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Karelia: A Finnish-American Couple in Stalin's Russia, 1934-1941 by Lawrence and Sylvia Hokkanen with Anita Middleton.
Karelia, a USSR republic bordering Finland, was hailed as the "worker's paradise" in the 1930s. In 1934, Lauri and Sylvi Hokkanen, along with thousands of other Finns from the United States and Canada, were recruited by the Russians to come to Karelia, bringing with them American technology and thought. But the Stalin purges of 1937 and 1938 cost many of these immigrants their lives. Lauri and Sylvi escaped, returned to the United States and, quietly, resumed their lives, keeping their experiences hidden out of fear. With the easing of Soviet-American relations, they feel the time has come to tell their story - an unusual and important story. According to Alexis Pogorelskin, professional historian at the University of Minnesota Duluth, "If Sylvi and Lauri and others like them had not gone to Russia, Gorbachev might never have come to rule the Soviet Union or at least not have initiated the policies of openness and modernization his exposure to the West encouraged." That exposure came through Andropov and Karelia.
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