Americans in Revolutionary Russia: Three Visions of Freedom and Liberation

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel will examine the views of three American eyewitnesses to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917-1918. Among the many other Americans who witnessed the revolutionary age, Richard Washburn Child, Paul B. Anderson, and Albert Rhys Williams provide distinctive insights into the revolutionary age. Child believed that the U.S. government should partner with the new Soviet government as quickly as possible to ensure the liberation of the Soviet people and help place them on a path toward modernity. Anderson focused most of his work on the YMCA efforts in Russia to aid prisoners, soldiers, and refugees during the turmoil. Williams worked directly with the new Soviet government by helping spread propaganda for revolution among the German soldiers, but his path out of Russia would be filled with many trials in Russia and the United States. Taken together, these three Americans illustrate varied visions of liberation for the Russian people during this tumultuous time.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Lyubov A Ginzburg, Independent Scholar

Papers

• Power and Potential: Richard Washburn Child’s Assessment of Russia, 1916 - Lee A. Farrow, Auburn U at Montgomery

• From the Winter Palace to Lubianka: Paul B. Anderson in Petrograd and Moscow, 1917-1918 - Matt Lee Miller, U of Northwestern-St. Paul

• The Liberation of Albert Rhys Williams: 1918 and the Trip Home - William Benton Whisenhunt, College of DuPage

Discussant

• Michael Vincent Paulauskas, Middle Tennessee State U