Mission is possible? The fight of American philanthropy with the first Soviet famine (on the 90-th anniversary of operations of American relief administration in the Ural, 1921-1923)

In the article various aspects of the American Relief Administration's experience in the famished Russia and in the Ural region, in particular, are regarded. Researching the ways it acted and was perceived by the Soviet authorities and population, its intentions and outcome of its activity, its practices of accommodation to specific local environments, the author of the paper proposes to refuse from political approach to these issues, but to approach them from the point of view of social construction and cultural history.