Robert N Robertson, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1906, was taken first to Cuba, and then, in 1923, went to the USA where he worked at the Ford Motor Company in Detroit. In 1930 he took up an offer to work in the USSR, where he lived until 1974. He had then been trying for nearly 30 years to get permission to leave Russia and return to the West.

So far the first documentation I have found of Robert Robinson is the record of his entry into the USA from Cuba in 1923: click here  These columns identify him as a mechanic/machinist and Black/African; it gives his mother as Octavia Robinson, then living in Santiago.  However his age is given as 22, which would make his date of birth 1901, not 1906 as it is usually given - but this may only have meant he wanted to appear older than his actual 17 years. Another entry on the other page of the record gives his height as 5ft 7ins and his place of birth as Kingston, Jamaica. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I need to make a visit to the Records here [Kingston, Jamaica] to try to check his birth record and his parents names.

 

---> 

  

So far I have been undertaking an exercise in putting together information obtained via the Internet, but now I have ordered a copy of Robinson's significant book 'Black On Red' so I will be able to confirm and expand the information I have put on this site.
 
Update: I am just finishing the book: it's a great read and I thoroughly recommend it. It is very valuable to have an account of the experiences of an African-American of Caribbean origin in the Soviet Union. Apart from the picture of the soul-destroying stresses of living under a totalitarian regime, the commentary on the deep-rooted nature of racism, towards all non-Russians, is most enlightening, especially in view of the reports of increasing numbers of violent race-hate crimes coming out of Russian at the present time.
I shall need to make a few additions to the site, but not very many.

Sept. 10, 2006                                                 J.L.  

Black on Red: My 44 Years Inside the Soviet Union
by  Robert Robinson, Acropolis Books Inc (1988)

(can easily be ordered online)