Did Ford Employees Die in the Soviet Gulags?

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

This is based on a fascinating subject I stumbled upon while researching the history of the Soviet auto industry. For those who do not know, a Gulag was a slave labor camp where political prisoners were sent to be worked to death. They reached their zenith during the Stalin years. It must also be understood that Marx in The Communist Manifesto stated that a communist revolution could only occur in a fully industrialized society, something that Russia was not in 1917 when the Bolsheviks took power. To bring it up to that point, Stalin embarked on a program of mass industrialization. Now that you have some background, I will share what happened and why Ford was there in the first place.

It all starts in 1929. The US stock market has crashed and sent companies looking for ways to make money. Now, the Soviet union had no real indigenous auto industry at the time, so they sought out companies that would be willing to build them a factory and give them a technological "Great leap Forward". It was narrowed down to two (Ford and Chevrolet) and eventually Ford won the contract. The new plant was to be named GAZ (Gorky Auto Plant), and produce Ford model A cars and AA trucks. Several thousand Americans (estimates are as many as 15,000) went to the USSR at this time: some who worked for Ford and some because they ideologically believed in communism. This was at the height of the Great Depression, and many had given up on capitalism due to their own poor fortunes at the time. At first they were treated well, and were even permitted to play baseball in Gorky Park. However, the Soviets also confiscated their passports to make it almost impossible for them to leave. (These passports would later be used for espionage by the Soviets.) Many of them also had their citizenship changed without their knowledge.

Now advance forward a few years to around 1936, and the beginnings of Stalin's purges. Anyone who could remotely be seen as a threat was arrested and sent to the camps. Sadly, the Americans were almost universally in that group. So, where was the US State department in all this? Why did they not demand the release of all these Americans? Tragically, they decided to turn a blind eye to it. The US ambassador was on hand for many of the show trials, thus giving them an air of legitimacy. When these Americans would show up at the US Embassy, they would either be arrested before they could get in the gates, or turned away and arrested as they left. Our government did nothing to help them and in fact denied that they even existed. These were not the only Americans that wound up in the Gulags. Several hundred to maybe even a few thousand American servicemen from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam were turned over to the Soviets by other communist nations, or were taken from German POW camps when they fell into the hands of the Red Army. Our government found it far more politically expedient to abandon these people than to fight for them.

I have just started researching this subject and may post more on it in the future. If anyone has more information, I would be glad to read it.

Here is one of the articles I read for anyone interested:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...The-Forsaken-Americans-in-Stalins-gulags.html

 

[Chevyman85]

That is really intresting. I have heard something about US autoworkes going to the USSR. The nation was in a rush to industrialize. Ford had some views that aligned with the Soviets.

 

[megaladon6]

and you're surprised why?
hell, when "uncle" joe stalin invited us in during ww2 not all our guys came back. some were "temporarily detained" and disappeared.

 

[Chevyman85]

There are a lot of shocking foreign policy blunders that the public never knew about. With the Soviets, at least early on, the US was intimidated by their man power. I know of other industrilization projects that left US citizens in the USSR. I'll see if I can find examples.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

and you're surprised why?
hell, when "uncle" joe stalin invited us in during ww2 not all our guys came back. some were "temporarily detained" and disappeared.

Don't misunderstand me: I am in no way surprised that Stalin would do such a thing. In fact, members of my family were killed by the Bolsheviks during the Revolution which is part of the reason why my great grandparents fled Russia in 1917. I am however, surprised at the relative complacency that existed in our government. Then again, this was the height of influence for the "Progressives" in the US. Many of them looked at the Soviets and the Nazis as examples of how wonderful central planning could be. It wouldn't be the first time the left allowed their personal politics get in the way of human rights and reality. (This is also why it is VERY important that the press remain free, and that voices from the right, left and anywhere in between continue to be allowed to speak without government oversight.)

I post this sort of thing to make people think about history who may never have heard of such things, or who think that ANY government can be trusted to act benevolently and only for their welfare. I may also do a small article on the American eugenics policies which forcibly sterilized tens of thousands of Americans under the auspices of creating a genetically stronger America through "science" (phrenology...really?). Sort of a "Master Race" with diversity, if you will. One of the main champions of such thinking was Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. (The last forced sterilization was in 1973.) Then again, we also had "Internment" of Japanese, Italian and German Americans during WWII. Most Americans are very unaware of the human rights violations that have happened during our history. Slavery may have been America's "Original Sin", but it was far from it's last.

