The Big Show in Bololand : The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 / Bertrand M. Patenaude.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patenaude, Bertrand M., Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (832 p.) : 94 illustrations, 4 maps

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Preface

Prologue: Future Corpses

Part One THE BATTLEFIELD OF FAMINE RUSSIA's CRISIS AND AMERICA'S RESPONSE

1. Going In

2. Food and Weapons

3. The Kingdom of Hunger

4. Making the Show a Go

5. The Neck of the Bottle

6. Haskell at the Bat

7. Home Front

8. Putting the Job Over

9. The Gift Horse

Part Two LOVE AND DEATH ON THE VOLGA

10. Theaters of Action

11. Funerals

12. Travelers

13. Gunmen

14. Tales of Cannibalism

15. Flight of the Flivver

16. Entertainments

17. Entr'acte

18. Backstage

19. Entanglements

20. Denouement

Part Three SAY IT AIN'T SO, COMRADE AMERICAN ADVENTURES IN THE COMMUNIST UTOPIA

21. Red Days in Russia

22. Comrade Eiduk

23. Comrade Skvortsov

24. The Professor and the Sailor

25. And the Show Whirled Merrily On

26. Food as a Weapon

27. Shoot the Interpreter

28. Vodka as a Weapon

29. Machine Politics

30. Playing the Game

Part Four MASTERS OF EFFICIENCY YOUTHFUL AMERICA CONFRONTS ETERNAL RUSSIA

31. A Taste of Power

32. Conquering New Worlds

33. From the Bell Tower

34. Time Meant Nothing

35. The Business of Relief

36. We Are All Thieves

37. The Mask of Mammon

38. Stealing the Thunder

39. Mad Monks and Holy Fools

40. Dangerous Men in Russia

41. The Wind and the Sun

Epilogue: Since Then

Appendix: Riga Agreement

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)

ISBN:

1-5036-2006-9

OCLC:

1294424312