A tribute
by Paul Robeson to Joseph Stalin upon Stalin's death on March 5, 1953.
It was published in New World Review, April, 1953, and reprinted in
Paul Robeson Speaks, edited by Philip Foner, pp. 347-349.
To You
Beloved Comrade
by Paul Robeson
There is no richer
store of human experience than the folk tales, folk poems and songs
of a people. In many, the heroes are always fully recognizable humans
- only larger and more embracing in dimension. So it is with the Russian,
Chinese. and the African folk-lore.
In 1937, a highly expectant audience of Moscow citizens - workers,
artists, youth, farmers from surrounding towns - crowded the Bolshoy
Theater. They awaited a performance by the Uzbek National Theater,
headed by the highly gifted Tamara Khanum. The orchestra was a large
one with instruments ancient and modern. How exciting would be the
blending of the music of the rich culture of Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky,
Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khrennikov, Gliere - with that of the beautiful
music of the Uzbeks, stemming from an old and proud civilization.
Suddenly everyone stood - began to applaud - to cheer - and to smile.
The children waved.
In a box to the right - smiling and applauding the audience - as well
as the artists on the stage - stood the great Stalin. I remember the
tears began to quietly flow. and I too smiled and waved Here was clearly
a man who seemed to embrace all. So kindly - I can never forget that
warm feeling of kindliness and also a feeling of sureness. Here was
one who was wise and good - the world and especially the socialist
world was fortunate indeed to have his daily guidance. I lifted high
my son Pauli to wave to this world leader, and his leader. For Paul,
Jr. had entered school in Moscow, in the land of the Soviets.
The wonderful performance began, unfolding new delights at every turn
- ensemble and individual, vocal and orchestral, classic and folk-dancing
of amazing originality. Could it be possible that a few years before
in 1900 - in 1915 - these people had been semi-serfs - their cultural
expression forbidden, their rich heritage almost lost under tsarist
oppression's heel?
So here one witnessed in the field of the arts - a culture national
in form, socialist in content. Here was a people quite comparable
to some of the tribal folk of Asia - quite comparable to the proud
Yoruba or Basuto of West and East Africa, but now their lives flowering
anew within the socialist way of life twenty years matured under the
guidance of Lenin and Stalin. And in this whole area of development
of national minorities - of their relation to the Great Russians -
Stalin had played and was playing a most decisive role.
I was later to travel - to see with my own eyes what could happen
to so-called backward peoples. In the West (in England, in Belgium,
France, Portugal, Holland) - the Africans, the Indians (East and West),
many of the Asian peoples were considered so backward that centuries,
perhaps, would have to pass before these so-called 'colonials' could
become a part of modern society. ~continued~
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