What Happened To Americans Who Moved To The USSR During The Great Depression?
What happened to them?
The Great Depression was a terrible time for thousands of average families across the United States. The economic downturn started on Wall Street and rapidly spread to a large number of developed nations around the world. Banks were strained. Wages dried up. People lost their family farms and homesteads. There was hunger and turmoil from Berlin to London to New York. In the midst of all of this economic chaos, one country weathered the storm better than most — the Soviet Union.
Thanks to dozens of crippling economic sanctions and international isolation, the USSR was not infected by the economic contagions spawned by the Great Depression. Stalin watched in amusement as western powers struggled to cope with the fallout. Seeing capitalism down on its luck was a powerful propaganda tool for communists worldwide.
To try and draw new converts to communism’s cause, the Soviet Union started advertising job openings and work postings in western cities hit hardest by the depression. Fliers started appearing in New York City, promising steady work and immunity from economic chaos to Americans who wanted a chance at a better life.
What better way to prove communism’s superiority to capitalism than by attracting…