Dancing Under the Red Star: The Extraordinary Story of Margaret Werner, the Only American Woman to Survive Stalin's Gulag

The book is very informative and informational. It sheds a lot of light on the Ford factory in Russia and the Americans who came to work there before World War II. Margaret is forced to survive with her mother after her father is taken to the Gulag on unclear charges. After years of navigating war torn Russia with her mother, Margaret is forced to go to the Gulag herself. It puts the reader in the perspective of what it’s like to be manipulated not only by an authoritarian regime, but also prisoners who have no bounds for their own survival.

Learned a bit about Ford gulags and Russia

Shocking little-known story about Detroit's General Motors making a deal with Soviet Union's paranoid dictator Stalin (1879-1953) to ship over American auto experts after WW2 to help Stalin establish one of his failed ideas: a Russian automobile plant. Signing up for what they deem an adventure, is an idealistic man from Detroit and his wife & teenage daughter. Shortly thereafter the Detroit family, and other American families, as well, are branded - without evidence - traitors, and sent to Stalin's Death Camps - the Gulag - as was Solzhenitsyn. This is one of those true stories that is more horrifying than fiction. In Stalin's frightening, paranoid society, friend betrays friend to stay alive. The reader is given a close-up glimpse of Stalin's reign of terror, under which he implemented poorly-thought-out ideas that resulted in millions of deaths, such as collectivization of farms, that resulted in loss of crop production and famines where millions died of starvation. Under Stalin, a staggering 26 million individuals lost their lives. Remarkably, the mother and daughter, sent to bone-chilling Siberia, survive every hardship imaginable. Poignant scenes include meeting the wife of composer Sergei Prokofiev (she was also denounced as a traitor, a bitterly unhappy woman) - and the reunion of the heroine and her mother after a separation of months in, of all places, a smelly latrine. A small miracle is that the heroine gave birth successfully to a son, who was kept alive in Siberia. The heroine's story is told by this same son, after his mother's death by natural causes in America at age 75. He candidly admits that he had once been a bitter man, but that telling his mother's story has changed him. When his mother finally arrived back on her native soil three decades after her imprisonment, she kissed the ground of America, after glimpsing the Statue of Liberty upon her return. This thrilling page-turner is recommended for anyone from high school on up.

I found the previous review quite interesting as Dancing Under the Red Star was never called a memoir. To quote the cover, it is "The extraordinary STORY of Margaret Werner, the only American woman to survive Stalin's Gulag." The author's choice to write in first person made his mother's story very real to the reader. I also found it interesting that the last reviewer was disappointed claiming that the author's only purpose was to "proselytize his faith." Obviously the point of the story was missed. It was Margaret Werner and her mother Elizabeth's faith that enabled them to endure the horrendous ordeal. Repeatedly the hand of God moved in their lives in miraculous ways. Margaret's son is recounting his family history, where God played a substantial role in their survival. Excellent book revealing the darker side of the Stalin regime.

What a BOOK !!! The best I have read in a very long time! I truly felt I was there because of the details only someone could know by living through this. I feel very blessed living in our great country. To think of the torture this family went through brings a new perspective to my daily life. This is a must read for 'everyone' young and old, to truly see how lucky we are in every avenue of our life! I believe that every high school teenager should "try" this book on, then go and thank their parents for all that they have. I am telling everyone to read this book, it was so good I finished it in just one day! Patty Volz Cincinnati, Ohio

In the mid-eighties, I took the Trans-Siberian Express round-trip across the Ukraine, Russia, and Siberia. I fell in love with this weary, but beautiful land and people, and in the years since I've continued to follow their struggles in the news. "Dancing Under the Red Star" reveals a relatively unknown portion of modern history, following one woman's arrest and imprisonment in Stalin's prison camps. The astonishing thing is that she was an American, one of a number of families that went to Gorky to work for the Ford Motor Company. Her family goes through years of trouble and harrassment, and Maggie's stamina in the face of these events is admirable. With a competitive sports background, she turns into a tough cookie in the prison system, surviving on determination, sly wisdom, and a growing faith. Penned by her son, yet revealed through her eyes, "Dancing Under the Red Star" never tries to be a literary masterpiece; instead, it's an endearing and inspiring tale of endurance, love, and raw perseverance. One particular scene, in a Siberian outhouse of all places, moved me unexpectedly. Other scenes still play through my thoughts. If you like biographical stories of true-life survival, if you like tidbits of little-known history, if you enjoy reading of times and places that make you once again thankful for the country in which we live, than this is one book you won't want to miss.

Dancing Under the Red Star is a most riveting tale of one woman's hellacious journey through the Gulags of Stalin's oppressive reign. Margaret Werner was indeed an incredible woman. This book chronicles her life, from beginnings as a vivacious and gifted child, growing into a strong, tenacious woman through the gut-wrenching horrors she experienced. Through no choice of their own, Margaret and her mother were forced to personally live through the atrocities which took place in Stalinist Russia. The family had come to Russia in the early 1930's, with a little-known band of over 400 Americans to start an automobile factory in Gorky, Russia, modeled after Ford's Detroit plant. I personally was not acquainted at all with this piece of history, and I doubt many are. To my knowledge, there is only one other book detailing the story of Henry Ford's "deal" with Russia (Victor Herman's Coming Out of the Ice: An Unexpected Life). Dancing Under the Red Star has both the feel of a novel and the authenticity of a historical documentary. Written by Karl Tobien, Margaret Werner's son, it has all the poignancy of a memoir, while bringing to light the horrible truth that the Ford Motor Company and the U.S. government literally abandoned hundreds of American citizens to the "mercy" of the Russian regime. Despite all odds, Margaret Werner demonstrated the strength and perseverance of the human spirit in the midst of unthinkable adversity. I found her story very inspiring. This book promises to be a best seller! You won't want to miss the gripping narrative of this little-known piece of history.