[laurentoget]

These were also the years where the soviet union was at its most threatening and keeping workers happy to reduce the attraction of communism was at the highest. After that threat vanished the gains in productivity have been used to reward investors rather than workers.

[achillesheels]

How does this correlate with the mass exodus of members of the communist party in America in the 1930s after hearing about the conditions in Stalin’s Russia?

[yellowbuilding]

I don’t think that had much to do with it. There was a lot of conflicting propaganda at the time and conditions in Soviet Russia in the late 1920s were good. Regardless, communists weren’t so easily persuaded.

The exodus was partly a reaction to poor conditions in Russia and the fact that Stalin, as opposed to Lenin before him, did not believe in pursuing worldwide revolutions. Stalin withdrew efforts to support communist parties worldwide.

But the main thing that encouraged withdrawal from the communist party was The New Deal.