Changes

{{cquote|Because of the extreme repression of the McCarthy period, Robeson was not able to publicly announce the nature of his association with the Communist Party. During the House Un-American Activities Committee's hearing, Robeson joined thousands of others and refused to answer the infamous 'are you now or have you been' question... As the centennial celebrations are taking place today, many are shamelessly going out of their way to distance Robeson from his Party. Unfortunately, if these lies go unanswered, Paul's legacy will be at war with the life he actually lived. We cannot allow the ruling class to praise him, in order to tear him down. We cannot allow them to turn Robeson into an ordinary liberal. The real Paul Robeson was no liberal&mdash;he was a freedom fighter, a revolutionary, a Communist, a 20th century giant.<ref>Quoted in [http://www.slate.com/id/1000896 Robeson Revised], Slate.com, June 22, 1998</ref>}}

{{cquote|Because of the extreme repression of the McCarthy period, Robeson was not able to publicly announce the nature of his association with the Communist Party. During the House Un-American Activities Committee's hearing, Robeson joined thousands of others and refused to answer the infamous 'are you now or have you been' question... As the centennial celebrations are taking place today, many are shamelessly going out of their way to distance Robeson from his Party. Unfortunately, if these lies go unanswered, Paul's legacy will be at war with the life he actually lived. We cannot allow the ruling class to praise him, in order to tear him down. We cannot allow them to turn Robeson into an ordinary liberal. The real Paul Robeson was no liberal&mdash;he was a freedom fighter, a revolutionary, a Communist, a 20th century giant.<ref>Quoted in [http://www.slate.com/id/1000896 Robeson Revised], Slate.com, June 22, 1998</ref>}}

==Stalinism==

===Stalinism===

Robeson had became a fanatic [[Stalinist]], for which he would lie and betray his friends. 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.

In 1934, Robeson first visited the [[Soviet Union]], becoming a fanatic [[Stalinist]], for which he would lie and betray his friends.

 

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.

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=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>

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>

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>

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:

{{cquote|In speaking for denial of civil liberties to the Socialist Workers Party, Mr. Robeson asked the conference, "Would you give civil rights to the Ku Klux Klan?"

{{cquote|In speaking for denial of civil liberties to the Socialist Workers Party, Mr. Robeson asked the conference, "Would you give civil rights to the Ku Klux Klan?"

"These men are the allies of fascism who want to destroy the new democracies of the world," the singer shouted. "Let's not get confused. They are the enemies of the working class."<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50815F9395B167B93CAA8178CD85F4D8485F9 Rights Group Bars Socialist Pardon; Robeson Heads Fight on Plea For Restoring Liberties to Workers Party Members]," ''The New York Times'', July 18, 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. 4676 (PDF p. 202)</ref>}}

"These men are the allies of fascism who want to destroy the new democracies of the world," the singer shouted. "Let's not get confused. They are the enemies of the working class."<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50815F9395B167B93CAA8178CD85F4D8485F9 Rights Group Bars Socialist Pardon; Robeson Heads Fight on Plea For Restoring Liberties to Workers Party Members]," ''The New York Times'', July 18, 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. 4676 (PDF p. 202)</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" (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" (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>

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>:

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>:

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.

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====

[[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. [http://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>

===Eulogy for Stalin===

====Eulogy for Stalin====

In April 1953, shortly after Joseph Stalin's death, Robeson wrote a eulogy entitled ''To You Beloved Comrade'',<ref>[http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9804/robeson.htm ''To You Beloved Comrade”]</ref> which included these sentiments:  

In April 1953, shortly after Joseph Stalin's death, Robeson wrote a eulogy entitled ''To You Beloved Comrade'',<ref>[http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9804/robeson.htm ''To You Beloved Comrade”]</ref> which included these sentiments:  

:"Forever will his name be honored and beloved in all lands. In all spheres of modern life, the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. … his contributions to the science of our world society remains invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin -- the shapers of humanity's richest present and future. … Yes, through his [Stalin's] deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. ... How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom."<ref>http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1544</ref>

:"Forever will his name be honored and beloved in all lands. In all spheres of modern life, the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. … his contributions to the science of our world society remains invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin -- the shapers of humanity's richest present and future. … Yes, through his [Stalin's] deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. ... How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom."<ref>http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1544</ref>