Russian Civil War: Famine--American Russian Famine Relief Act (1921)

Figure 1.--This image can be misintpreted. We see overwheamingly grateful desperate from hunger thanking American Relief Administration workers for food being delivering to their starving village -- Vasilyevka in Samara province.

The United States Congress passed Russian Famine Relief Act in 1921. The United States after World War I moved to save he starving people of Europe. Farming had been seriously impacted by the War and food production was especially reduced. People in Europe were beginning to starve. Congress allocated $100 million dollars. This was a huge amount at the time, some $1.8 billion in 2024 dollars. The ARA was to disperse the food. Private donations doubled the amount to $200 million. As a result the ARA delivered more than 4 million tons of relief supplies to 23 war-torn European countries. Arthur Cuming Ringland was chief of mission in Europe and ARA as European Agriculture recovered terminated its relief operations outside Russia (1922). But his left Russia without needed aided. This was not because America refused to deliver aid, but because the Bolsheviks astonishingly refused to accept it. And because of the Civil War, conditions in Russia were more serious than in the other European countries America aided. Because of rumors reaching the West, American officials intensified efforts to reach out to Bolshevik codicils. And in Russia the famine was reaching unprecedented dimensions hat the Bolsheviks could not continue to ignore it. ARA director in Europe Walter Lyman Brown met with the Soviet n People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Maxim Litvinov, in Riga, Latvia. Latvia had been part of the Tsarist Empire, but had managed to achieve its independence. It was, however, relatively close to Moscow. The two managed to hammer out an agreement (August 21, 1921). An implementation protocol as signed by Brown and People's Commissar for Foreign Trade Leonid Krasin (December 30, 1921). The U.S. Congress immediately appropriated the needed funds $20 million for relief shipments (December 22). Russia was the only European country for which a relief act was specifically identified. This was because the Bolsheviks had refused aid for o long. he rest of Europe was recovering and the ARA was being phased out. Thus special legislation was needed for Russia. Finally American food could reach the starving Russian people. Few Russian people today are aware of this act of generosity toward a people of a hostile state--an act unprecedented in history.

Created: 9:57 PM 12/14/2024
Last updated: 9:57 PM 12/14/2024