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Through your college applications process, you’re likely to come across the term “community service” many times. In fact, you may be asked to write an essay about it. This post will cover the specifics of a community service essay and how to go about writing one, including what to cover and common mistakes to avoid. 

What is a Community Service Essay?

You may encounter the community service essay as you’re writing your supplemental essays for college. These are school-specific prompts that only go to the college that requests them, unlike the personal statement , which goes to every school you apply to. Not all schools require community service essays, but several do. It’s also a common requirement for scholarship applications, especially if it’s a school-specific merit scholarship. 

The community service essay is an essay that describes the initiatives you have taken outside of the classroom to benefit your community. In a 2018 survey of 264 admissions leaders across the US, 58% said that community service is a tie-breaker between students who are otherwise equally qualified. The community service essay offers you the opportunity to shine light on the work you have done to make an impact on the world and people around you, and is an additional way to help you stand out among other applicants. 

Approaching the Community Service Essay 

Understand the essay requirements  .

As with any essay, it’s important to first understand what is expected of your essay. For a start, elements to pay attention to include: 

• Length requirements
• Focus or subject of the essay prompt 
• Organization of the essay 

Although all community service essays ultimately have the same purpose of having you describe your local service activities, they can come with different types of prompts. Below are three sample prompts. Note the differences in topic specificity, length requirements, and breadth of the prompt. 

From the CGCS – Bernard Harris Scholarship Program: 

Please describe a meaningful volunteer or community service experience, including what you learned from participating.

From the University of California Application :

What have you done to make your school or your community a better place? (350 words).

From the Equitable Excellence Scholarship:

Describe your outstanding achievement in depth and provide the specific planning, training, goals, and steps taken to make the accomplishment successful. Include details about your role and highlight leadership you provided. Your essay must be a minimum of 350 words but not more than 600 words.

Brainstorming for your community service essay 

Once you have an understanding of what is required of the specific you are to write, the next step is to brainstorm ideas for a specific topic. If you have various community-engaged service experiences under your belt, consider the following before you finalize your decision. 

The best topics:

Are substantial in length and scope. It’s better to cover a long-term commitment than a one-off afternoon at the food pantry or animal shelter. 

Are transformative or inspiring. Although community service is “others”-oriented, colleges are looking to learn more about you. The ideal community service essay topic should be an experience that changed or challenged your perspective, and was ultimately fulfilling. 

Illustrate personal qualities or passions that you want to highlight. Given the specific prompt, and taking the rest of your application into consideration, which personal interests do you want to highlight? Which activity illuminates the personal quality that you want to bring attention to? 

These are all elements to consider before you begin writing your essay. 

Tips for Writing Your Community Service Essay 

1. include anecdotes.

Anecdotes are a great way to begin your essay, not only as a way to grab your reader’s attention, but by launching right into the experience of your service activity. You can start with a line about a particularly busy afternoon at the orphanage, or a morning cleaning up the streets after a storm, or the sense of accomplishment you felt when you watched a dog under your care at the animal shelter get adopted. 

2. Show, don’t tell 

We’re sure you’ve heard this axiom of general writing before, but it applies to college essays just as much as with any other piece of writing. Opt for evocative examples over plain explaining whenever possible. Take this sentence: “There was a lot of food waste at our school cafeteria.” It’s not nearly as powerful as this description: “I peered into the tall, gray trash cans to inspect the mountain of Styrofoam trays and discarded food. There were countless pizza crusts, globs of green beans, and unopened cartons of milk.” 

Anyone could write the first sentence, and it’s not a unique experience. In the second description, we’re shown the scene of the writer’s lunchroom. We get a peek into their perspective and life, which makes the writing more vivid and relatable. Aim to bring your reader into your world as much as possible.

3. Share your responsibilities and accomplishments.

The more tangible your community service activities feel to the reader, the more powerful your essay will be. Concretize your work by stating the basic details of what kind of work you did and what your duties involved, where it was based, when you began working, and the amount of time you spent working. 

Be sure to quantify your work and accomplishments when possible; it’s better to say your fundraiser yielded 125 books than “a large number” of books. It’s important to also elaborate on why the work you did matters. Why was it important? Did the books you collected or purchased after the fundraiser expand the library of the local orphanage that they already had, or did it offer the children easy access to books that wasn’t available previously? Be specific and detailed.  

4. Highlight what you learned and how you’ll use those lessons moving forward. 

Towards the end of your essay, you’ll want to share how you benefited from the community service work you did. This is an important part of the essay, because it shows how you are able to distill your experiences to applicable lessons in your own life. 

Think of this section in two potential parts: skills you learned, and personal development. Did you gain any hard skills, such as public speaking, poster design, or funds management? Then think about how you developed as an individual. Are you more empathetic or patient now? 

Things to Avoid in Your Community Service Essay 

1. don’t list out everything that happened..

You want to keep your essay well-structured and concise. This isn’t a résumé, or a play-by-play of the entire experience. Stick to the most telling details and anecdotes from your experience. 

2. Avoid using a pretentious or privileged tone.

Humility goes a long way, and entitlement can be smelled from afar. The purpose of this essay is not to paint yourself as a savior of any kind, but rather to show what’s important to you in your non-academic life, and how you approach solving real-world and interpersonal problems. 

3. Avoid clichés.

It may be tempting to quote famous people, but doing so can easily seem like a shortcut, plus it shows little of who you are. Try also to steer clear of trite and vague life lesson lines such as “I learned that people can be happy with so little,” or “I learned the importance of giving back.” Not only do they carry a tone of privilege, they are also sweeping general conclusions and don’t convey anything specific of what you learned. 

Community service is only a part of the college application process, which can be daunting and confusing. CollegeVine will help you navigate each step of the process, from building a college list, to calculating your chances at each school using our chancing engine. Create your free account and get started now !

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Essays About Community Service: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

If you are looking for your next writing topic, discover top examples of essays about community service and helpful writing prompts in our guide.

Community service refers to an individual or a group’s volunteer work dedicated to improving the community and its people. In America, Benjamin Franklin introduced community service in the 18th century by developing the idea of ​​the first volunteer firehouse in Philadelphia . Since then, stepping up has become a norm, with more people encouraged to participate.

Volunteering helps individuals gain experience, improve self-esteem, expand knowledge, and promote healthy goals. In addition, choosing community service as a topic in your essay allows you to explain its significance to entice your readers to get involved. To give you an idea of ​​how to write essays about community service, here are five examples that will help you.

5 Top Examples On Essays About Community Service

1. essay on community service and its importance by joni kim, 2. community service experience: essay on what i learned by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 3. why is community service important by perry mullins, 4. concept of the community services in modern society essay by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 5. community service experience essay by writer molly, 1. community service vs. volunteering, 2. community service: then and now, 3. why we should volunteer, 4. community service in schools: mandatory or voluntary, 5. community service and its influences, 6. types of community service, 7. my community service experience, 8. donation or service: what’s better to give.

“The service helps the group of people in need, for example, senior citizens, children, people with disability and the likes. Sometimes community service is geared towards solving problems related to the needs of community members, especially low-income earners.”

Kim explains that community service is a voluntary action done through various means. It includes health and child care services, education, housing, and other improvements to aid and support the community members who need the most assistance. Then, Kim focuses on its importance to individuals, the community, and the country. The essay showcases how community service improves social, interpersonal, and decision-making skills. It also allows students to explore and find their interests. Ultimately, Kim believes that the real-life experience of volunteering assists in determining one’s career path, providing advantages when applying for a job.

“This experience has helped me to cherish my ability to influence and impact others in a positive way, and it helped me to look at community service as a benefit for myself, instead of just another obligation to fit into my schedule.”

In this essay, the writer reflects on their community service experience, sharing the gains they reaped from the program. They discuss how their undying love for animals and tight-knit communities made them realize the gravity of sharing. They also had the opportunity to strengthen and develop a new set of talents and skills from the encounter. However, the author also mentions that when the desire to do good morphs into a forced responsibility, it leads to failure. The writer says they often receive more benefits than the people and animals they help, as the experience makes them more patient, flexible, and responsible.

“True volunteering lies in an individual’s will and drives to help other and enforcing it eliminates that drive.”

Mullins focuses his essay on explaining why it should not be mandatory for students to do community service. For him, mandatory volunteering takes away the true meaning of volunteerism. Students only view it as additional work – an obligatory criterion they must check off their list to graduate. He claims that students will gain nothing but stress instead of new skills and knowledge when compulsory community services are in place.

“As for me, I consider community work as a good opportunity to get the main idea of some particular services, still, I would not have the same great desire to participate in social life if the services would become obligatory for graduation.”

In modern society, volunteering is becoming a necessary factor in many organizations. People with experience in community service have more opportunities to get a job. The author delves into community service’s importance but also criticizes that making it a requisite takes away its value. With various arguments from professionals like Alina Tugend , the essay further argues that no one would want to receive help from people who consider it an obligation.

“The community service project is different from other school educations the community service can teach us how to love others and how to fulfill our heart with joy.”

Molly dislikes homeless people because of their appearance and smell, but this all changes when cleaning and selling preloved items to homeless people becomes the best experience of her life. Community service taught her that the homeless are no different from her. She also learned to be thankful for her situation. She concludes that after the program, she became more respectful, responsible, and caring to other people.

Do you want to secure that A+ Grade? Check out our round-up of the best essay writing apps for students and academics.

