Quote:
Originally Posted by scratchnsniff  I am surprised that cael has not mentioned paul Robeson, Surely the most famous black person to go to the USSR. He was treated appallingly in the US not even able to enter the theaters he was headlining through the front. However it should be obvious that the US has changed, not least because of its democratic principles as well as Brave men and woman who made their stand.
The USSR was not able to change, once its economic failure became inevitable it was finished as a regime, change meant extinction and that was the path to freedom for millions.
I am not sure what point cael is making, except that only democratic regimes can change with the power of their populations without breaking down. |
Paul Robeson was probably the only one of these emigrants who didn't end up in a gulag.
There were thousands of US emigrants to the USSR following the Great Depression. At this time the USSR was seen as a workers paradise by many in the US.
Stalin was only too happy to take these people in, especailly the skilled car workers who helped build the first Car factories in the USSR.
Eventually their usefulness ran out and they were packed off to Siberia to be worked to death.
This was a fate they shared with many millions of citzens of the USSR.
This is fantastic book, it tells some of the tragic stories of US emigrants to USSR.
The Forsaken