The Russian Job: The Forgotten Story of How America Saved the Soviet Union from Ruin - Hardcover

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year

“These young men [of the ARA] come to life in Smith’s book, flickering past like characters in the black-and-white movies of the era. Their heroism and failings, their love of Russia (and Russian women) help humanize a story that could all too easily slip into the grim abstraction of statistics . . . Despite the epic sweep, the horror and moral splendor of this story, it is essentially unknown to both Russians and Americans; the Russians soon found the aid both a humiliation and a cover for espionage, while the Americans let it slip into the country’s general ahistorical amnesia.” ―Richard Lourie, Los Angeles Review of Books

“The Russian Job by Douglas Smith repudiates the modern mythologies of both [the United States and Russia], and their leaders’ twisted histories . . . It is not just Russia that needs to be reminded of this story―so does America, which derived much of its 20th-century greatness from its values rather than military power.” ―The Economist

“[The ARA] has been undeservedly forgotten . . . Succinct and readable.” ―Anna Reid, Literary Review

"Based on rich archival materials, [The Russian Job] focuses on a group of young Americans who set off for Russia, lured by the exotic and the unknown, and found themselves in the middle of a horrific tragedy . . . Rare photos included in the book lend Smith’s account an eerie vividness." ―Maria Lipman, Foreign Affairs

"The hair-raising account of a great humanitarian act . . . Smith adeptly navigates all elements of the story . . . This expert account deserves a large readership." ―Kirkus

"[Smith's] prose moves at a fast clip . . . An intriguing window onto the humanitarian work of the past." ―Publishers Weekly

"In July 1921, a massive humanitarian mission was initiated by American philanthropist Herbert Hoover to rescue the Russian people from a famine of cataclysmic proportions. The Russian Job pulls no punches in its brilliant, disturbing and at times horrifically graphic descriptions of people on the abyss of starvation, some of them driven to the ultimate crime of cannibalism. The sufferings witnessed by the American team were unimaginable and left an indelible impression that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. This is an important story that needed to be told and Douglas Smith has produced a fast moving and most compelling read." ―Helen Rappaport, author of The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra