World War I Aid to Russia

...by the Soviets...

...famine relief in the Soviet Union in the early 1920s...

...The country also suffered two successive droughts, in 1920 and 1921, which played havoc with crops...

...But on June 16...

...Lenin, speaking at an official food conference, admitted that ". . . in a number of provinces the population will find itself in a desperate situation of unheard of difficulty...

...While this was not covered by the Riga agreement, Hoover and his associates realized early that the magnitude of the relief task in Russia would require a very considerable outlay of money and that a substantial Congressional appropriation would be necessary...

...Herbert Hoover, who headed the American Relief Association (A.R.A...

...It should be emphasized that the A.R.A...

...public opinion with strong suspicion and hostility and which was not even officially recognized by our Government...

...But to appreciate fully the magnitude of A.R.A.'s effort one must go beyond the dollars to the actual facts of relief operations...

...After condemning the alleged attempts to use the difficult Russian food situation as a weapon to force payment of international debts, repudiated by the Soviets...

...when it completed its mission and went home...

...Two principal conditions were stipulated by the A.R.A...

...Thus, in stating that the Food Remittance and Clothing Remittance systems were organized on a "purely commercial basis," the note did not go on to point out, as it did in the first edition, that all profits from these operations were used for relief work...

...activity was the operation of the Food Remittance Svstem from the U.S...

...And by mid-summer of 1921, the Soviet Government apparently fully realized LAZAR VOLIN, a specialist for the Foreign Agriculture Service of the Department of Agriculture, is now on leave at Harvard University's Russian Research Center...

...in the second edition of the Large Soviet Encyclopedia, published in 1950...

...did not find Soviet Russia a bed of roses...

...despite all the obstacles, friction and pitfalls, the A.R.A...

...While the food and medical supplies were highly welcome to the Soviet rulers, the fact that it was administered by an independent agency, representing capitalist America, was highly unpalatable to them...

...The same can be said about the first edition of the 1926 Large Soviet Encyclopedia...

...Wrangling about the observance and interpretation of the agreement entered into by the Soviets was a common experience for the A.R.A...

...chief Colonel Haskell for the members of the Soviet Government with whom they dealt most frequently and attended by a number of high Soviet dignitaries...

...Hoover and others concerned with famine relief felt that Congress would be more likely to appropriate funds if it were known that the Soviet Government was using all its available resources to importing food for famine relief...

...However, the generous farewell spirit did not last very long...

...To what extent it governs the popular image is...

...It was principally for this reason, as well as to increase the amount of food which could be purchased abroad, that the A.R.A...

...This is the revision of the official Soviet image of A.R.A., passed through the prism of the cold war...

...To be sure, $55 million may seem small today, but it loomed much larger in those days when our federal budget was only about $3.5 billion, as compared with our present budget of $80 billion...

...Thereafter, distribution was on a smaller and fluctuating, but still substantial, scale through May 1923...

...leaders, the steadfastness and devotion of the American and Russian rank and file personnel, and the good sense of some of the Communists in the lower and upper echelons of the regime...

...Commissar of Foreign Affairs George Chicherin spoke as follows: "In honoring at the present function the representatives of the A.R.A...

...Yet another major A.R.A...

...Russia entered the third decade of the present century with a greatly weakened agriculture...

...For instance, there was a detailed note explaining A.R.A...

...the Commissar of Foreign Trade who also headed the Soviet Trade Delegation in the United Kingdom...

...the crucial importance of foreign aid in relieving the famine and for the first time manifested a readiness to modify its stiff-necked attitude toward organized foreign relief...

...millions of people of all ages were saved from death, and whole villages and even cities were saved from the terrible catastrophe that was threatening them...

...But between October 1917 and 1921, according to the best statistical evidence available, the crop acreage declined by about 20 per cent...

...The work of the A.R.A...

...had not insisted that all these purchases be made in the U.S., but rather that the full amount contributed by the Soviets be used to purchase foodstuffs somewhere in the world...

...the Soviet of Peoples' Commissars . . . considers it its duty to express before the whole world, to this organization, its head, Herbert Hoover, Colonel Haskell, its representative in Russia, and all his coworkers, its profoundest gratitude, and to declare that the people of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics will never forget the help given by the American people through the A.R.A., seeing in that a pledge for the future friendship of both peoples...

...though he too gratefully acknowledged the aid of A.R.A...

...This time, however, the catastrophe was even greater...

...relief was the distribution in the epidemic-ridden country of medical supplies worth $7.8 million, which came from two sources: the American Red Cross and the U.S...

...relief work in the Soviet Union are as follows: Of the $65 million spent directly on relief (food, medical supplies, etc...

