SUMMARY:

This article examines Franz Boas’s connections with the Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union through his collaborations with Russian and Soviet anthropologists, especially the ethnotroika – Vladimir Jochelson, Vladimir Bogoras, and Lev Shternberg. Boas mentored these anthropologists during the Jesup North Pacific Expedition at the turn of the twentieth century but remained largely indifferent to the political landscape of the Russian Empire. However, Boas’s stance changed with the advent of the Soviet Union. He saw the Soviet project as a scientific experiment and positively assessed Soviet policies, especially indigenization. This led him to initiate institutional collaborations, including advocating for student exchange programs and proposing joint expeditions involving Soviet scholars. Despite growing evidence of political repression and ideological control within Soviet anthropology, Boas maintained a selectively positive outlook toward the USSR. He downplayed negative reports, rationalized the suppression of dissenting views, and refrained from public criticism, even as his Soviet colleagues faced persecution. Boas’s unwavering support for the Soviet experiment was rooted in his evolving political beliefs, which shifted from liberalism to a more socialist orientation. He contrasted the perceived social progress and anti-racism of the USSR with the shortcomings of Western democracies, particularly the United States. By the late 1930s, Boas’s ideological convictions ultimately compromised his anthropological objectivity. He prioritized the abstract ideal of Soviet socialism over the lived realities of his Soviet colleagues and the principles of intellectual freedom. Only in the final year of his life, influenced by the changing geopolitical landscape of World War II, did Boas begin to adopt a more nuanced and critical perspective on the USSR and its place in the global order.