American Relief Administration in Soviet Russia

Archival Collections Related to the ARA and Its Activities

American Relief Aministration Russian operational records - Correspondence, telegrams, memoranda, reports, agreements, minutes, histories, financial records, lists, press summaries, and photographs relating to American relief in the Soviet Union following the Russian Civil War, and food and public health problems, agriculture, economic conditions, transportation and communications, and political and social developments, in the Soviet Union.

American Relief Administration European operational records - Correspondence, memoranda, reports, appeals, financial records, lists, and press summaries relating to American relief in Europe following World War I, and food and public health problems, economic conditions, and political and social developments, in Europe. American Relief Administration abbreviated throughout description as "ARA."

Selected documents from these two archival collections are available in published editions:

A ten-volume compilation of documents from the ARA Russian operational records was compiled by librarians in the early 1930s to enable users to quickly access a selection of important materials from the collection. The volumes include typed copies of textual documents as well as various tables with data and several maps. Each volume includes a table of contents. There is also an analogous 24-volume compilation of documents from the ARA European operational records. Both sets of volumes can be found on shelves in our Reading Room. You can request both sets of volumes through SearchWorks. Alternatively, when on site, you can approach our reference staff to access them. Separate tables of content for both editions are available as well.

Archival Records of Individuals Related to the ARA

The following collections are papers of individual relief workers or local staff members who served with the ARA or one of its affiliated organizations in Soviet Russia, or of people otherwise associated the mission.

Nancy Babb papers - Correspondence, reports, and memoranda, relating to American Relief Administration and American Friends Service Committee work in Russia.

George Barr Baker Papers, 1919-1932 - Correspondence, photographs, and printed matter, relating to the American Relief Administration; Commission for Relief in Belgium; Paris Peace Conference; American presidential politics and the 1924, 1928, and 1932 presidential campaigns; Calvin Coolidge; Herbert Hoover; the Republican Party; and the foreign language press.

Thomas C. Barringer Papers, 1922-1925 - Correspondence, reports, memoranda, photographs, and clippings, relating to relief operations of the American Relief Administration in two famine areas in Russia, Ekaterinoslav (today Dnipro, in Ukraine) and Simbirsk.

Carroll (Philip H.) papers - The Philip H. Carroll papers consist of materials relating to World War I and the American Relief Administration. The World War I materials relate to activities of the 348th Field Artillery Regiment in France. Materials on the American Relief Administration include charts regarding the branch in Hamburg, Germany, and plans regarding the Russian Unit Supply Division in Moscow. Also includes correspondence with Herbert Hoover relating to American politics.

J. Rives Childs memoirs - Relates to relief work and social conditions in Soviet Russia during the famine of 1921–1923, American foreign relations with Balkan and Near Eastern countries, diplomacy regarding Morocco in World War II, and the role of Iran in world politics, especially in relation to Russia.

Ethan Theodore Colton papers - The papers consist of correspondence, reports, writings, translations, and clippings, relating to European Student Relief activities in Russia and other European countries, 1920-1925; and to social conditions, the educational system, and the status of religion in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. Includes the memoirs of E. T. Colton and 13 anti-religious Soviet posters. All material is from 1917-1935, except for Colton's 1952 memoirs.

Thomas H. Dickinson history - Relates to the American Relief Administration. Includes typescript and galley proofs.

Fisher (Harold H.) papers - Clippings, printed matter, notes, correspondence, pamphlets, articles, microfilm, and photographs, relating to the Soviet Union, the San Francisco Conference organizing the United Nations, the Civil War in Spain, Herbert Hoover and the American Relief Administration, and the history of Finland.

Fleming (Harold M.) papers - Correspondence, writings, maps, and clippings, relating to the American Relief Administration in Russia, economic conditions, and political and social developments in Russia after the revolution.

William Parmer Fuller papers - Correspondence, reports, memoranda, clippings, telegrams, photographs, and memorabilia, relating to American Relief Administration work in Poland at the end of World War I, and to Herbert Hoover. Includes correspondence with Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover.

Galpin (Perrin C.) papers - Correspondence, reports, photographs, clippings, and printed matter, relating to the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the American Relief Administration, Herbert Hoover and American electoral politics, and the 1938 trip to Europe and 1946 food relief activities in Europe of Herbert Hoover.

Gaskill (C.A.) diary - Relates to conditions in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War.

Golder (Frank A.) papers - Correspondence, writings, diaries, memoranda, transcripts of documents from Russian archives, printed matter, and photographs, relating to Russian history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Russian American Company in Alaska, conditions in Russia during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and American Relief Administration work in Russia.

Donald Grant writings - Notes, diary entries, letter extracts, and a pamphlet, relating to social conditions and relief work in Russia and Eastern and Central Europe, 1920-1922, and to the economic and social policy of the socialist municipal government in Vienna, 1919-1934.

