Журнал «История: факты и символы»

THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN RELIEF ADMINISTRATION IN PERM PROVINCE (1922-1923 GG.)

Author: Usmanov N.V.

The article deals with the activity of the Russian Unit of the American Relief Administration (ARA) in Perm Province at 1922-1923. The southern parts of the Province were acknowledged as famine-stricken and needed food aid. In the summer of 1922 the ARA kitchens for starving children were open in Perm city and in some Districts of the Province. In the ARA kitchens the children received hot meals that were prepared from food stock sent from the USA. At the same time the adults received American maize. In the article there are shown the sizes of food and other aid to the population of the Province. Through the agency of the ARA the peasants of the province also received wheat seed, which was bought by the Soviet Government in the USA. The ARA sent medicine and hospital supplies there, too. The teachers of the Province also received parcels containing food and clothes. The foreign aid was given through the Kazan and Ufa offices of the ARA until the end of September 1922. Then the aid was reduced because of the satisfactory harvest of `1922. From the spring of 1923 the aid for children from the Kazan office of the Russian Mission of the ARA increased. The author also analyzes the complicated relations between the local authorities and the ARA men. The Soviet authorities suspected that the foreign organization had other aims except pure charity. At the same time they recommended that no obstacles should deter the work of the charitable organization. The rural authorities gave the ARA warehouses and other buildings. It is stressed that the American aid saved the lives of thousands inhabitants of the Perm Province and helped reconstruct the economy.