Early Cooperation: American Famine Relief (to the Soviets)

Archive NCSA ^

[jb6]

After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the ensuing Civil War produced acute food shortages in southwestern Russia. Wartime devastation was compounded by two successive seasons of drought, and by 1920 it was clear that a full-scale famine was under way in the Volga River Valley, Crimea, Ukraine, and Armenia. Conditions were so desperate that in early 1920 the Soviet government sent out a worldwide appeal for food aid to avert the starvation of millions of people.

Several volunteer groups in the United States and Europe had by then organized relief programs, but it became clear that help was needed on a larger scale because an estimated 10 to 20 million lives were at stake. Although it had not officially recognized the Soviet regime, the United States government was pressed from many sides to intervene, and in August 1920 an informal agreement was negotiated to begin a famine relief program. In 1921 President Warren Harding appointed Herbert Hoover, then secretary of commerce, to organize the relief effort.

Congress authorized $20 million, and Hoover proceeded to organize the American Relief Administration (ARA) to do the job. Under Hoover's terms, the ARA was to be a completely American-run relief program for the transport, storage, and delivery of relief supplies (mainly food and seed grain) to those in the famine region. After Soviet officials agreed, hundreds of American volunteers were dispatched to oversee the program. The ARA gradually earned the trust of the local Communist authorities and was given a virtually free hand to distribute thousands of tons of grain, as well as clothing and medical supplies. This remarkable humanitarian effort was credited with saving many millions of lives.

ARA aid continued into 1923, by which time local farms were again producing and the famine's grip was broken. Hoover and his ARA were later honored by the Soviet government for the care and generosity that the United States had shown in this desperate crisis.

[jb6]

After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the ensuing Civil War produced acute food shortages in southwestern Russia. Wartime devastation was compounded by two successive seasons of drought, and by 1920 it was clear that a full-scale famine was under way in the Volga River Valley, Crimea, Ukraine, and Armenia. Conditions were so desperate that in early 1920 the Soviet government sent out a worldwide appeal for food aid to avert the starvation of millions of people.

The authorization letter and its translation

Food Shipments to Russia

To all members of the Politburo.

I am enclosing the text of the Agreement with "Ara" [American Relief Administration] on organizing food shipments to Russia. Eiduk and I are completely in favor of signing the agreement. They are bringing in an additional quantity of food. We have the right to hold up (without appeal) any delivery if it exceeds 50 dollars for a private individual or 500 [dollars] for an organization (hospital, municipality). We are providing them FREE TRANSPORTATION FROM THE BORDER TO THE FOOD WAREHOUSES.

Litvinov opposes the last [point], considering it a privilege. His objection is not serious.

I request you take a vote and provide an answer by 2 PM Wednesday.

[signed] L. Kamenev

[Handwritten comments on the bottom of the document]

(If indeed the goal is trade, then we should do this [illegible] for they are giving us pure profit for the hungry and monitoring rights; and the right of refusal for three months. Therefore we ought not take payment for shipment to the warehouses.) ....

Agreed. October 19. Lenin.

[Handwritten comments, left margin]

Agreed. Trotsky

The issue is obviously trade and not charity. I propose:

1) Exempt the incoming food from customs and taxes, charge for transportation on a universal basis;

2) Provide warehouse facilities for a charge.

Agreed. October 19. J. Stalin

Agreed. October 19. [illegible]

______________________

TRANSLATOR'S COMMENTS: A. V. Eiduk (1886-1938) was a Party member from 1903 and held numerous important government positions. He died in prison.

Laying to rest Spanalot's favorite lies. Bookmark this gentlemen and send the troll back under the bridge.

[cinives]

http://www.iccrimea.org/historical/thornbush.html

Not so fast.

[spanalot]

jb6,

Boy, your job is a lot tougher now that you don't have the NYTimes and Duranty to do your dirty work anymore.

http://ucca.org/famine/gordondispatch.html


"The ravaging famine that followed the Russian Civil War affected about twenty-four million people living in the Volga-Ural region and Ukraine. While the Russian people had suffered shortages of food and even death by starvation before, and no measurable rain fell in the Volga valley in the spring of 1921, the main cause of famine was the indiscriminate requisitioning of food by the Bolsheviks. In Crimea, a region that had even produced surplus food in 1920, the famine was clearly man-made, resulting from deliberate official policies. In this memoir, Fevzi Altug describes how the Bolsheviks confiscated the people's foodstuffs first and then forced the Crimean Tatars to give up their precious belongings in exchange for small amounts of grain. He accuses the Bolshevik administration of plotting to exterminate his people (genocide). The first deaths from starvation began occurring late in 1921 and continued through the summer of 1922. After experiencing extreme hardships and seeing death and devastation brought on by famine, Altug and his family left Crimea in March 1922."