...medical supplies were distributed increased from 36, with a total capacity of 4,778 persons in November 1921, to a peak of 4,787 institutions with a total capacity of 318,076 persons in August 1922...

...The number of hospitals and other institutions to which the A.R.A...

...At the present time, when with the termination of the famine, the gigantic work of the A.R.A...

...the precursor of today's CARE package svstem...

...and its head, the highly esteemed Colonel Haskell, who with such tact and consummate skill and with such energy and devotion has carried out in Russia his responsible and arduous task and is leaving behind him the kindest remembrances, the representatives of the Russian Republic, through the medium of the A.R.A., greet the entire American nation with whom, we hope, we shall soon be united by enduring friendly ties...

...Nothing was said, for instance, about the partial responsibility of U.S...

...acting Chairman fin the absence of the ill Lenin) of the Council of Peoples Commissars (Sovnar-hom), paid an even more glowing tribute to A.R.A.: "Upon learning of the coming departure of the representatives of the A.R.A...

...is the work of broad masses of the American people who at a most difficult moment have come to the assistance of the Russian people and have thus laid a firm foundation for the future unalterable relations of friendship and mutual understanding between them...

...The counter-revolutionary activities of the A.R.A...

...But the number fed increased again in 1923, reaching more than 2.9 million (nearly 2.8 million children and more than 100,000 adults) in June 1923...

...paid in Russian currency was added, the U.S...

...But the importance of oral tradition in a country like Soviet Russia should not be underestimated...

...In view of the publicity Kozlov received, it is worthwhile to look at the record...

...and were agreed to by the Soviets at Riga...

...The overall financial facts of A.R.A...

...In its activity the A.R.A...

...What is more important, the note ends on an unmistakably sour propagandistic note: "Side by side with a widespread advertising of its philanthrophic activity, A.R.A...

...The famine, accompanied by epidemics, caused a staggering loss of life and the most dire economic and social consequences...

...It should also be remembered that it was an effort to help a country whose regime was regarded by U.S...

...despite much harassment of the A.R.A...

...in Volume 18 of the first edition of Lenin's collected works, which appeared in 1925...

...work was generously acknowledged by the Soviet Government when its task was concluded...

...military intervention for bringing about famine conditions in Russia, as was alleged by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on his recent stopover in the U.S...

...During World War I, before the Bolshevik Revolution, the area under crops declined by only eight to nine per cent compared to the prewar period...

...Perhaps the best measure of the deterioration is the reduction of crop acreage...

...to work in R.S.F.S.R...

...It speaks of the A.R.A...

...has come to an end...

...Instead of the two Soviet publications referred to in the first edition of the Encyclopedia, which treated the A.R.A...

...Now, as to the use of Russian gold...

...to make additional food and seed purchases to the tune of four million gold rubles (about $2 million...

...sources and 15.5 per cent was contributed by the Soviets...

...Such...

...During the famine which afflicted in 1921 part of the Volga area, the Soviet Government permitted [Italics mine—L.V.] A.R.A...

...Furthermore, after the agreement was signed, the Communist authorities of the Ukraine on their own initiative requested the A.R.A...

...We immediately agreed...

...That the Soviet government at the time regarded the gold arrangement as a fair one was indicated by Lenin's statement at the Ninth All-Russian Congress of Soviets on December 23...

...There were no reservations of any kind in these gracious acknowledgments...

...Again, at an official farewell dinner given by the Soviet Government to Colonel Haskell and his staff...

...if we would agree to expend for the same purpose $10 million...

...mission was a success in achieving the humanitarian end sought—a significant alleviation of starvation and disease in Soviet Russia during a grave crisis...

...was first of all guided by political motives...

...84.5 per cent came from U.S...

...In the following months, the number tapered off and it dropped sharply by the end of the year...

...Army medical stocks, whose shipment into Russia was authorized by Congress...

...But this was mild compared to the vituperation that was to follow...

...The same line was followed by the Small Soviet Encyclopedia published in 1958...

...of the freedom to function as an independent organization (as it did in every other country where it operated) and provision of necessary local facilities and services for its work...

...This led to the negotiations in Riga, then the capital of independent Latvia, between A.R.A...

...objectively, the second edition cites an article in a Soviet historical magazine with this provocative title: "Anti-Soviet Activities of the American Relief Administration in Soviet Russia in 1921-22...

...the other was a guarantee to the A.R.A...

...Leo Kamenev...

...which conducted relief work on a large scale in Europe, promptly responded, notwithstanding previous rebuffs...

...So much for the financial aspect...

