Famine 1920-1924
The Volga Germans experienced periodic famines caused by both natural and man-made causes. The famine in the early 1920s stemmed from both causes, but was made much worse by the actions of the communist regime.
Children in Saratov during the famine period of the 1920s. Photograph courtesy of the Libarary of Congress.
The Russian famine of 1921, better known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia. The famine, which killed an estimated 5 million, affected mostly the Volga-Ural region. The famine resulted from the combined effect of the disruption of the agricultural production, which already started during World War I and continued through the disturbances of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War with its policy of War Communism, especially prodrazvyorstka. One of Russia's intermittent droughts that happened in 1921 aggravated the situation to the level of the national catastrophe. In many cases recklessness of local administration, which recognized the problems only too late, contributed to the problem. Hunger was so severe that it was doubtful that seed-grain would be sown rather than eaten. At one point, relief agencies had to give grain to the railroad staff to get their supplies moved.
The American Relief Administration (ARA), which Herbert Hoover had formed to help the starvation of World War I, had offered assistance to Lenin in 1919, on condition that they have full say over the Russian railway network and hand out food impartially to all; Lenin refused this as interference in Russian internal affairs. Said Lenin on this issue: "The greater the number of the representatives of the reactionary bourgeoisie and the reactionary clergy that we will manage to execute in this affair, the better."
This famine, the Kronstadt rebellion, large scale peasant uprisings such as the Tambov rebellion, and the failure of a German general strike convinced Lenin to reverse his policy at home and abroad. He decreed the New Economic Policy on March 15, 1921 which allowed relief organizations to bring aid.
One of the emigrants from Norka, George Repp, became a prominent member of the American Relief Administration that provided help to many Volga German families in the 1920s.
George Repp passport application - September 1921
Read excerpts from five handwritten letters from the Sinner family of Norka, Russia during the horrible famine years of 1921, 1923 and 1924. The letters are written to Heinrich (Henry) Sinner who emigrated to the United States in 1913. The letters are written by his father, Johann Heinrich Sinner, his sister Katharina (Katja) and his uncle.
Famine Letters from Norka Published in Die Welt-Post (The World Post)
Many letters were written to family members in North America during the 1920s and 1930s famines in Russia. Below is a collection of these letters published in Die Welt-Post (The World Post), a German language newspaper originally established in Lincoln, Nebraska and later published in Omaha, Nebraska. Die Welt-Post was read by many Volga German families.
Die Welt-Post newspaper articles are on microfilm and held by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) in Lincoln, NE. The papers have been indexed by Samuel D. Sinner in his booklet Letters from Hell published by AHSGR in 2000. In order to obtain the original articles, one must buy Sinner's Index and then order the individual articles. The articles are not indexed by surname, they are indexed by village.
Sinner's documented research shows that between 1915 and 1949 approximately one million ethnic Germans died in Russia and the Soviet Union. During each of these decades, the Soviet authorities murdered about one-fourth to one-third of the entire ethnic-German population. The Letters from Hell publication includes a discussion about the period, including what was known outside of the Soviet Union about the genocide, how the non-communist world overlooked what was occurring, and how this horrible nightmare became a forgotten past. The complete discussion is found in the Letters from Hell booklet which can be purchased from the AHSGR.
The letters below are related to the colony of Norka and the famine relief work of George Repp, a native son:
Letter from Jakob Deines published January 12, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published January 12, 1922
Letter from Peter M. to Conrad Schleucher published January 12, 1922
Letter from Johannes and Konrad Blum published February 2, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published February 2, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published February 9, 1922
Letter from Father Adam Bellends published February 9, 1922
Letter from Johann Georg and Katharina Feuerstein published March 2, 1922
Letter from George Repp published April 6, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published April 20, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published April 27, 1922
Letter from Georg Lehl published July 6, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker, Elisabeth Aschenbrenner and Johannes Aschenbrenner published July 6, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published August 24, 1922
Letter from Georg Feuerstein published November 16, 1922
Letter from Rev. Wacker published December 21, 1922
Letter regarding George Repp published March 15, 1923
Letter from the National Lutheran Council published May 10, 1923
Letter from Lorenz Schnell published May 17, 1923
Letter from George Kaiser published May 17, 1923
Letter from Johannes Blum published August 23, 1923
Letter from Margreta Weber published October 11, 1923
Letter from the Norka Distribution Committee published December 27, 1923
Letter from Jacob Deines to Jacob Stroh published February 28, 1924
Letter from the Weber family to the Johannes Schnell family published February 28, 1924
Letter from Heinrich Kaiser published April 3, 1924
1921 Volga famine poster
Resources to learn more about this topic:
A History of the Volga Relief Society by Emma Schwabenland Haynes, 1982, published by and available for purchase from AHSGR.
The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 by Bertrand M. Patenaude, 2002, published by the Hoover Institution Press of Stanford University.
A Photographic Archive of Fridtjof Nansen's Life and Work - Nansen was a humanitarian who assisted in the relief work on the Volga during the early 1920s. Photos of his work can be seen by selecting "Famine" and "Relief" from the drop down Subject menu on this Search page.