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America’s Famine Relief Mission in Soviet Russia at 100: Shifting Views from Lenin to Putin

When the American Relief Administration (ARA) departed Soviet Russia in July 1923, it was widely hailed by its millions of beneficiaries, lauded by Soviet officials, and formally thanked in a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars, which forthrightly acknowledged America's contribution to combating the famine of 1921. By the 1930s, however, the Party line instructed that the purpose of Hoover's ARA had been espionage under the cover of philanthropy. The panel explores what became of the ARA's reputation in the USSR under Stalin and his successors, and how it is remembered today in Putin's Russia.


Speakers
Julia Khmelevskaia, associate professor, South Ural State University
Bert Patenaude, research fellow, Hoover Institution

Moderator
Anatol Shmelev, research fellow, Robert Conquest Curator of the Russia and Eurasia Collection, Hoover Institution


About this Series
The Bread + Medicine Speaker Series highlights conversations with historians of Russia and Ukraine and leading experts on famine and humanitarianism. It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine devoted to the American famine relief mission to Soviet Russia in 1921–1923.

Jan 13, 2023 11:00 AM in Pacific Time (US and Canada)