Odessa Famine Relief

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THE GREAT FAMINE OF 1921

Although Europe did not go Bolshevik, there was still a Bolshevik Russia. In 1919 and 1920, Hoover tried without success to negotiate his ARA into Lenin's Russia. But catastrophic events intervened. A devastating famine descended on Russia in 1921. More than 25 million people were threatened by starvation and hunger-related diseases. The famine was centered in and beyond the Volga River valley and also in southern Ukraine. The United States, led by Hoover and his ARA, responded with a massive two-year relief campaign that battled starvation and disease and saved millions of lives. The best estimates of the death toll from the Great Famine of 1921 run from 5 million to 10 million people. But that total would have been much higher had the ARA not intervened with food and medical supplies. This is all the more remarkable because the United States, alone among the major powers, had no diplomatic relations with Bolshevik Russia.

The American relief workers entered Russia in August 1921 and fanned out across the heartland. By the summer of 1922, at the peak of operations, American kitchens were feeding nearly 11 million Soviet citizens a day. The total cost of the mission exceeded $60 million, of which $20 million was an appropriation from the U.S. Congress used to purchase millions of tons of corn and seed.

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Yours are most probably forgeries