“Dawn in Russia” by W. Frank: Soviet Union in the Eyes of the American Traveler

Abstract

Features of perception of the Soviet reality of 1930th by the American writer Waldo Frank are considered. In the 1920s the writer’s contacts with the USSR are tied up, in 1931, he visits the Soviet Union, the literary outcome of the trip is the travel agent «Dawn in Russia. Notes on the journey» («Dawn in Russia: the Record of a Journey»), released in 1932 in the US by the publishing house «Charles Scribner’s Sons». In «Dawn in Russia» Frank clarifies the details of his journey about Moscow, Leningrad and the Volga cities, expresses the idea of the emergence of a «new world», ascending, alive, awakening from sleep; compares Soviet reality and «old Russia», not yet captured by revolutionary tendencies; reflects on the spiritual potential of the Russian people. In the last chapter, W. Frank gives an assessment of life in the Soviet Union: outlines the main trends in the development of the building of communism, examines the prospect of the influence of the Soviet model of the social system on capitalist states. Despite the interest of the Soviet audience in W. Frank, the translation of the book was not carried out. The article analyzes the Soviet reception of the book, contains fragments of reviews published in Literaturnaya Gazeta (No. 47, 1932) and Pravda (No. 358, 1932), the history of the literary connections of the writer with the Soviet Union is reconstructed and the reasons of their termination.

Keywords

• Waldo Frank
• USSR
• «Dawn in Russia»
• Soviet-American literary contacts
• publishing policy
• the Soviet press