‘A few regrettable cases’: Civil war violence and the recognition of the Russian Red Cross Society, 1918–21

This article examines how and why the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officially recognised the Bolshevik-controlled Russian Red Cross Society (ROKK) in October 1921, a decision that enabled more effective humanitarian relief in Soviet Russia but interlinked the ICRC with its new revolutionary, and authoritarian, regime. The Bolshevik takeover of the Russian Red Cross in 1918 posed a significant problem for the ICRC and disrupted relief to approximately 2,000,000 POWs still in Soviet territory at the end of the First World War. The extreme violence of the Russian civil war raised further the urgency of humanitarian aid. ROKK, however, was distrusted in Geneva and was not just subservient to the Soviet government but proved to be a vocal defender of Red Army atrocities against civilians. Even though these were violations of the international conventions underpinning the Red Cross movement’s authority, the ICRC, after three years of resistance, decided to officially recognise ROKK in 1921 nevertheless. This article argues that pointing to pragmatism within the ICRC explains this turnaround, but taken alone obscures the steep compromises made against its principles, which shaped the Red Cross movement in ways running counter to the ICRC’s wider goal of professionalising humanitarian relief.