil rights movement. In his opinion, the existence of the USSR was the guarantee of political balance in the world. Robeson's biographers, including Martin Duberman, Philip S Foner, Scott Allen Nollen, Dr, Charles Wright, Marie Seton, Paul Robeson Jr and Lloyd Brown, argue that he felt that criticism of the Soviet Union by someone of his international standing would only serve to shore up reactionary elements in the U.S. Robeson is on record many times as stating that he felt the "existence of a major socialist power like the USSR was a bulwark against Western European capitalist domination of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean." At no time is Paul Robeson on record of mentioning any unhappiness or regrets about his support for the Soviet Union and his hopes for socialism in Africa and Asia.

Blacklisting and international response (1956–1958)

In 1956, Robeson was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. In response to questions concerning his alleged party membership, Robeson insisted that the Communist Party was a legal party and invited its members to join him in the voting booth before he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to respond. Robeson refused to discuss Joseph Stalin, calling it "a question for the Soviet Union", instead lambasting committee members on civil rights issues and the enslavement and exploitation of blacks throughout American history. Asked why he had not remained in the Soviet Union, he replied that "because my father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you and no fascist minded people will drive me from it! Is that clear?"

"Let Paul Robeson Sing"

Campaigns were simultaneously launched in the USA and UK to protest the passport ban. In the UK, ''The National Paul Robeson Committee'' was formed, sponsored by Members of Parliament as well as writers, scholars, actors, lawyers, trade union leaders and others. The Committee began a "Let Paul Robeson Sing" mass petition, which gathered signatures from tens of thousands of supporters. Over the next four years, many prominent figures in Britain argued for the restoration of Robeson's right to travel. The group held a conference and concert at St Pancras Town Hall, London headed by Cedric Belfrage, on May 26, 1957 with Robeson singing direct from New York over a telephone connection.

Trans-Atlantic telephone concert for the Welsh miners

In 1957, Robeson was invited by Welsh miners to be the honored guest at the annual Eisteddfod Music Festival. An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to restitute his confiscated passport had been rejected, but through the newly completed trans-Atlantic telephone hook-up between New York and Porthcawl, Wales, Robeson was able to sing to the 5,000 gathered there as he had earlier in the year to London. Journalist Gil Noble called the concert "perhaps the most emotional and moving in Robeson's long concert career."

Disappearance from the media

Because of the controversy surrounding him, Paul Robeson's recordings and films lost mainstream distribution and he was universally condemned in the mainstream U.S press. During the height of the Cold War it became increasingly difficult in the United States to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or to see any of his films, including ''Show Boat''.

In the United States very little newsreel footage of Robeson now exists, including in the Library of Congress, as the majority of U.S. newsreel footage has been either destroyed or has the sound erased.

Erasure from sports records

The 1950 volume, ''College Football Hall of Fame'', labeled "the most complete record on college football", omits Robeson, identifying only a ten-man team. Martin Duberman wrote that due to his blacklisting within the mainstream media, the concert stage, theater, radio, film and the civil rights movement, Robeson became an outcast, very nearly a nonperson."

Comeback (1958–1961)

Robeson's autobiography, ''Here I Stand'', was published by a British publishing company in 1958. As part of his "comeback", he gave two sold-out recitals that month in Carnegie Hall, which were released on LP and later on CD. They were his only stereo recordings.

Also that year, Robeson's 60th birthday was celebrated in several US cities and twenty-seven countries across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, as well as in the Soviet Union. Later, in May 1958, his passport was finally restored and he was able to travel again, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in ''Kent vs. Dulles'', that the Secretary of State had no right to deny a passport or require any citizen to sign an affidavit because of his political beliefs. Robeson and Eslanda moved to the United Kingdom landing there on July 11, 1958 and traveled extensively, using London as their base of operations. During this period Robeson was under constant surveillance by the CIA, MI6 and the State Department.

Tours of Britain and the USSR

In the United Kingdom, Robeson found himself deluged with professional offers. His numerous appearances included a formal concert at the Albert Hall and a book autographing party at Selfridges.

