Pomgol () was the name of two organizations created in the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

during the

Russian famine of 1921 Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. The name is an abbreviation of the Russian term "Помощь голодающим" or "Relief for Starving". The first issue was four stamps issued on December 31, 1921, to help the starving Volga. The second issue was four 1922 stamps with images of aircraft, postal cars, steamboats, and trains.

Pomgol All-Russian Public Committee

The first Pomgol was created by

Patriarch Tikhon Tikhon of Moscow (, – ), born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin (), was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). On 5 November 1917 ( OS) he was selected the 11th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, after a period of about 200 years of the ...

, named civic All-Union Public Committee for the Relief of Starving (Pomgol Public Committee, Всероссийский общественный комитет помощи голодающим) It included notable Russian people: scientists, artists, church leaders, public activists, many of which were of non-

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

persuasion. Tikhon appealed to the international religious community and soon some aid began to arrive. The Soviet government disliked this course of affairs, and Tikhon's Pomgol was disbanded on August 27, 1921. Instead, governmental Pomgol was established.

Pomgol Central Commission of VTsIK

The Pomgol Central Commission (Центральная комиссия помощи голодающим при ВЦИК) established by the Soviet government (

VTsIK The All-Russian Central Executive Committee () was (June – November 1917) a permanent body formed by the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (held from June 16 to July 7, 1917 in Saint Petersburg, Petrograd), ...

) existed during July 1921 — October 1922. It was headed by

Mikhail Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (, ; 3 June 1946) was a Soviet politician and Russian Old Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1938 until his resignation in 1946. From ...

, chairman of VTsIK. It coordinated all related to the famine relief. To this end and with the proposal of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

, it established the Pomgol Commissions at all administrative levels of the Soviet state.

Pomgol Commission and famine

Among the activities of pomgol was the first Soviet statewide

lottery A lottery (or lotto) is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find som ...

with all proceeds directed for famine relief. Pomgol took an active part in requisition of

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

valuables. In mid-1922 the Soviet Union declared that the immediate danger of the famine was over and replaced the policy of "struggle against the famine" with the "struggle against the consequences of the famine".Charles M. Edmondson, "An Inquiry into the Termination of Soviet Famine Relief Programmes and the Renewal of Grain Export, 1922-23", Soviet Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (1981), pp. 370-385 Most members of the organization were arrested by the Soviet authorities for 'counterrevolutionary crimes' in August 1922. Gorky left Russia earlier and managed to avoid arrest. Pomgol CC was replaced by the

Posledgol Central Commission for the Struggle against Consequences of Famine (Центральная комиссия по борьбе с последствиями Голода, abbreviated as Posledgol) was a Central Commission under the All-Russian Centr ...

Central Commission of VTsIK.

References

{{authority control Civic and political organizations based in the Soviet Union Russian famine of 1921–1922 Soviet state institutions 1921 establishments in Russia 1921 disestablishments in Russia 1922 disestablishments in Russia