Why foreign experts came to the USSR

In 20-ies of the last century in the Soviet Union there were numerous colonies of American specialists. All of them were busy building a communist economy. Foreigners arriving in the country for different reasons tips, brought their contribution to the industrialization of the country, and then almost extinct as a class by the end of the 30's. The reasons for the fact it was quite a lot.

The American colony in Moscow was the largest

20-30 years

Socialist industry created the technicians and skilled workers from many different countries: to establish and run the equipment without their help could not local. For many foreigners are well paid work under the contract was very handy: growing unemployment in Europe and the United States.

In 1930, workers from the west was 10,000, and in 1932 - 4 times more. Many traveled on tourist visas, applying for a job, they became dependent on the Soviet authorities: the salary received in rubles, they are often forced to accept Soviet citizenship. But this did not stop: many have Russian roots, and often left-wing persuasion.

"Bourgeois" specialists have lived much better than the local, to the same they pay many times more. In the early days of the salary issued in foreign currency - could be sent home. Product Spec supplied through valves, whereas the Soviet workers and engineers are required prepared according to the cards. A deficit had everything we needed, from the bread.

Engineers provide separate apartments, business settled no more than two room communal. But conditions at home have been much better to work traveled in a car, bathed in his bath. In 1932, on the "Elektrostal" in Noginsk near Moscow suffered a scandal due to failure of "capitalists" to wash a total bath. At home they are of such a nightmare never even heard of. According to the concepts of local workers newcomers lived luxuriously, foreigners also felt terrible living conditions. Communication between them does not arise, the language taught exclusively for work. Free time spent expats in their clubs, which organized the usual dancing to jazz and watching American movies.

It is best in the Soviet Union felt blacks

Robert Robinson, an American expert from Detroit and Soviet engineer / Photo:. Pp.userapi.com

Blacks did not feel in the country councils second-class citizens. And in the US until the 1960s, it was segregation in all spheres of life. Cases of nationalism, especially - racism in the Soviet Union harshly suppressed. In 1930, two whites beaten black compatriot, Robert Robinson. The scandal has not ended study of the trade unions and the press: held court convicted hooligans to resolve it they were both deported to their homeland.

From 1922 to 1936. more than two hundred African Americans came to the Soviet Union in the hope of a better life. Here they are easily arranged at the high-paying job, communicated with Soviet counterparts, the plant family. The Government of the Soviet Union, sending agents to recruit, recommended to give preference to black workers in contracting. It was profitable and served propaganda purposes.

Skilled Worker Robert Robinson was hired on an annual contract in 1930, and as a result spent 44 years. In 1934, he decided to stay in the Soviet Union, and even became a deputy of the Moscow City Council. Blacks received higher education in Soviet high schools, successfully move up the career ladder. Here are just a return to their homeland, they were very difficult.

Write your bourgeois manners - there are only needed job skills and loyalty to the Soviet power

The Treasures of the Romanov in return for loyalty to the capitalist / Photo:. Gdb.rferl.org

But in the early 1930s, many Americans began to leave. And foreigners gradually cut benefits: no longer pay in the currency in 1935, abolished the supply through a distributor. But living conditions were the main disappointment of Western expats. Comparison of Soviet reality with the capitalist was not in favor of the USSR: the hardest thing was to see the plight of ordinary people. Beautiful propaganda was an empty shell, a pro-Soviet attitude of foreigners plummeted.

Experts pointed out the corruption and the absolute incompetence of Soviet officials, inconceivable brutality of the authorities to all segments of the population. American engineer E. Smith was admitted to the CPSU (b), but soon surrendered his membership card as a sign of disagreement with the Soviet system. In the USSR it found all that with which the Communists fought in the United States and other countries, but here the slightest protest was suppressed immediately.

The owners of the concessions understood that in the Soviet Union they are allowed to do business only with full loyalty to the authorities. And they gave the most positive assessment of the Soviet system. To thank them generously with works of art from Soviet museums. Armand Hammer was getting value in return for the supply of food, brought a lot of exhibits from the Hermitage, cheaply sold and bestowed on him by the authorities. Managing the Ford Motor Company Charles Sorensen received a precious casket of Catherine II.

But to stop the wave of departures of foreign workers was impossible. Since the mid-1930s introduced a new order, professionals massively forced to accept Soviet citizenship, preventing a return to his homeland.

With the departure of experts on the position of the enterprises deteriorated so for Gaza, built concession G. Ford, instead pledged in 1200 trucks per day project on their own in the first year let a little less than forty. International reputation of the Soviet state fell dramatically because of the negative reviews of returnees engineers and workers. And by 1937, the number of foreign colonies declined several times. There were only taken the citizenship of those who feared a concentration camp in Germany. All of them were arrested in 1937-1938.

Soviet authorities have halted the usual mood doubters - repressive way. In those years it was fabricated known case - "Shakhty" and "Industrial Party". Time begins terror and spy - all foreigners became suspicious.

Repression against foreigners - a clear anti-communist agitation

Figure Thomas Sgovio a series of "Kolyma camps" ./ Photo: moe-online.ru

Against the backdrop of frequent arrests, the Americans besieged by the US Embassy for the recovery of passports and opportunities to leave. They are required to pay in dollars, but it was not many currencies. Mass arrests of foreigners.

American Thomas Sgovio worked in Moscow as an artist in the magazine, in the rd 1938 appealed to the embassy, ​​and the output has been arrested and sent to a camp, where he stayed for 14 years. Only in 1960 he returned to the United States and published a memoir, "Why I stopped being a Communist" and a series of drawings of camp life.

The Soviet side during the arrest of foreigners often do not notify their embassies. Diplomats in Germany and the United States had the opportunity to release the compatriots of the NKVD - the Soviet Union and these countries did not want to spoil relations.

The German Embassy has helped free hundreds of their citizens. German antifascists, escaped from the Soviet torture chambers, caught by the Gestapo.

US diplomats also had a "black list" unreliable fellow who deliberately left in the NKVD. They were communists and political emigrants, persons with dual nationality. All Germans who worked in the USSR, was arrested on the personal order of Stalin in 1937. Repression also hit hard by the Poles. The victims numbered in the thousands, the number of executions increased.

recovery industry after the war: the specialists attached to the technique of

fighter assembly line moved to the Soviet Union, together with the staff / Photos:. Frontlinevideos.com

After World War II equipment from Germany and the countries who fought on Hitler's side, was exported to the Soviet Union as part of reparations, together with technical staff. In addition, at the disposal of the Soviet regime fell, scientists, design offices and laboratories. They had to create a Soviet nuclear weapons, the latest aircraft, rocket science.

Some plants were taken out completely - with all employees and their families. Thanks to this new production, and existing industry took to the modern level were built. Light and food industry to re-create in the Byelorussian SSR, completely destroyed during the war.

In 1948 he worked in the USSR 200 000 German specialists and their families. The living conditions were at inostrannomgo staff are good, but the trip home was prohibited. The first group of German specialists returned to Germany in 1949, but many remained to work until 1958, since refused to go to the GDR.