How Stalin's Promise Lured Finnish Workers to Soviet Karelia in the 1930s

A new historical analysis reveals how thousands of Finnish immigrants from North America were recruited to build a socialist utopia in Soviet Karelia during the 1930s—a migration driven by economic desperation and ideological hope. The study offers fresh insights into how authoritarian regimes weaponize emigration narratives to attract skilled workers and capital, a pattern with implications for understanding modern labor recruitment and political messaging.

Originaltitel: REVIEW on: Alexey Golubev and Irina Takala, <em>The Search for a Socialist El Dorado. Finnish Immigration to Soviet Karelia from the United States and Canada in the 1930s </em>(East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2014), 236 p