...The frequent arrests and intimidation of the Russian personnel employed by the A.R.A., especially during the early stages, were highly symptomatic of this attitude...

...It was a success because of the firmness of A.R.A...

...was much harassed and interfered with because of the suspicion and hostility it aroused in its Communist hosts...

...Thus, at an informal dinner given in Moscow on June 16, 1923 by A.R.A...

...Thus conditions were more than ripe for one of those disastrous famines that plagued the Russian countryside at least once or twice every decade...

...He then brought up the offer by A.R.A...

...early and persistently appealed to the Soviet authorities for a contribution which, for the purpose of purchasing food abroad, could only be in the form of gold...

...This is little . . . but it is nevertheless help which will contribute to the alleviation of the desperate need, of the desperate famine...

...In return for this, A.R.A...

...undertook to refrain from any political interference with the internal affairs of Soviet Russia...

...The subject became a matter of protracted negotiations, during September-December 1921, conducted in London with Leonid Krassin...

...Even when the cost of services, facilities, etc...

...as having been "created in the United States in 1919 for the purpose of combatting the revolutionary movement and for bolstering the economic and political positions of American imperialism in the European countries which suffered from the war of 1914-18, under the guise of rendering food and other aid...

...Propaganda World War I Aid to Russia By Lazar Volin DURING SOVIET DEPUTY Premier Frol Kozlov's visit to the United States last July, he trotted out the old Soviet reproach that Russian gold was required to finance U.S...

...Though difficulties were encountered, the negotiations resulted in an agreement that promptly put the efficient relief apparatus of the A.R.A...

...One was the release of some American prisoners...

...The note on A.R.A...

...The drastic decline of production was aggravated by ruthless requisitioning of foodstuffs by the Bolsheviks, which left the peasants without food reserves or seed, and thoroughly demoralized...

...involving a Soviet contribution of $10 million in gold for purchase of food was finally completed at the end of December...

...1921...

...into operation in Soviet Russia for the next two years...

...used its position also for the disposal of commodities procured during the imperialist war (the quality of which in many cases proved to be quite low), thus helping relieve the depressing surpluses of these commodities in the United States...

...A.R.A...

...to use the $20 million just appropriated by Congress "to guarantee the receipt by us of food and seed for three months...

...The opportunity granted to it to create its own apparatus in Soviet Russia the A.R.A...

...Starting with 200 children fed daily in Petrograd (Leningrad) in September 1921...

...It was not long, however, before a thoroughgoing rewriting of history began...

...Not only did it finance the distribution of an additional 75,000 tons of food, but it provided a highly desirable individual touch, which is normally lacking in mass operations...

...aroused a strong protest by the broad working masses of Russia...

...the Sovnarkom passed a resolution, thanking the American people, in the person of the A.R.A., for responding, in the trying year of a great elemental calamity, to the need of the population, worn out by intervention and blockade, of Russia and the United Republics, and coming self-sacrificingly to its aid, organizing on a tremendous scale the importation and distribution of products and other articles of prime necessity...

...and the Soviet Government, represented by Maxim Litvinov...

...And so, apart from difficulties inherent in operating in a country which was close to economic paralysis, the A.R.A...

...The Bolshevik leadership was slow to recognize or acknowledge the famine danger in the rural areas...

...the number increased every month, reaching a peak, a year later, of nearly 4.2 million children and over 6.3 million adults...

...And yet...

...These feelings were clearly voiced at the outset by as important a personage as Leon Trotsky...

...contribution was close to 70 per cent...

...used for espionage and sabotage and to support counter-revolutionary elements...

...This reflected the traditional Soviet distortion of the American feeding operation, a noble humanitarian effort which saved millions of lives...

...And whatever the crises and conflicts, the great humanitarian value of the A.R.A...

...Lenin spoke of a "quite considerable success recently achieved in the matter of famine relief...

...By far the most important of these was the feeding of children and adults...

...This large decline was due only partly to the civil war which raged during most of the period: mostly it was a result of Communist exactions from the peasantry...

...In July 1921 an appeal for help to the whole world was issued—but it was signed by the famous writer Maxim Gorky, not by the Soviet Government...

...of course, an open question...

...Another important phase of A.R.A...

...in later editions of Lenin's works became considerably shorter and misleading...

...mission still could be found in Soviet publications...

...then, was the official image of the A.R.A...

...A representative sample is the article on A.R.A...

...There were also various minor operations, such as the Clothing Remittance System...

...1921...

...personnel...

...Thanks to the tremendous, utterly unselfish efforts of the A.R.A...

...For a few years in the mid-20s a fairly objective account of the A.R.A...

...An agreement with A.R.A...