8 Helpful Prompts on Essays About Community Service

If you’re still confused about the topic and can’t choose what to talk about, you can use the prompts below:

To write this prompt, the first part of your essay should discuss the meaning of community service and volunteering. Next, identify and examine the different characteristics of a community service worker and volunteer to clearly explain their similarities and differences. Then finish your essay with your opinion on the matter or look for more information you can expound on in your own words. 

This prompt shows how people’s definitions, processes, and perceptions of community service changed over time. Research and write down how community service started in your country or area to make it more relatable. Include examples of community services that made a big difference for the community and consider how these services impacted people’s lives.

Explain to your readers what voluntary work means and why exposure to it is crucial. Next, write the advantages and disadvantages of volunteering and what they should expect if they decide to be a volunteer. Finally, share your experience to clarify your comments, suggestions, and other points.

The decision to make community service mandatory in every school is still up for debate. First, pen your opinion on this topic and whether or not you agree with compulsory community service. Then, discuss your reasons and provide examples or factual evidence to support your arguments.

Identify and scrutinize the positive and negative effects of community service. Find news articles where one type of community service impacted its volunteers, community, and people differently. Write down how the organizer dealt with different situations and if it affected the program’s outcome.

There are three kinds of community service: direct, indirect, and advocacy. First, discuss and give examples for each one. Then, explain how these services differ from programs under service-learning. For example, direct community service includes directly serving homeless people food and clothes, while in service-learning, volunteers will teach people to garden and earn income. 

Use this prompt to share your memorable experience while doing community service and what you learned from it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a short program at your school, work, or organization. The important thing is that you have experience in community service. Include your initial reaction and if it changed over time while you were doing the service.

Some choose to donate money to various organizations that perform community service. Others join the program and personally help other people. In this prompt, share your opinion on the topic and whether you consider donating as community service. To make your essay more intriguing, look for prominent personalities who consistently contribute or engage in community service versus those who only present monetary assistance. 

AI grammar checkers are powerful resources that can help you improve your writing. See our guide on how to use an AI grammar checker. For help with this topic, read our guide explaining what is persuasive writing ?

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, writing a community service scholarship essay.

I'm applying for a scholarship that requires an essay about my community service experiences. What are some tips or ideas you could give me for writing a strong essay to impress the scholarship committee?

When writing a community service scholarship essay, here are some tips and ideas to help you create a strong essay that will impress the scholarship committee:

1. Start strong: Begin your essay with a compelling anecdote, a thought-provoking question, or a powerful statement to grab the attention of the scholarship committee and make them want to read more.

2. Emphasize your motivation: Explain why you were drawn to community service and what motivates you to continue volunteering. This could be a general passion for helping others, a desire to give back to your community, or a specific cause that resonates with you.

3. Focus on your impact: Emphasize the positive influence your community service experiences have had on you, the people you've helped, and the community as a whole. Include specific examples, stories, or outcomes that demonstrate the impact you made.

4. Showcase your personal growth: Explain how participating in community service has shaped your overall character, values, and perspective. Discuss personal lessons you've learned, challenges you've faced, and how you've grown as a result.

5. Highlight your leadership skills: If you've held any leadership roles in community service projects or organizations, be sure to mention them. Describe the responsibilities you had, the decisions you made, and the results of your actions. These concrete outcomes will show the scholarship committee that you possess the skills necessary to be a successful student and community leader.

6. Be specific and detailed: Don't just list all of the community service activities you've participated in. Instead, choose a few significant experiences and delve deep into the details. Describe the organization you volunteered with, your role, the number of hours you dedicated, and any accomplishments you're especially proud of.

7. Stay organized and focused: Organize your essay in a logical and clear manner. Create a strong, central message or theme, and stick to it throughout your essay. This organization will make your writing more coherent and easier to follow.

8. End memorably: Conclude your essay by summarizing the key points you've made and reinforcing your passion for community service. You could also include a call to action or a vision for the future to leave a lasting impression on the scholarship committee.

9. Proofread and revise: Once you've completed your essay, be sure to proofread for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. Ask for feedback from friends, teachers, or family members to get a fresh perspective and polish your essay further.

10. Make it personal and authentic: Lastly, ensure that your essay is genuine and true to you. Write in your own voice and share your unique experiences and perspective. That way, your essay will stand out and connect with the scholarship committee on a deeper level.

11. Take advantage of CollegeVine's resources: CollegeVine has a blog post breaking down how to write a successful community service essay ( https://blog.collegevine.com/community-service-essay/) , and also offers both a free peer essay review tool and paid reviews by expert college admissions advisors - sometimes, a more objective set of eyes on your writing is just what you need to determine whether or not your impact on your community is coming across clearly.

Best of luck with your essay!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

How to write the community service essay

Whether in an interview or an essay, all college applicants should be prepared to talk about the ways they have worked to improve their schools and communities. No college wants to admit a passive recipient of community, they would all much prefer to admit an active and engaged citizen who understands that community requires contribution. Use this essay to define a community (see the community essay for more examples of this) and then talk specifically about how you helped to make that community better. You have a lot of latitude here to define your terms and to define the boundaries of your engagement. Don’t pass up any opportunity to share your active citizenship. These essays will vary in length but are often a “mid-size” supplement of 250-350 words.

Example Community Service Questions:

• U of California: What have you done to make your school or community a better place?
• MIT: At MIT, we bring people together to better the lives of others. MIT students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way in which you have contributed to your community, whether in your family, the classroom, your neighborhood, etc.  
• Princeton: Princeton has a longstanding commitment to service and civic engagement. Tell us how your story intersects (or will intersect) with these ideals.

LET'S BREAK DOWN THE ESSENTIAL POINTS YOU NEED TO HIT WHEN RESPONDING TO THIS SUPPLEMENT:

This is an important question! If you have an option to select an essay question among several prompts, choose to write this essay! Why? Colleges want to know that you have made your community a better place. This makes you a compelling applicant. Why else? Because you have done something that can answer this question – even if to you, right now, it looks small in comparison to solving global challenges.

“Community” can be defined however you choose! Be sure to use a few words of this essay to outline the boundaries of the community you identify.

THINGS TO AVOID:

Additional tips and tricks:.

• Column 1: Identify the problem. Describe the challenge you were (or are currently) facing. The problem could be something global, like an environmental issue, or something more local, like a lack of creative opportunities in your high school.
• Column 2: Raise the stakes. Help us understand: Why was (or is) overcoming this challenge important? What might happen if this problem went (or goes) unchecked?  
• Column 3: Articulate the vision. What might the world look like if this problem were solved? Inspire us to dream with you.
• Column 4: Describe what you did. Tell us the specific things you (or you and your team) did to solve the problem.
• Column 5: Clarify your role.   Describe your particular involvement. Why were (or are) you crucial to the project’s or club’s success?
• Column 6: Share the impact you had, lessons you learned, or values you gained. Provide specific evidence that gives us a sense that your work mattered.

Don't forget to use active verbs! Additionally, you can absolutely re-use this essay (being mindful of word count) to respond to multiple community service prompts from different schools.

Elise holds a BA in Political Philosophy from Williams College and an MEd in Administration & Social Policy from Harvard. She has spent the past twenty years working in top-tier independent schools.

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57 Community Service Essay Topics and Examples

🏆 best titles about community service, 👍 simple & easy research titles about community, 🎓 most interesting community topics to write about.

