bertrand and paterno is research fellow at the hoover institution and a lecturer at stanford

university in history international relations human rights author, the big show ball of land, the american relief expedition. soviet russia in the famine of 21. pat new has also written edited several books dealing with stalin and a history of the hoover archives. our second speaker, george h. nash, is a historian of american and foremost biographer of herbert hoover. his three volume, the life of herbert hoover details hoover's life from his birth in 1918 74 through his career as the head of the u.s. food. nash edited two of herbert hoover's unpublished book manuscripts, freedom betrayed.

herbert secret history of the second world war and its aftermath and the crusade. years 1933 to 1955. herbert hoover's last lost memoir of the new deal and its aftermath. his highly acclaimed the conservative movement in america. since 1945 has undergone several expansions and revisions. please welcome our first speaker, bert patton, new. thank you, tom. good. could probably make that a little darker and i read about that. supposed to come to come back. it'll come back.

okay. we're hoping the map comes back into full brightness and focus. maybe i can coax it into that. thank you, tom, for the instruction. and today we mark a centennial. two centennial. so 100 years ago there was a massive famine in soviet russia and 100 years ago, a monumental american relief mission. so in the summer, 1921, soviet russia was the scene of a truly catastrophic famine. the famine was caused by several factors. first off, the dislocations caused by the world. first, world war. the chaos and the disruption that were caused by the russian revolution. of 1917. the ravages of the ensuing

russian civil war, 1918 to 1920. and. and so oftentimes neglected by historians. we should point bolshevik economic policies. during that period i'll come back to that and the trigger for the famine was a drought two failed harvests a row as what famine experts call bang bang. famine means it's going to be serious. two failed harvests in a row, so millions are threatened with starvation and disease. most of them living in and beyond the volga river valley and in southern ukraine. i hope you can see the map well enough, to to you can detect out to the east part of the map toward the right of the map, you're seeing here. is the house.

the water. thank you, lynn. so you see where kazan is up. up toward the top here. then you walk over here in points. is kazan upere? olga turns south there and you can follow the volga down to. sandrg's samara saratov. so i read some that point. the volga turns hard toward the caspian, so the soviet govement is unable to cope with this on its own, and it asks for foreign assistance by. far most of the assistance comes from the u.s and mosof that assistance comes from the r.a. , the american relief administration under the chairmanship of this man. i think you know who this is herbert hoover. so hoover, again, setting the table here and most of you know the background had achieved worldwide fame. the organizer and administrator

of large scale humanity. korean relief operations, first in german occupied during the great and then as food administrator for the allies after the armistice as of november 1918. in 1919 and 1920, hoover's r.a. successfully executed an extraordinary, enormous food relief campaign across central and eastern europe. first, as a u.s. governmen agency. and then after the signing of the treaty of versailles in june of 1919 as a private relief organization. now, fun fact to know in 1921, hoover was also secretary of commerce in the war and harding administration. in addition, being chairman of this privately run grain. so very unusual situation it was hoover as chairman of the era who answered the call for help

that summer. also important to know, the united states has no diplomatic relations with this new soviet russia at this point. so that made the between the era and the soviet government in riga latvia in this in august 1921, a particularly delicate. the riga agreement is signed on august 20 and hoover's aura enters soviet russia to fight the great famine. so the riga agreement, which i'll be referring to a couple more times in, the course of the talk sets, the conditions for relief. hoover's idea. his original intention was to insist what's in the original riga agreement was defeated. 1 million soviet children. but his plan was quickly revised after the american relief workers made, their way to the towns and villages, the volga

region, and filled their reports with descriptions of piles of tangled corpses. i'll spare that. there's a lot of it in in the exhibit of hundreds of thousands of ragged, vermin ridden and desperate refugees fleeing famine zone in search of food. you a scene at a local railway station here on the volga and also of children. the cries of children, many with bellies swollen as you see here. a couple of the kids have that problem the edema swollen from eating grass in leaves and bark and worse. in other, this was not simply hunger and extreme hunger, which the area had been used to dealing with. this was mass starvation. clearly the relief was going to have to be extended not only to more children, but also it would have to adults. the area had never fed adults in

