Reading more about the famine in Soviet Russia (1919-1923) because I'm in a bit of a Rusame and Russian history mood, and these passages strike me as the moment Russia's idealization of America truly began in earnest (I believe I talked about this in a different post in which I explained how they idealized each other, and what groups among their population drove that idealization).
I think some of the provided quotes border on idolatry, even, with American aid being an act of god in Russia's eyes (although he's SUPPOSED to be atheists but old habits die hard I suppose), associating American corn with the Easter bells that toll during the observance of Christ's Resurrection. In one of the photos below you can see a group of villagers kneeling before one of the ARA members (which makes me feel a bit sad because these people were in such a desperate situation that any form of help inspired worship within them).
One could argue this idealization of America started prior to the collapse, during a famine that occurred some decades earlier in 1892 which also received an American (mostly civilian) response. The painting below by Ivan Aivazovsky sums up the prevailing feeling among the Russian people in response to American aid during that time (but I believe Tsar Alexander III wasn't to fond of the painting and relations between the Tsar and the American government were a bit sour).
I believe America started admiring Russia very early on, during Nicholas I reign (maybe earlier?) and this admiration reached a feverish pitch during Alexander IIs reign and the American Civil War, when Russian ships wintered in American ports. America's admiration waxed and waned during Alexander IIIs reign, and all but fizzled out after the Revolution, but experienced a resurgence during the Cold War era (especially during the space race) in which America's feelings towards Russia were equal parts contempt and begrudging respect.
But for Ivan, I think his feelings ran much deeper (one of the reasons why the USSR/Soviet leaders often pushed for peaceful coexistence during the Cold War) and it isn't hard to understand why when you look at it from the perspective of someone who was on the brink of death, receiving life-saving aid from an old friend turned nemesis. He latched onto that moment of compassion, camaraderie and struggle in their joint efforts to help feed his people. And it was a very long effort, they would have spent a considerable amount of time together working out the logistics to distribute aid across the incredibly large country and partaking in those missions to do so together (which was often the case in real life, with American humanitarian workers, Russian government members and civilian volunteers working closely together).
In my mind he's a very emotional, overly nostalgic person and he simply did not and could not let that memory go. These emotions probably increased during WWII, during that brief moment when they were allies and America once again delivered aid to him. I would also say these feelings increased during the 1930s when American companies sent factories and engineers to Soviet Russia in an effort to speed up industrialization/modernization. (Pictures below are texts from book passages describing private US companies contribution to Soviet modernization in the 1930s + meeting at the Elbe during WWII)
Also, you had Stalin saying stuff like this in 1924, so it's safe to assume that some of these sentiments were a reflection of Ivan's own subconscious/thoughts:
To say nothing of the Bolsheviks/Soviets, including Lenin, who admired the American Revolution and founding fathers in a way the Tsarist regime simply did not. If anything Russia's turn toward communism and revolution made him more appreciative of America's early revolutionary qualities than when they were friends as Tsarist empire and fledgling republic:
I don't think Ivan was open about these feelings of idealization toward America, especially during the Cold War, and of course these emotions ran concurrent with feelings of contempt. Still, internally the idealization, nostalgia, and yearning ran rampant, and eventually those feelings contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. I mean, he eventually regrets allowing his emotions and nostalgia to overwhelm his polticial sensibilities which cost him his empire, but at the time perestroika and glasnot seemed like a pretty good idea in hopes of appeasing the one who he secretly idealized and admired at the time, much to his sorrow.
I love these two so much.
