You may notice it looks a little different tonight. I am pleased to welcome cspan. While this is the very first time at hillwood, it is not the first time that our lectures are assessable to folks at home. Any of our fantastic programs are available on the Hillwood Museum youtube channel. So check that out in case you missed something or want to see something again. I know youontinue, know what im going to say next. Please be sure that you have silenced anything that chirps or barks or beeps. You may know that the hill word founder began her russian collection while she was posted insoviet era moscow in 1937 1938. Over the next 30 years, she was dedicated to building the most comprehensive collection of russian imperial art outside of russia. She realized as the collection passiont her personal could inspire and educate the public and made plans for hillwood to become a museum. Legatees legacies, public, and lush gardens, as well as a new biography, archery meriwether s the life behind the legacy and it 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. [applause] we will raise a glass to hill word members at the members open house on december 3. And of course the memberships are a perfect gift for everyone you know. To it is my great pleasure introduce douglas smith. He is an awardwinning historian, translator, author of rasputin and former people. His book seven translated into a dozen languages. The recipient of a guggenheim fellowship, he has written for the New York Times and the wall street journal and has appeared in documentaries with the bbc, National Geographic and netflix. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the u. S. State department and the soviet union and as a Russian Affairs analysts for Radio Free Europe radio liberty. He is a frequent test here at hillwood although it has been three years since his last lecture. I am delighted to have him back. I want to think especially international councilmembers and our dear friends. For hosting him this evening. Please join me in welcoming douglas smith. [applause] that nice introduction. It is wonderful to be back. I think of my self as a repeat offender but only in the best of sense. To also thank erin for putting this altogether with all her organizational skills. To cspan and richard for wanting to tape this tonight. I need to thank my local hosts, who are taking good care of me. Last night, maybe too good of care if i am a little incoherent, it is their fault. But it was a fun evening. And i want to thank you all for coming out tonight. Theres always a lot of demands on our time. I know disney is now streaming live. [laughter] so to come out and learn about a russian famine shows true dedication and intellectual curiosity. I applaud you for that. I think the plan is i will talk for about 30 minutes or so, and then happy to open it up to whatever questions people may have. I want to talk tonight about arguably one of the noblest acts in american history. Yet, sadly, something few of us seem to remember of ever having 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, it seems to me, in recent days in particularly short supply. On the 13th of july, 1921, the russian writer maxim gorky penned an appeal to the world titled to all honest people. He wrote gloomy days have come for the country of tolstoy, dostoevsky, mendeleev, pavlov, mussorgsky, glinka, and other worldprized men. There is a splendid opportunity to demonstrate the vitality of humanitarianism. I ask all honest european and American People for prompt aid to the russian people. Give bread and medicine. In 1921, one of the worst famines in World History descended on russia. 30 Million People, almost a quarter of the population across the vast territory, were facing starvation and death. There were several causes for the famine. In the shortterm, it was precipitated by two horrible droughts in 1920 and 1921 that decimated the harvest. But there were longer, in a sense more important, factors that led to the famine. There had been seven years in russia of unending war and revolution, beginning with 1914 and the start of world war i, when millions of peasants left the land to go off and fight, to 1917, where we had two revolutions in the span of one year. The collapse of the 300 year romanov dynasty in february followed by the bolshevik coup in november of 1917. The bolshevik seizure of power led to a civil war that lasted until 1920. Both the reds and the whites laid waste to the russian countryside and spread terror wherever they went. Lenin had long understood the connection between power and food. 30 years before, in 1891, a similar famine had gripped russia. Many in educated society at the time, led by the example of leo tolstoy, organized to offer help to the starving peasantry. But not lenin. Lenin did not believe in charity. He believed the only answer for russias working class and peasants was revolution. He said, at the time, the overthrow of the tsars monarchy, this bulwark of the landowners, is their only hope for some sort of decent life, for escape from hunger and unending poverty. Lenin was convinced hunger and misery could be used as a tool to undermine tsarist rule and lead to revolution. Now that lenin and the bolsheviks were in power, they waged a war on the peasants. They forced the peasants to hand over their grain at gunpoint. They needed the grain to feed the workers in the cities and the red army soldiers. The peasants, obviously, resisted. They hid their grain down the well or in fake walls in their cottages. They even created a peasant army to try to fight back. They also reduced the amount of land under cultivation. This meant that there was no cushion when the drought hit. There were no reserves anyone could fall back on. By march of 1921, lenin was terrified there was no food the state of the soviet itself may collapse. Without the support of the workers and the army, starving themselves as well, they would be no more interest in the bolshevik government. He said at the time, if there were a harvest, then everybody 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. Herbert hoover was born in west branch, iowa in 1874 into a family of quakers. Orphaned at the age of nine, he was sent off to live with an uncle in oregon. In 1891, he enrolled in the first class at Stanford University and, four years later, graduated with a degree in geology. By all accounts, he was an average student with average grades and left with average expectations. None of his fellow students and professors held out much hope for a Bright Future for Young Herbert hoover. He proved them wrong. He went off first to the gold mines of the australian outback, a place he described as pure hell, before moving on to china. Very quickly, he rose to the ranks in the International Mining business. He had a rare talent as an administrator and had a way of finding new opportunities that no one had seen before, of turning around failing operations and making a lot of money. By 1914, he was living in london with his family. He was now the head of his own International Firm with offices around the world. He was extremely wealthy and successful, but he was also getting bored. The fun had gone out of the game, if you will. World war i gave him an opportunity to try something new. After germany invaded belgium, starvation faced the entire country. Hoover realized somebody had to step in and try to save the country, so he created something known as the committee for the relief of belgium and ended up feeding millions of people during world war i and became known as the savior of belgium. In 1917, back in the United States, thenpresident Woodrow Wilson appointed him head of the u. S. Food administration, based on his success in belgium. Two years later in 1919, after the war, he pushed president wilson to create an Organization Called the American Relief administration, with an appropriation of 100 million in congress that would be used to feed warravaged europe. By 1921, hoover was now secretary of commerce in the warren g. Harding administration. It was as secretary of commerce in july 22 of that year that he read, in an american newspaper, a publication of maxim gorkys appeal to the world. He immediately cabled back that, yes, the americans would come. Not everybody was excited about the idea of American Relief to soviet russia, red russia. There was a good many people in the United States who argued against hoovers request for additional money for the ara to go to save starving people on the other side of the world. Some of the criticism came from the political left, who insisted that hoover, a wellknown antibolshevik, was not interested in aid but in coming up with a scheme for counterrevolution. They insisted the only way soviet russia could truly be helped was through official political recognition by the United States government. Most of the criticism, however, came from the right. Some insisted there was no real need to help russia. That what hoover was trying to do was get a stop to American Farmers who had produced too much grain and were looking for the government to buy it off their hands. Some insisted charity needed to begin at home. That we had enough poor, hungry people in the United States that we did not need to run off to russia. Henry ford put out his own spin on why we should not help and insisted that the ara, led by hoover, was a corrupt organization controlled by jews and bolsheviks. Others insisted that the russians were starving due to their own fault, their own incompetence, their own stupidity. That the best thing was to let the russian people starve, for this would then destroy bolshevism once and for all. Hoover batted back all of these arguments against doing something he said at the time, the soul object of relief should be humanity. It should have no other political objective or aim than the maintenance of life and order. He did agree that, in his idea, soviet russia was what he called a murderous tyranny. But felt the United States, nonetheless, had a humanitarian obligation. He also went on to say that, in a country like the United States, which, at that time, could spend 1 billion a year on things he described as tobacco and cosmetics, an additional 20 million to the ara would not be felt by anyone. Here is a photograph of one of the ara warehouses in new york city with american grain getting ready to be shipped overseas to russia. It was not just some voices in the United States wary of hoover and his intentions. The soviets were extremely concerned about what hoover may be up to. Lenin and the bolsheviks had lead a revolution to throw away to overthrow capitalism do , away with the old political order. And here they were contemplating letting one of the Great American capitalists into their country at their weakest moment. Some were convinced 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 over all americans preparing to come to russia. He tasked the cheka, the notorious secret police, later to be known as the kgb, to infiltrate the ara as soon as it arrived and placed agents inside. Nevertheless, he felt they had to agree to the terms americans put forward that without american help, they had little chance of survival. The First Americans arrived in moscow on the 27th of august, 1921. The first food shipment arrived in petrograd on the first of september. Five days after that, the first ara kitchen opened in petrograd. Four days after that, the First Kitchen opened in moscow in the hermitage restaurant, which had been a place for the wealthy and fashionable to dine before the revolution. This was arguably the most spectacular of all the ara feeding locations. This is the alexander palace outside of st. Petersburg, home of russias tsars. This was the last home for nicholas and alexandra and their children. This particular kitchen, at one point, was feeding 2,000 people a day. According to ara records, among the kitchen staff was one of tsar nicholas former chefs and various servants of the romanovs. The initial plan when the americans went over was to feed one million children. But they quickly realized that the scale of the famine was worse than anticipated. By december, they realize they would have to feed somewhere around 7 million. Frank golder, one of the americans sent over was the first to explore the famine zones. He wrote that the famine is beyond all imagination. It is the most heartbreaking situation ive ever seen. Millions of people are doomed to die, and they are looking it calmly in the face. To see russia makes one wish that he were dead. These are the kinds of things that he and the other americans were seeing when they arrived. This is a photograph of a Young Refugee at a refugee camp in the samara province, victims of the famine. This is something that weighed at americans, something they could never prepare themselves for. Golder remembers being disturbed by a scene he came upon in one village, where there was an old woman down in the dirt on all fours, fighting with pigs for a tiny scrap of pumpkin rind. He heard tales of mothers killing their children and then killing themselves, since it was too painful to watch their children starve. The worst places were the orphanages and childrens homes and hospitals. Some of these Children Homes were set up originally for no more than 30 kids and were now crammed with 400 to 500 orphan children. The conditions were beyond description. Typically, the children just laid in rags on the floor. One ara man said there is just enough food and heat to make their death a slow one. Around this time, another ara man wrote to his fiancee back in the United States i often think now how people in new york told me how they envied me the opportunity of seeing so many interesting things. Yes, interesting. that is the word. Yes, it is very interesting to move among people who come at a glance, tells you would be better off dead than alive. There is no escape, even in this railway car, for men and women come to the door begging for bread, and children can be heard wining underneath the car window whenever the light is showing. A great many of the men soon develop something they dubbed famine shock, sort of a new version of world war is shellshock. The starving peasants first ate whatever remaining grain they had. After that, they would kill and eat all of their livestock. Next, they hunted down and killed and ate every last dog or cat in the village. This was followed by trying to survive on grass, weeds, tree bark, and then the thatch off of their roofs. Finally, some succumbed to cannibalism. Sometimes, people murdered their victims after luring them into their homes. More commonly, they would raid cemeteries and dig up the freshly buried and bring them up to carve and eat. The problem became so pronounced that local authorities had to put the people who just died in stables and sheds, lock the door, and keep a guard outside. A young scholar, who later went on to become one of the famous sociologists of the 20th century and teach at harvard, toured 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 United States, revolution promised to save the people from despotism. The bolsheviks promised to feed everyone. If they did not keep those vows, at least they give the people the communion of human sacrifice, human flesh and blood. The image i am showing here is from a series of drawings and paintings done by a man we know almost nothing about but are now in the collection at the Hoover Institution out at Stanford University. The russian text on the bottom says russian village, 4 februarymarch. We know the year was 1922 that he did this. On the far right, it says russian for cannibalism. The russians have two words for cannibalism, one meaning people eating and one meaning corpse eating, lyudoyedstvo and kannibalizm. They made a distinction between the two. I did much of the research for this book at the Hoover Institution, since that is where the aras files, records, photographs ended up. One thing that was truly difficult for me researching it was to go through these hundreds of photographs taken by the americans by soviet officials of the famine and the acts of cannibalism, which were recorded. They are horribly disturbing images. I struggled a lot to find the right balance in a way that will convey the real depth of this horror and suffering without, in any way, trying to sensationalize it. Thus for my talk i am giving around the states now, i purposely avoided any of the photographs of this and went instead with this particular image. But from the very beginning, the americans realized the famine was much worse than they had ever imagined it would be. You will sometimes hear about this famine as the volga famine, the volga river famine, but that is entirely wrong it was much broader, much more widespread. It covered Something Like one million square miles of territory at its peak. This is a map the ara made. Here is moscow up here. The shaded areas show you all of the extent of the famine and where americans were working. It extended all through ukraine, which had a population of 26 million, 9 mil