• Community service should be required by most citizens of a country One of the reasons is because President Clinton has been explaining the importance of volunteering to the community by the American students and the public.
• Most Satisfying Experience Related to Community Service I will serve as a role model for other people and they, following my example, will also get committed to the temple. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Community Service as a Form of Correction Of these alternatives, community service has been one of the most employed and therefore opened a room for debates with the proponents feeling that the option is a remedy to all the prison problems while […]
• Concept of the Community Services in Modern Society Community services are defined as the services which are performed for the benefit of the society on volunteering basis. The advantages of the community services cannot be questioned, still, making such service mandatory for graduation […]
• S.H.A.P.E. Community Service and Programs The organization emphasizes unity, self-determination, creativity, faith, and teamwork as the basis of its work.S.H.A.P.E.programs target young and elderly generations and aim to improve the quality of life of particular age category individuals and the […]
• Community Service Experience: Homeless Shelter The shelter also organizes outreach and humanitarian work during the day to ensure that homeless people in the community know about the shelter and the services it provides.
• Dayton Children’s Hospital and Community Service Dayton Children’s is committed to improve quality of life of people living in the community. This report provides more detailed information on the organization’s activities and monetary amounts of community benefit.
• Mondawmin Community Service Delivery Plan Through the service delivery plan, the relevant authorities in the region will put in place the relevant measures for reducing or eliminating the above predicament in the region.
• Significant Voluntary Sector Organisations Challenges in Public Service Delivery The main concern raised in the conference was a discussion of the role of voluntary organisations in the delivery of public services.
• Addressing the Impacts of Undergraduates’ Engagement in Community Service on Stakeholders It is important to note that as much as the community and the individual stands to benefit from community service, there are various challenges facing the provision of this service in a given community.
• Illuminate Diabetes Event Design Finally, after these special performances, there will be distribution of fliers with information on diabetes and encouragement to get tested for diabetes and thus reach the climax of the event.
• Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board The Hampton-Newport Community Services Board offers a broad range of mental well-being and drug abuse services and care for people with mental and developmental disorders. The agency works together with certified psychoanalysts and psychologists in […]
• Volunteering in Leisure Sector The review shows that individuals are motivated due to the benefits that come with volunteering in the sector and the nature of the activity.
• Volunteering for Horizon House: Homeless Neighbours’ Motivation to Find Jobs To understand and analyze the role of the center in changing the homeless neighbours’ life for better, it is appropriate to focus on the center’s assistance in employing neighbours and developing their job skills with […]
• Conceptualization of the Aspect of Community Service As part of expressive the Jewish values, the aspect of creativity and innovativeness help to inspire the inner self to remain observant, responsible, and caring to the needs of neighbors and the society at large.
• Community Service: Mandatory or Voluntary? Engaging in community service not only helps in transforming the behavior of young people but it is also helpful to adults.
• The Achievements of Peaceful Protest During the Civil Rights Movement
• The War On Drugs And The Civil Rights Movement
• The Long Term Effects of the Civil Rights Movement
• African Americans And Religion During The Civil Rights Movement
• The History of the Civil Rights Movement in the United Stats and Its Impact on African Americans
• Analyzing the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War
• The Impact Of Rock ‘n’ Roll On The Civil Rights Movement
• The Importance and Impact of the Civil Rights Movement to the Public Policy
• Women in the Civil Rights Movement
• A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Feminist Movement in the United States
• To What Extent Can the 1950’s Be Viewed as a Great Success for the Civil Rights Movement
• The Historical Accuracy of the Portrayal of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma, a Drama Film by Ava DuVernay
• A Look at Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the Role of Martin Luther
• The Historiography Of Womens Role And Visibility In The Civil Rights Movement
• The Relationship of Southern Jews to Blacks and the Civil Rights Movement
• The Contradicting Outcome of the Civil Rights Movement in America
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott And The Civil Rights Movement
• The Role Of Police During The Civil Rights Movement
• The Role Of The Supreme Court In The Civil Rights Movement
• The True Face of The Civil Rights Movement
• The Stages of the Progressive Reform in the Civil Rights Movement
• U.S. Democracy and the Civil Rights Movement
• Theatre in the Era of the Civil Rights Movement
• The Importance of Students During The Civil Rights Movement
• The Relationship between Activism and Federal Government during the Civil Rights Movement
• Violent and Non-violent Methods of Protests Embraced by African American in the Civil Rights Movement
• The Role and Importance of the Grassroot Organizers on the Civil Rights Movement
• The Fight For Aid From The Civil Rights Movement
• The Success of The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s
• The Laws in the Reconstruction Era and the Civil Rights Movement
• The New York Times And The Civil Rights Movement
• White Resistance to the Civil Rights Movement
• The Role of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement
• Understanding the Civil Rights Movement: America vs. Australia
• Successes And Failures Of Civil Rights Movement
• The Civil Rights Movement & the Black Middle Class
• The Foundation of the Niagara Movement and Its Influence on the Civil Rights Movement in America
• To What Extent Was Grass Roots Activism a Significant Reason to Why the Civil Rights Movement Grew in the 1950s and 1960s
• The History of the Civil Rights Movement, National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• The Value of Studying the Civil Rights Movement
• The Effect of Society on the World of Doubt and the Effects of the Civil Rights Movement
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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How to Write the Community Essay – Guide with Examples (2023-24)

September 6, 2023

Students applying to college this year will inevitably confront the community essay. In fact, most students will end up responding to several community essay prompts for different schools. For this reason, you should know more than simply how to approach the community essay as a genre. Rather, you will want to learn how to decipher the nuances of each particular prompt, in order to adapt your response appropriately. In this article, we’ll show you how to do just that, through several community essay examples. These examples will also demonstrate how to avoid cliché and make the community essay authentically and convincingly your own.

Emphasis on Community

Do keep in mind that inherent in the word “community” is the idea of multiple people. The personal statement already provides you with a chance to tell the college admissions committee about yourself as an individual. The community essay, however, suggests that you depict yourself among others. You can use this opportunity to your advantage by showing off interpersonal skills, for example. Or, perhaps you wish to relate a moment that forged important relationships. This in turn will indicate what kind of connections you’ll make in the classroom with college peers and professors.

Apart from comprising numerous people, a community can appear in many shapes and sizes. It could be as small as a volleyball team, or as large as a diaspora. It could fill a town soup kitchen, or spread across five boroughs. In fact, due to the internet, certain communities today don’t even require a physical place to congregate. Communities can form around a shared identity, shared place, shared hobby, shared ideology, or shared call to action. They can even arise due to a shared yet unforeseen circumstance.

What is the Community Essay All About?             

In a nutshell, the community essay should exhibit three things:

• An aspect of yourself, 2. in the context of a community you belonged to, and 3. how this experience may shape your contribution to the community you’ll join in college.

It may look like a fairly simple equation: 1 + 2 = 3. However, each college will word their community essay prompt differently, so it’s important to look out for additional variables. One college may use the community essay as a way to glimpse your core values. Another may use the essay to understand how you would add to diversity on campus. Some may let you decide in which direction to take it—and there are many ways to go!

To get a better idea of how the prompts differ, let’s take a look at some real community essay prompts from the current admission cycle.

Sample 2023-2024 Community Essay Prompts

1) brown university.

“Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (200-250 words)”

A close reading of this prompt shows that Brown puts particular emphasis on place. They do this by using the words “home,” “College Hill,” and “where they came from.” Thus, Brown invites writers to think about community through the prism of place. They also emphasize the idea of personal growth or change, through the words “inspired or challenged you.” Therefore, Brown wishes to see how the place you grew up in has affected you. And, they want to know how you in turn will affect their college community.

“NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world-class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience.

We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community. Please respond in 250 words or less.”

Here, NYU places an emphasis on students’ “identity,” “backgrounds,” and “diversity,” rather than any physical place. (For some students, place may be tied up in those ideas.) Furthermore, while NYU doesn’t ask specifically how identity has changed the essay writer, they do ask about your “experience.” Take this to mean that you can still recount a specific moment, or several moments, that work to portray your particular background. You should also try to link your story with NYU’s values of inclusivity and opportunity.

3) University of Washington

“Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW. (300 words max) Tip: Keep in mind that the UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values and viewpoints.”

UW ’s community essay prompt may look the most approachable, for they help define the idea of community. You’ll notice that most of their examples (“families,” “cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood”…) place an emphasis on people. This may clue you in on their desire to see the relationships you’ve made. At the same time, UW uses the words “individual” and “richly diverse.” They, like NYU, wish to see how you fit in and stand out, in order to boost campus diversity.

Writing Your First Community Essay

Begin by picking which community essay you’ll write first. (For practical reasons, you’ll probably want to go with whichever one is due earliest.) Spend time doing a close reading of the prompt, as we’ve done above. Underline key words. Try to interpret exactly what the prompt is asking through these keywords.

Next, brainstorm. I recommend doing this on a blank piece of paper with a pencil. Across the top, make a row of headings. These might be the communities you’re a part of, or the components that make up your identity. Then, jot down descriptive words underneath in each column—whatever comes to you. These words may invoke people and experiences you had with them, feelings, moments of growth, lessons learned, values developed, etc. Now, narrow in on the idea that offers the richest material and that corresponds fully with the prompt.

Lastly, write! You’ll definitely want to describe real moments, in vivid detail. This will keep your essay original, and help you avoid cliché. However, you’ll need to summarize the experience and answer the prompt succinctly, so don’t stray too far into storytelling mode.

How To Adapt Your Community Essay

Once your first essay is complete, you’ll need to adapt it to the other colleges involving community essays on your list. Again, you’ll want to turn to the prompt for a close reading, and recognize what makes this prompt different from the last. For example, let’s say you’ve written your essay for UW about belonging to your swim team, and how the sports dynamics shaped you. Adapting that essay to Brown’s prompt could involve more of a focus on place. You may ask yourself, how was my swim team in Alaska different than the swim teams we competed against in other states?

Once you’ve adapted the content, you’ll also want to adapt the wording to mimic the prompt. For example, let’s say your UW essay states, “Thinking back to my years in the pool…” As you adapt this essay to Brown’s prompt, you may notice that Brown uses the word “reflection.” Therefore, you might change this sentence to “Reflecting back on my years in the pool…” While this change is minute, it cleverly signals to the reader that you’ve paid attention to the prompt, and are giving that school your full attention.

What to Avoid When Writing the Community Essay  

• Avoid cliché. Some students worry that their idea is cliché, or worse, that their background or identity is cliché. However, what makes an essay cliché is not the content, but the way the content is conveyed. This is where your voice and your descriptions become essential.
• Avoid giving too many examples. Stick to one community, and one or two anecdotes arising from that community that allow you to answer the prompt fully.
• Don’t exaggerate or twist facts. Sometimes students feel they must make themselves sound more “diverse” than they feel they are. Luckily, diversity is not a feeling. Likewise, diversity does not simply refer to one’s heritage. If the prompt is asking about your identity or background, you can show the originality of your experiences through your actions and your thinking.

Community Essay Examples and Analysis

Brown university community essay example.

I used to hate the NYC subway. I’ve taken it since I was six, going up and down Manhattan, to and from school. By high school, it was a daily nightmare. Spending so much time underground, underneath fluorescent lighting, squashed inside a rickety, rocking train car among strangers, some of whom wanted to talk about conspiracy theories, others who had bedbugs or B.O., or who manspread across two seats, or bickered—it wore me out. The challenge of going anywhere seemed absurd. I dreaded the claustrophobia and disgruntlement.