In August, 1959 he left for Moscow where he received a tumultuous reception and needed a police escort at the airport. A crowd of eighteen thousand people filled the Lenin Stadium (Khabarovsk) to capacity on August 17, 1959 where Robeson sang classic Russian songs along with his standards. Robeson and Eslanda then flew to Crimea to spend time at Yalta resting, working with a documentary film crew and spending time with Nikita Khrushchev. Robeson also visited Young Pioneer camp Artek before returning to the UK.

On October 11, 1959 Robeson took part in a historic service at St.Paul's Cathedral, being the first black performer to sing there. Four thousand people attended the evensong performance with hundreds overflowing onto the streets. Robeson had then planned to leave for India as a guest of Nehru but was prevented by the weather. The US State Department had circulated negative literature about him through the media in India; one censored CIA memo suggested that Robeson's appearance could be used to thwart the desegregation of a swimming pool.

In 1960, Robeson made his only appearance on a television variety series, a long-running British entry called ''Spectacular''. He was also the host of this episode, entitled ''The Paul Robeson Show''.

On a trip to Moscow, Robeson started to develop bouts of dizziness and the beginning of heart problems. His trip to India was definitively canceled, and he was hospitalized for two months along with his wife Eslanda who was diagnosed with operable cancer.

Wales and final performance of Othello

Robeson recovered and returned to the U.K. to fulfill his engagements.In 1958, he visited the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale as the guest of the local MP Aneurin Bevan, revisited his ties to the black community in Cardiff's Butetown and gave performances throughout Europe. During his run at the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Othello in Tony Richardson's 1959 production at Stratford-upon-Avon, he befriended actor Andrew Faulds who's family he was staying with in the nearby village of Shottery while performing. Robeson inspired him to take up a career in politics after admonishing him for being apolitical. The production of Othello was geared towards Robeson's health concerns but gave him a lucrative seven month run and chance to participate in an updated version of the play directed by Tony Richardson. In 1960, in what would prove to be Paul Robeson's final concert performance in Great Britain, he sang with the Welsh Male Voice Choir, Côr Meibion Cwmbach, to raise money for the ''Movement for Colonial Freedom'' at the Royal Festival Hall.

Tour of Australia and New Zealand

Though starting to show the beginning of heart problems and fatigue, Robeson accepted a lucrative tour of Australia, and New Zealand in October to November 1960.

The most notable of his appearances was at the Sydney Opera House, still under construction. Robeson stood on the foundations and sang ''Ol Man River'' and '''Joe Hill''. Many of the workers had him autograph their hard hats following the performance.

Apart from his public concerts, he spoke about unionism and the indigenous peoples of both countries then sang several numbers. Robeson also sang to striking waterside workers in Wellington and accepted membership in their union.

Visiting rural community centers and presented with indigenous art including a painting by Australian artist Albert Namatjira, Davis recalled Robeson's arrival in Perth on the last leg of his tour,

"...when he spotted a group of local aborigines shyly hanging back, he instantly headed for them, moving through the crowd like a full back. When he reached them, he literally gathered the nearest half dozen in his great arms, and when he moved toward his waiting transport, the aborigines moved with him. Davies heard one of the little girls say, almost in wonder, 'Mum, he likes us.'"

Lloyd Davis felt that Robeson's words and gestures during his tour "gave a tremendous boost to the aboriginal cause" and writer and broadcaster Phillip Adams recalled, Robeson's tour was like "a second coming" to "aspiring young lefties" in Australia.

During this tour for the first time news-sources of diverse political views reported that he was responding to questions at press conferences with "anger and bitterness." Some headlines included ''The Herald'' printing, "Would Back Russia in a War" and "Robeson Bitterly Critical of the U.S.", with the ''Telegraph'' stating "I Wish He Was Still Bosambo."

In Auckland he reputedly told the press he was only "here to sing" and then declared himself a "rigid Marxist.". While expressing concern about the mistreatment of the Māoris Robeson said, "I want to learn Māori songs and as much as I can of the Māori language." and "...the people of the lands of Socialism want peace dearly,"

The nine week tour would prove to be the final concert tour of his forty year career.

Back in London, he began to plan his return to the U.S. to participate in the Civil Rights Movement, stopping off in Africa, China and Cuba along the way. His wife Eslanda argued to stay in London, fearing that he'd be "killed" if he returned to the US and "unable to make any money" due to harassment by the US government. Robeson disagreed and made his own travel arrangements, stopping off in Moscow in March 1961.

