The famine of 1921–22 in the Crimea and the Volga basin and the relief from Turkey
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10280474 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hakan Kırımlı (0000-0003-2223-103X, corresponding author), Hakan Kirimli |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 37-88 |
| Publication date | 2003-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Middle Eastern Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-3206 • E-ISSN: 1743-7881 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00263200412331301597a |
| OpenAlex | W1985591088 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 2 |
02 08:34 Page 39 their own children, brothers and sisters. 16 Such horrific cases of cannibalism were not confined to already dead bodies.Indeed, some people even killed others, especially children, to eat. 17 As thousands of starving and almost delirious peasants abandoned their homes in a desperate hunt for food, they often left their children behind, thus sealing their fate. 18There were also cases of parents killing their own children to save them from a worse and slower death. 19 The collapse of the water supply, sewerage, and all sanitation systems signalled further disaster in the Volga basin.The neglected streets of Kazan, for instance, were covered with refuse and excrement; the cisterns, which formed the sewerage system, overflowed. 20Not surprisingly, the famine was accompanied by widespread epidemics in the region, a fact which required medicine no less than food aid.Clothing was also urgently needed for thousands of people who were left almost naked.The ARA aid reached the Volga basin as early as September 1921 and the decision of the US Congress to offer $20 million for the victims of famine in Russia especially expanded its work.The ARA provided large amounts of foodstuffs, clothing, and medicine.By the end of January 1922, the ARA opened public kitchens in almost every starving place in the Volga basin.The amount of foodstuffs brought by the ARA to the region amounted to 5,213 loads (more than 80 million kilograms) by May 1922. 21 Despite its vital role, the ARA work in the Volga basin was, of course, not free of political impediment and suspicion.At one point, three Russian employees of the ARA in Tatarstan were arrested by the local authorities.They were freed only on the ARA's threat to stop food shipments. 22The ARA also helped to link the Volga Tatar diaspora by appeals to help their brethren in their homelands.The Volga Tatars in Finland sent individual parcels of food to men of letters and religion in the Volga-Ural region.Apparently, the first consignment of such parcels was delivered to their addresses in early 1922 and the third delivery was received in early August 1922. 23This timely help was deeply appreciated by the intellectual, literary, scholarly, and religious elite of the Volga-Ural Turks, most of whom were in a desperate situation. 24he relief work of the ARA, Pomgol, Russian Red Cross, German Red Cross, Swedish United Committee, and many other domestic and foreign organizations was a help but could hardly defeat the catastrophe.There were also ominous signs and little hope for the following year.In addition to the fact that the lack of manpower allowed only a small part of the land to be sowed, most of that prospective harvest was burned by the drought during the summer of 1922 or destroyed by worms. 25he way the Soviet government assessed and handled the crisis was hardly compatible with these developments.By summer 1922, quite
Ancient history · Archaeology · Famine · Geography · Political science · Structural basin · Volga region · Geology · Global Energy Security and Policy · History · Paleontology · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Turkey's Politics and Society
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,28 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |