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In the years 1928 to 1937 a small group of scientists and engineers from different countries of Western Europe moved to the Soviet Union. They were hired to help in tasks anticipated by the early Five-Year Plans. That is, helping to achieve the rapid industrialization objectives promoted by such plans, from the angle of scientific research, development and education. In this communication we follow the emigration path of two such travelers: one is Herman Müntz (1884-1956), a mathematician of Polish origin, trained in Germany, and the other Guido Beck (1903-1988) a Bohemian theoretical physicist, also trained in Germany. Both had achieved some distinction through their research work: one had collaborated with A. Einstein, the other with W. Heisenberg. Their visit touches on a number of interesting points connected with the spread of the exact sciences, research and education. Above all, they allow us to discuss the role of a few interesting agencies, the /Society for the Protection of Science and Learning /is one of them, which helped scholars move out of Germany on account of the rise of Nazism, and later out of the Soviet Union, just before 1939, when preparations for the war made difficult the life of some foreign scientists with German connections.
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