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Fridtjof Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson on Feeding Starving Russians!
Fridtjof Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson on Feeding Starving Russians!
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Nansen Fridtjof

Fridtjof Nansen to President Woodrow Wilson on Feeding Starving Russians!

 

“The present food situation in Russia, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying monthly from sheer starvation and disease, is one of the problems now uppermost in all men’s minds.”

 

FRIDTJOF NANSEN, Typed Letter Signed, to Woodrow Wilson, April 3, 1919, 2 pp., 8.25" x 10.5".  All text clear and dark; some paper clip indentations.

 

Complete Transcript



Paris, April 3, 1919.

My dear Mr. President:

            The present food situation in Russia, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying monthly from sheer starvation and disease, is one of the problems now uppermost in all men’s minds. As it appears that no solution of this food and disease question has so far been reached in any direction, I would like to make a suggestion from a neutral point of view for the alleviation of this gigantic misery, on purely humanitarian grounds.

            It would appear to me possible to organize a purely humanitarian Commission for the provisioning of Russia, the foodstuffs and medical supplies to be paid for perhaps to some considerable extent by Russia itself, the justice of distribution to be guaranteed by such a Commission, the membership of the Commission to be comprised of Norwegian, Swedish, and possibly Dutch, Danish and Swiss nationalities. It does not appear that the existing authorities in Russia would refuse the intervention of such a Commission of wholly non-political order, devoted solely to the humanitarian purpose of saving life. If thus organized upon the lines of the Belgian Relief Commission, it would raise no question of political recognition or negotiations between the Allies with the existing authorities in Russia.

            I recognize keenly the large political issues involved, and I would be glad to know under what conditions you would approve such an enterprise and whether such Commission could look for actual support in finance, shipping and food and medical supplies from the United States Government.

            I am addressing a similar note to Messrs. Orlando, Clemenceau and Lloyd-George.

            Believe me, my dear Mr. President,

                                                                        Yours most respectfully,

                                                                        Fridtjof Nansen

His Excellency, / The President,

11, Place des Etats-Unis, / Paris.

 

Historical Background


To combat starvation in Europe during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson created the United States Food Administration by executive order. Under the direction of Herbert Hoover, it became one of the most efficient and successful governmental initiatives in American history.

 

Although Norway, like Sweden and Demark, declared its neutrality during the war, its loss of overseas trade led to food shortages. In 1917, Norway sent explorer and scientist Dr. Fridtjof Nansen to the United States, where after months of discussion, he obtained food supplies in return for the establishment in Norway of a rationing system. He also met Herbert Hoover, and they quickly became good friends.

 

In Russia a pair of revolutions in 1917 left the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin in power, and Lenin ended Russian participation in World War I by March 1918. Civil war erupted within Russia, which continued for several years, but the Bolsheviks emerged victorious as the Communist Party, which led to the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922.

 

By the spring of 1919, Russia had been out of the war for a year, but the civil war created havoc, and millions neared starvation. To extend the reach of the American Relief Administration, which he directed, into Russia, Hoover needed to find a “neutral executive” like Nansen to serve as an intermediary with the Russians. Nansen sent an initial radio message to Lenin to gauge his interest in allowing a “purely humanitarian effort” to feed starving Russians.


On April 3, Nansen sent a letter (edited by Hoover) to American President Woodrow Wilson (the text included here), French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando (the “Big Four” Allied leaders of postwar Europe), proposing the plan and, after obtaining approval, wired the offer to Lenin on April 17. The French, unwilling to do anything to keep the Bolsheviks in power never sent Nansen’s telegram to Lenin. The offer had to be resent, by radio on May 3.

 

The Russians responded on May 14 (their reply was also blocked by the French but picked up by radio and relayed to Hoover), insisting that the Allied leaders were mixing politics with humanitarianism in their demands. The Bolsheviks refused to stop fighting until they had achieved their objectives and therefore blocked the proposed plan. 

 

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, and became a champion skier and ice skater. He was an explorer, and led a North Pole expedition from 1893 to 1896. He studied zoology and his study of the central nervous system of marine creatures earned him a doctorate. He made many scientific cruises in his study of oceanography. From 1906 to 1908, Nansen served as the Norwegian representative to the United Kingdom. He devoted himself to the League of Nations and secured Norway’s participation in the League in 1920.  At the League’s request, he organized the repatriation of half a million prisoners of war, including 300,000 in Russia. Nansen received the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of persons displaced by World War I.

 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in Staunton, Virginia, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University. He served as president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and as governor of New Jersey from 1910 to 1913. Wilson won the presidential election of 1912, when William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote, and Wilson became the 28th President of the United States in March 1913. As the first southerner elected president since Zachary Taylor, Wilson brought to the office a progressive zeal for reform, both economic and social, and stressed individualism and states’ rights. He is perhaps best known for leading the United States into World War I, despite an election vow to do otherwise, and for helping to negotiate the resulting Treaty of Versailles, for which he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. Although he helped create and championed the League of Nations, Wilson could not obtain Senate approval for U.S. membership.

 

 

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