page_title: Russian famine of 1891–92
section_title: Relief efforts
hierarchical_section_title: Russian famine of 1891–92 / Relief efforts
caption_attribution_description: English: Leo Tolstoy examines a list of peasants to receive aid with his daughter Tatiana and a group of Tolstoyans.
context_page_description: The Russian famine of 1891–92 began along the Volga River, then spread as far as the Urals and Black Sea. The famine caused 375,000 to 500,000 deaths. The reawakening of Russian Marxism and populism is often traced to the public's anger at the Tsarist government's poor handling of the disaster.
context_section_description: On November 17, 1891 the government asked the people to form voluntary anti-famine organizations. Leo Tolstoy, the most famous volunteer, blamed the Tsar and the Orthodox Church for the famine. As a result of this, the Orthodox Church excommunicated Tolstoy and forbade citizens from accepting help from his relief organization. The future Tsar Nicholas II headed the relief committee and was a member of the finance committee three months later, while the Tsar and Tsarina raised 5 and 12 million rubles respectively. Alexander III's sister-in-law Grand Duchess Elizabeth also raised money by selling peasant crafts in bazaars. Nicholas II said, "A great honor, but little satisfaction ...I must admit I never even suspected its [finance committee's] existence". The zemstvos got 150 million roubles from the government to buy food, but were only allowed to lend to peasants who could repay them and were therefore the least needy. Starving peasants had to eat raw donated flour and "famine bread", a mixture of moss, goosefoot, bark and husks. In February 1892, the government bought 30,000 Kyrgyz horses so the fields could be plowed.
  The United States formed "Russian Famine Relief Committee of the United States" [Комитет США по оказанию помощи российским голодающим]. This organization was mostly self-funded  by donations. First ship, named "Indiana", part of the so-called "Famine Fleet" ["Флот Голода"], carrying 1,900 tons of food, arrived  on the March 16, 1892 at the port of Liepāja, Russian port on the Baltic sea. The second ship, "Missouri", delivered 2,500 tons of grain and corn flour to Liepaja on April 4, 1892. In May 1892, another ship carrying humanitarian aid arrived in Riga. Additional ships came in the following June and July.  The total cost of the humanitarian aid provided by the United States in 1891–92 was estimated to be around US$1 million (equivalent to $30 million in 2018).
  Based on some American sources, the Government of the United States (through Interior Ministry) has provided financial assistance to certain Russian regions [guberniyas], mainly in the form of loans, in the amount of US$75 million (equivalent to $1.9 billion in 2018).
  These events were pictured in 1892 by the famous Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky [Иван Айвазовский] who painted two pictures, "The Ship of Help" ["Корабль помощи"] and "Food Distribution" ["Раздача продовольствия"]. These paintings were recently sold by Sotheby's Auctions.
caption: Leo Tolstoy organising famine relief in Samara, 1891
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