Participants

Maria Fedorova³; John Seitz⁴; Immo Rebitschek¹; Friedrich Asschenfeldt²;  ¹ Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Germany;  ² Princeton U, United States;  ³ Macalester College, United States;  ⁴ Tennessee Wesleyan University, United States

Discussion

This roundtable brings together emerging scholars from three countries to share their new research on the history of food security, agricultural policy, science, and humanitarian aid in the late Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union. As the world is grappling with another food crisis, worsened by the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, many international organizations, national governments, experts, farmers, and everyday consumers are searching for solutions to global food supply issues. This roundtable offers both global and local perspectives on the early attempts to address famine and food insecurity in one of the world’s primary grain-producing areas of Ukraine, Russia, and parts of Central Asia. Between 1870 and 1925, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union experienced multiple years of droughts and two severe famines in 1891-92 and 1921-23 which took the lives of millions of people. How could regions that were major food producers still struggle with feeding their populations? How did the national government, local institutions, and individual experts respond to these disasters, and how did these responses shape the relationship between the imperial center and the periphery? How did these famines shape early concerted attempts at international humanitarian aid? How did actors in Russia and the Soviet Union conceptualize food insecurity and food aid?