A Soviet Journey

Edited by Christopher Lee

In 1978, the South African activist and novelist Alex La Guma (1925–1985) published A Soviet Journey, a memoir of his travels in the Soviet Union. Today it stands as one of the longest and most substantive first-hand accounts of the USSR by an African writer. La Guma’s book is consequently a rare and important document of the anti-apartheid struggle and the Cold War period, depicting the Soviet model from an African perspective. Christopher J. Lee, associate professor of history, edited this new edition, providing annotations as well as an introduction that situates La Guma and his book within South African politics. The acclaimed Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o provides a foreword.