its central operations. so the r.a. , supported by appropriation of $20 million from the u.s. congress december 1921 and other monies eventually totaled $60 million. today's money would be over a billion. this air undertook to transport hundreds of thousands of tons of corn and wheat seed from the american midwest to the russian heartland. the seed would give russia a decent harvest. 1922. it's a dimension of the story that historians and experts on famine overlook. thir.a. poster, it was designed for the r.a. by soviet artist, and it kind of captures the the s the spirit of the enterprise. it says up top america. that'pret obvious. en t bottom to starving

russia. and if you loo closely, you'll see the rows, the ears of corn along the bottom a. bottom of the poster corn was a very big deal in this operation. so they would would organe two major supplement trade programs inoviet russia. ere would be a medical relief program, something the arra had never done. anthere would a food package program. more about in a few minutes. now, this map i'm showing u, if you look at the upper right, you'll see aeromedical districts 1922. the map was designed especially for the exhibit at the hoover stitution at stanford, an exhibit that opens iabout four weeks and that will focus the medical program. this works just as well. i find for ira food relief in all. so over the course of almost a two year mission, about hundred americans would serve in the

mission with a local staff numbering about 120. thousands of kitchen managers, couriers, warehouse managers, etc. eventually some 6 million people will perish in this famine. many lives would be saved and in large part due to the ira. so that's the overview. now let's explore a little bit more in depth. from the beginning, the kremlin leadership feared that the era was a trojan horse. in there was an article in the petrograd newspaper, petrograd pravda that warned by its title of the greek hoover and his gifts. during the riga negotiations. soviet leader vladimir lenin, you see him here, was quite skittish. on october 11. he wrote an agitated note to the politburo. this is when the riga

negotiations are just underway. he warned the politburo that there was, quote, a highly game going on involving the trickery of america, hoover and the league of nations. it was absolutely essential, lenin wrote to a special politburo commission to deal with the day to day questions of foreign relief. quote. hoover be punished, must be publicly slapped so that the whole can see. so lenin is not a well man at this time. lenin is pretty sick. and his illness, which he complains about in numerous letters during this period, must have sharpened his edginess by exactly baiting both his sense of personal vulnerability and the confusion in his mind about just what hoover in the era were up to. he was aware, of course, that hoover's aura had behind the lines of pressing white forces

the anti-bolshevik forces in petrograd in 1919. he knew about that. and also that was during the russian civil war and also he knew about american military intervention during that war. however halfhearted and ineffectual turned out to be, it was a pretty big deal, a very big deal in moscow. lenin would suffer debilitating stroke in 1922. he would dead by january 1924. so now urged vigilance that hoover was, quote, an liar. in another letter, he wrote, delicate maneuvers are needed. this is to the politburo. as for the relief workers, the americans coming in, we must establish superstar conditions for the slightest interference in internal matters, expulsion and arrest. it did not help matters that on the eve of the mission, a series

of articles appeared in an american journal called world's. they are articles written by a former by the former r.h. keefe in hungary who boast that hoover in the area had been responsible for the downfall of the short communist regime. there. that was april 1919. one of our speakers, charlie lederman, give us some of the background and perhaps some of the detail on that in bit. now, it also made lenin and his comrades nervous and must have made them wonder when hoover appointed this man, colonel william haskell, to lead the ira russia. graduate of west point, class of 1901. distinct record of service before and during the great war as a relief to haskell had what we used to call large experience after the signing of the

