March 25 at City Hall in Toronto, Mayor David Miller unveiled a display in honour of the late Paul Robeson in the spirit of “recognizing the global humanitarian efforts of individuals in the areas of equality, justice and diversity.” The irony is that Paul Robeson despite his accomplishments in the arts and American football was a defender of the Soviet Communist regime and ignored its crimes against humanity.
“He accepted the Stalin Peace Prize from Moscow,” wrote Globe and Mail columnist Marcus Gee, March 24. “He accepted the Stalin Peace Prize from Moscow. He defended the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact. He made excuses for the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. He praised the paper promises in the Soviet Constitution to punish racial discrimination and respect ethnic minorities. He chose to overlook the mass deportation and murder of minority groups that Stalin suspected of treason.”
Commenting on the execution of “ counter-revolutionary terrorists” in a 1935 interview with “The Daily Worker”, Robeson declared roundly: “From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot!
“It is the government’s duty to put down any opposition to this really free society with a firm hand,” he continued, “and I hope they will always do it, for I already regard myself at home here. This is home to me. I feel more kinship to the Russian people under their new society than I ever felt anywhere else. It is obvious that there is no terror here, that all the masses of every race are contented and support their government.”
When challenged about Soviet anti-Semitism, in 1949 he said that he “met Jewish people all over the place” and “I heard no word about it.” Yet during the visit he was referring to, he met with Jewish poet Itzik Feffer in his hotel room where the two were forced to communicate with hand signals and notes because the room was bugged. Feffer talked about the anti-Semitic campaign begun by Stalin in 1947 and how a mutual friend, Solomon Mikhoels, had been murdered by the secret police a year earlier. Feffer himself was executed along with 14 other Jewish intellectuals three years later.
Yet, upon Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, Robeson penned a fawning eulogy to the dictator, which was published in New World Review for April, 1953.
“Through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. Most importantly — he has charted the direction of our present and future struggles. He has pointed the way to peace — to friendly co-existence — to the exchange of mutual scientific and cultural contributions — to the end of war and destruction. How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom,” Robeson wrote of the 20th century’s greatest mass murderer.
Toward his death in 1976, Robeson never went on record to voice his misgivings about his comments on Stalin or his devotion to him.
No one is going to deny Robeson’s pioneering work in raising African-American consciousness, or his courageous role fighting for the Civil Rights of African Americans. But neither can one ignore his unwavering support for a regime that committed genocide and terrorized its citizens — many of who found refuge in Canada and are horrified that a Stalinist sycophant can so be honoured by a Mayor who should know a lot better since the highest concentration of refugees from Communist oppression and their descendants in Toronto is found in the ward he earlier represented on City Council.
Surely there are countless African-Americans and Canadians of African origin who can be recognized for their global humanitarian efforts without rehabilitating an unrepentant apologist for the 20thcentury’s greatest mass murderer.
Marco Levytsky is the editor and publisher of Ukrainian News, a bi-weekly newspaper distributed across Canada.
