| Robert Robinson | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1907 Jamaica |
| Died | 1994 Washington, DC |
| Occupation | Mechanical Engineer, Toolmaker |
Robert Robinson (1907–1994) was a Jamaican-born mechanical engineer and toolmaker. In 1930, he was offered a one year contract by the Ford Motor Company to work in the Soviet Union and was then refused an exit visa until 1974.
Born in Jamaica, he grew up in Cuba. He and his mother were abandoned by his father when he was six. His mother was born in Dominica and, in the employment of a young doctor, she followed the physician to Jamaica.[1]
In 1927, a Russian delegation visited the Ford Motor Company, where Robinson worked as a toolmaker. The delegation leader asked him and others if they wanted to work under a one year contract in the Soviet Union. The pay would be far greater. They were promised free rent in a grand apartment, maid service, and a car. At 23, Robinson was adventurous and accepted. He went 1930 to the Soviet Union during the Great Depression from a combination of lack of jobs in the United States, race problems and the search of better opportunities. Despite his original intent to find employment and earn an engineering degree in the USSR (both goals he accomplished), and then later leave the Soviet Union, Robinson was unable to leave for 44 years.
He worked in Moscow's First State Ball Bearing Factory as a toolmaker. He survived Stalin's purges, famine and the German invasion of Russia, Hitler's army arrested only 44 miles from Moscow. During the Eastern Front (World War II), he almost died from starvation, having as meals six or seven leaves of cabbage soaked in lukewarm water. Since the 1950s, he had annually applied for a vacation visa abroad and each time, it was denied.
His book, Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside The Soviet Union, reveals some of his acquaintances as Henry Smith, a journalist; Wayland Rudd, an actor; Robert Ross, a Soviet Propagandist from Montana; Henry Scott, a dancer from New York City; Coretta Arle-Titz, actress and music professor; John Sutton, an agronomist; George Tynes, also an agronomist; and Lovett Whiteman, an English teacher.[1] Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson were interested in the Soviet experiment and made trips to the USSR, where Robert Robinson met them. They became friends. Robinson asked Paul Robeson to help him escape the Soviet Union. Robeson declined to do so as it would harm his relations with the Soviet leadership.[1]
Through the influence of two Ugandan ambassadors, Robinson was granted permission to visit Uganda in 1974. He bought a round trip ticket so not to arouse suspicion and once there he appealed for refuge, which was temporarily granted by Idi Amin. In 1976, Robinson married Zylpha Mapp, an African American professor who was working at a university in Uganda. Through the efforts of Ugandan officials, and U.S. Information Service officer William B. Davis, he was eventually allowed to re-enter the United States and re-gained United States Citizenship. He remained there until his death in 1994. [1]Following his return to America he gave interviews about his insights into Soviet life from the inside, and was also featured in the Detroit Free Press. He was honored by the Ford Motor Company, 60 years after he began his work there. He moved to Washington, D.C. with his wife.[2]
He died of cancer in 1994. Among those attending the funeral were his wife[3], William B. Davis, and Mathias Lubega, former Ugandan ambassador to the Soviet Union.[4]