> If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and not USA. I

> If he stayed in Russia the course of human history might have been very different... if he was developing all that technology for the USSR... and not USA. I have serious doubts about this. His talents might be lost for humanity completely. Post-revolution and before WW2 there were a lot of constructors and engineers who were prosecuted, displaced or even worse by the Soviets. The wikipedia says "After the Bolshevik revolution began in 1917, Igor Sikorsky fled his homeland, because the new government threatened to shoot him." (the citation link is broken, unfortunately). This reminds me of Sergey Korolev's history. He was basically the father of Soviet rocket-building. He has survived the purges by pure luck. The leaders of his institute were executed, he was tortured to get the confession, lost his teeth, went through the gulag and got back. How many of these talented people ended up being not so lucky is hard to imagine. Even the work results might not have protected them. For example, take the chief engineer of T-34 engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Chelpan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Chelpan. He got awarded for the invention, arrested and executed the next year, and then rehabilitated a few years later. There were so many stories like these.