Health breakdown (1961–1965)

In spring of 1961, Robeson again traveled to the Soviet Union, his last visit there. During an uncharacteristically wild party in his Moscow hotel room, he locked himself in his bedroom and attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. Three days later, while under Soviet medical care, he told his son that he felt extreme paranoia, thought that the walls of the room were moving and, overcome by a powerful sense of emptiness and depression, tried to take his own life.

Robeson stayed at the Barvikha Sanatorium until September 1961, when he left Moscow for London. There his depression re-emerged, and after another period of recuperation in Moscow, he returned to London. Three days after arriving back he became suicidal and suffered a panic attack while passing the Soviet Embassy. He was admitted to The Priory hospital, where he underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and was given heavy doses of drugs for nearly two years, with no accompanying psychotherapy.

During his treatment at the Priory, Robeson was being monitored by the British MI5. Both U.S. and British intelligence services were well aware of Robeson's suicidal state of mind. An FBI memo described Robeson's debilitated condition, remarking that his "death would be much publicized" and would be used for Communist propaganda, making continued surveillance imperative. Numerous memos also advised that Robeson should be denied a passport renewal which would ostensibly jeopardize his fragile health and the recovery process he was engaged in overseas.

During his convalescence, while receiving outpatient treatment, he spent frequent periods at his Connaught Square flat with Eslanda. In August 1963, disturbed about his treatment, friends had him transferred to the Buch Clinic in East Berlin. Given psychotherapy and less medication, his physicians found him still "completely without initiative" and they expressed "doubt and anger" about the "high level of barbiturates and ECT" that had been administered in London. He rapidly improved, though his doctor stressed that "what little is left of Paul's health must be quietly conserved."

Paul Robeson, Jr. argued for years that his father's health problems stemmed from attempts by CIA and MI5 to "neutralize" his father. He remembered that his father had such fears prior to his prostate operation. He said that three doctors treating Robeson in London and New York had been CIA contractors, and that his father's symptoms resulted from being "subjected to mind depatterning under MKULTRA", a secret CIA programme. Martin Duberman's view was that given the most available evidence, Paul Robeson's health breakdown was brought on by a combination of factors including extreme emotional and physical stress, bipolar depression, exhaustion and the beginning of circulatory and heart problems. Duberman added that "even without an organic predisposition and accumulated pressures of government harassment he might have been susceptible to a breakdown".

Later years (1966–1976)

In 1963, Robeson eventually returned to the United States and for the remainder of his life lived in quiet seclusion. He had intended to assume a role in the civil rights movement, making a few major public appearances before falling seriously ill during a tour, nearly dying from double pneumonia and a kidney blockage in 1965. He first lived in Harlem with his wife. After Eslanda died of cancer in December 1965, Robeson moved in with his son's family in an Upper West Side apartment in New York City and in 1968, he finally settled at his sister's home in Philadelphia.

In these years Robeson was honored by accolades and celebrations, both in the U.S. and internationally, including public arenas that had previously shunned him.

Civil Rights figures

On January 15, 1965, Robeson gave the eulogy at the Harlem funeral of Lorraine Hansberry recalling her work at Freedomways and her contributions to civil rights. Malcolm X was one of those who attended the funeral. The two men did not meet on that occasion, but Malcolm X, who admired Robeson, subsequently approached Paul Robeson, Jr. about arranging a meeting. (According to Ossie Davis, he was also approached by Malcolm X's intermediaries in hopes of meeting Robeson.) Robeson agreed, but Malcolm X was assassinated before the meeting could be arranged.

Following Hansberry's funeral, Robeson was also contacted by both Bayard Rustin and James L. Farmer, Jr. about the possibility of becoming involved with the mainstream of the Civil Rights movement. Due to Rustin's past anti-Communist stances, Robeson declined to meet with him. Robeson eventually met with Farmer but was asked to denounce Communism and the Soviet Union in order to assume a place in the mainstream, Robeson adamantly declined.