Yet the subway also inspired my understanding of community. I will never forget the morning I saw a man, several seats away, slide out of his seat and hit the floor. The thump shocked everyone to attention. What we noticed: he appeared drunk, possibly homeless. I was digesting this when a second man got up and, through a sort of awkward embrace, heaved the first man back into his seat. The rest of us had stuck to subway social codes: don’t step out of line. Yet this second man’s silent actions spoke loudly. They said, “I care.”

That day I realized I belong to a group of strangers. What holds us together is our transience, our vulnerabilities, and a willingness to assist. This community is not perfect but one in motion, a perpetual work-in-progress. Now I make it my aim to hold others up. I plan to contribute to the Brown community by helping fellow students and strangers in moments of precariousness.    

Brown University Community Essay Example Analysis

Here the student finds an original way to write about where they come from. The subway is not their home, yet it remains integral to ideas of belonging. The student shows how a community can be built between strangers, in their responsibility toward each other. The student succeeds at incorporating key words from the prompt (“challenge,” “inspired” “Brown community,” “contribute”) into their community essay.

UW Community Essay Example

I grew up in Hawaii, a world bound by water and rich in diversity. In school we learned that this sacred land was invaded, first by Captain Cook, then by missionaries, whalers, traders, plantation owners, and the U.S. government. My parents became part of this problematic takeover when they moved here in the 90s. The first community we knew was our church congregation. At the beginning of mass, we shook hands with our neighbors. We held hands again when we sang the Lord’s Prayer. I didn’t realize our church wasn’t “normal” until our diocese was informed that we had to stop dancing hula and singing Hawaiian hymns. The order came from the Pope himself.

Eventually, I lost faith in God and organized institutions. I thought the banning of hula—an ancient and pure form of expression—seemed medieval, ignorant, and unfair, given that the Hawaiian religion had already been stamped out. I felt a lack of community and a distrust for any place in which I might find one. As a postcolonial inhabitant, I could never belong to the Hawaiian culture, no matter how much I valued it. Then, I was shocked to learn that Queen Ka’ahumanu herself had eliminated the Kapu system, a strict code of conduct in which women were inferior to men. Next went the Hawaiian religion. Queen Ka’ahumanu burned all the temples before turning to Christianity, hoping this religion would offer better opportunities for her people.

Community Essay (Continued)

I’m not sure what to make of this history. Should I view Queen Ka’ahumanu as a feminist hero, or another failure in her islands’ tragedy? Nothing is black and white about her story, but she did what she thought was beneficial to her people, regardless of tradition. From her story, I’ve learned to accept complexity. I can disagree with institutionalized religion while still believing in my neighbors. I am a product of this place and their presence. At UW, I plan to add to campus diversity through my experience, knowing that diversity comes with contradictions and complications, all of which should be approached with an open and informed mind.

UW Community Essay Example Analysis

This student also manages to weave in words from the prompt (“family,” “community,” “world,” “product of it,” “add to the diversity,” etc.). Moreover, the student picks one of the examples of community mentioned in the prompt, (namely, a religious group,) and deepens their answer by addressing the complexity inherent in the community they’ve been involved in. While the student displays an inner turmoil about their identity and participation, they find a way to show how they’d contribute to an open-minded campus through their values and intellectual rigor.

What’s Next

For more on supplemental essays and essay writing guides, check out the following articles:

• How to Write the Why This Major Essay + Example
• How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay + Example
• How to Start a College Essay – 12 Techniques and Tips
• College Essay

Kaylen Baker

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The impact of community service – a deep dive into the power of giving back to society.

Community service essays serve as a powerful tool for individuals to reflect on their experiences, values, and impact on the world around them. Through the process of writing about their volunteer work, students are able to articulate the positive changes they have made in their communities and explore the lessons they have learned along the way.

Community service essays also play a crucial role in highlighting the importance of giving back to society and fostering a sense of empathy and compassion in individuals. By sharing personal stories of service, students can inspire others to get involved and make a difference in their own communities.

Moreover, community service essays can help students gain valuable skills such as critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving, as they reflect on the challenges and successes of their volunteer experiences. By documenting their service work, students can also showcase their commitment to social responsibility and community engagement to colleges, scholarship committees, and potential employers.

Why Community Service Essays Matter

In today’s society, the importance of community service essays cannot be overstated. These essays serve as a platform for individuals to showcase their dedication to helping others and making a positive impact on their communities. Through these essays, individuals can share their experiences, insights, and perspectives on the value of giving back to society.

Community service essays also play a crucial role in raising awareness about different social issues and encouraging others to get involved in volunteer work. By sharing personal stories and reflections, individuals can inspire and motivate others to take action and contribute to the betterment of society.

Furthermore, community service essays provide an opportunity for individuals to reflect on their own values, beliefs, and goals. Through the process of writing these essays, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their place in the world, leading to personal growth and development.

In conclusion, community service essays matter because they have the power to inspire change, raise awareness, and promote personal growth. By sharing their stories and insights, individuals can make a difference in their communities and create a more compassionate and giving society.

The Impact of Community Service Essays

Community service essays have a profound impact on both the individuals writing them and the communities they serve. These essays serve as a platform for students to reflect on their experiences and articulate the lessons they have learned through their service work.

One of the primary impacts of community service essays is the opportunity for self-reflection. Students are encouraged to critically analyze their experiences, challenges, and accomplishments during their community service activities. This reflection helps students develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their values, and their role in the community.

Another significant impact of community service essays is the awareness they raise about social issues and community needs. By sharing their stories and insights, students can shed light on important issues and inspire others to get involved in community service. These essays can also help community organizations and stakeholders better understand the needs of their communities and how they can address them effectively.

Overall, community service essays play a vital role in promoting social responsibility, empathy, and civic engagement. They empower students to make a positive impact in their communities and contribute to creating a more compassionate and inclusive society.

Guidelines for Writing Community Service Essays

When writing a community service essay, it is important to follow certain guidelines to ensure that your message is clear and impactful. Here are some tips to help you craft a powerful and compelling essay:

• Start by brainstorming ideas and reflecting on your community service experiences.
• Clearly define the purpose of your essay and what you hope to convey to your readers.
• Organize your essay with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
• Use specific examples and anecdotes to support your points and showcase your personal growth.
• Highlight the impact of your community service activities on both yourself and others.
• Showcase your passion and dedication to serving your community.
• Be authentic and honest in your writing, and avoid exaggerating or embellishing your experiences.
• Edit and proofread your essay carefully to ensure clarity, coherence, and proper grammar.

Examples of Effective Community Service Essays

Community service essays can have a powerful impact on the reader when they are well-written and thoughtful. Here are a few examples to inspire you:

1. A Well-Structured Essay:

This essay begins with a compelling introduction that clearly articulates the author’s motivation for engaging in community service. The body paragraphs provide specific examples of the author’s experiences and the impact they had on both the community and themselves. The conclusion ties everything together, reflecting on the lessons learned and the importance of giving back.

2. Personal Reflection:

This essay delves deep into the author’s personal experiences during their community service work. It explores the challenges they faced, the emotions they encountered, and the growth they underwent. By sharing vulnerable moments and candid reflections, the author creates a connection with the reader and demonstrates the transformational power of service.

3. Future Goals and Impact:

This essay not only discusses past community service experiences but also looks toward the future. The author shares their aspirations for continued service and outlines how they plan to make a difference in the world. By showcasing a sense of purpose and vision, this essay inspires the reader to consider their own potential for impact.

These examples illustrate how community service essays can be effective tools for conveying meaningful stories, inspiring others, and showcasing personal growth. By crafting a compelling narrative and reflecting on the significance of service, you can create an essay that leaves a lasting impression.

How Community Service Essays Empower Individuals

Community service essays provide individuals with a platform to express their thoughts, share their experiences, and make a meaningful impact on society. By writing about their volunteer work and the lessons they have learned, individuals can empower themselves to create positive change and inspire others to do the same.

• Through community service essays, individuals can reflect on the importance of giving back to their communities and the value of helping those in need.
• These essays can serve as a source of motivation and inspiration for individuals to continue their philanthropic efforts and make a difference in the world.
• By sharing their stories through community service essays, individuals can raise awareness about social issues and promote greater empathy and understanding among their peers.

Overall, community service essays empower individuals to take action, advocate for change, and contribute to building a more compassionate and equitable society.

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Empowering Communities: the Impact of Service Learning Initiatives

This essay about community empowerment through service learning initiatives explores how education and community engagement intersect to drive meaningful change. It emphasizes the reciprocal nature of service learning, where students and community members collaborate to address real-world challenges. Through hands-on experiences, students develop vital skills like communication and problem-solving while cultivating a deep sense of social responsibility. The essay highlights the transformative impact of service learning in fostering solidarity and belonging within communities, creating lasting partnerships built on trust and mutual respect. Overall, it underscores the importance of empowering communities by recognizing their inherent strengths and working together towards a more equitable future.

How it works

In the intricate tapestry of societal progress, the concept of empowering communities has emerged as a guiding light, illuminating pathways toward collective growth and resilience. At its core lies a profound acknowledgment of the innate strength and capacity within communities, coupled with a steadfast commitment to nurturing their potential through meaningful engagement and collaboration. Amidst this landscape, service learning initiatives stand as beacons of hope, weaving together the threads of education and community service to catalyze transformative change.

In the realm of service learning, the conventional boundaries of education are transcended, giving way to immersive experiences that bridge the gap between theory and practice.

This innovative approach emphasizes not only the acquisition of knowledge but also its practical application in real-world contexts. Through service projects that address authentic community needs, students are afforded the opportunity to delve into the complexities of social issues, grappling with their nuances and implications in ways that transcend the confines of traditional classroom learning.

