Changes

===Communist Party membership ===

===Communist Party membership ===

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]].

According to records released under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], the [[FBI]] believed that Robeson might have joined the Party under the name "John Thomas" but "his Communist Party membership book number is not known." Robeson's biographer, Martin Duberman, alleges that "he was never a member of CPUSA, never a functionary, never a participant in its daily bureaucratic operations."<ref name=dubermanpages/> Paul Robeson, Jr. has also stated on numerous times that his father was never a member of the CPUSA.  But Robeson had been identified as a member of the CPUSA by Manning Johnson, a CPUSA member, in testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1949. Johnson revealed that:

 

According to records released under the [[Freedom of Information Act]], the [[FBI]] believed that Robeson might have joined the Party under the name "John Thomas" but "his Communist Party membership book number is not known."

 

Manning Johnson, a CPUSA member, identified Robeson as a fellow member of the Communist Party in testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1949. Johnson revealed that:

{{Cquote| ...we 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 identify 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 testified July 14, 1949.</ref><ref>[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.</ref><ref>''The Media Falsify Robeson's Record,'' AIM Report, March 1976, pages 5, 6., quoted in [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], by Herbert Romerstein, usasurbibal.org</ref>}}

{{Cquote| ...we 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 identify 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 testified July 14, 1949.</ref><ref>[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.</ref><ref>''The Media Falsify Robeson's Record,'' AIM Report, March 1976, pages 5, 6., quoted in [http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/chicago-obama.pdf ''Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection''], by Herbert Romerstein, usasurbibal.org</ref>}}

When Robeson was put under oath by the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] he refused to answer questions whether he had ever known [[Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]], [[Leon Josephson]], [[Louise Bransten]] and [[Gregory Kheifits]], the San Fransisco [[KGB]] ''[[Rezident]],'' by invoking the [[Fifth Amendment]]. Asked if he attended a meeting in the home of Louise Branston in 1945, Robeson invoked the Fifth Amendment.<ref>[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, pp. 4495-4497.</ref><ref>It was in the home of Bransten that Bransten's lover, West Coast [[Rezident|KGB Station Chief]] Gregory Kheifits, met another [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=va2.document&identifier=5034F6F1-96B6-175C-9170648C02EA02F8&sort=Collection&item=Post%20Stalin%20succession%20struggle unlisted member] of the communist party, [[J. Robert Oppenheimer]] head of the [[Manhattan project]], who agreed to share information with the KGB. Pavel Sudoplatov, Anatoli Sudoplatov, Jerrold L. Schecter, Leona P. Schecter, ''Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness -- A Soviet Spymaster'', Little Brown, Boston (1994), pp. 190, 193.</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 {{cite journal |last= Marshall |first= Herbert |title=Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath |journal=Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies |publisher=[[Southern Illinois University Carbondale]] |volume=18 |issue=Fall 1976 |page=1 |url=http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional}}</ref> But two decades years 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.” {{cite journal |last=Михоэлс-Вовси |first= Наталия |year=Январь 1976 |title=Убийство Михоэлса |journal=Время и Мы: журнал литературы и общественных проблем|publisher=Тель-Авив |url=http://www.belousenko.com/vremya_i_my/vremya_i_my_3.pdf}} ({{cite journal |last=Mikhoels-Vovsi |first=Natalya |title=The Assassination of Mikhoels |journal=Time and We: the journal of literarature and public problems)|publisher=Tel-Aviv |volume= 3 |issue=January 1976 |pages=173-197 (PDF 88-100)}} Quote appears on p. 190 (PDF p. 97). The English translation used here is from {{cite journal |last= Marshall |first= Herbert |title=Paul Robeson's Obituary&mdash;The Aftermath |journal=Bulletin of the Center for Soviet and East European Studies |publisher=[[Southern Illinois University Carbondale]] |volume=18 |issue=Fall 1976 |page=4 |url=http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=16&article=1004&context=ua_news&type=additional}}</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>[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 (TV series)|

Cold War]],” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref>

In 1988, Robeson's membership in the party was confirmed by CPUSA General Secretary [[Gus Hall]] in a pamphlet entitled, ''Paul Robeson : An American Communist.'' [http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Robeson-Communist-Gus-Hall/dp/B0006QXVGS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248300323&sr=8-1] Hall wrote,  

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 |authorlink=Paul Robeson, Jr. |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>[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 (TV series)|

{{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>http://newappeal.blogspot.com/2008/06/flawed-history-of-international.html</ref>"}}

Cold War]],” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</ref> 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>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.)

