Imagining Russia, Informing America: Samuel N. Harper, U.S. Public Opinion, and the Russian Revolution, 1916-1921

In this thesis, I zoom in on Harper and his understanding of Russian politics between 1916 and 1921, six years of dramatic transformation in Russia and in Harper’s views on it. In 1916, Russia was a member of the Allies in WWI and trade between it and the United States nearly tripled from its 1915 levels.13 In February 1917, Petrograd bread riots instigated by angry, hungry women led to the overthrow of the tsar, whom a Duma Committee quickly replaced with a Provisional Government. A second revolution that October overthrew the Provisional Government and brought the Bolsheviks, a radical Marxist party, to power. “The Bolsheviki,” as Harper referred to them, withdrew Russia from WWI and embraced an unprecedented political course for the country that called for international socialist revolution, denounced capitalism, and held workers and working class values supreme. How did Harper react to these events? Given that his voice carried intellectual clout and engaged a wide audience, how did Harper depict Russia’s rapid political transformation to Americans? How and in which ways did his views set the tone for subsequent interactions between Russia and the United States? These questions hold central importance in this study.Bachelor of Art