Several men and women pose around a dinner table laden with food and drinks
Description
- Creator
- Abbe, James, 1883-1973, Photographer
- Media Type
- Image
- Item Types
- Photographs
- Book illustrations
- Description
- 18 people at a dinner party gather around the table for a photo. Most of them are dressed somewhat formally and clearly have enjoyed an evening with plenty of specially prepared foods and a variety of alcoholic beverages. Abbe, distinguished as the first foreigner to be permitted to photograph Stalin, was a frequent guest at such functions.
Since it was obviously posed, this was not a “forbidden” photograph. However, like many recorded experiences shared with important visitors from abroad, it would not be published in any medium for the general Soviet public.
In his I Photograph Russia, Abbe described numerous examples of the barely secret bourgeoisie elitist lifestyle of the top Party leaders and heads of the various state industries, particularly in Moscow. Even in the coal mining districts of the Don Basin, proletarian pretenses were cast aside when the intent was to impress important visitors. However, all but the most trusted visitors were expected to promise not to publish anything critical about their experience if they wanted to accomplish their mission in the USSR. - Notes
- Source: James Abbe Archive. No. 4107.
Also published in: Abbe, James. I Photograph Russia. New York: R. M. McBride, 1934, f.p.253.
- Inscriptions
- Caption on back of photo: “Russia coal-region hospitality for foreigners. Donetz Basin (in famine belt)”
Caption in I Photograph Russia: "While the peasant starves, our distinguished foreign visitor fares very nicely...especially if he signs an affidavit stating that he has seen no famine in the Don Basin."
- Date of Original
- 1932
- Subject(s)
- Local identifier
- PD233
- Collection
- James Abbe Collection
- Geographic Coverage
-
-
Donetsk, Ukraine
Latitude: 48 Longitude: 37.66667
-
- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Copyright Holder
- The James Abbe Archive. https://www.jamesabbe.com/
- Recommended Citation
- Abbe, James. 1932. “Russia coal-region hospitality for foreigners. Donetz Basin (in famine belt).” James Abbe Archive. No. 4107. Retrieved from: http://vitacollections.ca/HREC-holodomorphotodirectory/3645295/data
- Location of Original
- The James Abbe Archive. For reproductions from the original, contact https://www.jamesabbe.com/licensing/
- Reproduction Notes
- Reproduced courtesy of The James Abbe Archive.
