Explaining History

American workers in Stalin's Russia


Listen Later

During the 1930s over 100,000 American workers left the USA and crossed the Atlantic to the USSR. There they worked in automobile plants and other industrial enterprises of Stalin's Five Year Plans. The crisis of capitalism that was evident through the great depression and the seeming dynamism of Stalin's USSR and its rapid construction of industry convinced many that Soviet communism was the future. This podcast explores the fortunes of Stalin's American guest workers, many of whom took Soviet citizenship and were swallowed up by the terror as Stalin's NKVD searched for spies and imagined enemies and found a ready supply of victims in the large pool of foreign workers that had come to the USSR.



  • I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.
  • https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)



Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


Or


You can support the podcast via Patreon here


Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Explaining HistoryBy Nick Shepley

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

72 ratings


More shows like Explaining History

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,454 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,216 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,880 Listeners

Russian Rulers History Podcast by Mark Schauss

Russian Rulers History Podcast

950 Listeners

A History of Europe Key Battles by Carl Rylett

A History of Europe Key Battles

661 Listeners

The WW2 Podcast by Angus Wallace

The WW2 Podcast

1,248 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,783 Listeners

Cold War Conversations Podcast by Ian Sanders

Cold War Conversations Podcast

461 Listeners

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk by Goalhanger

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

1,418 Listeners

History of the Second World War by Wesley Livesay

History of the Second World War

580 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

3,285 Listeners

Warfare by History Hit

Warfare

529 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

15,271 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,863 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

2,462 Listeners