# Oliver Golden

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**Oliver John Golden** (Russian: О́ливер Джон Го́лден; November 18, 1887 – 1940) was an American and Soviet agronomist and politician. Born in [Yazoo County, Mississippi](/source/Yazoo_County,_Mississippi), he studied cotton at the [Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute](/source/Tuskegee_Normal_and_Industrial_Institute). A member of the [Communist Party USA](/source/Communist_Party_USA), he spent time in Soviet Russia and was later part of a delegation of cotton experts who arrived in the [Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic](/source/Uzbek_Soviet_Socialist_Republic) at the invitation of the Soviet government. During that time, he worked in cotton cultivation, was a teacher at the [Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioration](/source/Tashkent_Institute_of_Irrigation_and_Melioration), and served as a municipal councilor in Tashkent. Eventually, he and his wife remained in the Soviet Union and became naturalized Soviet citizens.

## Biography

Oliver John Golden was born in [Yazoo County, Mississippi](/source/Yazoo_County,_Mississippi) on November 18, 1887.[1][2] He was the son of Catherine and Hilliard Golden, the latter of whom became one of the state's wealthiest Black landowners after being freed from slavery by the [Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution](/source/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution).[3][4][a] The family fled to nearby Alabama after being targeted by two [Ku Klux Klan](/source/Ku_Klux_Klan) arson attacks.[1] He studied cotton at the [Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute](/source/Tuskegee_Normal_and_Industrial_Institute) and left as a non-graduate to fight at the [Western Front](/source/Western_Front_(World_War_I)) for the United States Army.[5][1] Afterwards, he relocated north to Chicago, where he found work as a railroad waiter.[1]

Golden joined the [Communist Party USA](/source/Communist_Party_USA), and in 1924, a high-ranking [Communist International](/source/Communist_International) leader invited him to Russia, where he was educated at the [Communist University of the Toilers of the East](/source/Communist_University_of_the_Toilers_of_the_East) from 1925 until 1928.[1][5] After the 1924 death of his first wife Jane Wilson, Golden had a child with his [Udmurt](/source/Udmurts) nurse Anya.[6][1] He later married fellow communist Bertha Bialek, a Polish-born, Jewish American labor activist whom he had met while the two were in prison after taking part in a political demonstration.[7][1] They had a child, [Lily Golden](/source/Lily_Golden).[8]

Golden was inspired to participate in a Soviet experiment involving the recruitment of Black people and later heard about a complete lack of African Americans within a similar delegation of engineers invited to work at the Soviet Union.[5][1] Subsequently, he requested the involvement of [George Washington Carver](/source/George_Washington_Carver), a professor from his time at Tuskegee, and [Amtorg Trading Corporation](/source/Amtorg_Trading_Corporation), with whom he worked to recruit cotton experts to the Soviet Union.[5][1] In 1931, the Soviet Union invited the delegation to the country, including Golden and his wife.[5][1] The delegation later settled in [Yangiyoʻl](/source/Yangiyo%CA%BBl), having decided on the [Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic](/source/Uzbek_Soviet_Socialist_Republic) due to its cotton industry and the Uzbek people's similar experiences with racism.[1]

During his time in the Uzbek SSR, Golden helped cultivate a faster-maturing version of American cotton and worked as a teacher at the [Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Melioration](/source/Tashkent_Institute_of_Irrigation_and_Melioration).[1][5] In civic life, he worked as a municipal councilor in Tashkent and an advocate for the [Scottsboro Boys](/source/Scottsboro_Boys).[1] The Golden couple hosted [Langston Hughes](/source/Langston_Hughes) during Christmas Eve 1932 when he was returning from Moscow after an abandoned film project.[9]

Golden and his wife became naturalized Soviet citizens, staying in the country after the other delegates returned home in 1934.[1] Golden died from heart failure in Tashkent in 1940.[1][8]

## Notes

1. Sources differ on Catherine's race: although Nassor Said Ali says that she was Native American,[4] the 1900 Census says that she was Black.[3]

## References

1. Ernst, Alina (April 1, 2018). ["OLIVER GOLDEN (1887-1940)"](https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/golden-oliver-1887-1940/). *BlackPast*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20240206153843/https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/golden-oliver-1887-1940/) February 6, 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 19, 2024.

1. Ancestry.com. *U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918* [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

1. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Year: 1900; Census Place: Crump, Yazoo, Mississippi; Roll: 835; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0124

1. Ali, Nassor Said (February 2009). "A golden example". *New African*. No. 481. pp. 64–66.

1. Peterson, Maya (2016). "US to USSR: American Experts, Irrigation, and Cotton in Soviet Central Asia, 1929–32". *Environmental History*. **21** (3): 442–466. [doi:10.1093/envhis/emw006](https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emw006). [JSTOR 44132071](https://www.jstor.org/stable/44132071)

1. Carew, Joy Gleason (2010). *Blacks, Reds, and Russians: Sojourners in Search of the Soviet Promise*. Rutgers University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-8135-4985-9.

1. Schreck, Carl (April 12, 2016). ["Черный Сталин из Кремля"](https://www.svoboda.org/a/27667216.html) (in Russian). *Radio Svoboda*. Retrieved June 19, 2024.

1. Ernst, Alina (July 7, 2018). ["Lily Golden (1934-2010)"](https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/golden-lily-1934-2010/). *BlackPast*. Retrieved June 22, 2024.

1. Niven, Steven J. (December 13, 2015). ["Black in the USSR: 3 Generations of a Russian Family"](https://www.theroot.com/black-in-the-ussr-3-generations-of-a-russian-family-1790862051). *The Root*. Retrieved June 19, 2024.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Oliver Golden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Golden) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Golden?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.