The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921
When a devastating famine descended on Bolshevik Russia in 1921, the United States responded with a massive two-year relief mission that battled starvation and disease, and saved millions of lives. The nearly 300 American relief workers were the first outsiders to break through Russia’s isolation, and to witness and record the strange new phenomenon of Russia’s Bolshevism.
This epic tale is related here as a sprawling American adventure story, largely derived from the diaries, memoirs, and letters of the American participants, who were a colorful mix of former doughboys, cowboys, and college boys hungry for adventure in the wake of the Great War. The story is told in an anecdotal, even novelistic, style that is accessible to a broad readership. More than a fascinating historical narrative, the book serves as a political and social history of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and as a study of the roots of the fateful U.S.-Soviet rivalry that would dominate the second half of the twentieth century.
The book’s opening section of chapters recounts the chronological story of the American mission to Bolshevik Russia, dubbed by those who served as the “Big Show in Bololand.” It is followed by sections which examine the personal triumphs and tragedies of the relief workers and of their beneficiaries; the political confrontations between these emissaries of American capitalism and the Bolshevik commissars, who struggled to gain control over the relief effort; and the unique American-Russian cultural encounter occasioned by the presence of the relief workers, who came into daily contact with all classes of society—from impoverished former aristocrats to the poorest peasants.
"1110868903"
The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921
When a devastating famine descended on Bolshevik Russia in 1921, the United States responded with a massive two-year relief mission that battled starvation and disease, and saved millions of lives. The nearly 300 American relief workers were the first outsiders to break through Russia’s isolation, and to witness and record the strange new phenomenon of Russia’s Bolshevism.
This epic tale is related here as a sprawling American adventure story, largely derived from the diaries, memoirs, and letters of the American participants, who were a colorful mix of former doughboys, cowboys, and college boys hungry for adventure in the wake of the Great War. The story is told in an anecdotal, even novelistic, style that is accessible to a broad readership. More than a fascinating historical narrative, the book serves as a political and social history of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and as a study of the roots of the fateful U.S.-Soviet rivalry that would dominate the second half of the twentieth century.
The book’s opening section of chapters recounts the chronological story of the American mission to Bolshevik Russia, dubbed by those who served as the “Big Show in Bololand.” It is followed by sections which examine the personal triumphs and tragedies of the relief workers and of their beneficiaries; the political confrontations between these emissaries of American capitalism and the Bolshevik commissars, who struggled to gain control over the relief effort; and the unique American-Russian cultural encounter occasioned by the presence of the relief workers, who came into daily contact with all classes of society—from impoverished former aristocrats to the poorest peasants.
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The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921
When a devastating famine descended on Bolshevik Russia in 1921, the United States responded with a massive two-year relief mission that battled starvation and disease, and saved millions of lives. The nearly 300 American relief workers were the first outsiders to break through Russia’s isolation, and to witness and record the strange new phenomenon of Russia’s Bolshevism.
This epic tale is related here as a sprawling American adventure story, largely derived from the diaries, memoirs, and letters of the American participants, who were a colorful mix of former doughboys, cowboys, and college boys hungry for adventure in the wake of the Great War. The story is told in an anecdotal, even novelistic, style that is accessible to a broad readership. More than a fascinating historical narrative, the book serves as a political and social history of the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and as a study of the roots of the fateful U.S.-Soviet rivalry that would dominate the second half of the twentieth century.
The book’s opening section of chapters recounts the chronological story of the American mission to Bolshevik Russia, dubbed by those who served as the “Big Show in Bololand.” It is followed by sections which examine the personal triumphs and tragedies of the relief workers and of their beneficiaries; the political confrontations between these emissaries of American capitalism and the Bolshevik commissars, who struggled to gain control over the relief effort; and the unique American-Russian cultural encounter occasioned by the presence of the relief workers, who came into daily contact with all classes of society—from impoverished former aristocrats to the poorest peasants.
Bert Patenaude is a historian, lecturer, and documentary filmmaker who specializes in Russian affairs. He is presently a lecturer in the History Department at Stanford Universityand a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and he is the principal writer of "Utopia Revealed," a forthcoming five-part series for PBS on the history of socialism.Patenaude is the editor of several books on Russian studies, including The Russian Revolution and Stalin and Stalinism. His film credits include associate producer of the Emmy Award-winning PBS film "Inside the USSR," the Frontline documentary "A Journey to Russia," and "Stalin's Ghost," an NBC News Special Report. He was educated at Boston College and the University of Vienna, and received his PhD in history from Stanford in 1987.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
ix
Preface
xi
Prologue: Future Corpses
1
Part 1
The Battlefield of Famine: Russia's Crisis and America's Response
5
1.
Going In
7
2.
Food and Weapons
28
3.
The Kingdom of Hunger
49
4.
Making the Show a Go
74
5.
The Neck of the Bottle
103
6.
Haskell at the Bat
118
7.
Home Front
133
8.
Putting the Job Over
148
9.
The Gift Horse
172
Part 2
Love and Death on the Volga: Dramas and Distractions at the Famine Front
219
10.
Theaters of Action
221
11.
Funerals
236
12.
Travelers
244
13.
Gunmen
249
14.
Tales of Cannibalism
262
15.
Flight of the Flivver
271
16.
Entertainments
275
17.
Entr'acte
285
18.
Backstage
294
19.
Entanglements
302
20.
Denouement
312
Part 3
Say it Ain't So, Comrade: American Adventures in the Communist Utopia
333
21.
Red Days in Russia
335
22.
Comrade Eiduk
346
23.
Comrade Skvortsov
354
24.
The Professor and the Sailor
367
25.
And the Show Whirled Merrily On
376
26.
Food as a Weapon
393
27.
Shoot the Interpreter
412
28.
Vodka as a Weapon
429
29.
Machine Politics
452
30.
Playing the Game
470
Part 4
Masters of Efficiency: Youthful America Confronts Eternal Russia
