Evacuation of the population from the starving provinces by the local authorities of the Central Commission for the Evacuation of the Population in 1921–1923

Abstract

During the famine of 1921–1923, which engulfed vast territories of the country, there was such a phenomenon as the mass evacuation of people from the affected areas to relatively prosperous provinces in terms of food. The evacuation was both spontaneous and centralized. The authorities, through the structures of the Central Commission for the Evacuation of the Population, took out from the starving areas, first of all, children, as well as skilled workers with their families. The entire course of the evacuation was fraught with a large number of problems and difficulties that arose as the situation in the starving provinces worsened and required an immediate solution. The central and local authorities responsible for the evacuation of the population had to constantly change their strategy and tactics. The main burden of the evacuation campaign fell on the line departments of the Central Evacuation Commission. The article gradually traces the change in the strategy of centralized evacuation of the population from the starving provinces and, incidentally, discusses the specifics of the work of the Eastern Basic Administration and the linear points of the Central Commission for the Evacuation of the Population. The article widely uses materials from such a little-studied source as the verbatim report of the meeting of evacuation workers of the Eastern Base Department on March 21–23, 1922.