One of the most vocal contemporary conservative voices to challenge Robeson's legacy for his CPUSA membership is [[David Horowitz]] the founder of David Horowitz Freedom Center. David Horowitz mentioned in his 2006 book'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=CYqZjtVp00AC&pg=PA177&dq=Foner%2Bhorowitz The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America]'' the historian [[Eric Foner]] lauding Robeson at a 2003 teach-in at [[Columbia University]] and then responded by saying,:"It's true that Paul Robeson was never satisfied with his country. He was an icon (and member) of the American Communist Party, who 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>

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>[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 (TV series)|

Cold War]],” [http://www.cnn.com/ CNN), [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ National Security Archive], [http://www.gwu.edu/ The George Washington University].</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>

According to Robison, 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 writer here and Frederich Joliot-Curie, who was the famous French physicist and a Communist.” The 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 (TV series)|

Cold War]],” [http://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>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> 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>

Following Paul Robeson's first trip to Russia in late 1934, he became an ardent lover of not just the [[Soviet Union]] and its peoples, but Russian culture and history.<ref>Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, pg 190.</ref> Robeson became fluent in Russian, studied Russian history in depth, learned about the many national minorities (eg: Yakuts, Uzbeks, Tartars) and wrote numerous essays and articles demonstrating his deeply held beliefs that the US should seek peace and understanding with Soviet Russia.

Robeson's [[Stalinism]] extended to denying civil rights to Trotskyites, whom [[Stalin]] had labeled "objectively fascist." In 1949, President [[Harry Truman|Truman]], seeking to distract attention from the [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]-[[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]] revelations of widespread [[Communist]] penetration of the Federal government, arrested 11 leaders of the [[Communist Party]] under the [[Smith Act]]. [[Soviet]] agents such as Congressman [[Samuel Dickstein]] (D-N.Y.) (the Soviet agent code-named "Crook"), the architect of what would become [[HUAC]], had used the act in 1941 to convict 19 leaders of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Now that the [[CPUSA]] found itself attacked by the same law, some called for pardons for these SWP members. At an ironically-titled "Bill of Rights" Conference of the [[Civil Rights Congress]] (a [[Communist front]]),<ref>"...the Civil Rights Congress is an organization dedicated not to the broader issues of civil liberties, but specifically to the defense of individual Communists and the Communist Party... the organization is controlled by individuals who are either members of the Communist Party or openly loyal to it, and... in carrying out its defense aims, the organization has at the same time engaged in a campaign of vilification against the American Government." Union Calendar No. 575, House Report No. 1115, [http://ia341018.us.archive.org/0/items/reportoncivilrig1947unit/reportoncivilrig1947unit_bw.pdf Report on the Civil Rights Congress as a Communist Front Organization], Investigation of Un-American Activities in the United States, Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 80th Cong., 1st sess., Public Law 601 (Section 121, Subsection Q (2)), September 2, 1947 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 19. The organization was subsequently cited as subversive and Communist by [[Harry Truman|Truman]]'s [[Attorney General]] [[Thomas Clark|Tom Clark]] on the [[Attorney General's list]] of subversive organizations, as mandated by Truman's [[Executive Order 9835]].</ref> Robeson led the call to deny the Trotskyites' rights:

