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Robeson's political statements and activism, including sympathies expressed towards the Soviet Union, [[Lenin]], [[Mao Zedong]], [[Josip Broz Tito]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] were the subject of great controversy in the mass media, in particular rumors of membership in the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]].

Robeson's political statements and activism, including sympathies expressed towards the Soviet Union, [[Lenin]], [[Mao Zedong]], [[Josip Broz Tito]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] were the subject of great controversy in the mass media, in particular rumors of membership in the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]].

Robeson first visited the Soviet Union in 1934, during<ref>[http://ukrainians.rutgers.edu/holodomor.htm Holodomor], Ukrainian Students Club, Rutgers University</ref> a genocide<ref>[http://www.ioir.se/ukrfamine.htm Final Report of the International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–1933 Famine in Ukraine]. Cf. [http://www.ukrainiangenocide.org/dsovietpolicyandukrainiangenocide.html Soviet Policy and the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33], Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation - USA</ref> in which the Soviet government intentionally<ref>United States Commission on the Ukrainian Famine, [http://genocidecurriculum.org/category/curriculum-resources/general-archive/united-states-congressional-commission-on-the-ukrainian-famine/1report-to-congress/ Investigation of the Ukrainian Famine], April 19, 1988. Cf. Volodymyr Vassylenko, [http://www.mfa.gov.ua/slovenia/en/19708.htm The Ukrainian Holodomor of 1932-33 as a Crime of Genocide: A Legal Assessment], Kiev 2009; Katya Mischenko-Mycyk, [http://www.ukrainiangenocide.org/htestimonytext.html Testimony Presented to the Elementary & Secondary Education Committee Hearing], February 9, 2005. HB0312, 94th General Assembly, SCH CD-GENOCIDE STUDY</ref> murdered some 14 million of its own citizens through deliberate starvation<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807, pp. 306, 327</ref> in an engineered famine.<ref>Askold Krushelnycky, [http://www.ukemonde.com/news/rferl.html Stalin's Starvation of Ukraine – Seventy Years Later, World Still Largely Unaware Of Tragedy], Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 8, 2003</ref> Upon his return, the official Communist Party organ ''The Daily Worker'' published an interview with Robeson, in which he gushed about the "workers' paradise":<ref>Vern Smith, "[http://revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv4n2/ussrpr.htm 'I Am at Home,' Says Robeson at Reception in Soviet Union]," ''The Daily Worker'', January 15, 1935, quoted in Philip Sheldon Foner, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=V_CJfbpKOLwC Paul Robeson speaks: writings, speeches, interviews, 1918-1974]'' (Citadel Press, 2002) ISBN 0806508159, p. 95</ref>

Robeson first visited the Soviet Union in 1934, during<ref>[http://ukrainians.rutgers.edu/holodomor.htm Holodomor], Ukrainian Students Club, Rutgers University</ref> a genocide<ref>[http://www.ioir.se/ukrfamine.htm Final Report of the International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–1933 Famine in Ukraine]. Cf. [http://www.ukrainiangenocide.org/dsovietpolicyandukrainiangenocide.html Soviet Policy and the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33], Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation - USA</ref> in which the Soviet government intentionally<ref>United States Commission on the Ukrainian Famine, [http://genocidecurriculum.org/category/curriculum-resources/general-archive/united-states-congressional-commission-on-the-ukrainian-famine/1report-to-congress/ Investigation of the Ukrainian Famine], April 19, 1988. Cf. Volodymyr Vassylenko, [http://www.mfa.gov.ua/slovenia/en/19708.htm The Ukrainian Holodomor of 1932-33 as a Crime of Genocide: A Legal Assessment], Kiev 2009; Katya Mischenko-Mycyk, [http://www.ukrainiangenocide.org/htestimonytext.html Testimony Presented to the Elementary & Secondary Education Committee Hearing], February 9, 2005. HB0312, 94th General Assembly, SCH CD-GENOCIDE STUDY</ref> murdered some 14 million of its own citizens through deliberate starvation<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807, pp. 306, 327</ref> in an engineered famine.<ref>Askold Krushelnycky, [http://www.ukemonde.com/news/rferl.html Stalin's Starvation of Ukraine – Seventy Years Later, World Still Largely Unaware Of Tragedy], Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 8, 2003</ref> Upon his return, the official Communist Party organ ''The Daily Worker'' published an interview with Robeson, in which he gushed about the "workers' paradise":<ref>Vern Smith, "[http://revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv4n2/ussrpr.htm 'I Am at Home,' Says Robeson at Reception in Soviet Union]," ''The Daily Worker'', January 15, 1935, quoted in Philip Sheldon Foner, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=V_CJfbpKOLwC Paul Robeson speaks: writings, speeches, interviews, 1918-1974]'' (Citadel Press, 2002) ISBN 0806508159, p. 95</ref>

{{cquote|I was not prepared for the happiness I see on every face in Moscow," said Robeson. "I was aware that there was no starvation here, but I was not prepared for the bounding life; the feeling of safety and abundance and freedom that I find here, wherever I turn. I was not prepared for the endless friendliness, which surrounded me from the moment I crossed the border. I had a technically irregular passport, but all this was brushed aside by the eager helpfulness of the border authorities.}}

{{cquote|I was not prepared for the happiness I see on every face in Moscow," said Robeson. "I was aware that there was no starvation here, but I was not prepared for the bounding life; the feeling of safety and abundance and freedom that I find here, wherever I turn. I was not prepared for the endless friendliness, which surrounded me from the moment I crossed the border. I had a technically irregular passport, but all this was brushed aside by the eager helpfulness of the border authorities.}}

{{Cquote|[W]e were told, under threat of expulsion, never to reveal that Paul Robeson was a member of the Communist Party because Paul Robeson's assignment was highly confidential and secret... Paul's assignment was to work among the intellectuals, the professionals and artists that the party was seeking to penetrate and influence along communist lines. As long as Paul Robeson's identity with the party was kept secret, so long would his work among these groups be effective and serve the best interests of the party...<ref>Manning Johnson testimony, July 14, 1949, [http://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofu0304unit#page/4497/mode/1up ''Testimony of Paul Robeson,''] Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports - Part 3, Hearings before the Un-American Activities Committee, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress Second Session, June 12 and 13, 1956, p. 4497. Cf. ''The Media Falsify Robeson's Record,'' AIM Report, March 1976, pp. 5-6, cited in Cliff Kincaid, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], USAsurvival.org, pp. 4-5</ref>}}

{{Cquote|[W]e were told, under threat of expulsion, never to reveal that Paul Robeson was a member of the Communist Party because Paul Robeson's assignment was highly confidential and secret... Paul's assignment was to work among the intellectuals, the professionals and artists that the party was seeking to penetrate and influence along communist lines. As long as Paul Robeson's identity with the party was kept secret, so long would his work among these groups be effective and serve the best interests of the party...<ref>Manning Johnson testimony, July 14, 1949, [http://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofu0304unit#page/4497/mode/1up ''Testimony of Paul Robeson,''] Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports - Part 3, Hearings before the Un-American Activities Committee, House of Representatives, Eighty-fourth Congress Second Session, June 12 and 13, 1956, p. 4497. Cf. ''The Media Falsify Robeson's Record,'' AIM Report, March 1976, pp. 5-6, cited in Cliff Kincaid, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], USAsurvival.org, pp. 4-5</ref>}}

Asked about this himself, Robeson refused to answer on grounds of potential self-incrimination,<ref>Ralph F. Young, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=_LLtAAAAMAAJ Dissent in America: Voices That Shaped a Nation]'' (Pearson Longman, 2008) ISBN 0205605419, p. 325</ref> but his son, Paul Robeson, Jr. (who admits being a member of the Communist Party from about 1948 to 1962) claimed that his father "never joined the Communist Party."<ref>Arnold H. Lubasch, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/garden/in-harlem-with-paul-robeson-jr-finding-his-own-voice-and-learning-to-use-it.html?pagewanted=all IN HARLEM WITH: Paul Robeson Jr.; Finding His Own Voice And Learning to Use It]," ''The New York Times'', October 21, 1993</ref> As his father's "official biographer," Robeson, Jr., selected Martin Duberman&mdash;in part (according to Duberman) because of "my left-wing views"<ref>Martin Duberman, "[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/297.html Writing Robeson]," ''The Nation'', December 28, 1998</ref>&mdash;who also claimed in his 1988 biography that Robeson "was never a member of CPUSA, never a functionary, never a participant in its daily bureaucratic operations."<ref name=dubermanpages/>

Asked about this himself, Robeson refused to answer on grounds of potential self-incrimination,<ref>Ralph F. Young, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_LLtAAAAMAAJ Dissent in America: Voices That Shaped a Nation]'' (Pearson Longman, 2008) ISBN 0205605419, p. 325</ref> but his son, Paul Robeson, Jr. (who admits being a member of the Communist Party from about 1948 to 1962) claimed that his father "never joined the Communist Party."<ref>Arnold H. Lubasch, "[https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/garden/in-harlem-with-paul-robeson-jr-finding-his-own-voice-and-learning-to-use-it.html?pagewanted=all IN HARLEM WITH: Paul Robeson Jr.; Finding His Own Voice And Learning to Use It]," ''The New York Times'', October 21, 1993</ref> As his father's "official biographer," Robeson, Jr., selected Martin Duberman&mdash;in part (according to Duberman) because of "my left-wing views"<ref>Martin Duberman, "[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/297.html Writing Robeson]," ''The Nation'', December 28, 1998</ref>&mdash;who also claimed in his 1988 biography that Robeson "was never a member of CPUSA, never a functionary, never a participant in its daily bureaucratic operations."<ref name=dubermanpages/>

A decade after Duberman's book appeared, however, this claim would be undermined by no less an authority than the Communist Party itself. According to Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College:

A decade after Duberman's book appeared, however, this claim would be undermined by no less an authority than the Communist Party itself. According to Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College:

{{cquote|In May 1998, the centennial of Robeson's birth, longtime CPUSA head Gus Hall finally, proudly revealed the truth.

{{cquote|In May 1998, the centennial of Robeson's birth, longtime CPUSA head Gus Hall finally, proudly revealed the truth.

In this birthday tribute to "Comrade Paul," Hall and CPUSA came bearing gifts. "We have a birthday present for Paul that no one else can give," said Hall, "the full truth and nothing but the truth." And what's that truth? "Paul was a proud member of the Communist Party USA," stated Hall unequivocally. Paul had been a man of communist "conviction." This was "an indelible fact of Paul's life," in "every way, every day of his adult life." He "never forgot he was a Communist."<ref>Paul Kengor, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JUQ0O1gMSfMC The Communist]'' (Simon and Schuster, 2012) ISBN 1451698097, pp. 270-271; Cf. Paul Kengor, "[http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/30/the-nations-top-50-progressive/print The Nation's Top 50 Progressives… and Socialists and Communists]," ''The American Spectator'', March 30, 2012</ref>}}

In this birthday tribute to "Comrade Paul," Hall and CPUSA came bearing gifts. "We have a birthday present for Paul that no one else can give," said Hall, "the full truth and nothing but the truth." And what's that truth? "Paul was a proud member of the Communist Party USA," stated Hall unequivocally. Paul had been a man of communist "conviction." This was "an indelible fact of Paul's life," in "every way, every day of his adult life." He "never forgot he was a Communist."<ref>Paul Kengor, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=JUQ0O1gMSfMC The Communist]'' (Simon and Schuster, 2012) ISBN 1451698097, pp. 270-271; Cf. Paul Kengor, "[http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/30/the-nations-top-50-progressive/print The Nation's Top 50 Progressives… and Socialists and Communists]," ''The American Spectator'', March 30, 2012</ref>}}

The Communist Party reprinted Hall's tribute an a pamphlet entitled ''[http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Robeson-Communist-Gus-Hall/dp/B0006QXVGS/ Paul Robeson: An American Communist].'' Robeson was a secret member of the CPUSA but, wrote Hall, "The U.S. Ruling Class and its corporate-ruled government made it impossible for Paul to declare his commitment to the Communist Party and a socialist USA."<ref name="usasurvival.org">Cliff Kincaid, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], USAsurvival.org, p. 5</ref> According to [http://wernercohn.com/ Werner Cohn], professor emeritus of sociology at the University of British Columbia,<ref>[http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/cohn.html#bio Biographical Sketch], Werner Cohn fonds, University of British Columbia Archives</ref> Hall wrote:

The Communist Party reprinted Hall's tribute an a pamphlet entitled ''[http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Robeson-Communist-Gus-Hall/dp/B0006QXVGS/ Paul Robeson: An American Communist].'' Robeson was a secret member of the CPUSA but, wrote Hall, "The U.S. Ruling Class and its corporate-ruled government made it impossible for Paul to declare his commitment to the Communist Party and a socialist USA."<ref name="usasurvival.org">Cliff Kincaid, [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], USAsurvival.org, p. 5</ref> According to [http://wernercohn.com/ Werner Cohn], professor emeritus of sociology at the University of British Columbia,<ref>[http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/cohn.html#bio Biographical Sketch], Werner Cohn fonds, University of British Columbia Archives</ref> Hall wrote:

{{Cquote|My own most precious moments with Paul were when I met with him to accept his dues and renew his yearly membership in the CPUSA. I and other Communist leaders like Henry Winston, the Party's late, beloved national chair, met with Paul to brief him on politics and Party policies and to discuss his work and struggles."<ref>Werner Cohn, "[http://www.amazon.com/review/R323I3TZ2LOB18/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323I3TZ2LOB18 Inadequate]," Review of ''Comrades!: A History of World Communism'' by Robert Service, Amazon.com</ref>"}}

{{Cquote|My own most precious moments with Paul were when I met with him to accept his dues and renew his yearly membership in the CPUSA. I and other Communist leaders like Henry Winston, the Party's late, beloved national chair, met with Paul to brief him on politics and Party policies and to discuss his work and struggles."<ref>Werner Cohn, "[http://www.amazon.com/review/R323I3TZ2LOB18/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323I3TZ2LOB18 Inadequate]," Review of ''Comrades!: A History of World Communism'' by Robert Service, Amazon.com</ref>"}}

====Betrayal of Pfeffer====

====Betrayal of Pfeffer====

During a 1948 visit to the [[Soviet Union]], Robeson asked to see his friend, Solomon Mikhoels, director of the Moscow Jewish Theater. Mikhoels had recently been brutally murdered on Stalin's personal orders<ref>{{cite book |title=Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia |last=Figes |first=Orlando |year=2002 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=0805057838 |page=507 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lY9PpGQ3Ec4C |accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref> in one of the dictator's periodic anti-Semitic pogroms, this one against "rootless cosmopolitanism" and Zionism.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stalin: The Man and His Era |last=Ulam |first=Adam Bruno |year=2007 |publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks |location=London |isbn=1845114221 |page=684 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=gOImZ1q6v2MC |accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref> Told that Mikhoels was traveling, Robeson asked to see another friend, [[Yiddish]] poet Itzik Pfeffer, who had disappeared three years previously and not been seen since. A meeting was arranged.