Hall (Charles L.) papers - Photographs and memorabilia, relating to famine conditions and American Relief Administration work in Orenburg and Samara, Russia.

Holden (Frank Harvey) miscellaneous papers - Letter written by F. H. Holden in Moscow in 1923, relating to Russian operations of the American Relief Administration; and photographs of the German cruiser Wolf, its crew, and ships encountered and sunk by it during its raiding cruise in World War I, 1916-1917.

Hoover (Herbert) papers - Writings, notes, typed copies of documents, printed matter, and financial records relating to American foreign policy and domestic policies during the presidential administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II, and the early postwar years. Consists mainly of drafts of and supporting materials for the posthumous book by Herbert Hoover, Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath (Stanford, 2011).

Lincoln Hutchinson papers - Correspondence, writings, and reports, relating to American Relief Administration activities, food conditions in Germany following World War I, and technical assistance provided by American engineers in the Soviet Union.

John F. de Jacobs typescript: The American Relief Administration and my crime, authored by a former local staff member of the ARA in Soviet Russia. 

Alexis V. Lapteff Papers, 1921-1971- Memoirs, reports, and photographs, relating to relief work in the Ufa-Urals district. Lapteff was a local staff member of the ARA.

Lykes (Gibbes) papers - Reports, dispatches, correspondence, and photographs, relating to relief work in Ukraine and to political conditions in Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution.

Merle Farmer Murphy typescript : Record of a Russian year, 1921-1922 : daily life in Soviet Russia - Relates to social and economic conditions in Russia.

Richardson (Gardner) papers - Photographs, resolutions, and letters of gratitude, relating to relief work in Styria, Austria, and in Odessa, Russia, and to the University of Vienna Children's Clinic.

Ringland (Arthur C.) papers - Memoranda and printed matter, relating to League of Nations cooperation with American Relief Administration activities in Russia, the attitude of Aleksandr Kerensky in 1921 toward American Relief Administration activities in Russia, and subsequent Soviet attitudes toward American Relief Administration activities in Russia.

Sabine (Edward G.) photograph collection - Depicts famine victims and American Relief Administration relief activities in the Samara region of Russia

Raymond McKnight Sloan papers, 1920-1926 - Correspondence, reports, financial records, photographs, and miscellany, relating to American Relief Administration operations in Russia.

Jessica Smith reports - Relates to famine conditions in the Bashkir area of the Overview of the Merle Farmer Murphy typescript : Record of a Russian year, 1921-1922 : Soviet Union.

Stephens (Frederick Dorsey) papers - Correspondence, photographs, printed matter, and miscellany, relating to relief activities of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the American Relief Administration in Russia, and the Finnish Relief Fund.

John E. Toole diary - Relates to American Relief Administration work in Russia after the Russian Civil War.

Leon G. Turrou typescript: An unwritten chapter - Relates to a meeting in March 1922 between ARA officials and Feliks Dzerzhinskii, Soviet Cheka director and people’s commissar of transport, held to resolve a crisis of transport of American Relief Administration supplies.

Edwin H. Vail letters - Relates to social and economic conditions in Russia, and to Quaker relief work in Russia.

Henry Cutler Wolfe papers - Contains fictional and journalistic writings, correspondence, printed matter, identification card, medals, and photographs, relating to conditions in the Samara Province of Russia and operations of the American Relief Administration in Russia, and to European politics in the interwar period.

Digital Versions of Archival Collections

American Relief Administration Russian operational records (digital) - Digitized documents and photographs from the ARA mission in Soviet Russia.

Charles L. Hall papers (digital) - Hall papers, digitized (NOTE: some photographs can be seen only in the Reading Room).

Raymond McKnight Sloan papers, 1920-1926 (digital) - Sloan papers, digitized.

Frederick Dorsey Stephens papers (digital) - Stephens papers, digitized.

John E. Toole diary (digital) - Toole diary, digitized.

Visual Sources Related to the ARA and Early Soviet Russia

Axelbank (Herman) motion picture film collection - Depicts major events in twentieth-century Russian history, including the Russian Revolution and World Wars I and II, the tsarist family and court, communist political and military leaders, and scenes of economic, social, and cultural activities in the Soviet Union.

Poster collection - Includes Soviet posters depicting the famine and posters produced by Moscow artists at the behest of the ARA.

Russian subject collection - Includes (in box 46) a VHS copy of the 1922 two-reel (~30 minutes in length) American Relief Administration film, America’s Gift to Famine Stricken Russia. Made from the 16mm film copy at the Library of Congress.

Vladimirov (Ivan A.) paintings - Watercolor paintings depicting scenes of daily life during the Russian Revolution and the famine of 1921.