Making Things Work (PDF)

This catalogue from a joint exhibition hosted by the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California, and the Committee of Archival Affairs of the Russian Federation examines economic and commercial relations and the transfer of technology between the United States and Russia in the years leading up to the 1917 Revolution and in the immediate postrevolutionary period. Original sources in several major Russian archives and in the Hoover Library & Archives have been brought together to illustrate the historical relationships of that period.Accelerating industrial development around the turn of the twentieth century in Russia expanded its need for economic partners, leading to a rapid increase in Russian-American trade. Archival records of early financial institutions, joint-stock companies, and enterprising engineers illustrate the hopes and the achievements of Americans and Russians during the prerevolutionary period.Yet by the end of its civil war, Soviet Russia's economy was near collapse, a situation made worse by terrible drought and famine. The American Relief Administration (ARA), headed by Herbert Hoover, organized the distribution of food and medical supplies to more than ten million people. Archival ARA documents illustrate the harsh consequences of famine and revolution and the complications and the possibilities of economic cooperation.