Timelines of History

trippy shit Western Philosophy How the U.S. saved a starving Soviet Russia: PBS film highlights Stanford scholar's research on the 1921-23 famine By Cynthia Haven Corn grits, cocoa, condensed milk, white bread and sugar. This was America's menu for the starving millions in Soviet Russia during the 1921-23 famine – one of the greatest human disasters in Europe since the Black Death. The famine relief was spearheaded by Herbert Hoover, whose biographers credited him with saving more lives than any person who has ever lived. The story is featured in the PBS "American Experience" documentary, The Great Famine, which will be broadcast nationwide on April 11. Bertrand Patenaude The film is based on Stanford researcher Bertrand Patenaude's The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921. The world barely remembers the terrible famine – or the American charity that alleviated it, marking what was perhaps the first time that a large-scale relief was extended to an enemy. Herbert Hoover, often criticized for his early Depression-era presidency, is Patenaude's unlikely hero. But it didn't happen.