Integral to the ethos of service learning is the principle of reciprocity – a dynamic exchange where both learners and community members are enriched through mutual collaboration. Unlike traditional forms of volunteerism, which may sometimes perpetuate narratives of paternalism or dependency, service learning fosters a spirit of partnership and co-creation. Students are encouraged to approach community engagement with humility and respect, recognizing the expertise and wisdom inherent within the communities they serve.

The impact of service learning extends far beyond the tangible outcomes of individual projects, permeating the fabric of both education and community life. Through their involvement in service initiatives, students cultivate a deep sense of civic responsibility and social consciousness. They develop the capacity to critically analyze societal issues, discerning the interconnected webs of privilege and power that shape the world around them. This heightened awareness serves as a catalyst for meaningful action, inspiring students to become agents of positive change within their communities and beyond.

Moreover, service learning has been shown to foster holistic personal development, nurturing essential skills and competencies that extend far beyond the realm of academia. Through hands-on experiences in community settings, students refine their abilities in communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and empathy. They learn to navigate diverse perspectives and navigate the complexities of real-world challenges with resilience and adaptability.

Yet, perhaps the most profound impact of service learning lies in its capacity to forge deep bonds of solidarity and belonging within communities. As students engage in collaborative efforts alongside community members, they form authentic connections rooted in shared purpose and mutual respect. These relationships transcend the transactional nature of traditional volunteerism, evolving into enduring partnerships characterized by trust, reciprocity, and collective agency.

In essence, service learning initiatives serve as catalysts for holistic community empowerment, leveraging the transformative power of education and civic engagement to foster meaningful change. By embracing principles of reciprocity, partnership, and social responsibility, service learning has the potential to not only enrich individual lives but also strengthen the fabric of entire communities. As we embark on this journey of collective growth and transformation, let us heed the call to empower communities, recognizing their inherent worth and resilience as we work together to build a more just and equitable world.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Professions & Career — Community Service

Community Service Essays

Community service is a valuable and rewarding experience for many people. It allows individuals to give back to their communities, learn new skills, and make a positive impact on those in need. One of the key components of community service is choosing the right essay topic that will allow you to effectively communicate your experiences and the impact it has had on you. In this article, we will explore some of the best community service essay topics, and provide tips on how to write an essay that will resonate with your audience.

Choosing a Topic

When choosing a community service essay topic, it is important to consider the impact that the experience has had on you. Reflect on the skills you have developed, the people you have met, and the ways in which you have made a difference. These aspects will help you to choose a topic that is meaningful and impactful, and will allow you to effectively communicate your experiences to your audience.

Volunteering at a Homeless Shelter

One of the most popular community service essay topics is volunteering at a local homeless shelter. This experience allows individuals to work directly with those in need, and provides a firsthand look at the challenges facing the homeless population. When writing about this topic, it is important to focus on the ways in which you have made a difference, and the impact that the experience has had on you personally. You can also discuss the challenges you have faced, and the skills and knowledge you have gained as a result of your work at the shelter.

Working with Children in an After-School Program

Another popular community service essay topic is working with children in an after-school program. This experience allows individuals to make a positive impact on the lives of young people, and provides an opportunity to develop valuable skills in leadership, communication, and mentorship. When writing about this topic, it is important to focus on the ways in which you have helped the children, and the ways in which the experience has helped you to grow as a person. You can also discuss the challenges you have faced, and the lessons you have learned as a result of your work with the children.

Participating in a Community Clean-Up Project

One unique community service essay topic is participating in a community clean-up project. This experience allows individuals to work with others to beautify and improve their local community, and provides an opportunity to develop skills in teamwork, organization, and environmental stewardship. When writing about this topic, it is important to focus on the ways in which you have made a difference in your community, and the ways in which the experience has inspired you to become more environmentally conscious. You can also discuss the challenges you have faced, and the sense of pride and accomplishment you have gained as a result of your work on the clean-up project.

Community service is a valuable and rewarding experience that allows individuals to make a positive impact on their communities and develop valuable skills. When choosing a community service essay topic, it is important to consider the impact that the experience has had on you, and to choose a topic that is meaningful and impactful. By using relevant keywords and phrases, and writing a well-structured and organized essay, you can increase the likelihood that your work will be found and shared by others. By choosing the right community service essay topic, you can effectively communicate your experiences and the impact it has had on you.

The Importance of Community Service for College Students

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The Benefits of Community Service Experience for Me

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The Importance of Community Service Experience in The Career of a Professional Nurse

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Extracurriculars

Are you interested in performing community service? Do you want examples of service projects you can do? Community service is a great way to help others and improve your community, and it can also help you gain skills and experience to include on your resume and college applications.

Read on for dozens of community service ideas to help you get started volunteering.

What Is Community Service?

Community service is work done by a person or group of people that benefits others. It is often done near the area where you live, so your own community reaps the benefits of your work. You do not get paid to perform community service, but volunteer your time.

Community service can help many different groups of people: children, senior citizens, people with disabilities, even animals and the environment. Community service is often organized through a local group, such as a place of worship, school, or non-profit organization, but you can also start your own community service projects.

Many people participate in community service because they enjoy helping others and improving their community. Some students are required to do community service in order to graduate high school or to receive certain honors. Some adults are also ordered by a judge to complete a certain number of community service hours.

Why Should You Participate in Community Service?

There are numerous benefits to participating in community service, both for yourself and others. Below are some of the most important benefits of volunteering:

• Gives you a way to help others
• Helps improve your community
• Can help strengthen your resume and college applications
• Can be a way to meet new friends
• Often results in personal growth
• Gives you a way to gain work experience and learn more about certain jobs

How Should You Use This List?

This list of over one hundred community service examples is organized by category , so if you're particularly interested in working with, say, children or animals, you can easily find community service activities more related to your interests.

In order to use this list most effectively, read through it and make note of any community service ideas that match your interests and that you may want to participate in. Some considerations to keep in mind are:

Is there a specific group of people or cause you are passionate about? Look for projects that relate to your passion and interests. You may also just want to perform particular community service activities that allow you to do hobbies you enjoy, like baking or acting, and that's fine too.

Perhaps you don't have enough time to regularly devote to community service. In that case, it may be better to look for opportunities that only occur once or sporadically, such as planning special events or helping build a house.

Some people prefer to participate in community service activities that have a quantifiable impact, for example, activities where you know the specific number of kids you tutored, dollars you raised, or cans of food you collected. This is in contrast to activities that don't have such clear numbers, such as creating a garden or serving as a volunteer lifeguard. Some people prefer quantifiable activities because they feel they look stronger on college applications, or because they simply enjoy knowing their exact impact on the community.

Many community service activities can help you gain skills. These skills can range from teaching to medicine to construction and more. If there is a particular skill you'd like to learn for future classes, jobs, or just out of personal interest, you may want to see if there is a community service activity that helps you learn that skill.

List of Community Service Examples

Below I've listed over 100 community service ideas to get you started with brainstorming.

General Ideas

Donate or raise money for your local Red Cross

Organize a community blood drive

Send cards to soldiers serving overseas

For your next birthday, ask for charitable donations instead of gifts

Hold a bake sale for your favorite charity

Read books or letters to a person who is visually impaired

Organize a wheelchair basketball team

Participate in a charity race

Organize an event or parade for Memorial Day

Volunteer to help at a charity auction

Participate in National Youth Service Day in April

Contact a tree farm about donating Christmas trees to nursing homes, hospitals, or to families who can't afford to buy their own

Collect unused makeup and perfume to donate to a center for abused women

Help register people to vote

Organize a car wash and donate the profits to charity

• Help deliver meals and gifts to patients at a local hospital
• Write articles / give speeches advocating financial literarcy. First you should learn about the topics themselves, like calculating housing costs, or understanding personal loans, and then give presentations on these topics.

Helping Children and Schools

Tutor children during or after school

Donate stuffed animals to children in hospitals

Organize games and activities for children in hospitals or who are visiting hospitalized relatives

Knit or crochet baby blankets to be donated to hospitals or homeless shelters

Collect baby clothes and supplies to donate to new parents

Organize a Special Olympics event for children and teenagers

Sponsor a bike-a-thon and give away bike safety gear, like helmets and knee pads , as prizes

Collect used sports equipment to donate to families and after-school programs

Volunteer at a summer camp for children who have lost a parent

Sponsor a child living in a foreign country, either on your own or as part of a group

Coach a youth sports team

Put on performances for children in hospitals

Give free music lessons to schoolchildren

Become a volunteer teen crisis counselor

Organize a summer reading program to encourage kids to read

Organize an Easter egg hunt for neighborhood children

Create a new game for children to play

Organize events to help new students make friends

Babysit children during a PTA meeting

Organize a reading hour for children at a local school or library

Donate used children's books to a school library

Work with the local health department to set up an immunization day or clinic to immunize children against childhood diseases

• Volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School or other religious camps

Helping Senior Citizens

Read to residents at a nursing home

Deliver groceries and meals to elderly neighbors

Teach computer skills to the elderly

Drive seniors to doctor appointments

Mow an elderly neighbor's lawn

Host a bingo night for nursing home residents

Host a holiday meal for senior citizens

Make birthday cards for the elderly

Donate and decorate a Christmas tree at a nursing home

Organize a family day for residents of a retirement home and relatives to play games together

