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Toward Soviet America: The Board Game
During the 1930s in America, both board games and communism enjoyed popularity to varying degrees. Toward Soviet America merged these two phenomena, offering children insights into the imminent revolution. However, the predominantly capitalist American populace favored Monopoly, a game that stood in stark contrast to the ideology promoted by Toward Soviet America.
Go once around the board, visiting all of capitalist America's social injustices, then head for "Soviet America" in the center. Credit: BigThink; Tobias Higbie
The 1930s marked a heyday for board games, as millions of Americans sought affordable entertainment during the Great Depression. Monopoly emerged as a favorite, offering players a chance to envision wealth and power. However, one game stood in stark contrast to Monopoly's celebration of capitalism: Toward Soviet America. In this game, players aimed to dismantle wealth and oppression, seizing control of production to transform the United States of America (USA) into the United Soviet States of America (USSA).
Despite its ideological underpinnings, Toward Soviet America failed to gain popularity. Its origins lie in a chapter of American sociopolitical history when the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) saw itself as the vanguard of the working masses. The 1930s, coincidentally, witnessed a surge in American communism, facilitated by the absence of a Cold War with the Soviet Union and the widespread misery of the Depression. Figures like William Zebulon Foster, though politically insignificant in the United States, received state honors in the USSR, exemplifying the divergence of political climates between the two nations.
Foster's legacy endures through Toward Soviet America, a book advocating proletarian revolution and social transformation. Despite being disavowed by CPUSA after World War II, the book's propaganda value flipped as it became a symbol of communist aspirations, scrutinized by opponents. The CPUSA attempted to disseminate its ideology through a board game version of Toward Soviet America, recognizing the potential influence of popular culture on shaping political attitudes.
The game, featured in a communist youth magazine, presented players with a journey across the US, encountering social injustices and obstacles on the path to communist utopia – the egalitarian Walhalla. Despite its radical agenda, Toward Soviet America faded into obscurity, along with the communist figures it sought to immortalize. Today, it serves as a relic of a bygone era, reminding us of the ideological struggles that shaped American history.
Despite its ideological underpinnings, Toward Soviet America failed to gain popularity. Its origins lie in a chapter of American sociopolitical history when the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) saw itself as the vanguard of the working masses. The 1930s, coincidentally, witnessed a surge in American communism, facilitated by the absence of a Cold War with the Soviet Union and the widespread misery of the Depression. Figures like William Zebulon Foster, though politically insignificant in the United States, received state honors in the USSR, exemplifying the divergence of political climates between the two nations.
Foster's legacy endures through Toward Soviet America, a book advocating proletarian revolution and social transformation. Despite being disavowed by CPUSA after World War II, the book's propaganda value flipped as it became a symbol of communist aspirations, scrutinized by opponents. The CPUSA attempted to disseminate its ideology through a board game version of Toward Soviet America, recognizing the potential influence of popular culture on shaping political attitudes.
The game, featured in a communist youth magazine, presented players with a journey across the US, encountering social injustices and obstacles on the path to communist utopia – the egalitarian Walhalla. Despite its radical agenda, Toward Soviet America faded into obscurity, along with the communist figures it sought to immortalize. Today, it serves as a relic of a bygone era, reminding us of the ideological struggles that shaped American history.
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