This event. Dr. Smith dir. Markert good evening and welcome. I know many of you know already, but in case we have not met, my markert and i am the executive director here. Smith,ome back douglas longtime friend of hillwood and author of the book, the russian job. You may have noticed that the theater looks a little different tonight. I am very pleased to welcome cspan. While this is their very first time at hillwood, it is not the first time our lectures are accessible to folks at home. Many of our fantastic programs are available on the Hillwood MuseumYoutube Channel so check that out in case you missed something or want to see something again. Before we continue, i know you know what i am going to say next. Make sure you have silenced anything that chirps, barks, or beeps. You may know that marjorie post again her russian collection began her russian collection while she was posted to moscow in 1937 and 1938. She was dedicated to building the most comprehensive collection of building soviet imperial art outside of russia. Her passion inspired and educated the public and she made plans for hillwood to became become a museum. Generosity, public service, family, and lush gardens as well as the new biography marjorie meriwether post by Estella Chung inspired this years holiday decorations. I invite each of you to share hillwood with friends and family during the Holiday Season for what we are calling a very meriwether christmas. Towill raise a glass hillwood members, which i know most of you already are at our annual numbers open house on december 3. Hillwood memberships are a perfect gift for everyone you know. Now it is my great pleasure to introduce douglas smith. Doug is an awardwinning historian, translator, author and his books have been translated into several wedges. He has written for the New York Times into the wall street journal and has appeared in documentaries with National Geographic and netflix. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the u. S. State department in the soviet union as a Russian Affairs analyst. He is a frequent guest here although it has been nearly three years since his last lecture. I am delighted to have him back. I want to thank especially international councilmembers and hosting himends for this evening. Please join me in welcoming douglas smith. [applause] dr. Smith thank you, kate for that nice introduction. It is wonderful to be back at hillwood. I am trying to remember if this is my fourth or fifth time to give a talk. I think of myself as a repeat offender but only in the best sense. Helpingo thank you for to put this together with all the organizational skills. To cspan and richard for wanting to tape this tonight. S need to thank my localhost who have been taking good care of me. Maybe last tonight, too good of care. If i am incoherent, it is not my fault. There are a lot of demands on our time. I know disney is now streaming live. [laughter] dr. Smith to come out and learn about a russian fan famine shows real dedication. I am going to talk for 30 minutes or so and then i am happy to open it up to whatever questions people might have. What i want to talk about tonight was arguably one of the noblest acts in American History yet sadly something that few of us seem to remember or have even heard about, a fact that could also be said about russia itself. At its heart, it is a story of charity and compassion, two things that i would say are always in short supply and in recent days in particular. On the 13th of july 1921, the russian writer maxim gorky penned an appeal to the world entitled to all honest people. Gloomy days have, for the land of tolstoy. Russias misfortunes offer humanitarians a splendid opportunity to demonstrate the vitality of humanitarianism. I ask all honest europeans and americans for prompt aid to the russian people. Give bread and medicine. World inf the 1921, one of the worst famines in World History struck russia. There were several causes for the famine. In the shortterm, it was precipitated by two horrible droughts in 1920 and 1921 that depth decimated the harvests. There were more important factors that led to the famine. There had been seven years in russia of unending wars and revolution getting with 1914 and 21917tart of world war i, when we had two revolutions to 1917 when we had two revolutions back to back. The bolshevik seizure of power led to a civil war that lasted until 1920. Both the reds and whites laid waste to the russian countryside and spread terror wherever they went. Lennon had long understood the connection between power and food. In 1891, afore similar famine gripped russia. Many an educated society at the time led by the example of leo tolstoy organized it to offer help to the starving peasantry but not lenin. He did not believe in charity. He believed the only answer for the peasants was revolution. He said at the time the overthrow of the on arc, this bulwark of the landowners is their only hope for an escape for hunger and unending poverty. Was convinced hunger could be used as a tool to undermine czarist rule and lead to revolution. Now that the bolsheviks were in power, they waged a war on the peasants. They forced peasants to hand over grain at gunpoint. They needed the grain to feed red army soldiers. The peasants obviously resisted. They hid grain down the well or in fake walls. They even created a peasant army to try to fight back. They also reduced to the amount of land on under cultivation, meaning there were no reserves famine hit. Lenin was terrified that without food, the government would collapse. There would be no more interest in the bolshevik government. He set up the time, if there is a harvest, then everyone will hunger a little and the government will be saved. Otherwise, since we cannot take anything from people who do not have the means of satisfying their own hunger, the government will perish. In westhoover was born 1874 to awa in 19 family of quakers. He was sent off to live with an uncle in oregon after being orphaned. The891, he enrolled in first