Foreign workers in the Soviet Union

Between 1917 and 1939, approximately 70,000 to 80,000 foreign workers, specialists, and political exiles lived and worked in Soviet Russia. At its peak in mid-1932, 42,230 foreign workers were employed in Soviet industry, mostly men and mostly skilled laborers. Of those, 50% were German or Austrian, 25% were American, and the rest were Finnish, Czech, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese workers.

The main timeline of foreign workers in the Soviet Union can be divided roughly into two periods, the 1920s and the 1930s.