armistice. of november 1918. hoover made him chief of the american relief mission to romania, and subsequently in august 19, he was selected by the allied supreme council to be high commissioner to armenia, where he served. also as director general of all america and european relief agencies. so this is a pretty big deal. this guy has lot of experience with work. he's not an area man, which is going to be controversial, but that within the area. but that's for another talk. so lenin is nervous that the at the prospect that hoover's organization is actually according to the terms of the riga agreement if they give in to hoover's terms it's going to operate freely inside soviet russia. in fact, the area relief was premised on american control of the food. it was a guarantee that hoover made to the american people who gave their support through their

donations of money. and this control took form of committees of local citizens selected in administered supervise. so they are administrators. american relief supervised by the americans to carry out the distribution of the food. so during the riga negotiations, lenin was so nervous sufficiently nervous about what this might mean what independence might mean inside country that he instructed the soviet negotiator at riga, the deputy people's commissar of foreign affairs, maxim military enough to propose to hoover that the soviet would give the array security. it would be made in new york, it would be in gold in the amount of 120% of the value of one month's supply of foodstuffs in return for which the era leave the distribution of its food entirely in soviet. this was, as we now say, a

nonstarter. was not something hoover could agreed to. when you're talking about the soviet government. right. so the bolsheviks in the kremlin good reason to be on their guard, but they're worse fears about the era quickly dissipated. they realize very soon that hoover's relief workers were actually honoring their promise to deliver food. without regard to class politics or religion, these americans did what was promised at riga. they kept strictly to business and did not try as had phrased it during the riga negotiations, to use food as a weapon. food as a weapon. he would say in these negotiations, by feeding anti-soviet. so area is on the job. and once worst suspicions are eased is an era dining hall in petrograd. once the suscis lift lenin and his colleagues free to

consider hveand the era as an opportunity. lenin had earlier in the year introduced the market new economic policy in epi nep, a retreat from those draconian war communist east so-called war communist policies i mentioned earlier. which had involved the nationalized of industry prohibition on trade requisition of grain and other agricultural. this change, of course happened in march 1921. it began then was greeted consternation in the bolshevik ranks, even though lenin kept referring to it merely as a temporary retreat. the bolsheviks had staged a communist revolution in backward russia in 1917 and justified it by the idea that this would serve as a detonator for a

european wide revolution in communist revolution. but despite the political instability and postwar europe communism did not spread westward. it remained icy lated in russia. lenin was eager to have soviet russia break out of that isolation, establishing diplomatic relations trade relations and ties with western countries. and it had begun to do so modestly with the introduction of nep. now lenin began to hope he could convert the connection to the ira into economic and trade ties and investment with the united states, the only country with real clout after the war. so there's one, by the way, i'm going show you two more photos, a aira kitchen, by the way, the. remember that poster i showe they wrote the corn do t bottom. you see it up here? that's there. and you'll actuallsethis. this. we have a slide that's going to

come up in the bumper between the speakers you'll see that erthose posterser distributed across the country like i think it hundred printed, 105, 120,000 copies of those posters. so this is a dining hall in, petrograd today, st petersburg. this is a village kitchen somewhere in the district, southeastern andhe volga. and one of my favorite photos. this is these are in the in exhibit, by the way. anothevolga village kitchen interior to get an interior in those days. so in october 1921, once the americans had fanned across the famine zone and were feeding stations, and you see a few of them here, eventually they number about thousand total lenin and company lenin and his colleagues begin to see the array again as an opportunity. and in october, lenin writes in

a note to the people's commissar of foreign affairs, georg, you, chairman hoover, all in caps. hoover is a real underline. this is a striking change of tone, of course. and again, several days later agreements were in concessions with. the americans are super important to us. with hoover, we have something worthwhile. lenin argued that the bolsheviks seeking to master trade, learn to trade. that was his mantra. then they could benefit from the americans in action. now it was around this time that the era proposed to the soviet government. the introduction of a food package, or, to be more exact food remittance program. now the program following here worked as follows relatives and friends outside soviet russia could put money down for a

package and this is a package a aras new york headquarters or at one of its european offices, a of payment wldhen be sent by a courier to moscow adarters, which would tur contact the appropriate provincial r.a. office where the responsive american would send by post or coiea notification card to the intended beneficiary. thisornate individual or family could collect one or more ofhe standard sized food packages sort of jumped ahead. a little too quickly there let me go back tohat. this is the package and the contents of the standard package during the first year. you see it there. flour. £49 rice, t, fats, sugar, the tins preseed milk which you see van camp's, it looks like they' kind of turned them.