During a 1948 visit to the [[Soviet Union]], Robeson asked to see his friend, Solomon Mikhoels, director of the Moscow Jewish Theater. Mikhoels had recently been brutally murdered on Stalin's personal orders<ref>{{cite book |title=Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia |last=Figes |first=Orlando |year=2002 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=0805057838 |page=507 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lY9PpGQ3Ec4C |accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref> in one of the dictator's periodic anti-Semitic pogroms, this one against "rootless cosmopolitanism" and Zionism.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stalin: The Man and His Era |last=Ulam |first=Adam Bruno |year=2007 |publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks |location=London |isbn=1845114221 |page=684 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gOImZ1q6v2MC |accessdate=25 August 2010}}</ref> Told that Mikhoels was traveling, Robeson asked to see another friend, [[Yiddish]] poet Itzik Pfeffer, who had disappeared three years previously and not been seen since. A meeting was arranged.

His friend<ref>{{cite book |title=The undiscovered Paul Robeson: an artist's journey, 1898-1939 |last=Robeson |first=Paul |year=2001 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471242659 |page=329 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> Herbert Marshall would write after Robeson's death in 1976 that Pera Attasheva, widow of Soviet propaganda-film director Sergei Eisenstein, told him that for his meeting with Robeson, Pfeffer “had actually been brought from the Lubyanka prison. Pfeffer had been specially groomed and dressed and warned to behave properly, to pretend that everything was normal. He had, and then he was taken back to the KGB prison. Some time later he was executed, as one of a host of Yiddish intellectuals who were liquidated at the same time.”<ref>Herbert Marshall, "Obituary: Paul Robeson (1898-1976)," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=15&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 17] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), (Spring 1976), p. 4</ref>

His friend<ref>{{cite book |title=The undiscovered Paul Robeson: an artist's journey, 1898-1939 |last=Robeson |first=Paul |year=2001 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471242659 |page=329 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> Herbert Marshall would write after Robeson's death in 1976 that Pera Attasheva, widow of Soviet propaganda-film director Sergei Eisenstein, told him that for his meeting with Robeson, Pfeffer “had actually been brought from the Lubyanka prison. Pfeffer had been specially groomed and dressed and warned to behave properly, to pretend that everything was normal. He had, and then he was taken back to the KGB prison. Some time later he was executed, as one of a host of Yiddish intellectuals who were liquidated at the same time.”<ref>Herbert Marshall, "Obituary: Paul Robeson (1898-1976)," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=15&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 17] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), (Spring 1976), p. 4</ref>

Robeson's son vociferously denied this story, writing to Marshall, “Your description of events that supposedly occurred during two of Paul Robeson's post-war visits to the U.S.S.R. are wholly false according to my father's personal recounting of these events to me.”<ref>Letter from Paul Robeson, Jr. to Herbert Marshall, April 29, 1976, reprinted in Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 1</ref> But two decades later, Robeson, Jr., would admit that Attasheva's story actually was true. “Pfeffer had disappeared, nobody knew where he was,” he said. “He had been arrested, he was sitting in the Lubyanka Prison.” According to Mikhoels' daughter, “There were rumors that during the third-degree they tore his [Pfeffer's] finger nails out.”<ref>“Ходили слухи, что на допросах у Фефера вырвали ногти.” Наталия Михоэлс-Вовси, "Убийство Михоэлса," [http://www.belousenko.com/vremya_i_my/vremya_i_my_3.pdf ''Время и Мы: журнал литературы и общественных проблем'', No. 3] (Январь 1976), Тель-Авив (Natalya Mikhoels-Vovsi, "The Assassination of Mikhoels," ''Time and We: the journal of literature and public problems'', No. 3 [January 1976], pp. 173-197 [PDF 88-100]) Quote appears on p. 190 (PDF p. 97). The English translation used here is from Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 4</ref> After Robeson asked to see him, said his son, the NKVD “gathered him [Pfeffer] up, sent him home, dressed him up, gave him a meal and turned him loose in the lobby of the hotel, he couldn't run anywhere...”<ref name="Interview transcripts">[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson2.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