As a last note for this post, I will add another historical anecdote. Most of us consider the Nazis to be responsible for mankind's largest genocide, but that would be false. No, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin was far worse, and killed 2-6 times as many people in it's system. As many as 15-30 million people perished between the gulag and other mass killings carried out by the NKVD. The Nazis are only credited with 5-10 million deaths at most. While the numbers have huge margins for error, that is for good reason. Accurate records of what happened to "non-persons" in the Soviet system are hard to come by. The Nazis, being German, kept better records but even there exists a significant possibility for error in that several methods of death were used over the years, each one being "more efficient" than the last. Plus, many records were destroyed in the waning days of the war to keep the Allies from learning the whole truth about the guilty. Also, the Nazis may have had Auschwitz, but the Soviets had their own equivalent: Kolyma.

 

[megaladon6]

but you're forgetting that stalin/brezhnev/whoever didn't kill all those people from one race or religion. the nazi's killed about 6million jews. then you add in the political dissidents, gypsies, and then the war casualties and they beat the ussr. i THINK that stalin beat hitler when you don't count the war casualties, but no ones really sure.
but mao takes them all. mao is forgotten about because we have no hard numbers (and god forbid we insult the chinese), but the min estimates are 30mil of his own people. and that's the minimum!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Don't forget too that the Nazis also killed off thousands of terminally ill and mentally ill people to save the state health care system money. They also killed off homosexuals, and even some POW's. Stalin did target one ethnic group in particular, but I forget the exact name off the top of my head. Plus, Stalin killed over 25,000 Polish military officers when he invaded Poland from the East in 1939 as per his agreement with the Germans in the "non-aggression pact". If you count war dead, more Russians died than any other nationality. Much of this is due to Stalin's purges of the 1930's where he killed off most of his experienced military commanders, and even "purged" the NKVD. I have read some articles that state that Stalin took around 55,000 (25,000 Americans and 30,000 British Commonwealth) Allied POW's from the German camps and put them in the Gulag to be worked to death, or executed outright. He even executed over 1 million of his own soldiers when they were returned from the German POW camps because he considered them traitors for not dying instead. As for Mao, he was a nut job too. I have read up on Mao a little, but will have to dedicate more time to the subject before I can get enough consensus to reach a reasonable conclusion on numbers. The Cultural Revolution destroyed millions of lives, and destroyed many pieces of irreplaceable Chinese history. The Continuing Revolution was the sign that he had finally lost it. He told people to even revolt against himself! The real lesson to take from all this is to never trust any large entity: either business or governmental. They never have your best interest at heart and are usually only concerned with bettering themselves at the expense of anyone beneath them. Always question the truth, never accept what you are told until you have proven it yourself. The only one who is looking out for you is you.

 

[Chevyman85]

This goes along with people thinking that, "the Government will take care of us..." history teaches us that we should be leery of big government, and skeptical of its intentions. This goes across all party beliefs.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

This goes along with people thinking that, "the Government will take care of us..." history teaches us that we should be leery of big government, and skeptical of its intentions. This goes across all party beliefs.

Exactly my point. No large entity with power over you should be trusted without skepticism. Big Business has long shown it's total disregard for the individual, as has Big Government. I find it sad that Republicans only seem to distrust Government and Democrats only distrust Business. Both are equally evil, and both are also capable of some good. Trust? No thanks. I prefer to question all authority that may affect my life. Given the choice, I will keep the authority over my life decisions for myself and not cede them to any other authority.

 

[Chevyman85]

Very true, the public needs to question when the Government makes statments such as "That company is too big to fail!" -In regards to AIG. I could not agree more about the Rep/Dem Big Business and Government. Now more and more they are becoming the same thing, sadly... since Big Government is bailing out Big Business. That same quote comes back around, "That company is too big to fail, because we (the US Governement) have too many assets tied up with that company to let it fail!"