Humanitarianism as Political Space: The 'Lost Children of Siberia' and the American Red Cross, 1918-1921

• In Event: The Politics of International Humanitarianism in 20th Century Eurasia

Abstract

In May 1918 nine hundred children left Petrograd by train for summer camp in the Ural Mountains. Stranded in western Siberia by the Civil War, the children were rescued by the American Red Cross and traveled around the world before finally returning home two and a half years later. The Red Cross struggled to maintain its stance of “neutrality” and the purely humanitarian nature of its mission to take the “lost children” home amidst the ideological conflict generated by the Russian Revolution and Civil War and America’s political, military and humanitarian response to them.

Author

• Adele Lindenmeyr, Villanova U