Ask residents of a retirement home to tell you about their lives

Pick up medicine for an elderly neighbor

Perform a concert or play at a senior center

Help elderly neighbors clean their homes and organize their belongings

Rake leaves, shovel snow, or wash windows for a senior citizen

• Deliver cookies to a homebound senior citizen

Helping Animals and the Environment

Take care of cats and dogs at an animal shelter

Clean up a local park

Raise money to provide a bulletproof vest for a police dog

Plant a tree for Arbor Day

Place a bird feeder and bird fountain in your backyard

Start a butterfly garden in your community

Sponsor a recycling contest

Grow flowers in your backyard then give bouquets to hospital patients or people who are housebound

Help create a new walking trail at a nature center or park

Update the signs along a nature trail

Adopt an acre of rainforest

Help train service dogs

Participate in the cleanup of a local river, pond, or lake

Foster animals that shelters don't have space for

Organize a spay and neuter your pet program

Care for a neighbor's pet while they are away

Sponsor an animal at your local zoo

Train your pet to be a therapy animal and bring it to hospitals or nursing homes

Build and set up a bird house

Organize a carpool to reduce car emissions

Campaign for more bike lanes in your town

Volunteer at a nature camp and teach kids about the environment

Test the water quality of a lake or river near you

• Plant native flowers or plants along highways

Helping the Hungry and/or Homeless

Build a house with Habitat for Humanity

Donate your old clothes

Volunteer at a soup kitchen

Donate old eyeglasses to an organization that collects that and distributes them to people in need

Donate non-perishable food to a food bank

Donate blankets to a homeless shelter

Host a Thanksgiving dinner for people who may not be able to afford their own

Offer to babysit or nanny for a family in need

Make "care kits" with shampoo , toothbrushes , combs , etc. to donate to homeless shelters

Prepare a home-cooked meal for the residents of a nearby homeless shelter

Collect grocery coupons to give to a local food bank

Help repair or paint a local homeless shelter

Donate art supplies to kids in a homeless shelter

Help organize and sort donations at a homeless shelter

Babysit children while their parents look for jobs

Become a Big Buddy for children at a homeless shelter

Take homeless children on outings

Bake a batch of cookies or loaf of bread and deliver it to a soup kitchen

Build flower boxes for Habitat for Humanity houses

Organize a winter clothes drive to collect coats, hats, scarves, and gloves to be donated

Make first aid kits for homeless shelters

Reducing Crime and Promoting Safety

Volunteer at a police station or firehouse

Become a certified lifeguard and volunteer at a local pool or beach

Paint over graffiti in your neighborhood

Organize a self-defense workshop

Organize a drug-free campaign

Sponsor a drug-free post-prom event

Start or join a neighborhood watch program

Create and distribute a list of hotlines for people who might need help

Teach a home-alone safety class for children

Create a TV or radio public service announcement against drug and alcohol use

Become CPR certified

• Volunteer as a crossing guard for an elementary school

Promoting Community Enhancement

Paint park benches

Donate used books to your local library

Become a tour guide at your local museum

Repaint community fences

Plant flowers in bare public areas

Organize a campaign to raise money to buy and install new playground equipment for a park

Participate in or help organize a community parade

Clean up vacant lot

Produce a neighborhood newspaper

Campaign for more lighting along poorly lit streets

Create a newcomers group in your neighborhood to help welcome new families

Petition your town leaders to build more drinking fountains and public restrooms

Volunteer to clean up trash at a community event

Adopt a local highway or road and clean up trash along it

Help fix or raise funds to repair a run-down playground

Clean up after a natural disaster

Now that you know what your options are for community service, you can take the following steps to start getting involved:

#1: Look over your interests: Which activities seem most appealing to you? Were they mostly in one particular category, like children or the environment? If so, that's a good starting place for choosing specific organizations to contact.

#2: Figure out how much time you can devote to community service: Are you available for two hours every week? Are you not free on a regular basis but can volunteer for an entire weekend now and then?

Think about transportation as well and how you'll be able to get to different locations. Knowing this information will help you choose which community service projects to pursue, and it's helpful information for volunteer coordinators to know.

#3: Do some research to see what projects you can do in your community: Check at your school, place of worship, or town hall for more information on volunteering. You can also contact the place where you'd like to perform your community service, such as a particular animal shelter or nursing home, and ask if they take volunteers.

#4: Start volunteering! This list ranges from small projects that you can complete on your own in a few hours, to much larger projects that will take more time and people. If you find a project you can start on your own, do it!

If you want to do a project where you'll need more resources or people, check around your community to see if a similar program already exists that you can join. If not, don't be afraid to start your own! Many organizations welcome new volunteers and community service projects.

Additional Information

Considering doing volunteer work in another country? Read our guide on volunteer abroad programs and learn whether or not you should participate in one.

Are you in college or will be starting soon? Extracurriculars are one of the best parts of college! Check out our guide to learn which extracurricular activities you should consider in college .

Did you know that you can use your community service work to help pay for college? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to win community service scholarships.

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Danny Finkelman: From partial blindness to producing sensations

This is a writing sample by “nycghostwriter,” AKA Barbara Finkelstein. It is “From partial blindness to producing sensations,” a cover story published in the February 2018 issue of B-Tank Magazine. You can get professional ghostwriting services from a published non-fiction writer. Email me or fill out the short form on my contact page.

Entertainment Visionary Takes the Long View on the Business of Art

By Barbara Finkelstein

Film producer Daniel Finkelman spent his first Shabbos in the United States at 770 Eastern Parkway, central headquarters of the Lubavitch chassidic movement. Newly arrived with his parents and younger brother from Israel, eleven-year-old Daniel found himself seated alongside Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. In Russian, his parents’ native language, Finkelman asked the Lubavitcher rebbe to bless his eyes.

“I must have been a sorry sight,” Finkelman says. “I had a handkerchief wrapped around my head to sop up the goop that flowed non-stop from my eyes.”

In Israel, a noted ophthalmologist had diagnosed Finkelman at the age of seven with uveitis, a rare inflammatory disease of the eye that produces a painful allergic reaction to sunlight. Shortly before the family’s move to Brooklyn in 1989, the doctor made a grave diagnosis: The bookish, computer-loving boy would be blind before he was out of his teens.

The rebbe offered up a hopeful but mysterious blessing in Russian and Yiddish: “In everything, everything, everything, you should have success.”

What happened in the apparent wake of the rebbe’s blessing stumped Finkelman’s Israeli doctor, his little brother and his parents — especially his father, a physician trained in Saratov, Russia.

“One morning about a month after that Shabbos, the disease was gone,” Finkelman says. “I went outside. I took off my medical sunglasses. My eyesight was normal.” He all but did a cartwheel.

For years Finkelman puzzled over the rebbe’s words, yet he saw them as an oracle — a hard-to-decipher prophecy that had trumped his ophthalmologist’s prognosis.

“I can be a cynic and say that medicine and technology eventually would have cured me,” Finkelman says. “But given the sequence of events in my youth, I feel, humbly, that I was the recipient of a great miracle that came about through the rebbe’s blessing.”

Around the World

Now 39, Finkelman has built a career in entertainment based on sight, vision and perception.

He has produced and directed dozens of music videos, documentaries and several feature films, all of them touching on Jewish themes. Indeed, he is probably most famous for movies whose genius lies in his power to see beneath the surface of family relations, individual suffering and age.

Holocaust Survivor Band , which debuted in The New York Times ’ Op Docs video series, shines a light on Saul Dreier, a drummer, and Reuwen “Ruby” Sosnowicz, an accordionist, who teamed up in their late eighties to play South Florida weddings, bar mitzvahs and concerts. The five-minute documentary, directed by Joshua Z. Weinstein, showcases the two survivors’ brotherly relationship and the love of performing that “makes them alive.” The video’s popularity has helped land the two musicians gigs from Berlin to Las Vegas, where they accompanied actor Dudu Fisher during his vocal act at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.

Finkelman partnered with Weinstein again on “Menashe,” a family drama set in a fictional hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood. He began raising production money in 2015 by turning to Adam Margules, son of Cecelia Margules, one of Finkelman’s creative partners. Once the Brooklyn businessman, actor and BizTank mogul came on board, Finkelman had no trouble attracting other investors.

The first American Yiddish-language movie produced since the 1930s, “Menashe” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature . It has also been shown in Australia, China, Istanbul and Singapore.

How It All Began

Finkelman’s first job could not have been farther from the world of moviemaking. After a serendipitous introduction to chassidus through a friend in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Finkelman spent a year at a Tzfas yeshiva. In Israel he met a young woman named Tzippy. After they got married, they moved to the U . S . To support his young family, he took a job in a Queens, New York, Chabad school as the principal of secular studies.

He recognized the importance of the work, but he had been drawn since childhood in a different direction.

“I was always a film buff,” Finkelman says. “Even at the Chabad school, I was making music videos whenever I could. As a person who experienced four and a half years of partial blindness, my whole heart was in the projection of light on a screen, not in teaching.”

Finkelman continued to ponder the Lubavitcher rebbe’s blessing. He believed that each pronouncement of “everything” indicated an area in his own life where vision — literal and metaphoric — would bring him personal and professional success. The first “everything” was the restoration of his eyesight. The second gave him insight into the importance of living a religiously observant life.

But what was the third “everything?”

The answer lay in Finkelman’s earliest encounter with chassidic thought, especially with the concept of l’chatchila ariber ( לכתחילה אריבער ).

