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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.
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.
By Nick Shepley4.6
7272 ratings
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.
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.

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