good intro article on early Soviet race attitudes?

[latrigos at COMCAST.NET]

Dear Anne, 



A good resource is Kate A. Baldwin's book, BETWEEN THE COLOR LINE AND THE IRON CURTAIN: READING ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN BLACK AND RED, 1922-1963 (Duke University Press, 2002). 



Best regards, 



Milla Trigos 


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Chandler" <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> 
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu 
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 2:26:18 AM 
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] good intro article on early Soviet race attitudes? 

Dear Anne, 

Reading your message reminded me about a Zoshchenko story that I once translated but didn't have room to include in my Penguin Classics short story anthology.  The Russian title is 'Dushevnaya prostota'.  Here below are the first few lines.  They certainly have something to do with what you call "the disconnect between a) official rhetoric about race/ethnicity and b) actual mindsets/attitudes?"  If there is anything you want to use in your footnote, you are more than welcome to do so. 

All the best, 

Robert 

                        SIMPLICITY OF SOUL 

 Perhaps you remember when the Negroes visited.  Last year.  A  black minstrel company. 

 Those Negroes were really extremely happy with our hospitality.  Yes, they really praised our culture and all our undertakings in general. 

 The only thing they weren’t happy about was how we move around on the streets. 

 ‘It’s hard,’ they kept saying, ‘to get about.  Everybody pushes and shoves and treads on your heels.’ 

 Well, these Negroes, of course, have been spoiled by European civilisation and they’re well and truly, how can I put it, out of practice.  Give them a couple of years here and they’ll lose their rough edges and be treading on everyone’s feet themselves.  And that’s a fact. 

On 13 Mar 2011, at 23:32, Anne Fisher wrote: 

> hello all, 
> 
> I'm translating The Twelve Chairs (written in 1928) and the editors are 
> raising some issues around Ilf and Petrov's (admittedly offensive and 
> outdated) description of Ellochka the Cannibal: 
> 
> According to researchers’ calculations, William Shakespeare’s lexicon 
> comprises twelve thousand words. The lexicon of a Negro from the 
> cannibalistic tribe Mumbo-Jumbo comprises three hundred words. Ellochka 
> Shchukina got by easily and freely with thirty. 
> 
> I am unwilling to jump on the Mark Twain bowlderizing bandwagon by taming 
> the authors' original language, but I am putting in a footnote explaining 
> the context of this usage - that it goes against contemporary rhetoric 
> (often quite condescending in tone) about the unity and equality of all 
> "brother nations," but in doing so it actually accurately reflects the 
> widespread contemporary phenomenon of everyday racism. 
> 
> I don't want readers to have to take my word for it, though, I'd like to be 
> able to refer them to some article explaining the ins and outs of early 
> Soviet race relations. Can anyone suggest such an article that talks about 
> "brother nations," or the disconnect between a) official rhetoric about 
> race/ethnicity and b) actual mindsets/attitudes? 
> 
> Many thanks, 
> 
> Annie 
> -- 
> Anne O. Fisher, Ph.D. 
> Russian Interpreter and Translator 
> anne.o.fisher at gmail.com 
> 440-986-0175 
> 
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Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD 

tel. +44 207 603 3862 





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