American Historian About American Relief Administration (ARA) in Soviet Ukraine
The tragedy of the early twenties of the twentieth century, known as «famine in the Volga region» covered not only the vast Russian territory, but also a significant part of Ukraine. Support for the starving citizens of both Soviet republics at that time had such foreign charities as the «Committee of F. Nansen», The Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the American Relief Administration, better known as the ARA, as well as a number of smaller philanthropic organizations from North America. However, it is ARA contributed significantly to the victory over hunger. This is formally a non-governmental structure of the United States, headed by one of the most influential ministers of the US government at the time, Herbert Clark Hoover. In 1919-1921 ARA helped residents of several countries of Central Europe, is experiencing a food shortage after First World War. In the fall of 1921 Hoover organization began to feed hungry people in Russia. In the spring of next year, it extended its work in Ukraine. American authors, relying almost exclusively on documents of the ARA, have contributed to the consideration of humanitarian aid to Ukraine by that organization. In general, the activities of the foreign organization, in our opinion, was shown them quite objectively, although one can note some of their biases and inaccuracies. At the same time, this issue can be significantly expanded and supplemented by modern Ukrainian researchers. Using a variety of sources from the local archives and materials of the periodical press these years, you can recreate a complete and objective picture of the American Relief Administration in Ukraine of 1922-1923.