American Famine Relief After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the ensuing Civil War produ

                           American Famine Relief 

     After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the ensuing Civil
War produced acute food shortages in southwestern Russia. 
Wartime devastation was compounded by two successive seasons of
drought, and by 1920 it was clear that a full-scale famine was
under way in the Volga River Valley, Crimea, Ukraine, and
Armenia.  Conditions were so desperate that in early 1920 the
Soviet government sent out a worldwide appeal for food aid to
avert the starvation of millions of people.
     Several volunteer groups in the United States and Europe had
by then organized relief programs, but it became clear that help
was needed on a larger scale because an estimated 10 to 20
million lives were at stake.  Although it had not officially
recognized the Soviet regime, the United States government was
pressed from many sides to intervene, and in August 1920 an
informal agreement was negotiated to begin a famine relief
program.  In 1921 President Warren Harding appointed Herbert
Hoover, then secretary of commerce, to organize the relief
effort.
     Congress authorized $20 million, and Hoover proceeded to
organize the American Relief Administration (ARA) to do the job. 
Under Hoover's terms, the ARA was to be a completely American-run
relief program for the transport, storage, and delivery of relief
supplies (mainly food and seed grain) to those in the famine
region.  After Soviet officials agreed, hundreds of American
volunteers were dispatched to oversee the program.  The ARA
gradually earned the trust of the local Communist authorities and
was given a virtually free hand to distribute thousands of tons
of grain, as well as clothing and medical supplies.  This
remarkable humanitarian effort was credited with saving many
millions of lives.
     ARA aid continued into 1923, by which time local farms were
again producing and the famine's grip was broken.  Hoover and his
ARA were later honored by the Soviet government for the care and
generosity that the United States had shown in this desperate
crisis.