“It means ‘go straight to the top,’” Finkelman says. “Don’t go step by step. I remembered that same mindset from ‘Dead Poets Society,’ where Mr. Keating, the English teacher, advises his students, ‘ Carpe diem .’ Seize the day. I would go straight to the top guided by my love and passion — without any resources, connections or classroom training. And I would seize the day now.”

Finkelman had love and passion aplenty and — just as important — a role model in his entrepreneurial brother, Eli, the co-founder of TelTech, a software development company that produces security solutions used by the Secret Service, FBI and other intelligence operations.

“Eli had basically schooled himself in computing technology,” Finkelman says about his brother. “When it came time to co-found his company, he seized the day. When I told him I wanted to go in a completely different career direction, he was one hundred percent behind me.”

The third “everything” was now clear. It pointed to a career in film and music entertainment that Finkelman hoped to use as a kind of recruitment tool for young Jews. To cushion his family finances, though, he invested in an art dealership that produced sentimental paintings of the Lubavitcher rebbe for the Lubavitch community. It was a lucrative decision that gave him time to contemplate the subject of his first video.

Like his brother, Finkelman embarked on a self-education program, acquainting himself thoroughly with film gear, editing software and production work. When he found a video project in line with his artistic and educational vision, he would be ready for it.

That first opportunity came with the indictment and sentencing of Sholom Rubashkin, the former owner of Agriprocessors, a slaughterhouse and meat-packaging factory in Postville, Iowa, and, Finkelman says, the victim of federal overreach.

“I’m sitting in my car and thinking how the fingerprints of prosecutorial misconduct are all over this case,” Finkelman says about a sentence for “fraud” — a variable legal construct challenged in Rubashkin’s case by some hundred legal scholars — that put the business and philanthropic leader behind bars for twenty-seven years. “At the same time, it was amazing that the injustice of Rubashkin’s conviction could unite such diverse Jewish communities, from Modern Orthodox-Yeshiva University-pro-Zionist-Young Israel types to Satmar anti-Zionists, from Sephardim in Deal, New Jersey to Ashkenazim in Lakewood.”

To ease his anxiety, Finkelman popped a CD of Mordechai Ben David into the car player. The first cut was the 1980s version of “Unity Song.”

What would it take to rework “Unity Song” into a song of support for Rubashkin?

Finkelman decided to ask the leading figures of current-day Jewish entertainment to appear in a video he would call “Unity for Justice.”

Armed with nothing but outrage and commitment, Finkelman approached Mordechai Ben David, Lipa Schmeltzer, Gad Elbaz, Nissim Black, Avraham Fried and other high-profile performers with a simple introduction: “Hello. My name is Danny Finkelman. I am a film producer. I’m making a video. Would you be in it?”

Chutzpah? Naïveté?

Whatever the magic sauce, it got Finkelman’s film career cooking. The “We Are the World”-style video in 2011 produced an artistic and entrepreneurial match between Finkelman’s philosophical commitments and a host of inspirational Jewish singers that shapes his work to this day.

Working with actors, screenwriters, concert producers, singers and investors, Finkelman has gone on to produce or direct  a long list of documentaries, movies and music videos that continue to instruct and delight his fans. His most recent is “Set Me Free,” a three-and-a-half-minute music video produced in conjunction with Amudim , a crisis intervention organization. It features Australian-born Israeli hip-hop artist DeScribe, a recovering drug addict and suicide survivor whose music has been called a lifeline for at-risk young people in Jewish and non-Jewish communities.

And the Winner is . . .

Finkelman is on record that he plans on winning an Academy Award before his forty-sixth birthday. Another dream goal: A Netflix-like platform that houses videos, reality shows, talk shows and other artistic products that address some aspect of the Jewish experience.

“Right now finding content is my biggest challenge,” Finkelman says. “I’m running around the clock trying to develop long and short films, but I know there’s tremendous creative talent out there.”

Finkelman likens his hosting platform to the crowdsourcing initiative that BizTank entrepreneur Joel Klein announced in the December issue of B-Tank magazine.

“B-Tank is performing the mitzvah of bringing parnassa to people in our community,” Finkelman says. “This is an issue people get intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Under the auspices of Sparks Next, my production company, I’m building an entertainment platform called Sparks Go that addresses the same needs of the  frum Jewish community.”

Not a day goes by when Finkelman doesn’t get a request from a young person asking for a way into the Jewish entertainment industry. As much as possible, he tries to match strivers with Sparks Next internships. Indeed, one of his most popular adepts is Meir Kay, a YouTube videographer who “went straight to the top” after posting light-hearted motivational videos that garnered millions of views.

As one of the most high-profile filmmakers in the frum world, Finkelman tries to demonstrate a mix of leadership and business acumen.

“At first I didn’t know how to do that,” he says. “When I started Sparks Next, I couldn’t find my hands and feet. Theory is great, but nothing prepares you for what happens on a real set more than action.”

As a producer, Finkelman had to learn how to orchestrate a vast number of moving parts. Pre-production work requires selecting a scriptwriter, scouting out locations, assembling a crew and casting the actors, to name a few non-financial tasks. Production involves renting out the most suitable gear for the shoot. And post-production means tying up loose ends, largely by ensuring good communication among the film editor, supervising sound editor, film lab and production accountant.

Chief among his best practices as a director: “Be decisive.”

In his early days, Finkelman says he was overwhelmed by the business side of his artistic life. Learning how to delegate tactical tasks to interns or crew members has left him free to focus on his creative and financial responsibilities.

Among his biggest challenges is cultivating a work-life balance.

“One of the lessons I learned from my brother is delegation,” Finkelman says. “In his own work, Eli found that greater productivity comes from trusting other people to do what they’re good at. That lets you get more sleep, more vacation time, and a chance to open your mind to other talented people with vision.”

More easily said than done, Finkelman concedes. “In my line of work, I can end up working ’round the clock. When I’m on a deadline, I might even sleep in my office. Keeping my word is that important to me.”

With a production schedule that has taken him in one twelve-month period to Morocco, South Africa, Ukraine (three times) and Israel (five times), Finkelman, admittedly, misses a daily family life. Recently he promised his wife that he would do his best to be home for Shabbos. Proof of his seriousness: He flew back to New York from Israel in the middle of a two-week production gig.

Lest he give the impression that he shoehorns his religious life into odd moments here and there, Finkelman begins his day at dawn by attending a daily shiur , a course of study that will lead to his obtaining semicha . During that hour, he and fifteen other men shut off their cell phones and focus their attention on their learning.

“It straightens me out for the whole day,” Finkelman says.

A disciplined work schedule, integrated with family life and Judaic education, has paid off materially and spiritually.

“I truly believe that one person will benefit from my work,” Finkelman says. “And if I can change one individual’s life, I will feel that my life was well lived. I want to know that I helped a young man or woman decide not to go down a path of destruction. When you watch one of my videos, that’s the passion behind it.”

Two recent film shoots provide evidence of the impact that Finkelman has had on people who come into his orbit.

Shortly after the Hypercacher Supermarket siege in 2015 by an Islamist gunman, Finkelman was in Paris filming a video. A Jewish woman who witnessed yarmulke-headed actors dancing in the street told Finkelman that his crew’s camaraderie was so infectious that she lit Shabbat candles for the first time in her life. In late 2017 a production staffer on Finkelman’s “Let the Light Shine On” video crew was moved by the participation of the Holocaust Survivor Band and was similarly inspired to put tefillin on for the first time in his life.

The movie producer who spent four and a half years on the verge of blindness has learned to take the long view for himself.

And his community.

Barbara Finkelstein has contributed to B-Tank since 2017. She is at work on a book about mental illness and housing in the Bronx.

Saratov History, Russia

Saratov is one of the oldest cities of Russia. It was established in the second half of the 16th century (precisely in 1590) along with other cities in Volga Region like Kazan and Volgograd, as part of Tsar Feodor Ivanovich’s policy of creating a centralized Russian state. But then, a long pre-history precedes Saratov history – a prehistoric connection woven through legends and corroborated by scientific evidences. Researchers have indicated that Saratov happens to be a part of the region (the Eurasian Steppes) where people took the initial steps of domesticating horses. Again Saratov, according to one legend, was the site of the legendary city of the pre-Christian era, Gelonus. Of course, there is no need to look that far – the 13th century Golden/Great Horde city of Ukek or Uvek was Saratov’s immediate-predecessor.

Saratov History: Establishment of the City to the end of 18th Century

Saratov was founded as a Russian military post. A lot of pre-planning went into setting up the whole town – buildings, mostly wooden-structures that would later be part of the town, were assembled a year in advance in a different location. When all the structures were ready, they were disassembled and transported to the actual-site to be re-assembled. This speeded up the whole process and the town was ready in a few weeks’ time. The construction of Saratov Fortress began in July 1590 and it was completed the same year. The fortress was destroyed twice in the course of the next century (first in 1616 and again in 1674) and the whole town had to be shifted.

Saratov ceased to be a military post in 1718 and this marked a new beginning in Saratov history . The town saw influx of people in huge numbers, resulting in population-growth and expansion of the boundaries. Salt production had become the chief occupation of the people and when the town became an important Salt Administration center in 1747, its importance as a trading center increased.

The last decade of the 18th century saw Saratov making remarkable progress as the provincial capital of the Saratov Province – the city not only prospered agriculturally, it also gained reputation as an industrial and trading center.

Saratov History: 19th Century Onwards

The 19th century ushered Saratov into an era of growth and development – the city became an important shipping port, it got its first railroad link and also a number of key industries. With the growing importance of Saratov, it essentially became a cosmopolitan city that boasted a rich culture.

