Very interested in learning about this scenarios that are usually not discussed as much as what you typically read from anti communists in the media.
Not USSR, but Victor Grossman defected from the US to DDR, and wrote a couple books about it.
Anna Louise Strong, she also was a journalist dedicated to sympathetic reporting on the Soviets for American audiences.
I actually had a couple of professors from the physics department in my uni here in Brasil who lived for some years in the URSS to get their PHD. Never talked about it with them though
I’ve noticed a lot of my physics and higher mathematics professors are Russian and lived in the USSR for a good portion of their lives. I was curious about whether this was particularly common and why but hadn’t really considered it too much until I saw your comment. Was higher education just particularly easy to obtain?
It’s probably because it was cheaper than going to the US, and they were doing top-tier science.
During the Spanish civil war, many children from the Republican-controlled territories were evacuated into the USSR. Some of them chose to stay, having lost their families to war and feeling so welcome in their new home.
As a silly note, some brought with them dogs of the Basque shepherd breed. I learned that after a Russian lady saw my dog and told me there are lots like those now in former USSR countries.
Basque shepherd breed
TIL those little orange strays aren’t just mutts, but an actual breed
You can tell a dog is a Basque shepherd by touching the back of its head; their skull is noticeably thicker there, which is unique to this breed. Also some of them are woolly and really fluffy!
Thanks!
Behind the Urals is great. John Scott was a fellow traveller or party member in New York as I recall. Immigrated to the USSR to work in Magnitogorsk.
I recall hearing of Western leftists moving to/visiting the USSR in the 20s, like journalist John Reed. Paul Robeson visited Moscow in the 30s and lived in Europe around that time. But I can’t remember any specific anecdotes of “fellow travelers” moving to the USSR to partake in the project
Paul Robeson was a real one. Apart from being a dedicated advocate of workers and anti-racism activist during peak McCarthyism, he also wrote this wonderful piece and sang the most beautiful english version of the USSR anthem.
