Freedom Not Far Distant: 'Brother Lenin' and Soviet Emancipatory Policies in the Black Radical Imagination

• In Event: Between Cooperation and Conflict: Imagining the American and Soviet 'Other'

Abstract

This paper will explore the various ways that Black radicals in the United States ranging from committed (and not so committed) communists to unapologetic Black nationalists imagined “Brother Lenin” and various Soviet emancipatory policies with which they often associated him. Physical travel to the Soviet Union was not required to inspire such “imaginings.” Rather American condemnation of the Soviet menace combined with the harsh realities of anti-Blackness encouraged investment in the socio-economic and cultural policies of an enlightened “elsewhere” that could be transferred to and implemented in the United States and beyond.

Author

• Meredith L Roman, SUNY Brockport