Harlem, USSR: Black Modernism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1937.

This article examines the translation and publication of African American poetry, particularly Harlem Renaissance works by Claude McKay and Langston Hughes, in the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1930s. Soviet intelligentsia framed Black poetry as "socialist modernism," a revolutionary form combining aesthetic innovation with political radicalism, and published numerous translations in Russian literary magazines and anthologies. The translations often adapted poems to align with Soviet ideological frameworks, emphasizing internationalism, proletarian themes, and formal experimentation while sometimes altering or omitting nationalist elements to comply with censorship. The collaboration between Black and Soviet intellectuals, including translators like Kornei Chukovsky and Julian Anisimov, facilitated a unique cross-cultural literary exchange that challenged prevailing narratives about Soviet and U.S. literature, highlighting the significance of Black radical writing as both a political and formal avant-garde within the Soviet cultural context.