This saga of a courageous African-American family offers revealing insights on a little known episode in the history of Blacks in the Soviet Union in Stalin's time and beyond.
Born in the Soviet Union to an African American father and Russian mother as the result of a serendipitous chain of events, Patterson became the most popular child star ever with his iconic appearance in the 1936 film Circus (Tsirk) at the age of three. Now 88, his remarkable life has seen him serve as an officer on a Soviet submarine and become a popular Russian poet. He is still remembered by many all over Russia today.Patterson lives a quiet life in Washington, DC, and still writes the occasional poem.