they don'want to do product placementhe. and the total. is £117. and beusof that it took some work to transport this home. this is watercolor done by a trograd artist, 1923. and it shows a family bringing back that contents photo i showed you. see the contents here on the sled? a family in petrograd. now, here's the curveball. the food remittance. this is herbert hoover. kind of humanitarianism had a built in profit mechanism because the area purchased the food in bulk it was to sell to donors at prices prices being so favorable the area was able to arrange to make a small profit on each $10 food package. by the way, they would eventually deliver 930,000 end of those packages. so a profit on each $10 food

package which profits which proceeds it used to expand its child feeding operation. so those kitchens so it pumped the money back the relief program more kids fed. so very funny. october 18, 19, 21. this proposal for this food package program is circulated within the politburo and for initially, you know, are you in favor or you know, it's the story and you all sign off among those polled, a guy you may have heard of called joseph stalin. yeah. and he commented that this was after all comers, not philanthropy. and because of that, the soviet government should demand payment for the transportation of the products from, the ports to the warehouses. lenin, his his own inscription. and rejected this suggestion as basically pretty clueless, pointing out that even if it was

a matter of trade, the soviet government is getting the profits, the form of additional food for the starving. and again, lenin urged, we have to learn. take this opportunity to learn from american. right. this in the spirit of his admonition to fellow bolsheviks in these in those months to learn to trade. still, lenin may have been on board at this point. but there's a problem. lenin colleagues are wary because the very presence of an american relief operating inside soviet russia constituted a threat. a aside from the considerable embarrassment and part, the soviet government that having to be bailed out by hoover's relief organization, the example to the citizens of american energy efficiency. it was feared might give soviet citizens wrong idea about the

wisdom of the communist experiment. this is great poster done by a soviet artist for the ira and it really picks up on the popularity of the ira, which the russians knew. the soviets as ira, they pronounced it as one word era. and so the bolshevik authorities, every effort to gain control of the relief operations, or at least to give the appearance control. and at the same time, they went to lengths to minimize the importance of the relief in the eyes of their citizens and even its true source calling it gift from the american proletariat. also soviet, officials were quite content to the rumors spread that the confiscation of russian church treasures which was going on at that time was the result the need to pay for american canned relief as food had to be paid for.

it was free, but it was it was nonsense, right. also, there's a lot of harassment of our local staff, as one would imagine, the staffers, the area hired tend to be those people disposed first by the revolution. they speak foreign languages. they may have accounting skills. they served as secretaries, kitchen cooks, inspectors, couriers, warehouse men, etc. . and the americans, naturally sought out people who spoke foreign languages, ones that would understand also, people with experience working in many of the people hired were from the so-called old intelligentsia and a few had backgrounds where it really set reputations of supporting white forces in the civil war. this photograph, which i adore, is of the moscow headquarters area, moscow headquarters staff. so the soviet had by now become to having control of all

organized activities in the country and they did keep an eye on the area. lennon remember that early text from lenin text letter from lenin say getting ahead of the story, say that we have to keep an eye on these relief workers. so they set up a hierarchy of commissar, watchdog, mostly members of the cheka, the political police extending from moscow down to the local villages. this created lots. tensions could give a whole talk on this lots of crises standoffs. but in the it did not prevent the mission from achieving its goals. by august 1922, 100 years ago now, the era was serving a daily meal to some 10.5 million soviet citizens. think about that. thousands of kitchens in cities and villages were serving those

