Europe – Ukraine

Coretti Arle-Titz (1881-1951)
Coretti Arle-Titz was a singer and popularizer of the spiritual music genre in Europe and the USSR (Russia). She was...
March 23rd, 2025

Olga (Ollie) Burgoyne (1879-1974)
Olga “Ollie” Burgoyne, also known as Ollie Burgoyne-Calloway, was a singer and dancer specializing in Russian and other ethnic dances....
December 10th, 2023

Emma Harris (1871-1940)
Emma Harris was a multi-talented African American cultural influencer in Europe, the Russian Empire (later the Soviet Union) as well...
February 6th, 2023

Zhan Vensanovych Beleniuk (1991- )
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Afro-Ukrainian champion athlete and politician Zhan Beleniuk was born January 24, 1991 in the capital city of Kyiv (a.k.a. Kiev)...
October 12th, 2022

The Afro-Beat in Russia: The Influence of Black Music on Russian Popular Culture, 1890-2002
In the following article, Russian DJ Ivan Tchijevsky describes exclusively for BlackPast.org the long history of black music and black...
July 17th, 2019

Pearl Hobson (1879- ?)
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...
March 24th, 2018

Richard Williams (?-?)
In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of African Americans moved to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) because the...
January 25th, 2018

Gustavo Pinedo Zabala (1988– )
Image Courtesy of El Dia Gustavo Pinedo Zabala, professional soccer player, was born in Coripata, Department of La Paz, Bolivia,...
May 14th, 2016

In the Land of Czars and Commissars: African Americans in Russia, the Soviet Union, and Post-Soviet Russia, 1824-2015
In the following essay independent historian Robert Fikes explores the eclectic experiences of African Americans in the world’s largest nation...
June 4th, 2015