Life in Philadelphia

Living at his sister Marian's home Robeson saw few visitors aside from very close friends and gave few statements apart from a few messages to support current civil rights and international movements, feeling that his record "spoke for itself". Though due to his ailing health, he withdrew from the public to lead a quiet life, close friends and family have disputed the rumors in the mainstream press that he was "broken" and "disillusioned". In her book ''Paul Robeson's Last Days in Philadelphia'', Charlotte Turner Bell, a local music teacher and Robeson friend chronicled the time she spent accompanying Robeson on the piano each Sunday and of his life in retirement.

Birthday celebrations

In 1968, events were held all over the world in honor of Paul Robeson's 70th birthday including a three day celebration in East Germany. There was also an evening of music and poetry in London at the Royal Festival Hall featuring Mary Ure, Peggy Ashcroft, Peter O'Toole and Michael Redgrave. In Moscow, speakers included the writer Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy and the poet Mikhail Kotov. The black commission of the CPUSA celebration remarked that "the white power structure has generated a conspiracy of silence around Paul Robeson. It wants to blot out all knowledge of this pioneering Black American warrior..."

More than 3,000 people gathered in Carnegie Hall to salute Robeson's 75th birthday in 1973, including Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta, Dizzy Gillespie, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte (who also produced the show), James Earl Jones, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Coretta Scott King; birthday greetings arrived from President Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania, Prime Minister Michael Manley of Jamaica, President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Indira Gandhi and the African National Congress. Robeson was unable to attend because of illness, but a taped message from him was played which said in part, "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood."

Death and funeral service

On January 23, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of 77, Paul Robeson died of a stroke following "complications from a 'severe cerebral vascular disorder.'" He lay in state for a viewing at Benta's Funeral Home in Harlem for two days. His granddaughter, Susan Robeson, recalled "...watching this parade of humanity who came to pay their respects...from the numbers runner on the corner to Gustaf VI Adolf, King of Sweden."

Condolences came from around the world, including Coretta Scott King, who deplored "America's inexcusable treatment" of a man who had had "the courage to point out her injustices." According to Robeson biographer, Martin Duberman:

"The white press, after decades of harassing Robeson, now tipped its hat to a 'great American,' paid its gingerly respect in editorials that ascribed the vituperation leveled at Robeson in his lifetime to the Bad Old Days of the Cold War, implied those days were forever gone, downplayed the racist component central to his persecution, and ignored the continuing inability of white America to tolerate a black maverick who refused to bend. The black press made no such mistakes. It had never, overall, been as hostile to Robeson as the white press, (though at some points in his career, nearly so)."

The black press universally celebrated Robeson, with ''The Amsterdam News'' eulogizing him as "Gulliver among the Lilliputians" and saying his life would "always be a challenge and a reproach to white and Black America."

On January 27, 1976, 2,500 people attended Paul Robeson's funeral at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem, where Robeson's brother Ben had been pastor for 27 years. Thousands more, mostly African Americans, stood outside in the rain throughout the service, listening on the public address system as speakers, including Harry Belafonte, paid tribute. Robeson was cremated and his ashes were interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York with a grave marker that states, "The Artist Must Fight For Freedom Or Slavery. I Made My Choice. I Had No Alternative."

Legacy

Along with Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Josephine Baker, Robeson was one of the first African American artist/activists. He is also one of the forerunners of the civil rights movement and the first black artist to refuse segregated audiences. During the 1960s radical black activists such as Malcolm X and members of SNCC referenced and praised Robeson's controversial stances. On the international political scene, Robeson's legacy included influences on the African Independence movements and his work was cited by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta and Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah and other post-colonialist leaders. American Jews continue to celebrate his memory as an ally, as do the people of Wales. In the arts, his popularizing of Negro Spirituals has been cited and paid tribute to by singers including Sir Willard White. While film industry figures and historians have written of his groundbreaking work in cinema as the first major black actor unwilling to play stereotypes.

