La Famine en Russie: Cartes Postales [Save the Children! The Famine in Russia], Complete Set of 8 Relief Postcards in Original Printed Envelope

Item #1668

Paris: Comité Français de Secours aux Enfants (Affilié à l'Union Internationale de Secours aux Enfants), [c. 1921–1922]. First edition. Complete set of 8 unposted photo-monotone relief cards (numbered I through VIII) housed in the original publisher's envelope. Printed in sepia tone on cream cardstock with explanatory French captions and monetary donation appeals on the front; address sides printed with the official committee emblem and postal information. Postcards 14 × 9 cm each; envelope 9.5 × 15.5 cm. The postcards are in fine, exceptionally clean condition; the fragile original printed envelope shows expected uniform faint handling marks, and tearing along the upper flap fold and left side edge.

A poignant, complete, and historically significant set of humanitarian fundraising postcards issued in Paris by the Comité Français de Secours aux Enfants during the catastrophic Povolzhye famine of 1921–1922 in Soviet Russia. Organized under the auspices of the Union Internationale de Secours aux Enfants [Save the Children International Union] and high commissioner Fridtjof Nansen, international relief agencies produced visual media to document the devastation across the Volga region—particularly around Saratov—and solicit urgent financial aid from Western public donors.

The eight postcards feature harrowing, direct documentary photographs detailing the human toll of the famine alongside humanitarian intervention. Postcard I (Mort de Faim) shows a dying child collapsed in ruins; Postcard II (Jeune Fille en Haillons) depicts a ragged girl gathering fallen wheat grains at Saratov station; Postcard III (Entr'aide) shows skeletal children feeding one another; Postcard IV (Sauvé!) depicts a child being rescued by a nurse; Postcard V (Le Flot des Affamés) shows a procession of starving peasant refugees arriving in Saratov; Postcard VI (Ceux que la faim ne tourmente plus) shows a horse-drawn cart loaded with coffins of deceased children destined for mass graves; Postcard VII (Ceux que la faim n'aura pas) shows children eating inside a French soup kitchen (Cantine Française de Saratov); and Postcard VIII (Nansen) depicts Nobel Peace Prize laureate Fridtjof Nansen assisting students from Saratov University in unloading grain trains alongside M. L. Webster. The printed text on each card specifies donation metrics, noting that 11 francs could feed a child for a month.

Complete sets preserved in their original envelopes remain extraordinarily scarce.

Price: $650.00