I knew four members of the Almanac Singers and none of them were Soviet agents. In the Forties, Stalin and Hitler were heroes to some Americans. There was naïveté about these figures. The Almanacs in the early days were opposed to wars of imperialism but changed when they saw that Hitler was a threat. Ultimately that happened to every American at that time. Roosevelt was loathe to attack Germany. Many American figures such as Lindbergh supported Hitler. Not many knew about Stalin's atrocities. They were sympathetic to Russia as it bore the brunt of Nazi invasions and ultimately brought WWII to and end. The scapegoating of those who opposed with oligarchs of the Twenties,Thirties and Forties were not receiving orders from Moscow. They were socialists, followers of Debs and Joe Hill, and labor unions. This scapegoating and propagandistic lies continues today with the distortion of statistics and weighted political propaganda. I speak having lived through the early Forties and got my interest in folk music because of the left-wing movement. No left-wing movement, no folk revival and hence no Mudcat.
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