This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU Centers for East Asian Studies and Russian East European and Eurasian Studies.

A new exhibition of Soviet propaganda posters examines the connections between African-Americans and the Soviet Union. “Workers from oppressed colonies raise the banner of Lenin!” says one poster, showing African-Americans marching towards a Marxist utopia. The Soviet Union made great capital out of US racism, focusing on the oppression of capitalist societies. And the strategy worked, bringing several waves of African-Americans, especially artists, to Moscow. This fascinating history is all the more interesting when you consider the problem of neo-Nazism in Russia today. Was the propaganda glossing over racial tension in the Soviet Union? Or are Russia’s current issues a consequence of the Soviet Union’s collapse? Clearly this is not a black and white issue, or in this case, black and red.

With thanks to Adrienne Landry for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.