Moscow Yankee

The Depression era closingof a Ford plant sends Andy and two companions to Moscow to find work ina Soviet automotive plant, where he meets Natasha, an exemplar of the"new Soviet woman." Based on Myra Page's own experiences in Moscow duringthe first Five-Year Plan, Natasha is a portrait of women's contradictorysocial position in the early periods of socialist construction. At thecore of this novel is a firsthand look at the developing forces and changingrelations of production forces that bring about the conversion of Andyinto a "Moscow Yankee." While revealing the political and economic policiesthat would inevitably lead to the demise of Soviet-style socialism, Moscow Yankee refutes the notion that egalitarian societies cannot succeedbecause they fail to take into account the individualism and greed of"human nature." Barbara Foley's introduction analyzes the Soviet Socialistconstruction in Page's novel and the politics of the novelistic form inrelation to Moscow Yankee.Originally published in 1935"A picture of Americans luredto Moscow by hope in the 'great experiment,' and of others driven thereby the depression, and of still others attracted by the simple desireto get good engineering jobs, Moscow Yankee; has a decidedvalue . . . a sense of life, stirring in the chaos of destruction andreconstruction." -- The New York Times Book Review