Paul Robeson Archives

The Paul Robeson Archive was established in East Berlin in 1965. Robeson was a popular figure in East Germany, where he received an honorary doctorate from Humboldt University in 1960 among other awards. The archives were founded by Victor Grossman, a journalist for GDR radio and are now located at the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin. Due to meticulous collecting by Eslanda Robeson, over 55,000 pieces of Robeson related memorabilia, film, books, photos and ephemera were archived and cataloged into "The Paul and Eslanda Robeson Archives". The collection is held at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

Omission from and restoration to historical records

Due to Robeson's lengthy and extensive blacklisting during the 1950s, his long career and achievements are difficult to find in most American mainstream interpretations of history, including in-depth books on sports history, entertainment, civil rights and black history. In the United States very little media footage of Robeson now exists, even in the Library of Congress, as the majority of U.S. newsreel footage has been either destroyed or had the sound erased.

Despite Robeson's lengthy theater career, Brooks Atkinson, ''The New York Times'' theater critic from 1925 to 1960, included just a one-sentence reference to Robeson in his 1970 book ''Broadway'', advertised as "an in-depth history of American theater". Atkinson chronicles African-American performers, ''Show Boat'' and Eugene O'Neill, but only mentions Robeson briefly in context with ''Othello''. In the early 1970s, ''The New York Times'' and ''The New York Daily News'' both ran extensive pieces on black actors who played Othello with no mention of Robeson.

In 1967, ''The New York Times'' also incorrectly said that during the 1950s (when he was without his passport), Robeson had chosen a "long exile in the Soviet Union...." Robeson's name was also not listed in the American edition of Marquis Who's Who, appearing in only the international editions. In the early 1970s, Rutgers professor Eugene H. Robinson found that Robeson was not mentioned in nine different American encyclopedias. Professor Harold Weaver estimated that 75% of black students at Rutgers did not know who Robeson was.

In 1949, Robeson's name had been retroactively struck from the roster of the 1917 and 1918 college All-America football teams. In 1995, 45 years after its erasure, Robeson's name was fully restored to the Rutgers University sports records and he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Posthumous honors

1970s

The first memorial following Robeson's 1976 funeral was a tribute held in US House of Representatives January 28, 1976. Throughout 1976 memorials were held at Rutgers; The World Peace Council in Athens, Greece; Columbia University, New York City; Toronto; Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; and by Actor's Equity in Los Angeles. On October 8, 1976, Artist's Tribute to the Life of Paul Robeson, was held at Carnegie Hall, as a benefit for the Paul Robeson Archive. Sidney Poitier proclaimed, "When Paul Robeson died, it marked the passing of a magnificent giant whose presence among us conferred nobility upon us all..." In 1979 Poitier narrated a short, winning film, ''Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist''. Directed by Saul J. Turell, it won an Academy Award for best short documentary.

In 1976 NBC approached Paul Robeson, Jr. asking permission to create a three hour documentary on his father. Robeson, Jr. turned down the request, regarding it as offensive given their treatment of his father during his lifetime.

On September 6, 1977 the Paul Robeson High School opened at 6835 South Normal Boulevard in Chicago, Illinois.

Beginning in 1978, Paul Robeson's films were finally shown again on American television, with ''Show Boat'' making its cable television debut in 1983. In recent years, all of Robeson's films have appeared on Turner Classic Movies and American Movie Classics channels.

Also in 1978, the former "Stolpestrasse" in East-Berlin, Germany, was renamed Paul-Robeson-Strasse in honor of the popular performer. To this day (2011), it is still named so.

1990s

On January 18, 1995 Paul Robeson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, a step taken by the National Football Foundation which many called "long-overdue". Rutgers-Newark also honored him posthumously by naming the student-life campus center, and art gallery after him. and Rutgers University New Brunswick Campus named one of their cultural centers, The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. and the Rutgers-Camden campus also named their library, the Paul Robeson Library.

During the centenary of Paul Robeson's birth in 1998, around the world, over four hundred celebrations took place with over twenty Robeson centennial events held in the San Francisco Bay area alone. These included film showings, musical and educational programs, art exhibitions, a two-hour PBS documentary, as well as the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. President Bill Clinton sent a greeting to celebration of the Robeson Centennial in Westchester County, New York, stating: "A century after Paul Robeson's birth, we live in a nation that is stronger because of his vision and eloquent voice."

