The title of this 1922 newspaper article hints at the cannibalism that took place during one of Russia’s famines, but does not mention it elsewhere. It does say that people, including children, were reduced to eating clay and grass to rid themselves from the pain of an empty stomach.
Throughout history, there have been numerous reports of people turning to cannibalism during periods of extreme hunger. We have proof of it in the Jamestown colony, on lost ships at sea, and during any long famine when people had zero access to other food sources.
Russian Insane Asylum is Filled with Cannibals as Result of Famine Terrors
An insane asylum, the inmates of which are all convicted cannibals, is one of the after-famine sights seen by J. Bentley Mulforod of Washington, D.C., on a recent trip to Samara.
Mulforod, who was an official of the American Relief Administration Medical Department in Moscow, has sailed for home after five months’ service in Russia.
“The results of the famine are still apparent everywhere,” he said, “in the crowded orphan homes where we are now feeding, in the hospitals full of patients suffering from intestinal and other troubles as a result of eating grass and clay, in the refugees – and in such sights as that of the insane asylum.”
It reminded him, Mulford said, of nothing so much as the zoo. The patients who are not violent now are allowed to roam at will in an enclosed yard near the house, and in their facial expression, aimless action and disheveled appearance they are exactly like animals. Their number was about 12, and they are all suffering from a disease diagnosed by Dr. Foucar, the A.R.A. medical supervisor at Samara as cachexia.
All such institutions, as well as hospitals, are now stocked with six months’ supply of medical necessities from the A.R.A. stores, Mulford said, including everything from blankets to hypodermic needles and cod liver oil, which the A.R.A. measures by the ton.
During his stay, Mulford said, he noticed an enormous improvement in Moscow, but while on the surface the city was almost normal, the suffering was still acute in the homes, due partly to lack of food, but more still at present to lack of fuel and clothing.
Source: The Cordova daily times. (Cordova, Alaska), 15 Dec. 1922.