Robeson's [[Stalinism]] extended to denying civil rights to Trotskyites, whom [[Stalin]] had labeled "objectively fascist." In 1949, President [[Harry Truman|Truman]], seeking to distract attention from the [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]-[[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]] revelations of widespread [[Communist]] penetration of the Federal government, arrested 11 leaders of the [[Communist Party]] under the [[Smith Act]]. [[Soviet]] agents such as Congressman [[Samuel Dickstein]] (D-N.Y.) (the Soviet agent code-named "Crook"), the architect of what would become [[HUAC]], had used the act in 1941 to convict 19 leaders of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Now that the [[CPUSA]] found itself attacked by the same law, some called for pardons for these SWP members. At an ironically-titled "Bill of Rights" Conference of the [[Civil Rights Congress]] (a [[Communist front]]),<ref>"...the Civil Rights Congress is an organization dedicated not to the broader issues of civil liberties, but specifically to the defense of individual Communists and the Communist Party... the organization is controlled by individuals who are either members of the Communist Party or openly loyal to it, and... in carrying out its defense aims, the organization has at the same time engaged in a campaign of vilification against the American Government." Union Calendar No. 575, House Report No. 1115, [http://ia341018.us.archive.org/0/items/reportoncivilrig1947unit/reportoncivilrig1947unit_bw.pdf Report on the Civil Rights Congress as a Communist Front Organization], Investigation of Un-American Activities in the United States, Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 80th Cong., 1st sess., Public Law 601 (Section 121, Subsection Q (2)), September 2, 1947 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947), p. 19. The organization was subsequently cited as subversive and Communist by [[Harry Truman|Truman]]'s [[Attorney General]] [[Thomas Clark|Tom Clark]] on the [[Attorney General's list]] of subversive organizations, as mandated by Truman's [[Executive Order 9835]].</ref> Robeson led the call to deny the Trotskyites' rights:

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; "[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>}}

Robeson continued to support the Soviet Union despite his awareness of state sponsored intimidation and murder.<ref name=Duberman354 /> He claimed to believe that the existence of the USSR was the guarantee of political balance in the world. During a 1949 address to the [[Communist front]] [[National Council of American-Soviet Friendship]],<ref>In 1953 the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB) found that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, "advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." United States Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full%20text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board], Vol. 1 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office. 1966), p. 501.</ref> Robeson spoke:<ref>Foner, Phillip.''Paul Robeson Speaks:The Negro and The Soviet Union'', 1978, p. 237''</ref>:

His Stalinism also led Robeson to lie and betray his friends. During a 1948 visit to the [[Soviet Union]], Robeson asked to meet with his old friend, [[Yiddish]] poet Itzik Pfeffer, who had then been imprisoned in the [[Lubyanka]] for three years in one of Stalin's periodic anti-Semitic purges. Pfeffer was made presentable and taken to meet Robeson under NKVD surveillance. Pfeffer indicated by gestures and notes that Robeson's friend Solomon Mikhoels had been murdered on the orders of Stalin and that he and the other Jewish prisoners would soon be killed, and begged Robeson to tell the world the truth: "''They're going to kill us. When you return to America, you must speak out and save us''."<ref>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.) In 1952, Pfeffer was executed. Back in the U.S., instead of denouncing Pfeffer's murder, Robeson denounced reports of the killing of Pfeffer and other Jews as anti-Soviet propaganda. Robeson eventually confessed this incident 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>

 

Robeson is often criticized for continuing to support the Soviet Union despite his awareness of state sponsored intimidation and murder.<ref name=Duberman354 /> Having experienced firsthand for himself during the 1930s a climate in Russia that he perceived as free from racial prejudice and then to see no western country or superpower actively attempt any comparable commitment to the rights of minorities or blacks, Robeson indefatigably refused any pressure to publicly censure the Soviet experiment.<ref name=Duberman354 /> In his opinion, the existence of the USSR was the guarantee of political balance in the world. During a 1949 address to the [[Communist front]] [[National Council of American-Soviet Friendship]]<ref>In 1953 the [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] (SACB) found that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, "advances positions...markedly pro-Soviet and...anti-United States Government...is a Communist-action organization which has as its primary purpose to advance the objectives of the world Communist movement under the [[hegemony]] of the Soviet Union; it has the policy to support and defend the Soviet Union under any and all circumstances...We conclude that the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., is substantially directed, dominated, and controlled by the Communist Party of the United States...and is primarily operated for the purpose of giving aid and support to...the Soviet Union, a Communist foreign government." United States Subversive Activities Control Board. [http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=usfexec;cc=usfexec;q1=Barrows;rgn=full%20text;idno=81242.0001.001;didno=81242.0001.001;view=image;seq=511;page=root;size=s;endseq=3;frm=frameset Reports of the Subversive Activities Control Board], Vol. 1 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office. 1966), p. 501.</ref>

