EPISODE · Nov 11, 2024 · 28 MIN
American workers in Stalin's Russia
from Explaining History
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 weekIf 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 hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it hereExplaining 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 ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What this episode covers
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 weekIf 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 hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it hereExplaining 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 ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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American workers in Stalin's Russia
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