class at Stanford University and graduated with a degree in geology. He was an average student with average grades and left with average expectations. None of his fellow students held out much hope for a right future for Herbert Hoover. He went off first to the gold mines of the australian outbreak , a place he described as pure hell before moving to china. Quickly he rose the ranks of the International Mining business. He had a rare talent as an administrator and he had a way of finding new opportunities no one had seen before, of turning around failing operations and making a lot of money. I 1914, he was the head of his own International Firms offices around the world. He was extremely wealthy, successful, that he was also getting bored. The fun had gone out of the game. World war i gave him the opportunity to try something new. After germany invaded belgium, starvation faced the entire country. Hoover realized someone had to step in and try to save the country, so he created something known as the committee for the relief of belgium that ended up feeding millions during world war i and became known as the savior of belgium. In the u. S. , then president Woodrow Wilson appointed him head of the u. S. Food administration based on his success in belgium. The war, he pushed president wilson to create an Organization Called the American Relief administration within appropriation of 100 million that would be used to feed were war ravished europe. Hoover was secretary of commerce in the warren g. Harding administration and as secretary of commerce, on july 22 of that year, he read in an american newspaper, a publication of maxim gorkys appeal to the world. He sprang into action and cabled back to gorky, yes, the americans would come. Abouterybody was excited the idea of American Relief to read russia. Russia. To red argued against his request for more money to go help starving people on the others of the world. Some criticism came from the political left who said hoover was not really interested in aid but was coming up with a scheme for counterrevolution. They insisted the only way soviet russia could be helped was through political recognition by the United States government. Most of the criticism came from the right. At some insisted there was no real needed to go help russia. In fact, what hoover was trying to do was help American Farmers who had produced too much grain and was looking for the government to buy it off their hands. Others insisted charity needed to begin at home. Wehad enough poor, hungry had enough poor, hungry people in the u. S. Henry ford put out his own spin on why we should not help and insisted that the ara was controlled by jews and bolsheviks. We know about henry ford. Others insisted that the russians were starving due to their own incompetence, their own stupidity and that in fact the best thing was to let the russians starve for this would destroy bolshevism once and for all. Of thesetted back all arguments against it doing something. He said, the sole object of relief should be humanity. It should have no other political objective other than the maintenance of life and order. He agreed that russia was a meat murderous tyranny but the u. S. Nevertheless had a humanitarian obligation. He said that in a country like the u. S. , which could spend 1 billion a year on what he described as tobacco and cosmetics, an additional 1 million to the ara would not be felt. Here is a photograph of one of the ara warehouses with american grain getting ready to be shift shipped overseas to russia. It was not just some in the u. S. Who were wary of hoover and his intentions. And the bolsheviks had led a revolution to do away with the old economic political order and here they were contemplating letting one of the Great American capitalists into their country at their weakest moment. Some were convinced of that the ara led by hoover was nothing but a trojan horse that would lead to the overthrow of their government. Lenin ordered strict surveillance placed over all americans preparing to come to russia. He tasked to the new tory Us Secret Police secret police who would later become known as the kgb to infiltrate the ara as soon as they arrived and place agents inside. Nevertheless they felt he felt they had to agree to the americans terms. The First Americans arrived in moscow on the 27th a guest, 1921 1921. August, the first ara kitchen opened in petrograd. Four daysfter that after that, a second kitchen opened in moscow. This is arguably the most spectacular of all the ara feeding locations. Some of you may be recognize it. This is the alexander palace outside st. Petersburg, home of russias czars. This was the last home for nicholas and alexandra and their palace children. This was feeding at one point 2000 people a day. According to ara records, among the kitchen staff was one of czar nicholass former chefs and various servants of the romanoffs. The original plan when the americans went over was to feed one million children but they quickly realized the scale of the famine was worse than they had anticipated and by december they realized they would have to be feeding somewhere around 7 million. Wasof the americans who sent over, frank golder was the first to explore the famine zones. He wrote at the time, the famine is bad beyond all imagination. Millions are doomed to die and they are looking it in the face. To see russia is to make one wish you were dead. These are the kinds of things that golder and the other americans were seeing when they arrived. This is a photograph of a young refugee. Victims of the famine. Is what awaited the americans and it is something they could not have prepared themselves for. Older wrote about being a particularly disturbed by a scene he golder wrote about being particularly disturbed by a scene he witnessed of a woman fighting pegs for a scrap of pumpkin rind. He her tale of women killing their children and then killing themselves because it was too painful to watch their children starve. The worst places where the orphanages and