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She Thought Communist Russia Would Set Her Free, But She Ended Up Losing Everything
Dreaming of shared laundries, American migrants built Siberian colonies before Stalin’s terror.
Author’s Note: After thorough research, I could not find any publicly accessible images of the women referenced in this article. If you have leads or resources related to their photographs, please feel free to reach out.
As America raged on with its fierce anti-communist rhetoric in the Depression riddled 1920s, many Americans looked to the Communist promise with great fascination.
One such person was Rose Kostyuk, a working class American woman who moved to Russia when she was 24, excited to work in the utopian land Vladimir Lenin was suppsoedly building. This was finally her chance to be a part of ‘something bigger and more meaningful’ than life back home, a life dictated by ‘capitalist pleasures.’
She soon fell in love with a Russian man, marrying him and having children. But the fantasy of a life more just and fair than the one she was leaving behind soon began to crack. She and her communist husband traveled to a state farm in Central Asia to help build the socialist utopia.
