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.
Dancing under the Red Star is the story of Margaret Werner who was the only American woman to survive Stalin’s Gulag. Taken to the Soviet Union at the age of twelve by her father and mother (he was a fairly non-political socialist who wanted to help build a better future for Russia), this American girl knew no Russian and was shocked (as was her father) by the living and working conditions they encountered. Despite the situation not getting better, her father decided to stay and try to do his part until the day he was arrested by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Margaret and her mother were soon thrown out of their small apartment and had to live in a room about twelve feet by five feet and her mother took any job in order to survive. Although her father was not religious, her mother always told Margaret that there was a God and to put her trust in him.
For several years their meager existence continued including through the lean years of World War II. Chancing to meet two British officers one day, she asked them to help her try to get information regarding her father. She did not realize that the meeting would seal her fate in the future.
After the war, the repression started again and one day, Margaret was arrested. After a perfunctory trial, she was sentenced to ten years in the Gulag. The rest of the story traces her time in the Gulag and how she managed to survive. Her survival was helped by her mother who followed her daughter to Siberia, working any job in order to send her care packages from time to time. Her mother even once travelled 1600 kilometers so that they could risk all and meet for three minutes in a filthy outhouse; had they been caught; both would have been executed. She was also fortunate in that some of the inmates were able to create a troupe of entertainers (singers, dancers, musicians, etc.) who put on plays and entertainment mostly for the officers and guards. Gradually, they were exempted from the killing labor of the mines and were thus able to lead an easier life, although still under the strict guidelines of the camp administration.
Released after her term, she married a former prisoner, had a child (Karl), managed to get to East Germany with her husband, mother and child and finally to West Germany. Her husband left her and her dream of returning to the U.S. seemed near. Then she found out that due to a bureaucratic mistake, her West German passport negated her U.S. citizenship! Finally, after a total of thirty years, she, her mother and son were able to return to the U.S.
This is a harrowing story of luck and determination to survive. Thanks to her athletic and acting skills and the love of her mother, plus her new found belief in God, she was able to survive, the only American woman from the thousands who followed an ideal, were lied too and discarded by her own government and Stalin.
