The Crimea and the Volga Basin during the Famine of 1921-1922 and the Relief From Turkey

Abstract

In 1921-1922 a devastating famine occurred in Soviet Russia. The Volga-Ural basin and the Crimea, with their large Turkic populations, were among the hardest hit regions. The Bolshevik authorities, though most reluctantly, were compelled to seek foreign aid. Accordingly, the local leaderships of the Volga-Ural basin and the Crimea turned Turkey asking for urgent relief. Notwithstanding the fact that Turkey (rather the nationalist government in Ankara) was then in the midst of a war of independence with enormous depravities, a very impressive campaign of relief was organized throughout Anatolia. At the very time, the Turkish army launched its final offensive against the Greek forces, the representatives of the Ankara government were carrying the modest, though meaningful, aid of the Anatolian Turks to their brethren in the North.