Robeson's son vociferously denied this story, writing to Marshall, “Your description of events that supposedly occurred during two of Paul Robeson's post-war visits to the U.S.S.R. are wholly false according to my father's personal recounting of these events to me.”<ref>Letter from Paul Robeson, Jr. to Herbert Marshall, April 29, 1976, reprinted in Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies, No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 1</ref> But two decades later, Robeson, Jr., would admit that Attasheva's story actually was true. “Pfeffer had disappeared, nobody knew where he was,” he said. “He had been arrested, he was sitting in the Lubyanka Prison.” According to Mikhoels' daughter, “There were rumors that during the third-degree they tore his [Pfeffer's] finger nails out.”<ref>“Ходили слухи, что на допросах у Фефера вырвали ногти.” Наталия Михоэлс-Вовси, "Убийство Михоэлса," [http://www.belousenko.com/vremya_i_my/vremya_i_my_3.pdf ''Время и Мы: журнал литературы и общественных проблем'', No. 3] (Январь 1976), Тель-Авив (Natalya Mikhoels-Vovsi, "The Assassination of Mikhoels," ''Time and We: the journal of literature and public problems'', No. 3 [January 1976], pp. 173-197 [PDF 88-100]) Quote appears on p. 190 (PDF p. 97). The English translation used here is from Herbert Marshall, "Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath," [http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies No. 18] (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) (Fall 1976), p. 4</ref> After Robeson asked to see him, said his son, the NKVD “gathered him [Pfeffer] up, sent him home, dressed him up, gave him a meal and turned him loose in the lobby of the hotel, he couldn't run anywhere...”<ref name="Interview transcripts">[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson2.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [https://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

After “Feffer [sic] indicated with gestures that the hotel suite was bugged,” he made small talk while “using sign language and notes on scrap paper,” to tell Robeson about “Stalin's 1948 purge of the leading Jewish intellectuals.” Feffer “peered through the spread fingers of his hands to indicate he was in prison.” Robeson “handed Feffer a one-word note: 'Mikhoels?' Feffer wrote, 'Murdered on Stalin's order.'”<ref>{{cite book |title=The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976 |last=Robeson, Jr. |first=Paul |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471409731 |page=153 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> According to Robeson's son, “dad asked him, well what's going to happen to you and some of his friends who had also disappeared, others. So Pfeffer told a funny joke as he drew his finger cross his throat, meaning that they're going to shoot us.”<ref name="Interview transcripts"/> Pfeffer begged Robeson to tell the world the truth, pleading, "''They're going to kill us. When you return to America, you must speak out and save us''."<ref name="books.google.com">Tim Tzouliadis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FeR9R-cpFRsC The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia]'' (Penguin Group, 2008) ISBN 1594201684, p. 268</ref> (Italics in original.)  

After “Feffer [sic] indicated with gestures that the hotel suite was bugged,” he made small talk while “using sign language and notes on scrap paper,” to tell Robeson about “Stalin's 1948 purge of the leading Jewish intellectuals.” Feffer “peered through the spread fingers of his hands to indicate he was in prison.” Robeson “handed Feffer a one-word note: 'Mikhoels?' Feffer wrote, 'Murdered on Stalin's order.'”<ref>{{cite book |title=The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: Quest for Freedom, 1939-1976 |last=Robeson, Jr. |first=Paul |year=2010 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, N.J. |isbn=0471409731 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H0k2fhNWzwAC |accessdate=24 August 2010}}</ref> According to Robeson's son, “dad asked him, well what's going to happen to you and some of his friends who had also disappeared, others. So Pfeffer told a funny joke as he drew his finger cross his throat, meaning that they're going to shoot us.”<ref name="Interview transcripts"/> Pfeffer begged Robeson to tell the world the truth, pleading, "''They're going to kill us. When you return to America, you must speak out and save us''."<ref name="books.google.com">Tim Tzouliadis, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FeR9R-cpFRsC The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia]'' (Penguin Group, 2008) ISBN 1594201684, p. 268</ref> (Italics in original.)  

After leaving the meeting, said his son, Robeson “tore up the little notes and burned 'em in an ash tray, flushed them down the toilet...”<ref name="Interview transcripts"/>

After leaving the meeting, said his son, Robeson “tore up the little notes and burned 'em in an ash tray, flushed them down the toilet...”<ref name="Interview transcripts"/>

According to Robeson, Jr., “dad followed up by writing a letter direct to Stalin [on Pfeffer's behalf], through diplomatic channels, along with Howard Fast, the famous left-wing [actually Communist]<ref>Elizabeth Dutertre, "Insights into the 'Small Terror': An Account Assembled from the Writings of Howard Fast," in Jean-Robert Rougé, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zwfhUdsvJnEC L'anticommunisme aux États-Unis de 1946 à 1954]'' (Presses Paris Sorbonne, 1995) ISBN 2840500566, p. 191</ref> writer here and Frederich Joliot-Curie, who was the famous French physicist and a Communist.” This alleged letter apparently failed to move Stalin. Pfeffer and his colleagues were executed in 1952.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson3.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

