Posted by Duncan on January 20, 2002 at 18:23:12 from 64.12.102.36:
In Reply to: Re: Ransome in Russia - Evgenia's gems? posted by Peter H on January 20, 2002 at 15:26:07:
From what I can gather, AR was very much a supporter of the Russian Revolution in its early stages. The description of Lenin's funeral in the Autobiography is a very moving account by an ex-Bolshevik (from a position, perhaps unsurprisingly, rather close to Trotsky's). I don't know whether I believe the diamond smuggling story or not, and I've never read of any real connection with the CPGB (although of course the CPGB didn't exist when he went to Russia and by the time he came back to England permanently the Soviet Union had certainly moved away from something he was sympathetic towards, although the story of his opinion on the Chinese Revolution included in the current Mixed Moss, would seem to suggest that his general anti-imperialist leftism did not desert him, even if he chose not to talk about politics often and to play down the closeness of his association with bolshevism). Nobody really bought 'News from Nowhere' by William Morris who did not orientate themselves towards the political left and the 'bohemian' crowd he associated himself with before going to Russia were, many of them, associated with the Fabian Society (sections of which were far more sympathetic to the Russian Revolution than their modern descendents admit).
For the person wanting to research Ransome in Russia I would recommend the autobiography and the letters ('Signalling from Mars') - although, again, I do believe there might be a bit more to the story (and a good thing too, in my opinion!)
Duncan