15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[File:American_Girls_in_Red_Russia.jpg|left|270px|thumbnail|<i>American Girls in Red Russia</i> - Julia Mickenberg]]
After the creation of the Soviet Union, thousands of Americans emigrated to Russia every year to join in the new communist experiment. Some of these people were excited by the potential of communist state while others will looking for work. Julia L. Mickenberg's new book <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/022625612X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=022625612X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e01fa1d4d9850dc7cf8fd83ab90f20e6 American Girls in Russia: Chasing the Soviet Dream]</i> published by the [http://www.press.uchicago.edu/index.html University of Chicago Press] explores the history of the American women who went to Russia looking for adventure, freedom, revolution, work and a new life. After they moved to Russia they found challenges and hardships. Many were disturbed by both the conditions of the country and the treatment of people by the new government. <i>American Girls in Russia</i> explores the stories of these women and provides a glimpse into both their lives and the conditions in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s.
Julia Mickenberg is an associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Texas Austin. She writes and teaches about radicalism, women's history, Russia, and children's literature. She has written and edited two previous books: <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005253FW8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005253FW8&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=14f0ec79308a697e4f182ceb33545c69 Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States]</i> and <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814757219/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0814757219&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=2e06f8bce10c251ad0f0c5fa57fbc1cb Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature].</i>
When they got to the Soviet Union many women, not surprisingly, faced challenges, but for some, these challenges—or at least a sense that they were suffering for a good cause—were part of the attraction. Even though foreigners had many advantages over Soviet citizens in terms of their access to food and other basic necessities, housing was scarce (especially in Moscow), and what housing there was tended to be small and not necessarily in good repair. Outside of big cities there were bed bugs and primitive facilities. Russian bureaucracy was (and is) infamously difficult to maneuver.
<dh-ad/>
It was evident that most Russians were suffering from shortages of basic necessities, including food, and most foreigners knew about arrests, had heard rumors about violence, and were aware that they were under surveillance. These things became especially evident by the 1930s, but even prior to this time American women who stayed for any length of time commented upon how often innocent people seemed to be unjustly arrested, and people heard about the violence that accompanied the collectivization of agriculture (beginning in 1928), and about the Ukrainian famine, beginning in 1931 and usually seen as resulting directly from Stalin’s policies. After 1935 the paranoia and fear were totally inescapable.
Because I engage with so many bodies of scholarship—but also tried to write in an accessible fashion that would emphasize the stories of the people involved, their deeper feelings, motivations, and reactions—the book can be used in a variety of ways. It is a work of US women’s history, especially considered through a transnational lens. It engages with the history of American radicalism. It presents a new angle on the Cold War and its gendered dimensions. It is a work of comparative history. It could be drawn from in courses on performance. It could be part of a course dealing with Americans abroad (I teach such a course myself). In my heart of hearts I hope people outside the academy will also be interested in the book, and that it can bridge a divide that separates books read in colleges and universities from books read by anyone else (or anyone else who reads, that is).
====Related Articles====
{{#dpl:category=Russian History|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=8}}
[[Category:Women's History]] [[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Radicalism]] [[Category:Interviews]][[Category:Russian History]] [[Category:United States History]]