According to Robeson, Jr., “dad followed up by writing a letter direct to Stalin [on Pfeffer's behalf], through diplomatic channels, along with Howard Fast, the famous left-wing [actually Communist]<ref>Elizabeth Dutertre, "Insights into the 'Small Terror': An Account Assembled from the Writings of Howard Fast," in Jean-Robert Rougé, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zwfhUdsvJnEC L'anticommunisme aux États-Unis de 1946 à 1954]'' (Presses Paris Sorbonne, 1995) ISBN 2840500566, p. 191</ref> writer here and Frederich Joliot-Curie, who was the famous French physicist and a Communist.” This alleged letter apparently failed to move Stalin. Pfeffer and his colleagues were executed in 1952.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson3.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr. (Part 2)] (Episode 6: Reds, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/ Interview transcripts], “Cold War,” [https://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

Back in the U.S., instead of denouncing Pfeffer's murder, Robeson lied, denouncing reports of the pogrom as anti-Soviet propaganda. In the Soviet Union he had "met Jewish people all over the place," he told a reporter, and "heard no word about it."<ref name="books.google.com"/> Robeson eventually confessed the truth to his son, making him vow not to make the story public until well after Robeson's death, "because he had promised himself that he would never publicly criticize the USSR."<ref>Louis Rapoport, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=5rZtAAAAMAAJ Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors' Plot and the Soviet Solution]'' (Free Press, 1990) ISBN 0029258219, p. 116</ref>

Back in the U.S., instead of denouncing Pfeffer's murder, Robeson lied, denouncing reports of the pogrom as anti-Soviet propaganda. In the Soviet Union he had "met Jewish people all over the place," he told a reporter, and "heard no word about it."<ref name="books.google.com"/> Robeson eventually confessed the truth to his son, making him vow not to make the story public until well after Robeson's death, "because he had promised himself that he would never publicly criticize the USSR."<ref>Louis Rapoport, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5rZtAAAAMAAJ Stalin's War Against the Jews: The Doctors' Plot and the Soviet Solution]'' (Free Press, 1990) ISBN 0029258219, p. 116</ref>

====Selective civil rights====

====Selective civil rights====

====On African American loyalty====

====On African American loyalty====

His Stalinism also led Robeson to to suggest that African Americans were disloyal, by saying that they would not defend the United States from Soviet aggression. At a 1949 Paris conference sponsored by the Soviet Union, he sang "[http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/history/history/hill.cfm Joe Hill]"<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson1.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr.], "Cold War" ([http://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), National Security Archive, George Washington University</ref> (a song honoring the [[IWW]] member convicted of murder and executed in 1915) and said, "It is unthinkable that American Negroes could go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against the Soviet Union, which in one generation has raised our people to full human dignity."<ref>Freedomways, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=L8pcRKhKjdoC Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner]'' (International Publishers, 1998) ISBN 071780724X, p. 320</ref> In the official organ of the Communist Party, he expanded the claim to international scale: "At the Paris Conference I said it was unthinkable that the Negro people of America or elsewhere in the world could be drawn into war with the Soviet Union. I repeat it with hundredfold emphasis: They will not."<ref>Paul Robeson, “I Am Looking for Full Freedom,” ''The Worker'', July 3, 1949. Cf. [http://ia341028.us.archive.org/3/items/investigationofu0304unit/investigationofu0304unit_bw.pdf Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports&mdash;Part 3], Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, 84th Cong., 2d sess. June 12–13, 1956 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1956), p. 4502 (PDF p. 22); Sheldon Foner, ed., "[http://books.google.com/books?id=V_CJfbpKOLwC Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918-1974]" (Citadel Press, 1978) ISBN 0806508159, p. 424</ref> He later expanded this claim further to to include not just race but class: "And it seemed and still seems unthinkable to me that colored or working folk anywhere would continue to rush to die for those who own most of the stocks and bonds, under the guise of false patriotism."<ref>Sheldon Foner, ed., "[http://books.google.com/books?id=V_CJfbpKOLwC Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918-1974]" (Citadel Press, 1978) ISBN 0806508159, p. 344</ref>