, Robeson spoke:<ref>Foner,Phillip.''Paul Robeson Speaks:The Negro and The Soviet Union'', 1978,pgs 237''</ref>:

:"Yes, all Africa remembers that it was [[Litvinov]] who stood alone beside [[Haile Selassie]] in [[Geneva]], when [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]'s sons flew with the blessings of the [[Pope]] to drop bombs on [[Ethiopian]] women and children. [[Africa]] remembers that it was the Soviet Union which fought the attempts of the Smuts to annex Southwest Africa to the slave reservation of the [[Union of South Africa]]... if the peoples of the [[Congo]] refuse to mine the uranium for the atom bombs made in [[Jim Crow]] factories in the United States; if all these peoples demand an end to floggings, an end to the farce of 'trusteeship' in the former Italian colonies.... The Soviet Union is the friend of the African and the [[West Indian]] peoples."<ref>Foner,Phillip.''Paul Robeson Speaks:The Negro and The Soviet Union'', 1978,pgs 238''</ref>:

:"Yes, all Africa remembers that it was [[Litvinov]] who stood alone beside [[Haile Selassie]] in [[Geneva]], when [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]]'s sons flew with the blessings of the [[Pope]] to drop bombs on [[Ethiopian]] women and children. [[Africa]] remembers that it was the Soviet Union which fought the attempts of the Smuts to annex Southwest Africa to the slave reservation of the [[Union of South Africa]]... if the peoples of the [[Congo]] refuse to mine the uranium for the atom bombs made in [[Jim Crow]] factories in the United States; if all these peoples demand an end to floggings, an end to the farce of 'trusteeship' in the former Italian colonies.... The Soviet Union is the friend of the African and the [[West Indian]] peoples."<ref>Foner,Phillip.''Paul Robeson Speaks:The Negro and The Soviet Union'', 1978,pgs 238''</ref>:

According to Joshua Rubenstein's book, ''Stalin's Secret Pogrom,'' Robeson also justified his support on the grounds that any public criticism of the USSR would reinforce the authority of anti-Soviet elements in the United States which, he believed, wanted a preemptive war against the Soviet Union.<ref name=Duberman354>Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, pgs 354''</ref>The serious consideration by the US of a pre-emptive strike against the USSR is documented in Gregg Herken's ,'The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950.<ref>Herken, Gregg. ''The Winning Weapon: The Atomic Bomb in the Cold War, 1945-1950'', 1980.</ref>

According to Joshua Rubenstein's book, ''Stalin's Secret Pogrom,'' Robeson also justified his support on the grounds that any public criticism of the USSR would reinforce the authority of anti-Soviet elements in the United States which, he alleged, wanted a preemptive war against the Soviet Union.<ref name=Duberman354>Duberman, Martin. ''Paul Robeson'', 1989, pgs 354''</ref>

Stalinist apologists which include Martin Duberman, [[Philip S. Foner]], Marie Seton, [[Paul Robeson Jr]] and [[Lloyd Brown]] also concur with Robeson's own words, that he felt that criticism of the Soviet Union by someone of his immense international popularity would only serve to shore up anti-communist elements in the U.S.<ref name=Duberman354 /> 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.

Stalinist apologists, including Martin Duberman, [[Philip S. Foner]], Marie Seton, [[Paul Robeson, Jr.]] and [[Lloyd Brown]] also concur with Robeson's own words, that he felt that criticism of the Soviet Union by someone of his immense international popularity would only serve to shore up anti-communist elements in the U.S.<ref name=Duberman354 /> 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.

===Stalin Peace Prize===

===Stalin Peace Prize===