childrens homes and hospitals. Some childrens homes were set up for no more than 30 kids were now crammed with 400 to 500 orphan kids. The conditions were beyond description. One man said after visiting one of these orphanages, there is just enough food in teat to make and heat to slow make their deaths slow. People in new york once said they envied me because i saw so many interesting things. Yes. Interesting. There is no escape even in this railway car. Men and women come to the door begging for bread and it children can be heard whining beneath the car window. A great many men develop something they called famine shock. Peasants first aid whatever remaining grain they had. After first eight whatever ate whatever remaining grade grain they had. This was followed by eating all the cats and dogs in the village. Toally, some resorted cannibalism. Some killed their victims after luring them into their homes. More commonly, they would raid ceremony cemeteries. The problem became so pronounced that local authorities typically had to put the bodies that had just died in stables and sheds, lock the door, and keep a guard outside. Young scholar who later went on to become one of the famous sociologists of the 20th century, toward the famine zone at the time, interested in studying what happens to people subjected to such conditions. He wrote in a memoir not long after coming to the u. S. , revolution promised to save the people from a despotism. Not keeplsheviks did those vows, at least to they gave the people the communion of human sacrifice. The image i am showing here was from a series of drawings and knowings done by a man we almost nothing about that are now in the collection at the Hoover Institution out at Stanford University. The russian text on the bottom says Russian Village in february or march. On the farright it says cannibalism. The russians have two words for cannibalism. People eating and corpse eating. They made a distinction between the two. I did much of the research for this book at the Hoover Institution since that is where photographsles and ended up. One of the things that was truly difficult for me researching it was to go through these hundreds of photographs that were taken by americans and soviet officials of the famine and the acts of cannibalism, which will recorded. Were recorded. They were horribly disturbing tried tod i communicate the depth of this horror and suffering without trying to sensationalize it. Which i am giving around the states now, i have purposely avoided any thisgraphs of it and chose image. From the beginning the americans realized of the famine was much worse than they imagined. You will sometimes hear about this famine as the vole got famine or the volga river famine famine or the volga river famine. It covered Something Like 100 million square miles at its peak. This is a map that the ara made. Here is moscow up here. Shaded areas show you the extent of the famine and where americans were working. It extended throughout ukraine, population of 26 million, 9 million of which were starving. Worked all the way down in the caucuses and deep into the Ural Mountains as well. It was way beyond the limits we sometimes think of. Famine made it and in normas challenge to deal with but there were other challenges made it an eno rmous challenge to deal with. At its peak you had several million americans working in russia. He put together an army literally of russian employees who worked under them. This network of russians who worked for the ara eventually reached 125,000 people and do of this could be could have been done without the russians. American relief was orchestrating it all but much of the work was done by the russians. Transportation was one of the biggest headaches. Railroad network had been destroyed. Much of it was no longer working. The rail lines that were working were frequently attacked and they did not reach out into the most remote villages were most of this aid was needed. Russia is not famous for its network of paved roads. Spring when you have the , the muddy season, where villages become isolated, it was difficult to get aid out to these people. This is an example of an eight caravan. Winter was the best time because d caravan. Winter was the best time because sleds could travel over snow. Was one of the convoys taking food. Arrived with a fleet of cadillacs and forwards and trucks beyond petrograd and moscow these were not a great deal of help. Russian towns was 20 one aftern 19 revolution and civil war. 1921 after revolution and civil war. This gives you a sense of the mud and just to sort of what life looks like at the time. It was not that they were uncomfortable. They were incredibly dangerous as well. All of the ara men got guns quickly after they arrived. Whenever they would leave their personnel houses to walk back to the personnel their houses to walk back to the personnel houses, they would walk in the middle of the room roads or they could have time to see if someone was running at them to attack them. Men one night were awoken by the sound of marauders coming in, guns drawn. The americans jumped out of bed with their guns. There was a gun battle and the americans tasted them off. Another group awoke in the middle of the night to smell smoke and realized people were trying to burn their house down around them. We were constantly being surveilled by the secret police who watch their every step and try to force the russian employees to spy on the americans. The greatest threat of all was typhus. Typhus was the disease that all americans lived in fear of. It was so widespread. It was in all the Railway Carriages upholstery, fleas and infected lice crawling on floors and on the walls of buildings and homes. The ara men when they would go to orphanages would want to pick up the children, but they were afraid to do that for fear of getting fit in and coming down with typhus. The russian couriers who had to ride the railways and bring supplies to the americans suffered the most. At one point Something Like half of all ru