children meals consisting of white bread, corn grits, rice, lard milk, cocoa and sugar and. adults were receiving daily of corn grits. so at the end of the mission colonel haskell, july 1923 writes a final report for hoover and includes this communism dead and abandoned in russia is on the road to recovery. but hoover continued to believe what he had said in a speech in may 1922. quote communism has been abandoned. a crossbreed of individ dualism and milder, but unworkable forms of socialism. so swing of the pendulum. the that's the imagery hoover liked use for this had still a further distance to go. so the fact that the era was to shut down its mission entirely with no official contact act left behind in its wake, lent an

air of melancholy to the final banquet, a soviet banquet in july of 1923. after all the, actual genuine in affected alarm about hoover's ulterior ulterior motives now the very end of the mission. these particular are bolsheviks, the ones who showed up seemed to be sincerely the fact that their government had failed to make more of american relief. no trade, no credits, no official relations. at the banquet, the officials presented colonel haskell with an elaborately decorated tribute to the ira. you see it here. you it at the entrance to the exhibit. the text is a resolute shown of the council of people's commissar as thetive branch of the government. i'll give you a closer look ove theofheat is theircle there communist workers of the world

unite. so those things don't go away. encircling the hammer and le, which see in black on red. there are the words uni socialist, soviet republic shunn of soviet ist. but that's how it's worded. and that's the name they were still getting used to it. of the recently established country. it's also called the soviet, as you know, and it will last until here. the 91 i heard an 81 out there. we'll give you a b-plus that it's really 91. so the resolution, i'm not going to read it all, but it talks about the unselfish aid given on a massive scale thanks to the tremendous and entirely disinterested efforts of the ira, millions of people of all ages were saved from death and entire villages and even entire cities survived of the terrible disaster that threatened them. hoover as i mentioned, haskell

is mentioned and the it closes the closes with the people. and having inhabiting the union of soviet got it right second time socialist republics. we'll never forget the help rendered to by the american people through. the ira seeing in it a pledge of future friendship both peoples. so of course that's not going to happen right. spoiler alert, it turns out differently after ira withdraws from ussr, its reputation and legacy are vulnerable to every kind of soviet slander. lenin was succeeded by stalin. and you know how story goes as. president herbert hoover refused grant diplomatic recognition to. the soviet government that would happen only in 1933 under fdr, a successor. so hoover be punished by the 1930s. the party line that the purpose hoover's ira in russia had been

espionage under the cover philanthropy. it's like so to say that right but that's what they saying in 1947 came the marshall plan, the european recovery program, better known as the marshall plan. pledges, $17 billion in economic assistance to europe over four years. aid was to the soviet union and its european east european satellites as. but the cold war's getting under. and it really was assumed that moscow turn down the offer anyway. equally predictable by now was the hysteric pitch of the rejection. pravda professed to see in the marshall plan, quote, the grinning snout of imperialist beast of prey from behind the coquettishly. sorry, intertwined olive twigs. well, no, they have been talking about the array at that time, 1941, the magazine, american

magazine, plain talk pluck that, quote, and used it as a foil. an article by colonel haskell titled how we fed the starving russians by then most americans had to be reminded and finally, the portrayal, the negative portrayal of the era in soviet union would continue really right up to the end of the soviet regime, or at least until mikhail became president in 1985. this is the favorite example of mine. i own this book. it's called the translation, an english diversion under t flag ofid, 1985 book. the book's title page announces it as an artisc documentary story. in fact, the documentary sections were neand useful. the time of publication. the rest of it makes it perfectly evident what kind of artist the author deserved to be called. it features heroic operatives

foiling, the intrigues of the american imperialists. you know, the ira men are all active agents of military intelligence. there's a lot of that. but for the most part, the ira mission is really purposely ignored by the soviet authorities, thus slowly forgotten by the soviet people. the same thing happened here, but for entirely different reasons. leave it there. okay. at this time, i'm honored to introduce our speaker for today. todd harra tod is both an author and a funeral director. in fact, his family has been involved in that