In 1998 the San Francisco Bay Area Post of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade presented "Paul Robeson: The Artist Must Take Sides" in tribute. The program consisted of a dramatic performance by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, with slides and commentary, and keynote speaker Professor Sterling Stuckey. Paul Robeson's image is also featured prominently in a historical monument dedicated to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade which was unveiled on The Embarcadero, San Francisco in 2008 by actor Peter Coyote.

2000s

Robeson has remained a celebrated cultural figure in Wales. The exhibition ''Let Paul Robeson Sing!'' was unveiled in Cardiff in 2001. A number of Welsh artists have celebrated Robeson's life: the Manic Street Preachers' song "Let Robeson Sing" appears on the album ''Know Your Enemy''. Martyn Joseph's song "Proud Valley Boy" on his 2005 album ''Deep Blue'' is also based on Robeson's Welsh connections. In 2010 Susan Robeson launched a project by Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly, to create an online learning resource in her grandfather's memory.

An English Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled in 2002 at the house in Hampstead, London where Robeson resided during the 1920s and 1930s.

In 2004 Paul Robeson was featured on a US postage stamp, the 27th stamp in the Black Heritage Series. The Stamp Unveiling Ceremony was held at Princeton University, with Paul Robeson, Jr. participating.

In 2006 a Tribute to Paul Robeson was held at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

On September 26, 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place.

In August 2011, Tayo Aluko's one-man play "Call Mr. Robeson" was featured in the New York International Fringe Festival. It will be performed in New York's Carnegie Hall on February 12, 2012.

Published works

''Here I Stand''. Beacon Press (1958), 1971 edition with Preface by Lloyd L. Brown. 1988 edition with an Introduction by Sterling Stuckey. ISBN 0-8070-6445-9 ISBN 0-304-70351-6

''Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918–1974'', edited with an introduction by Philip S. Foner, Brunner, 1978.

''Paul Robeson: Tributes, Selected Writings'', compiled and edited by Roberta Yancy Dent with the assistance of Marilyn Robeson and Paul Robeson, Jr., The Archives, 1976.

"The Great Forerunner" in ''Freedomways'', 1971; Dodd, 1978; enlarged, 1985.

Filmography

''Body and Soul'' (1924)

''Camille'' (1926)

''Borderline'' (1930)

''The Emperor Jones'' (1933)

''Sanders of the River'' (1935)

''Show Boat'' (1936)

''Song of Freedom'' (1936)

''Big Fella'' (1937)

''My Song Goes Forth'' (1937)

''King Solomon's Mines'' (1937)

''Jericho/Dark Sands'' (1937)

''The Proud Valley'' (1940)

''Native Land'' (1942)

''Tales of Manhattan'' (1942)

''The Song of the Rivers'' (1954)

Notes

References

Bogle, Donald (2001). ''Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films'', Fourth Edition

Boyle, Sheila Tully, and Andrew Bunie (2001). ''Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement''. University of Massachusetts Press ISBN 1-55849-149-X

Brown, Lloyd (1998) ''On My Journey Now: The Young Paul Robeson'' Basic Books ISBN 0-8133-3177-3

Duberman, Martin Bauml (1988). ''Paul Robeson'' Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. Also Reissue edition (1995) New Press. ISBN 1-56584-288-X.

Foner, Henry (2001). ''Paul Robeson: A Century of Greatness''

Foner, Philip S. (1978). ''Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, and Interviews, a Centennial Celebration''. Citadel Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 1982). 644 pages. ISBN 0-8065-0815-9.

Ford, Carin T (2001). ''Paul Robeson: "I Want to make Freedom Ring"''. Enslow Publishers

Goudsouzian, Aram. (2004). ''Sidney Poitier: man, actor, icon''. University of North Carolina Press

Naison, Mark (1998). "Paul Robeson and the American Labor Movement" in Stewart, Jeffrey C. (ed.) ''Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen''. Rutgers University Press and The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. ISBN 0-8135-2510-1 ISBN 0-8135-2511-X

Nollen, Scott Allen (2010). ''Paul Robeson: Film Pioneer.''. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-3520-8

Robeson, Eslanda. ''Paul Robeson, Negro'', V. Gollancz; 1st edition (1930) ASIN: B0006E8ML4

Robeson, Paul, Jr. (1971) "Paul Robeson: Black Warrior", in Freedomways ''The Great Forerunner'', pages 3–16

Robeson Paul, Jr. (2001) ''The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, An Artist's Journey, 1898-1939''. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-24265-9

Robeson Paul, Jr. (2010) ''The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, Quest for Freedom, 1940-1976''. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-40973-1

Robeson, Susan (1981). ''The Whole World in His Hands: A Pictorial Biography of Paul Robeson'' Citadel Press; 1st edition ISBN 0-8065-0754-3

Robinson, Eugene H. (1971) "A Distant Image: Paul Robeson and Rutgers' Students", in Freedomways ''The Great Forerunner'', pages 178–188.

