BOLSHEVISM AND CHRISTIANITY: THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE IN RUSSIA (1919-1933)

Abstract

This paper documents the underlying support many left-leaning Quakers had for the Bolshevik Revolution, displayed through the relief operations of the American Friends Service Committee in Russia from 1919-1931. While the Friends have carried out relief efforts in many areas of the world in their spirit of Christian fellowship, there was added excitement for the work in Russia due to the Bolsheviks' goals of social justice. Therefore, much of why the Friends went, why they stayed so long, and how they were able to achieve so much was due to the influence of communist sympathies in and around Quaker circles. The mission achieved a special place in the minds of many AFSC workers and officials because of these communist sympathies, which eventually blinded many Quakers to the atrocities of the Russian Revolution and the nature of the emerging Soviet regime.