Underpinned by meticulous research, but always circumspect in drawing conclusions where the evidence is elusive, this book is essential reading for scholars interested in the early Cold War, the Russian diaspora, and the wide range of migrant experience. It is superbly copyedited and engagingly written.

History Australia

This work represents a solid, stylish academic undertaking, with intricate analysis across a spectrum of elusive and challenging sources ... A timely contribution done with much care on a topic that seems to reinvent itself, just like its characters did.

The Russian Review

The book is an important contribution to studies of leftist communities in the West during the Cold War Period.

Ab Imperio

'Nilsson makes an original and distinctive contribution to multiple fields, including Cold War history and diaspora studies, with her choice of an unusual vantage point: the transnational lives of left-leaning émigrés from the Soviet Union in Cold War Australia. Her engagingly written and insightful portraits of her individual characters pay close attention to their particular personal and political choices, and the work as a whole sheds an unusual and intriguing light on how these travellers from war-torn and revolutionary backgrounds negotiated with the very different world of post-war Australia, making their own mark on its political and cultural fabric. A highly readable and often surprising study.'

Judges of the Marilyn Lake Prize for Transnational History (2025 winner)