Seton, Marie (1958). ''Paul Robeson''. D. Dobson.

Smethurst, James Edward (2005). ''The Black Arts Movement: literary nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s''. University of North Carolina Press

Harris, Francis C. (1998) "Paul Robeson: An Athlete's Legacy" in Stewart, Jeffrey C. (ed.) ''Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen''. Rutgers University Press and The Paul Robeson Cultural Center. ISBN 0-8135-2510-1 ISBN 0-8135-2511-X

Wright, Charles (1975) ''Paul Robeson: Labor's Forgotten Champion''. Balamp Pub Co. ISBN 0-913642-06-1

Turner, Charlotte (1986). ''Paul Robeson's Last Days in Philadelphia''

Further reading

Balaji, Murali. ''The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics and Friendship of W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson'' (Nation Books, 2007) ISBN 1-56858-355-9

Dorinson, Joseph and William Pencak with foreword by Henry Foner. ''Paul Robeson: Essays on His Life and Legacy'' (Oct 15, 2004) ISBN 0-7864-1153-8

Du Bois, Shirley Graham. ''Paul Robeson, Citizen of the World.'' (Julian Messner, June 1, 1971) ISBN 0-671-32464-0; (Greenwood Pub Group, January 1, 1972) ISBN 0-86543-468-9; (Africa World Pr, January 1, 1998), ISBN 0-86543-469-7; (Africa World Pr, April 1, 1998), ISBN 0-8371-6055-3

Dyer, Richard. ''Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society'' (London: British Film Institute, 1986; Routledge, 2003, 2nd ed.) ISBN 0-415-31026-1 Robeson is one of the three film stars profiled.

Holmes, Burnham. ''Paul Robeson: A Voice of Struggle (Heinemann Library, September 1, 1994) ISBN 0-8114-2381-6

Larsen, Rebecca. ''Paul Robeson: Hero Before His Time'' (Franklin Watts, September 1, 1989), ISBN 0-531-10779-5

McKissack, Pat, Fredrick McKissack and Michael David Biegel (illustrator). ''Paul Robeson: A Voice to Remember''. Library (Enslow Pub Inc, May 1, 2001), ISBN 0-89490-310-1

Nash, Elizabeth. "Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-Present".(Edwin Mellen Press, 2007). ISBN 0-7734-5250-8.(192-194, 438-445)

Rappaport, Louis. ''Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors Plot & The Soviet Solution'', Free Press (October 1, 1990) ISBN 0-02-925821-9

Reiner, Carl. ''How Paul Robeson Saved My Life and Other Mostly Happy Stories'' (Cliff Street Books, October 1, 1999), Cassette/Spoken Word (Dove Entertainment Inc, October 1, 1999). ISBN 0-06-019451-0

Stuckey, Sterling. ''I Want to Be African: Paul Robeson and the Ends of Nationalist Theory and Practice, 1919–1945'' (Univ of California Center for Afro, June 1, 1976) ISBN 0-934934-15-0

Wright, David K. ''Paul Robeson: Actor, Singer, Political Activist'' (Univ of California Center for Afro, June 1, 1976) ISBN 0-934934-15-0

Film documentaries about Robeson

''The Tallest Tree in Our Forest'' (1977)

''Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist'' (1979)

''Paul Robeson: Speak of Me As I Am'' (1998)

''Paul Robeson: Here I Stand'' (1999) PBS ''American Masters'', directed by St. Clair Bourne

External links

Paul Robeson digital archive at Rutgers University

Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956

Bay Area Paul Robeson Committee, non profit informational resource for Robeson

The FBI Files of Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson Biography, The Civil Rights Struggle, African American GIs, and Germany

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