The Depression era closing
of a Ford plant sends Andy and two companions to Moscow to find work in
a Soviet automotive plant, where he meets Natasha, an exemplar of the
"new Soviet woman." Based on Myra Page's own experiences in Moscow during
the first Five-Year Plan, Natasha is a portrait of women's contradictory
social position in the early periods of socialist construction. At the
core of this novel is a firsthand look at the developing forces and changing
relations of production forces that bring about the conversion of Andy
into a "Moscow Yankee." While revealing the political and economic policies
that would inevitably lead to the demise of Soviet-style socialism, Moscow
Yankee refutes the notion that egalitarian societies cannot succeed
because they fail to take into account the individualism and greed of
"human nature." Barbara Foley's introduction analyzes the Soviet Socialist
construction in Page's novel and the politics of the novelistic form in
relation to Moscow Yankee.
Originally published in 1935
"A picture of Americans lured
to Moscow by hope in the 'great experiment,' and of others driven there
by the depression, and of still others attracted by the simple desire
to get good engineering jobs, Moscow Yankee; has a decided
value . . . a sense of life, stirring in the chaos of destruction and
reconstruction." -- The New York Times Book Review
