[.ca] Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union (ISBN 0874918855)

Excellent Book. Couldn't put it down!:
You have to read this book. All I can say is, WOW! I really could not put this book down and it is a large book with approx 400 pages in the hardback form. While reading this book, I laughed and I cried. It was so powerful and so moving. It really changes what we thought we knew about Russia. I have actually traveled to Russia while it was still a communist country so I thought that this book would be a nice addition to what I already knew. Let me change that statement to, "What I thought I knew". Reading this book helped me to understand the Soviet system and made it clear to me why as Americans we were followed and why the family that put us up in their apartment were very careful when they spoke to us. It really put everything in perspective for me. I also learned a great deal about the United States and our relationship to the Soviets. I wish I could speak to Robert Robinson and shake his hand and I wish there was something that someone could do to give him back the years that the Soviet system took from him. I truly wish the book would have been bigger. I wish all of Robert Robinson's memiors were available to read. Don't wait another minute-----READ THIS BOOK!

Fabulous memoir!:
I found this book probably 15 years ago in my local library and I still remember the title, the author, and the story. It's an amazing "inside" view of real day to day living in the Soviet Union over a period of four decades. Mr. Robinson's memoir relates not only what it's like to be an American in the Soviet Union but also what it's like to be a black man in a "perfect" socialist society. We see from his first hand experience that it is not as perfect as originally advertised to him by the recruiters! But, he was able get his engineering degree which is something he would never have been able to achieve in the USA during the 1930's. I highly recommend this book!

An insider's glimpse into the Soviet system:
This book gives an interesting view of the inner workings of the Soviet system, i.e. the day to day lives of ordinary Soviet citizens in the period from 1930 to the early 1970s when the author lived there, e.g. its very strange and dysfunctional bureacracy, ordinary living standards, morale, etc. He also provides a rare glimpse into the late 1941 evacuation of Moscow to cities to the east. Additionally, he provides some insights into the workings of the Russian mind, and Russian habits. In these respects this book has great value. A small number of American blacks have gone to live in the Soviet Union, and it seems that all or most of them sooner or later became disenchanted and accused the Soviet system and people of racism. But they never seem to examine their own black racism and its set of assumptions and hostilities towards whites. Throughout Robinson's decades in the USSR, he always sought out other blacks and it seems assumed the worst of whites there whenever situations didn't match his expectations or desires. Robinson correctly points out that the Soviet system was repressive and dictatorial, but when he ultimately fled to Uganda in the early 1970s, he had little or nothing critical to say about THAT system. At that time it was run by a bloodthirsty dictator named Idi Amin Dada, who murdered about a million or so Ugandans, waged aggressive war against his neighbors, and pretty much ruined his country's economy and infrastructure. In fact, he was an international joke. Robinson mentions none of this. In spite of his accusations of America being a sort of hell-hole for people of color and in which racial injustice is an ever-present reality, America let him in as a naturalized citizen from the Caribbean and he attained a very good job at the Ford Motor Company during the depression, and even after he gave up his US citizenship whilst in the USSR, he was once again allowed entry to America and became a citizen for a second time after he fled the Soviet Union. Surely in such a racist system steeped in hatred for black people, such events could never have occurred? Robinson does not explain these 'contradictions'. This book has some script errors - for example a number of the photographs are incorrectly captioned - but aside from that I think it is a very useful read with respect to the USSR from the 1930s thru the early 1970s.

A must read for those interested in the former Soviet Union:
Robinson's book is an excellent account of 44 years inside a prison called Russia. He writes how Russians discriminated blacks while giving the image abroad of being an open and racially tolerant society. This book is both a memoir and a history book. It warns the West against the manipulative ways of Russia and cautions that Russia will never really transform into a western-style democracy. This is very relevant today, as the policies of Putin have so far demonstrated. Also, it cautions the reader against Russian chauvinism and racism. Indeed, racism is running rampant in Russia as it is evident from the frequent murders of black foreign students residing in the country. This book is a great read. I give it a FIVE.

Should be required reading:
This book chronicles the amazing life of Robert Robinson, black man, born in Jamaica, became a naturalized American citizen, was employed by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, signed a one-year contract to work in the Soviet Union and spent the next 44 years of his life there. This book should be required reading for high school students so that they can see that promises of a utopian society are not to be trusted, no matter whether that promise comes from a foreign government, or from their own government which seems to be swiftly drifting to a Soviet-style government. For those of us raised outside of a repressive society, it is hard to imagine just how difficult life must have been, and may still be for all we really know, for the citizens of the Soviet Union / Russia. When you are forced to boil film and old shoes so you can find something to eat, you know that things are very bad. I am so glad that Mr. Robinson was finally able to escape the Soviet Union and make it back to America and have his citizenship in this country restored to him. I wonder if Barry Obama has ever read this book? I doubt it.