Black lebeda : the Russian famine diary of ARA Kazan District supervisor J. Rives Childs, 1921-1923
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Black lebeda : the Russian famine diary of ARA Kazan District supervisor J. Rives Childs, 1921-1923
Mercer University Press, 2006
- Other Title
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Russian famine diary of ARA Kazan District supervisor J. Rives Childs, 1921-1923
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The diary which begins in the days before Childs enters Soviet Russia in 1921 and ends rather abruptly in August 1923, about six months before he left, is a detailed in depth view of Childs's Russian experience. There is first an account of the inner working of the American Relief Administration (ARA) at all levels from Moscow to the workers in the kitchens that fed the starving children and later adults. It also gives a vivid picture of the grisly famine conditions, not only in Kazan, but in the countryside as well, since Childs was early involved in field work establishing orphanages, and kitchens to feed the starving. In this capacity, he had to deal with local governments, now in the control of the Communist Party, and his narration of his experiences gives probably one of the first insights into the workings of the Party, in local governments. Yet the journal also gives an account of the lives of those enemies of the Soviets that did not get out, the bourgeois and aristocratic elements, who were hostile to the new system. Frequently these citizens, who were educated and had often learned English, came to work for the ARA, and Childs witnessed their sad lives and the suspicion they experienced from the Soviet government. The diary also gives a firsthand view of the early days of Lenin's famous New Economic Policy (NEP), which was really partial return to old capitalism. This move on the part of the Soviet government was designed to jump-start the prostrate economy, and Childs a self-proclaimed socialist, curiously found this turnabout fascinating and became an ardent proponent of it.
by "Nielsen BookData"