New edition updates Indianist movement from Perestroika to Putin

MEDIA RELEASE__"Red Men in Red Square is a captivating true story chronicling the extraordinary journey of American writer [and Ohio Northern professor emeritus] Claude Clayton Smith and Chief Big Eagle of Connecticut’s Golden Hill Paugussett tribe as they travel to post-Soviet Russia in 1990-1991.

Invited by a Gorky Institute professor who is translating Smith’s book on the Chief, they discover the
‘Indianists’—a passionate subculture devoted to Native American traditions—and find themselves navigating a crumbling empire, where the bleakness of everyday life contrasts sharply with the warmth and vibrancy of the people they meet.

The book offers a rare glimpse into an unlikely cultural exchange that defied borders and ideologies. A must-read for anyone fascinated by history, identity, and the unexpected human connections that shape our world."—Olga Sharp, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Hartford

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claude Clayton Smith, Professor of English, Emeritus, Ohio Northern University, is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four. His own work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese.

He holds a DA from Carnegie-Mellon, an MFA from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, an MAT from Yale, and a BA from Wesleyan.

His most recent publication is the second edition of Quarter-Acre of Heartache (Shanti Arts, 2025), the first edition of which took him to Russia with Chief Big Eagle, leading to the events in Red Men in Red Square.

In 2004, Smith received a medal from the United Nations committee responsible for the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples: 1994-2004, citing him as a “friend of Native Peoples” for his publications on Native Americans and Native Siberians.

Smith lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with Elaine, his first reader, editor, and wife of fifty years.

claudeclaytonsmith.wordpress.com