In 2008, Tim Tzouiadis wrote a book entitled, The Forsaken, An American Tragedy in Stalin’s Russia in which thousands of Americans left for jobs and security in the Soviet Union during the Depression.  Led to believe the stories of American journalists (such as Walter Duranty of the New York Times) and “intellectuals” like George Bernard Shaw, they saw the Soviet Union as the wave of the future after the “failure” of Capitalism.  Hundreds were also offered positions on a contract by Henry Ford who was helping the Soviets build auto plans; they were skilled tradesmen and their skills were lacking in that war-torn land.  Of all the thousands who took the trip, only a handful survived and returned to the U.S.; most of those were children who were sent home for some reason or some workers who quickly turned around and returned. Later, having lost their U.S. passports, most were arrested and sent to the Gulags or executed outright as being “spies” and “wreckers”.  Only one man and one woman survived terms in the Gulags to return to the U.S.