His Stalinism also led Robeson to to suggest that African Americans were disloyal, by saying that they would not defend the United States from Soviet aggression. At a 1949 Paris conference sponsored by the Soviet Union, he sang "[http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/history/history/hill.cfm Joe Hill]"<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-6/robeson1.html Interview with Paul Robeson, Jnr.], "Cold War" ([https://www.cnn.com/ CNN]), National Security Archive, George Washington University</ref> (a song honoring the [[IWW]] member convicted of murder and executed in 1915) and said, "It is unthinkable that American Negroes could go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against the Soviet Union, which in one generation has raised our people to full human dignity."<ref>Freedomways, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=L8pcRKhKjdoC Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner]'' (International Publishers, 1998) ISBN 071780724X, p. 320</ref> In the official organ of the Communist Party, he expanded the claim to international scale: "At the Paris Conference I said it was unthinkable that the Negro people of America or elsewhere in the world could be drawn into war with the Soviet Union. I repeat it with hundredfold emphasis: They will not."<ref>Paul Robeson, “I Am Looking for Full Freedom,” ''The Worker'', July 3, 1949. Cf. [http://ia341028.us.archive.org/3/items/investigationofu0304unit/investigationofu0304unit_bw.pdf Investigation of the Unauthorized Use of United States Passports&mdash;Part 3], Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, 84th Cong., 2d sess. June 12–13, 1956 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1956), p. 4502 (PDF p. 22); Sheldon Foner, ed., "[https://books.google.com/books?id=V_CJfbpKOLwC Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918-1974]" (Citadel Press, 1978) ISBN 0806508159, p. 424</ref> He later expanded this claim further to to include not just race but class: "And it seemed and still seems unthinkable to me that colored or working folk anywhere would continue to rush to die for those who own most of the stocks and bonds, under the guise of false patriotism."<ref>Sheldon Foner, ed., "[https://books.google.com/books?id=V_CJfbpKOLwC Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, Interviews, 1918-1974]" (Citadel Press, 1978) ISBN 0806508159, p. 344</ref>

This pronouncement drew public rebukes from African-American labor leader A. Philip Randolph, international president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the largest black labor union;<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F11FD355F177B93C5A9178AD95F4D8485F9 Robeson Criticized by Negro Union Head]," ''The New York Times'', November 7, 1949, p. 23</ref> by the National Urban League, which issued a resolution condemning exploitation of the race issue by "totalitarian forces of whatever persuasion";<ref>Doris Greenberg, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00612F73C5F177B93CBA91782D85F4D8485F9 Urban League Set to Chide Robeson; Leaders Draft Statement for Approval Today Condemning Exploiting of Race Issue]," ''The New York Times'', September 9, 1949, p. 15</ref> and by Sugar Ray Robinson, frequently cited as the [http://books.google.com/books?id=epmdK0ggpIEC greatest boxer] of all time, who told a reporter that if he ever crossed paths with Robeson he would "punch him in the mouth."<ref>Michael C. Moynihan, "[http://reason.com/archives/2008/10/23/socialist-is-not-a-racist-smea 'Socialist' Is Not A Racist Smear]," ''Reason'', October 23, 2008</ref>

This pronouncement drew public rebukes from African-American labor leader A. Philip Randolph, international president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the largest black labor union;<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F11FD355F177B93C5A9178AD95F4D8485F9 Robeson Criticized by Negro Union Head]," ''The New York Times'', November 7, 1949, p. 23</ref> by the National Urban League, which issued a resolution condemning exploitation of the race issue by "totalitarian forces of whatever persuasion";<ref>Doris Greenberg, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00612F73C5F177B93CBA91782D85F4D8485F9 Urban League Set to Chide Robeson; Leaders Draft Statement for Approval Today Condemning Exploiting of Race Issue]," ''The New York Times'', September 9, 1949, p. 15</ref> and by Sugar Ray Robinson, frequently cited as the [https://books.google.com/books?id=epmdK0ggpIEC greatest boxer] of all time, who told a reporter that if he ever crossed paths with Robeson he would "punch him in the mouth."<ref>Michael C. Moynihan, "[http://reason.com/archives/2008/10/23/socialist-is-not-a-racist-smea 'Socialist' Is Not A Racist Smear]," ''Reason'', October 23, 2008</ref>

Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League Baseball, said he would fight for the United States against the Soviet Union or any aggressor because "I want my kid to have the things that I have," and offered to make a statement before Congress to that effect.<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70916FB3A5A157B93CBA9178CD85F4D8485F9 Jackie Robinson Disputes Robeson; Baseball Star Offers to Tell House Group He Would Fight Against Russia]," ''The New York Times'', July 9, 1949, p. 8</ref> "[C]ommunists kick up a big fuss over racial discrimination when it suits their purposes," said Robinson. But he was sure, he said, that most African Americans would "do their best to help their country win the war&mdash;against Russia, or any other enemy that threatened us...." Robeson's statement, said Robinson, "sounds very silly to me.... no one has ever questioned my race's loyalty except a few people who don't amount to very much.... one Negro, speaking to a Communist group in Paris, threatens an organized boycott by 15 million members of his race."

Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play Major League Baseball, said he would fight for the United States against the Soviet Union or any aggressor because "I want my kid to have the things that I have," and offered to make a statement before Congress to that effect.<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70916FB3A5A157B93CBA9178CD85F4D8485F9 Jackie Robinson Disputes Robeson; Baseball Star Offers to Tell House Group He Would Fight Against Russia]," ''The New York Times'', July 9, 1949, p. 8</ref> "[C]ommunists kick up a big fuss over racial discrimination when it suits their purposes," said Robinson. But he was sure, he said, that most African Americans would "do their best to help their country win the war&mdash;against Russia, or any other enemy that threatened us...." Robeson's statement, said Robinson, "sounds very silly to me.... no one has ever questioned my race's loyalty except a few people who don't amount to very much.... one Negro, speaking to a Communist group in Paris, threatens an organized boycott by 15 million members of his race."

