Liya Oliverovna Golden was the prominent black Russian social activist, scholar, and mother of Russian TV star Yelena Khanga. Liya Golden—also known as “Lily”—was born on July 18, 1934 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She was a daughter of Oliver Golden and Bertha Golden, who immigrated to the Soviet Union from … Read MoreLily Golden (1934-2010)
The Mozambican Civil War was a 15-year conflict that occurred between May 30, 1977 and October 4, 1992 in the southern African country of Mozambique. Although ostensibly an internal civil war, the conflict was in fact a proxy war between the Soviet Union which backed the Mozambican government and the … Read MoreThe Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992)
Approximately 90 African Americans fought in Spain during the civil war that engulfed that nation between 1936 and 1939. The war became a proxy war for the European great powers as the Soviet Union supported the newly established Second Spanish Republic while Nazi Germany and … Read MoreAfrican American Anti-Fascists in the Spanish Civil War
Oliver Golden, born in 1887, in Yazoo County, Mississippi, was the son of former slaves who prospered during Reconstruction. Their house, however, was burned twice by Ku Klux Klan which resented the family’s success and they were forced to leave Mississippi for Alabama while Oliver was a student at … Read MoreOliver Golden (1887-1940)
In the decades prior to the Russian Revolution, Pearl Hobson became the most popular African American dancer and singer in Imperial Russia. Known by various names but mostly by her Russian stage name which translated into English was “Mulatto Sharpshooter,” Hobson captivated elite audiences from St. Petersburg to Moscow although apparently … Read MorePearl Hobson (1879- ?)
In June of 1932, poet Langston Hughes, political activist Louise Thompson, and 22 other African American artists, filmmakers, and actors, traveled to the Soviet Union (USSR) to create a film about African American life in the American south. The film, aptly titled Black and White, was to focus on the many examples of racial discrimination … Read MoreLangston Hughes’ Visit to the Soviet Union (1932-1933)
Wayland Rudd was an American-born actor who moved to the Soviet Union in 1932 as part of a group of 22 African Americans called the “Black and White Film Club.” Before moving to the Soviet Union, Rudd gained recognition for his roles in The Emperor Jones and Othello and appeared in a … Read MoreWayland Rudd (1900-1952)
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin is considered by many literary critics and people around the world as Russia’s greatest poet, author, and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born into a Russian noble family on June 6, 1799. As a student attending private school in Moscow, Russia, he excelled … Read MoreAleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837)
On November 3, 1970, in Syracuse, New York, Jeanette J. Epps was born to parents Henry and Luberta Epps. She was born, with her twin sister, Janet, as the youngest of seven with two other sisters and three brothers. Epps graduated from Thomas J. Corcoran High … Read MoreJeanette J. Epps (1970- )
In the 1920s and 1930s a number of African Americans moved to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) because the new Communist government promised a level of racial equality that didn’t exist in the United States at that time. Many of them also believed they could use their … Read MoreRichard Williams (?-?)
