In 1978, Progress Publishers in Moscow released A Soviet Journey by the South African writer and activist Alex La Guma (1925–1985). The book was part of an English-language series that published titles from a range of foreign writers, many of whom were Communist Party members in their respective countries. In retrospect, these books can be seen as agitprop aimed at the popular influence of Soviet dissidents, such as the novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the poet Joseph Brodsky, who had gained heroic stature in the West through their critiques of the Soviet system. However, La Guma's contribution to the series stands out. As one of South Africa's most prominent writers during the apartheid era, La Guma is best known for his fiction. Through novels such as A Walk in the Night (1962), And a Threefold Cord (1964), The Stone Country (1967), In the Fog of the Seasons’ End (1972), and Time of the Butcherbird (1979), La Guma pursued a political project through literature that sought to depict the lives of labourers, activists, prisoners, and working-class families, primarily in the city of Cape Town. Though different in place and subject matter, A Soviet Journey can be understood as conforming to the politics of his fiction, as well as representing a longer trajectory of South African political thought and activism that began during the 1920s, specifically with regard to Leninism. It consequently suggests much more than simple promotion of the USSR. Though Leninist thought and the figure of Lenin himself formed a recursive presence in liberation journals such as The African Communist, published by the South African Communist Party (SACP), A Soviet Journey underscores the personal histories that were entangled with such political positions and outlooks.

What follows in this chapter is a set of historical contexts and intellectual frameworks for reappraising La Guma and A Soviet Journey. It argues that A Soviet Journey points to the longevity of Leninist ideas of self-determination that first emerged during the 1920s, particularly at the 1927 League Against Imperialism meeting held in Brussels, and how this near century-long endurance can be attributed to both interpersonal relationships and the resilience of certain tactical elements of South African political thought. Indeed, rather than emphasizing institutions, parties, and organizations as crucibles for the fostering and promotion of political ideas, this chapter stresses the importance of individuals and the consequent role of biography for approaching broader global trends.