Black in the USSR: what's life like for a 'Russian of colour'?
When people ask me about my background it becomes a long explanation,” says photographer Liz Johnson Artur. “I usually start by explaining how my mum is Russian, my dad is Ghanaian and I was born in Bulgaria...”
Johnson Artur is one of a small population of “Russians of colour” born to Russian mothers and African or Caribbean fathers who were offered free university education in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
After making contact with her father for the first time in 2010, Johnson Artur decided to start documenting the stories of some of the 40,000 other “Russians of colour”, alongside journalist Sarah Bentley.
“Most black Russians I met in Moscow and St Petersburg had also grown up without their fathers. Some had been fostered or grown up in children’s homes and had never met their mothers. But we all agreed that we felt Russian as well as African,” the photographer says.
The presence of black Russians, who often describe themselves as “Afro-Russians”, is a reminder of a time when Soviet state internationalism and support for anti-colonial movements meant attitudes towards race were more neutral.
However, today Russia struggles with a reputation for racism: from the abuse of black footballers to violent policing that in recent years has sparked street protests from African students in St Petersburg.
Most of Johnson Artur’s subjects have grown up without much contact with other black people or with little of the shared culture and identity familiar to African-Americans and black Britons.
What they do have in common is the experience of prejudice and confusion shown towards them by much of the Russian public. “Those who grew up and live in Russia still have to justify on a daily basis the fact that they are Russians too,” Johnson Artur explains.
The photographer hopes her project will go some way making visible the generation of black Russians that have grown up calling the country home.
READ MORE: Black in the USSR: what's life like for a 'Russian of colour'?
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Wednesday, March 2nd 2022 at 8:21AM
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