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hammer and sickle

I’m reading The Forsaken, by Tim Tzouliadis.

I never knew anything about this before. At the height of the Great Depression, thousands of Americans headed to Soviet Russia looking for a better life. The American system seemed broken and corrupt, and the Soviets were promising a heaven for the working man.

Once there, these expats (slowly but surely) found themselves disillusioned by the true Soviet system, and imprisoned by a government that considered them to be Soviet citizens. Many died in the Gulag, and the U.S. government did (or could do?) very little to help.

I haven’t read much of the book so far, but what strikes me early on is the optimism of these people and so many others. They truly felt that this great social experiment was going to be the light of freedom and plenty for the world. But they weren’t mostly radicals. Most of them just wanted to work hard for a better life, just as their ancestors did when they came to America in the first place.

It’s a poignant story, of course, and one that I’m surprised has gotten so little notice. Tzouliadis says that this period is the only time since its founding that the U.S had more people leaving than coming to her shores. More later.

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