I. J. Singer was one of the great European novelists of the first half of the twentieth century. In late 1926 he made an extended trip to many cities, towns, and hamlets in the western regions of the young Soviet Union, and he wrote up his reflections for the Yiddish-language newspaper, Forverts, that had sent him. Those reports comprise this volume, now translated in full for the first time. Singer was primarily attuned to the state of affairs of the Jewish population, urban dwellers, farmers, and colonists, but his visions ranged widely over current events and campaigns as well. He examines through his own viewing and through interviews virtually every reflection of life-economic, political, cultural, and the like-in such cities as Moscow, Berdichev, Kiev, Kharkov, and elsewhere; and in numerous colonies on the Ukrainian steppe. He finds much to admire and much to be critical of-as well as much to be extremely wary of.

Translated by: Joshua A. Fogel