{{cquote|I can't speak for any 15 million people any more than any other one person can, but I know that I've got too much invested for my wife and my child and myself, in the future of this country... to throw it away because of a siren song sung in bass."

{{cquote|I can't speak for any 15 million people any more than any other one person can, but I know that I've got too much invested for my wife and my child and myself, in the future of this country... to throw it away because of a siren song sung in bass."

I am a religious man. Therefore I cherish America where I am free to worship as I please, a privilege which some countries do not give. And I suspect that 999 out of almost any 1,000 colored Americans you meet will tell you the same thing.<ref>Testimony of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, July 18, 1949. Committee on Un-American Activities, Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Minority Groups, Vol. 1-2 (U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1950). Cf. FBI file: [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/robinson.htm Jackie Robinson], [http://foia.fbi.gov/robinson/robsn3.pdf Part 3], pp. 19-21; "[http://books.google.com/books?id=_U4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false Negroes Are Americans]," ''Life'' August 1, 1949, p. 22</ref>}}

I am a religious man. Therefore I cherish America where I am free to worship as I please, a privilege which some countries do not give. And I suspect that 999 out of almost any 1,000 colored Americans you meet will tell you the same thing.<ref>Testimony of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, July 18, 1949. Committee on Un-American Activities, Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of Minority Groups, Vol. 1-2 (U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1950). Cf. FBI file: [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/robinson.htm Jackie Robinson], [http://foia.fbi.gov/robinson/robsn3.pdf Part 3], pp. 19-21; "[https://books.google.com/books?id=_U4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false Negroes Are Americans]," ''Life'' August 1, 1949, p. 22</ref>}}

====Soviet propagandist====

====Soviet propagandist====

====Stalin Peace Prize====

====Stalin Peace Prize====

[[File:Robesonand fast.jpg|thumb|235px|right|Singer Paul Robeson (left) shortly after the [[Peekskill riots]]. [http://www.trussel.com/hf/pkphotos.htm] [[Howard Fast]] stands on the right. Fast presented Robeson with the [[Stalin Peace Prize]] in a ceremony in [[New York]] after Robeson was denied a passport to travel to [[Moscow]] to accept it. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/vieilles_annonces/3655546564/] ]]

[[File:Robesonand fast.jpg|thumb|235px|right|Singer Paul Robeson (left) shortly after the [[Peekskill riots]]. [http://www.trussel.com/hf/pkphotos.htm] [[Howard Fast]] stands on the right. Fast presented Robeson with the [[Stalin Peace Prize]] in a ceremony in [[New York]] after Robeson was denied a passport to travel to [[Moscow]] to accept it. [https://www.flickr.com/photos/vieilles_annonces/3655546564/] ]]

In 1952, notes ex-Communist [[David Horowitz]], Robeson "received a Stalin Peace Prize from the dictator himself."<ref>Horowitz, David, "Moment of Truth (for the anti-American Left)", ''Jewish World Review'', March 31, 2003''</ref> In accepting the Prize, Robeson stated, "We know how [[Truman]] betrayed the American people in their hopes for peace, how he betrayed the Negro people in their thirst for equal rights, how he tore up the [[Bill of Rights]] and subjected the whole American people to a reign of FBI-[[terror]]ization."<ref>[http://www.mltranslations.org/Miscellaneous/RobesonSPP.htm Thoughts on Winning the Stalin Peace Prize], Paul Robeson, January 1953.</ref>

In 1952, notes ex-Communist [[David Horowitz]], Robeson "received a Stalin Peace Prize from the dictator himself."<ref>Horowitz, David, "Moment of Truth (for the anti-American Left)", ''Jewish World Review'', March 31, 2003''</ref> In accepting the Prize, Robeson stated, "We know how [[Truman]] betrayed the American people in their hopes for peace, how he betrayed the Negro people in their thirst for equal rights, how he tore up the [[Bill of Rights]] and subjected the whole American people to a reign of FBI-[[terror]]ization."<ref>[http://www.mltranslations.org/Miscellaneous/RobesonSPP.htm Thoughts on Winning the Stalin Peace Prize], Paul Robeson, January 1953.</ref>

*[http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6440/ Testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities ]

*[http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6440/ Testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities ]

*[http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/robeson.htm FBI file Paul and Eslanda Robeson], 2680 pages.

*[http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/robeson.htm FBI file Paul and Eslanda Robeson], 2680 pages.

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNa726RBWcM CPUSA celebrates the life of Paul Robeson], Youtube

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNa726RBWcM CPUSA celebrates the life of Paul Robeson], Youtube

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtU3vUOa2sw Soviet Anthem sung in English by Paul Robeson]

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtU3vUOa2sw Soviet Anthem sung in English by Paul Robeson]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robeson, Paul}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robeson, Paul}}