I quaccheri americani e le attività di soccorso in Europa e nella Russia bolscevica, 1917-1921

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of some American humanitarian rescue activities between the first world war and the period following the Russian civil war. The point of view is that of the American Friends Service Committee (Afsc), an American Quaker association which, starting from 1917, managed to set up a dialogue with Washington with the purpose to find a solution to the question of conscientious objectors. The Afsc activities deal with the assistance to the French population during the last phase of the conflict, to German children in the immediate post-war period, and to Russian refugees during the troubled events of the war and the Bolshevik Revolution. Particularly interesting is the relationship the Afsc established with the American Relief Administration (Ara), an assistance quasi-governmental organisation. Although American historiography has attended several times to ARA activities and its protagonist, Herbert Hoover, there is lack of recent, impartial and exhaustive studies on the Quaker contribute to the model of humanitarian rescue set up in those years.