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It sounds like the start of a fairy tale gone horribly wrong, but then so much of this story does: Once upon a time, the idea of voluntarily moving to the Soviet Union didn't horrify, it was downright attractive. During the darkest phase of Herbert Hoover's presidency, when the Depression was hunkering down across America, the Soviet Union appeared to be a young country, bursting with optimism - and jobs. So thousands of Americans, some radiating with communist vigor, and most merely searching for opportunity, left the United States behind for a new life there.