British Humanitarian Activity in Russia, 1890–1923 PDF
Preview British Humanitarian Activity in Russia, 1890–1923
LUKE KELLY British Humanitarian Activity in Russia, 1890–1923 British Humanitarian Activity in Russia, 1890–1923 Luke Kelly British Humanitarian Activity in Russia, 1890–1923 Luke Kelly University of Manchester Manchester, UK ISBN 978-3-319-65189-7 ISBN 978-3-319-65190-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65190-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953009 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover image: © Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland C ontents British Humanitarian Activity and Russia, c. 1890–1923 1 Humanitarian Traditions and Russia’s Problems 25 Britain and the Russian Famine, 1891–1892 53 Speaking Up for Religious Freedom in Russia: Jewish and Christian Humanitarianism 85 Humanitarian Sympathy and National Liberation 113 Britain and the Russian Famine, 1921–1923 159 Conclusion 213 Index 217 v A bbreviAtions ABA All-British Appeal AFSC American Friends’ Service Committee ARA American Relief Administration BFBS British and Foreign Bible Society CIS Council for International Service COS Charity Organisation Society FEWVRC or FWVRC Friends’ Emergency and War Victims’ Relief Committee FHL Friends’ House Library (London) FSU Friends’ Service Union FWVRC See FEWVRC ICRR International Committee for Russian Relief IWRF Imperial War Relief Fund JDC (Jewish) Joint Distribution Committee NGO Non-Governmental Organisation RFRF Russian Famine Relief Fund SCF Save the Children Fund SFRF Society of Friends of Russian Freedom (or “Friends of Russia”) vii L f ist of igures Humanitarian Sympathy and National Liberation Fig. 1 Posters for Russian events from the Unwin Archive, Bristol University library. Pamphlets, DM 851, Cobden-Unwin file, Bristol University Library the SFRF tried to mobilise broad support by displaying Russian arts and also sought support from labour movements 140 Britain and the Russian Famine, 1921–1923 Fig. 1 FWVRC expenditure, overall and on Russian field, 1915–1924 (£) 164 Fig. 2 (a) FWVRC: Goods sent to Russia, 1 April 1921–30 November 1923 (£), by year and provenance. (b) FWVRC: Goods sent to Russia, 1 April 1921–30 November 1923 (£) 188 Fig. 3 (a) FWVRC: Goods sent to Russia, 1 April 1921–30 November 1923 (tons), by year and provenance. (b) FWVRC: Goods sent to Russia, 1 April 1921–30 November 1923 (tons) 189 Fig. 4 The Famine Area and Great Britain on the same scale (The Russian Famine: Sir Benjamin Robertson’s Report, 1922) 190 Fig. 5 (a) and (b) Food for Russian Children (Save the Children, 1921) (‘1921: The Russian Famine,’ blog, Save the Children website, http://blogs.savethechildren.org.uk/2012/08/ goldmoment-raceagainsthunger4/, accessed 19 July 2013) 192 ix x LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 6 (a) Contributions for the Russian field, excluding gifts in kind, by week, 26 November 1921–6 October 1923 (£). (b) Income for the Russian field, excluding gifts in kind, by month, 26 November 1921–6 October 1923 (£) 196 Fig. 7 FWVRC: Contributions by source, September 1921–March 1924 (£) 199 Fig. 8 FWVRC: Contributions by source, September 1921–March 1924 200 British Humanitarian Activity and Russia, c. 1890–1923 [The famine has the effect of] illustrating in a very striking way the rotten- ness of the whole system of government… Everywhere extravagance meets the eye, the forests have been cut down wantonly, the rivers are neglected, the climate is ruined, the peasant, who pays on the average taxes to the tune of four pounds per head, is simply regarded as a revenue-producing unit.1 Manchester Guardian (on the 1891 famine) Russian autocracy succeeded to nothing; it had no historical past, and it cannot hope for a historical future… By no industry of investigation, by no fantastic stretch of benevolence, can it be presented as a phase of devel- opment through which a Society, a State, must pass on its way to the full consciousness of its destiny.2 Joseph Conrad In 1891 news reached Britain that the crops had failed in the Volga region of Russia. Soon after, appeals were printed in British newspa- pers, avowing that ‘every £1 given will probably save a life’, and a fund of about £37,262 15s 2d (or £49,640,000 in 2015 money) was sent to 1 ‘Through Famine-Stricken Russia: A Commissioner’s Story How the Famine Came to be Recognised; Sufferings of the Tartar Population General Conclusions,’ Manchester Guardian, 18 April 1892, p. 8. 2 Joseph Conrad, ‘Autocracy and War [From the Fortnightly Review, 1905]’, in Collected Edition, Notes on Life and Letters (London: Dent, 1949), p. 97. © The Author(s) 2018 1 L. Kelly, British Humanitarian Activity in Russia, 1890–1923, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65190-3_1 2 L. KELLy the famine region.3 This relatively familiar (both then and now) occur- rence is the starting point of the analysis presented in this book. Familiar because famines in British India at the same time attracted donations equivalent to hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s money, and fam- ines elsewhere would continue to attract the interest of British donors throughout the twentieth century. By the 1890s, giving aid for distant strangers had become an established part of British life. Russia, now more visible in the British imagination, became the object of interven- tions as British churches, journalists and politicians, among others, pre- sented an assortment of humanitarian prescriptions to a country seen to be struggling. The Society of Friends (Quakers) offered famine relief in 1891–1892, 1907 famine and 1921–1923, war relief from 1916, as well as providing support to the persecuted Doukhobor sect after 1897. The Society of Friends of Russian Freedom (SFRF) was a pressure group set up in 1890 by Russian exiles and British liberals specifically to reform Russia’s government by generating public outrage through its jour- nal Free Russia. Russia’s persecution of Jews prompted condemnation throughout the period. Many groups, including the newly formed Save the Children Fund, sent money and workers to help in the 1921–1923 famine as part of an internationalised effort. In one sense, the interest in Russia clearly echoed earlier and later humanitarian campaigns in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Similar networks of liberals and Christians had been involved in the main humanitarian causes earlier in the century: abolition, aborigines’ protec- tion, Jewish relief.4 Many of the actors supported the institutionalisation of humanitarianism, through their presence at peace conferences, inter- est in international institutions, and standardisation of relief practices.5 But apart from these broad tendencies, the aims of these actors varied, as did their methods. Russia was just one country among many, itself mani- festing multiple problems, only some of which were addressed: political oppression and censorship, religious oppression, anti-Jewish pogroms 3 Calculated as the economic cost of a project. Measuring Worth (https://www.measur- ingworth.com/ukcompare/relativevalue.php, accessed 12 August 2016). 4 Abigail Green, ‘The British Empire and the Jews: An Imperialism of Human Rights?’, Past & Present, 199.1 (2008), pp. 175–205. 5 Keith David Watenpaugh, Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2015), p. 2.
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