[spanalot]

Wow - an official Communist Document! Why don't you translate it and explain that the Commies were arguing that this was "trade" subject to taxes and "transit fees"

BWHAHAHAHA

http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1988/458814.shtml

"After a brief attempt to hide this catastrophe, which the Bolsheviks feared would be interpreted as a failure of their rule, Moscow launched an elaborate famine relief campaign. In July 1921, the famine regions in Russia were declared a disaster zone and were exempted from food taxation. Food and money collection was organized for them in the Soviet republics, and help was sought also from the West. The Volga famine zone included many nationalities, but aid seems to have been concentrated in the ethnically Russian areas. During the second year of the famine, Western agencies noticed that the majority of the starving population consisted of national minorities (Tatars, Germans, etc.)

Throughout the whole period, the starving areas of Ukraine continued to be taxed, and forced to provide 'voluntary" aid for Russia. This amounted to criminal behavior on the part of the Bolshevik authorities and astounded foreign observers."

[USNBandit]

the main cause of famine was the indiscriminate requisitioning of food by the Bolsheviks

The Bolsheviks set the quotas so high that they even took the seed for the next season's planting.

The question is whether this was done because the Bolsheviks were idiots or whether it was done on purpose to subjugate the Ukrainians. With the results of the Chinese agrarian reform movement (millions dead) it makes me think it is part of the Communist system and was done on purpose.

I highly recommend The Black Book of Communism on this subject. It is a dry read, very text bookish, but the sourcing and research seems very good. It goes into great depth on the treatment of the Ukrainians and the results of the Bolshevik collective farming program

[PAR35]

it makes me think it is part of the Communist system and was done on purpose.

The communists are doing the same thing in Rhodesia today.

[USNBandit]

When the Red Chinese took over Tibet they tried to make the Tibetans grow rice as part of the agrarian reforms. Unfortunately for the Tibetans rice doesn't grow in that climate. The Chinese should have been able to tell this from the fact that the Tibetan diet used barley as a staple instead of rice. Next stop, famine.

[jb6]

Wow, this is the best reply you can come up with? Weak, spany, weak. Fact is, the famine was not only in Ukraine and even the US sent aid to it. So in otherwords, your whole point is a lie, as if we didn't know.

[spanalot]

Don't mind jb6 - he is a Kremlin apologist who will justify any stunt the Kremlin pulls - eg Yushchenko poisoned himself and ran over his son to win sympathy during the election. His list of posts is 110% pro putie and anti ukrainian, anti polish, and anti anyone else that objects to their history of despotism and genocide.

[jb6]

Note, the famine was also in Russian Crimea and the Russian Don Basin and in the Caucuses. These were all areas that were conquered last and thus subjugated last to the idiotic communist collective farming and war communism in general. The other areas had their massacres (5 million died in the civil war) but those famines were hidden by the war.

[jb6]

Spany is a liar and a russophob who tries to blame the Russians for everything the Soviets did, ignoring the 20+ million RUSSIANS who were soviet victims. This is called racism, as any of his posts quickly show. The truth is also foreign to
him.

[jb6]

His list of posts is 110% pro putie and anti ukrainian,

Not quite troll-a-lot. My posts are anti Third-Way Yushchenko socialists who are using the Clinton team of spin doctors of whom you seem to be a big asset since you are such a cheerleader for Yushchi and his tax raising, minimal wage raising and commodity price controlling government.

[ozzymandus]

Big suprise, Uncle Sucker fed our enemies, and the food went to the Red Army while the peasants starved. Nixon sold them a bunch of grain in the 70's, and the commies turned around and sold it on the world market for a nice profit.

[jb6]

One of my friend's dad was a huge lobbyist for the conservative element of the Republican party in the 80s. He had several books and articles calculating how under the table we were supporting directly and indirectly the Soviet criminal regime.....kept a lot of people employeed in DC.

[nw_arizona_granny]

History ping.

[spanalot]

jb6

I think if you have been advising Putin, he is going to want his money back.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550795/posts

[mc6809e]

ping

[USNBandit]

So what is this article supposed to show? Is is supposed to show that the Communists were trying to get aid to the Ukraine?

[jb6]

No, what it shows is that Spanalot's claim that the famine was uniquically in Ukraine is a lie. The famines were everywhere those idiots tried their collective farming.