<P> Despite all of this, The Great Depression caused mass immigration to the Soviet Union, mostly from Finland and Germany . Soviet Russia was at first happy to help these immigrants settle, because they believed they were victims of capitalism who had come to help the Soviet cause . However, when the Soviet Union entered the war in 1941, most of these Germans and Finns were arrested and sent to Siberia, while their Russian - born children were placed in orphanages . Their fate is unknown . </P> <P> Spain had a relatively isolated economy, with high protective tariffs and was not one of the main countries affected by the Depression . The banking system held up well, as did agriculture . </P> <P> By far the most serious negative impact came after 1936 from the heavy destruction of infrastructure and manpower by the civil war, 1936--39 . Many talented workers were forced into permanent exile . By staying neutral in the Second World War, and selling to both sides, the economy avoided further disasters . </P> <P> By the 1930s, Sweden had what America's Life magazine called in 1938 the "world's highest standard of living". Sweden was also the first country worldwide to recover completely from the Great Depression . Taking place in the midst of a short - lived government and a less - than - a-decade old Swedish democracy, events such as those surrounding Ivar Kreuger (who eventually committed suicide) remain infamous in Swedish history . Eventually, the Social Democrats under Per Albin Hansson would form their first long - lived government in 1932 based on strong interventionist and welfare state policies, monopolizing the office of Prime Minister until 1976 with the sole and short - lived exception of Axel Pehrsson - Bramstorp's "summer cabinet" in 1936 . During forty years of hegemony, it was the most successful political party in the history of Western liberal democracy . </P>

What was the great depression in germany 1929