The Great Russian Famine of 1921: Cannibalism, an Open Letter to the World and a Spark of Hope among so much Horror

 It began in the Spring of 1921 while much of Russia was still in the grips of frigid winter weather.  It started four years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and it began after years of bloody Civil War, between Communist forces called Bolsheviks by some, and Reds by others under the dictatorial leadership of Vladimir Lenin against the so-called Whites, those forces still loyal to the Romanov Dynasty of the Czar or those seeking a Capitalist and more democratic Russia for the 20th century.

By early 1921 Vladimir Lenin and his Communist forces had consolidated control over most of the country, and the White forces who were backed by the victors of World War One, most notably the United States and Great Britain, were on the run and clinging to isolated outposts along Russia’s Pacific coast far from central Europe.  

During 1921 Russia was suffering through one of the most severe and prolonged periods of drought on record.  Almost no rain at all, just .03 milliliters, had fallen in the center of the country over the course of the past year.  Russia’s total crop yield for the year 1920 had been less than half of what it had been only seven years earlier in 1913 prior to the onset of the First World War.  Despite the hardships already being inflicted upon the Russian people by mother nature during 1921, Vladimir Lenin and his cohorts in an effort to speed up the demise of the forces allied against the Communists during the long Civil War enacted a draconian policy of “War Communism” called Prodrazyoritka in Russian on the country’s peasantry.

War Communism was a feudal-type policy enacted by Lenin and the Bolsheviks by which it was decreed under penalty of death that all peasants were to give up as much of their crop yield as was necessary to supply the Red Army in the field.  It didn’t matter that there had been practically no rain; almost no wheat to harvest and little food to speak of for months and months.

Vladimir Lenin

With the onset of Summer and a continued period of dry weather the suffering and the starvation really began to take hold in Russia especially in the center of the country, along the banks of the Volga River, most notably around the urban population center of Samara, one of the Russian interior’s largest industrial cities.

Over 5 million people, the majority of whom were women and children, died a slow and painful death due to starvation over the course of a single year from 1921-1922 during the Great Russian Famine.  It was, and still is, the largest and most devastating famine to befall the western world in the course of the  last three centuries.

At the time of the famine, the League of Nations an international organization formed at the end of World War One that many today consider to be a precursor to the UN released an official diplomatic statement that said, “The Russian Famine of 1921-1922 is the worst disaster both as regards the numbers affected and as regards mortality from starvation and disease which has occurred in Europe in modern times.”  

It is important to keep in mind that this official statement was released by the League of Nations a mere four years after the conclusion of World War One--the most deadly and destructive war in human history up to that point.

Map of Russia with Samara Region Highlighted

But no amount of statistics or sweeping diplomatic statements can truly do justice to the unspeakable horrors that were endured by the Russian people during the Great Famine of 1921.  The Great Famine, particularly in the central Russian city of Samara, resulted in many of the most horrific and well-documented cases of mass cannibalism in world history.

In his research and writing  for his seminal work published in 1996 called A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 acclaimed historian Orlando Figges goes into vivid detail about the ghastly living conditions that came about as a direct result of food shortages and starvation in the Samara region along the Volga River during the Great Russian Famine of 1921.  When it comes specifically to instances of cannibalism Figges writes that, “Thousands of cases were reported in the city of Samara along the banks of the Volga.”

The historical record backed by Figges’ research shows that in Samara alone, “There were ten butcher shops that were closed by authorities for selling human flesh.”

Historians of the Russian Revolution have said about the time of the Great Famine that, “It was dangerous for children to go out after dark since there were known to be bands of cannibals, or flesh traders, who killed them to eat and sell their tender young flesh.”

Starving Children 1921

A survivor who was interviewed during the famine by workers from the American Relief Administration (ARA) and who lived in a small village a few miles outside of Samara said, “There are several cafeterias in this village and all of them serve up young children.”

Butchers with street carts stationed outside of factories in Samara sold meat of unknown origin at exorbitant prices to industrial workers who were starving to death and being worked day and night by Communist authorities who pushed them harder and harder in a never ending effort to produce more and more for the war effort.  Under such conditions, and on the brink of starvation and exhaustion, it’s no wonder that people weren’t too particular about where their meat came from or what it actually was.

In the midst of the worst famine in modern history and in the midst of all of this unspeakable suffering and widespread cannibalism Vladimir Lenin, not wishing to appear weak to the democratic world, was too proud to accept help from any western nations.  Lenin refused any and all offers of international aid to help alleviate the effects of the famine, and he downplayed the horrific conditions and the true extent of the starvation that his people were suffering through--at least at first.

Famine victims posing with human remains

There were two things that happened to make Vladimir Lenin, that dictator among dictators, change his mind.  One was the widespread civil unrest and the many uprisings among Russia’s peasantry against Communist rule that occurred as a direct result of the famine.  There were many alarming reports that reached Lenin from isolated army outposts along the banks of the Volga River that detailed local peasants murdering Russian soldiers while they slept with pitchforks and other farm implements in order to devour their flesh and feed it to their children.

The other impetus that caused Lenin to have a change of heart and allow in international aid was the nascent 20th century modern press--most notably the widespread use of photography to convey news around the world.  At least visually speaking the Great Russian Famine of 1921 was more well-documented than any other famine that had ever occurred before in all of human history.  

With so much photographic evidence of abject human suffering and starvation, of cannibalism, even hardened Soviets couldn’t turn a blind eye to the horrors that were happening all around them.  No one could ever say that such stories of cannibalism and murder as a result of the famine were exaggerations or simply mere stories based on hearsay when black and white images of what was happening in Russia at that very  moment were splashed across the front pages of newspapers all across the United States and western Europe.

