Preventing Tragedy and Statistics

By Thomas F. Schwartz

It is easy to overlook the significance of Herbert Hoover’s food relief efforts by looking merely at numbers.  The precise number of people Hoover saved from starvation remains murky but most scholars agree it is in the hundreds of millions.  Ironically, one of the most brutal leaders of modern times, Joseph Stalin, is credited with the following aphorism: “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy.  If millions die, that’s only statistics.”  Scholars have since discredited the attribution.  The quote, whomever said it, aptly applies to post-World War I era Europe.  Herbert Hoover, against the wisdom of world leaders, used the American Relief Administration to provide food to Russian people living in areas controlled by the Bolsheviks as well as areas controlled by White Russian forces.  Remaining above politics knowing that hunger is apolitical, Hoover provided food to roughly eighteen million Russians.  This good will was not lost on those who received food as continues to be evident in letters the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum staff receive from descendants.  It is important to highlight these letters because they focus on individual lives that were prevented from becoming both tragedies and statistics.  It places a human face on the food relief efforts and, more importantly, provides some sense of what drove Hoover in his tireless efforts to eradicate hunger.  The following account and images are provided by Natalia Sidorova and reproduced with her permission.

“I am writing you to celebrate the legacy that Herbert Hoover has earned in history by his compassion and care for millions of people in Russia and other countries who were on the brink of death by starvation.

About 97 years ago, my grandmother Zinaida Tiablikova moved to Moscow from her small town Klin, fifty miles to the north.  She lived alone while she studied chemistry at Moscow University.

At that time there was a terrible food shortage throughout all of Russia as a result of the chaos following the Bolshevik revolution and the civil war between White and Red Russians.  Many poor Russians from the Volga region came to Moscow in desperate hope of finding food in the city.

In 1920 a friend of my grandmother told her that the American Food Administration provided warm meals once a day for needy people, primarily children.  Although most of the food centers were in the Volga River region where starvation was an enormous problem, there also were a few food centers in Moscow.

My grandmother Zinaida went to one of these food centers on Miasnitskaya Street in Moscow.  Throughout most of 1920 she and many other persons received a delicious hot meal once a day.  She remembered on occasion receiving condensed milk and hot chocolate.  For the many poor Russians these were special treats because they had never had condensed milk or chocolate before.  Certainly these nutritious meals protected her and many other persons from death by starvation or other diseases caused by lack of food.

She told me that there was a photo of Herbert Hoover on display at the food center, even though Mr. Hoover himself did not want such public recognition.  The people of the community chose to display his photo as their own spontaneous expression of their gratitude to Mr. Hoover and to the American people.

I now have a daughter named Galina who goes to college here in America.  I have told her this story of my grandmother.  This story demonstrates to my daughter that the American and Russian people can be great friends to one another in times of need.

I doubt that Mr. Hoover himself then was supportive to the Bolshevik ideology which in recent years has fallen into disrepute even among conservative Russians.  However, Mr. Hoover put aside his own personal beliefs about politics and economics so that he could help other persons.

My grandmother always spoke with great appreciation of the generosity of the American people as expressed through the person of Herbert Hoover.  She was always amazed that Mr. Hoover possessed special administrative skills so that he could distribute food to remote regions where the food was in greatest demand.  She was delighted for the American people when she learned years later that Mr. Hoover was elected President.  She cherished the memory of his photo in the food center and she prayed for him throughout her life.

My grandmother is not with us any more to express her own gratitude to Mr. Hoover.  As her grand-daughter I accept that task with full enthusiasm.  As an American citizen who was born in Moscow, I thank Mr. Hoover and I thank all the people of America for their generosity and compassion to millions of poor Russians in one of the darkest hours in our history.  The legacy of Mr. Hoover’s goodness and the goodness of the American people is inscribed in the hearts of millions of Russian people.

Mr. Hoover’s legacy is also a beacon of hope for future generations.  In a world that continues to be torn apart by conflict of all types, Mr. Hoover’s example reminds us that the best response to a crisis is compassion.”