Russia Saved by American Humanitarian Efforts – PBS, April 11
Ninety years ago, Russians were dying of starvation by the tens of thousands per week. American relief workers, spearheaded by Herbert Hoover, fed as many as 11 million Russians every day, starting first with the children, then expanding the program to include adults.
American Experience tells the story of this large-scale rescue in The Great Famine to be shown on PBS April 11, 2011, at 9:00 p.m. (check local listings); it is also available on DVD. Profiled are two relief workers, Will Shafroth and Walter Bell, the first a 29-year-old governor’s son from Colorado who supervised the Samara District, the second a former National Guardsman from Syracuse, age 47, who supervised the Ufa-Urals district. Also highlighted are Hoover’s humanitarian efforts before the Russian famine.
The great famine was “the worst natural disaster in Europe since the Black Plague in the Middle Ages.” Caused by weather, exacerbated by politics, it was eradicating the Soviet Russian population. When Americans learned of the situation, they responded with a two-year campaign successfully administered by the American Relief Administration (ARA) that was championed by Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce and chairman of the ARA. Because of these efforts, Hoover has been credited with saving “more lives than any person in history.”
The Great Famine is a dramatic telling of the relief effort, the men involved and the obstacles they encountered, such as a suspicious Lenin, a disabled railway system, and the Cheka (Lenin’s secret police). This deeply involving story traces the roots of America’s most remarkable tradition—offering relief throughout the world during times of disaster.
Narrated by David Ogden Stiers, The Great Famine “is told thorough film and photographs from American and Russian archives, interviews with survivors, …Russian and American historians, and the writings of relief workers." Many of the photos are as disturbing as those that were taken at Nazi concentration camps after the fall of the Third Reich—emaciated children and adults, often naked, and bodies piled high; many of the details are horrifying—parents who cannibalized their children to feed their other children, graves being dug up and the bodies used for food.
The Great Famine is based on The Big Show in Bololand by Bertrand M. Patenaude, one of the participants in the documentary; it was written and produced by Austin Hoyt.
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