Starvation in Samara during the Great Famine

By the Autumn of 1921 Lenin and the Bolshevik leaders could ignore the truth no longer and he, along with famed Soviet writer Maxim Gorky published and released an open letter to the world that called on, “All honest European and American people to donate bread and medicine to the suffering Russian people.”

The open letter, signed by Lenin, but drafted by Gorky, went on to describe in detail the crop failures that had caused the onset of starvation and it detailed the scenes of cannibalism and death that were taking place in cities all across Russia.

As soon as the open letter was published the humanitarian response from the United States and western Europe was immediate and overwhelming.  Future President of the United States Herbert Hoover, who would one day be much maligned as a Chief Executive, but who was possibly one of the best and most righteous humanitarians our nation has ever produced, upon receiving word of the Russian’s open letter and call for help traveled to the city of Riga, in present day Latvia to open negotiations with Lenin and the Communists for humanitarian relief to be sent to Russia.

Today, sadly, Herbert Hoover is well known as the American President who led the nation at the start of the Great Depression in 1929 when millions of Amerians were forced out of work by a crumbling economy and many were forced to take up residence in slums made up of cardboard and tin shacks that were derisively called “Hoovervilles”.

But prior to being elected the 31st President of the United States on the Republican ticket, Herbert Hoover had gained world renown and became a leading political figure due to his humanitarian work around the world.  Herbert Hoover was a champion of world peace and humanitarianism known for famous quotes such as, “Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity,” and “Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties but in the hearts of men.”

But Herbert Hoover was a man who put his money where his mouth is and he, in conjunction with many other humanitarians, almost instantly set to work alleviating the suffering caused by the Great Russian famine of 1921.

Herbert Hoover

As head of the American Relief Administration, a quasi-government agency created for humanitarian assistance around the world that Hoover himself formed, he had already been at the head of the most far-reaching humanitarian relief efforts in history since 1914 in his group’s effort to care for refugees that had been displaced and driven to the brink of starvation by the First World War.

Upon meeting with Communist leaders Hoover expanded and moved the scope of the operations of the American Relief Administration to help supply food, medicine, housing and clothing to the victims of the Great Russian Famine of 1921.

Hoover appointed Colonel William N. Haskell to head the efforts of the American Relief Administration in Russia.  Haskell had served bravely and with distinction as part of the American Expeditionary force in France from 1917-1918 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by Congress for gallantry in combat.  He was known as a dynamic leader and organizer, but also as a man of high and unshakeable moral character.   Haskell would go on, in later life, to found the Save the Children Foundation which to this very day uses many of the same techniques that the ARA (American Relief Administration) implemented in Russia from 1921 to 1922, to help alleviate world hunger.

In less than a month after meeting with Russian leaders ships from the United States laden with food and medical supplies, paid for by donations from concerned American citizens to the American Relief Administration, were arriving daily in the Soviet Union to feed the millions near starvation as a result of the famine.

The American Relief Administration (ARA) under Hoover’s leadership had originally agreed to feed upwards of 1 million children everyday, but within a few months due to the generosity of its donors and the scope of the famine, the ARA was providing one meal per day for over 10 million starving Russians, mostly women and children.

Over the course of two years between 1922 and 1924 the ARA  provided over 768 million tons of foodstuffs and medical supplies to Russia and raised over $98 million in pledges ranging anywhere from a dollar to ten dollars from the American people who were implored in print, radio and in fund raising drives to buy a meal a day for starving Russian children.

The following is a quote from influential newspaper editor W. Howard Ramsey from Ohio that was published in papers across the world in 1923 in recognition of the relief efforts of the ARA: “For almost two years now a scant two hundred Americans, on a battle line far longer than the western front, have been fighting a foe more pitiless than any the allied armies faced.  From the Baltic to the Caspian Sea, from the Crimea to the Urals, they have conquered the famine; saved more lives than were lost in the World War…won the benediction of a great, but stricken nation, and achieved the world’s greatest adventure in humanity!”

Even the Soviet authorities felt indebted and lauded the great humanitarian efforts of the ARA and the American people.  Lev Kamanev in 1923, Deputy head of the Soviet Union said in a letter to Colonel William Haskell, “The government of the Russian nation will never forget the generous help that was afforded them during the terrible calamity that was visited upon them…I wish to express, on behalf of the Soviet government my satisfaction and thanks to the American Relief Administration and the American people for the substantial support they are offering to the calamity stricken population of the Volga area.”

In the end, relief work would continue in the Soviet Union for almost the entire decade of the 1920’s.  Orphanages would be run by the American government and efforts would be made to help the Soviet people.  It is estimated, by the ARA’s own medical division, that over 5 million people may have starved to death during what is considered the Great Russian Famine of 1921.  But without the efforts of the ARA and the generous donations of millions of Americans that number surely would have been much higher.

Ironically enough, conditions in Russia during the 1930’s once all American and European relief organizations had left would not get all that much better.  There would be more famines and tens of millions would starve, be executed and be unjustly imprisoned under the even more murderous Communist regime of Josef Stalin in the 1930’s and 40’s.  The Second World War would ravage the Soviet Union and cause even more death and destruction and deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia would bring the world to the brink of nuclear war and even today the world still dangerously teeters on the precipice of that nuclear armageddon.

However, back in 1922 years before Herbert Hoover was widely vilified as the American President that “caused” the hardships of the Great Depression and before nuclear weapons were even invented, the generous impulse of the American people and the humanitarian efforts of the western world gave an ever so brief spark of hope to the tragically unfortunate victims of the Great Russian Famine of 1921.