The 20th century was far more eventful. Saratov got its first university in 1909 and by 1916 the city had at least 5 institutes where people could pursue higher studies. Year 1917 marked the beginning of the Soviet-era (that lasted till 1991). Saratov prospered immensely in this period. One of the biggest achievements of Soviet-era Saratov was the completion of the 2.8 km road-bridge spanning the Volga in 1965. Saratov’s present-significance as a cultural and scientific center owes much to the Soviet-period.

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Famine and epidemic crises in Russia, 1918-1922 : the case of Saratov

• Documents liés
• Référence bibliographique

Wheatcroft Stephen G. Famine and epidemic crises in Russia, 1918-1922 : the case of Saratov. In: Annales de démographie historique , 1983. Mères et nourrissons. pp. 329-352.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/adh.1984.1583

www.persee.fr/doc/adh_0066-2062_1984_num_1983_1_1583

• RIS (ProCite, Endnote, ...)

Résumé (fre)

Les crises démographiques russes entre 1918 et 1922 furent peut-être les plus sérieuses subies récemment par une population civile. Bien connues des observateurs contemporains, elles ont été paradoxalement peu étudiées malgré une très grande abondance des sources. On en trouvera ici un exemple avec Saratov, qui était la plus grande ville de la région de la Volga et qui fut au centre de la famine de 1921-1922.

L'article étudie de près les sources puis procède à l'examen détaillé des crises démographiques. Il en résulte que la famine a entraîné un recul des naissances de 43 % et des pointes de mortalité supérieures à 100 %. l\ montre que la situation alimentaire s'est détériorée en 1920, est devenue extrêmement sérieuse en 1921 et très aiguë en 1922. Or, à cela s'ajoutèrent les ravages du choléra et du typhus, disséminés par les mouvements des réfugiés qui furent les plus touchés par les crises. Au demeurant, la famine eut un effet d'ensemble sur la mortalité dont toutes les formes s'accrurent ce qui eut finalement plus d'importance en termes démographiques que les effets épidémiologiques, pourtant plus spectaculaires.

Résumé (eng)

The Russian population crises which occurred between 1918 and 1922 were perhaps the most serious undergone by any civil population in recent times. Although well-known by contemporary observers, they have paradoxally seldom been studied in spite of there being abundant sources. An example is given here : Saratov, which was the largest city in the Volga region and the centre of the 1921-1922 famine.

The article studies in detail the sources, then undertakes a close examination of the population crises. One consequence of the famine was that the number of births dropped by 43% and there were peaks of mortality greater than 100%. It is shown that the food situation deteriorated in 1920, became extremely serious in 1921 and highly acute in 1922. Over and above this could be added the devastation caused by cholera and typhus fever which were spread by the movements of the refugees most severely affected by the crises. All the same, the famine had an overall effect on mortality of which all types increased which, in the end, carried more weight in demographic terms than the epidemiologic effects which were, however, more spectacular.

• I. Introduction [link]
• II. The reliability and availability of statistical and demographic data [link]
• (a) Natality Crises [link]
• (b) Mortality Crises [link]
• Grain production [link]
• Food, consumption [link]
• Prices [link]
• Famine relief [link]
• (b) Refugee movements [link]
• (c) The epidemiological position [link]
• V. Conclusions [link]

Liste des illustrations

• Source of famine suffering regions [link]
• Graph 1 : Demographic crises in Saratov town [link]
• Graph 2 : Natality (live births) in Saratov per 1,000 population, 1918-1924 [link]
• Graph 3 : Monthly mortality indicators : deaths per thousand, per year for separate causes in Saratov town [link]
• Table 1 : Mortality by registered cause of death, In Saratov, 1917-1924 [link]
• Table 2 : Grain production net of state collections in the Central Volga Region [link]
• Table 3 : Food consumption investigation results for Saratov gubernia average consumption per adult per day in K. cals [link]
• Graph 4 : Price indices [link]
• Table 4 : International famine relief in Saratov gubernia 1921-1923 : Meals provided per day [link]
• Table 5 : Disease morbidity per 10,000 population in Russia and Saratov gubernia [link]

Texte intégral

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES IN RUSSIA, 1918-1922: THE CASE OF SARATOV*

by S.G. WHEATCROFT

I. Introduction

The démographie crises experienced by Russia between 1918 and 1922 were perhaps the most serious experienced by a civilian population in récent times. The American demographer Frank Lorimer estimated that there was an excess of 14 million civilian deaths in Russia within the period 1914-1926 ', most of which was located in the crisis years of 1918-1922. The French demographer Professor Jean-Noël Biraben estimâtes that in the three years 1918-1920 mortality from famine and disease was about 4 million above normal for the civil population, and that in the last three months of 1921 and the first six months of 1922 famine covering two-thirds of the country resulted in the death of almost 5 million people 2.

The importance of thèse démographie crises was well understood by Western observers of the time. The threat to the health, epidemio-

330 S.G. WHEATCROFT

logical and démographie stability of Europe from thèse épidémies was considered to be so great that exceptionally strenuous international efforts were undertaken to monitor and to attempt to restrict the spread of this crisis centre. The création of the Health Organisation of the League of Nations (which later developed into the World Health Organisation) owed much to the early concern of West Europeans about the extent of thèse crises in Russia. The importance of the famine as such was also well understood at the time: it led to European and American famine relief opérations on a scale which has neither précèdent nor successor.

It is surprising, therefore, that thèse crises hâve been little studi- ed by récent historians or historical demographers. The reason for this neglect is not the absence of material. This field is remarkably rich in materials which are, I believe, unique in many respects in their détail and reliability, particularly in view of the magnitude of the démographie crises.

This article deals with the démographie history of Saratov which was right in the centre of the 1921-1922 famine. Saratov, then the largest town in the whole Volga région, had been growing extremely rapidly since the middle of the 19th century; by 1916 it contained 228,000 people \ During the crises of 1918-1922 the population fell to a low point of 185,000 in the middle of 1921 and by 1926 it had only recovered to 21 1,000 4.

Of the 23 million people who were officially classified as famine sufferers in the Spring of 1922 in Soviet Russia as a whole over 2.1 million 5 were located in the gubernia of which Saratov was the capital 6. The accompanying map shows the location of Saratov and the other famine areas.

In the following section (II) I will discuss the reliability and availability of démographie and statistical materials for this period, before presenting the démographie material itself in section (III). A discussion of the main factors covering the famine and épidémies is included in section (IV) before a brief section on conclusions (V).

FAMINE AND EPIDEM1C CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922) 331

Source of famine suffering régions: Posle Goloda, No. 1. Moscow, 1922, p. 163.

II. The reliability and availability of statistical and demographic data

This section discusses the reliability of démographie data for Saratov in the context of a brief examination of the reliability of early Soviet statistical data as a whole, about which there are many mis- conceptions 7.

The collapse of the Tsarist central state structure, the two révolutions of February and October 1917, the Foreign Intervention and

332 S.G. WHEATCROFT

Civil Wars (1918-1920) and the épidémies and famine (1918-1922) undoubtedly caused tremendous social and political disorder, but it would be wrong to assume that this led to the total breakdown of the collection and processing of statistical materials throughout Russia. Although the tsarist central state statistical organisation (the Central Statistical Corn- mittee TsSK) collapsed well before the February Révolution, in 1916 a rival network of local government (zemstvo) statistical agencies began to expand and to replace it. During the revolutionary period they formed themselves for the first time into a national organisation based on their statistical congresses. By June 1918, most of the leading ex-zemstvo statisticians had been appointed to a new Central Statistical Authority (TsSU) which promptly recognised the former zemstvo statistical bureaux as its local agencies. Despite the difficulties of the period statistical activities flourished on a scale unprecedented in the history of Russia or anywhere else.

In the régions which had been fought over or which had temporarily fallen into enemy hands there was of course considérable disorganisation and discontinuity in statistical and démographie records. But in many of the gubernii that remained in Bolshevik hands there was a surprising degree of statistical continuity. In Saratov, V. Serebryakov remained in his post as head of the Saratov Gubernia. Statistical Bureau throughout this stormy period, and Kovalesvskii was head of the Gubstat- bureau's sector of démographie statistics.

As regards census data the position was very good. After half a century in which only one national census was carried out (in 1897) the zemstvo satistiticians undertook an Empire wide rural démographie census both in 1916 and in 1917. The new Soviet Central Statistical Office carried out a full démographie census in 1920, an urban démographie census in 1923 and another full démographie census in 1926.

The most serious problems were caused by the unsatisfactory registration data on births and deaths and by the mass movements of the population in this period. Until 1918 when a civil registration System was introduced data on births and deaths were taken from the Church Metric (Registration) Books and were considered to be fairly complète 8. In 1918 a civil registration System was introduced, and in the first few years of civil registration, and particularly in 1919, the coverage of births and deaths was very far from complète.

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922) 333

Kovalevskii considered the registration data for Saratov gubernia as a whole for 1919 to be so incomplète as to be positively misleading. He refused to publish the results, and began his séries for the gubernia as a whole with data for January 1920 9. For the town however the data were much better. Kovalevskii points out that in order to be entitled to receive rations in Saratov town children had to supply évidence that they had been boni in the city and consequently there was a great incentive for the parents to get their children registered. Kovalevskii claims that as a conséquence of this ail those children initially omitted from the registers at the time of their birth were ultimately recorded 10. This claim must be treated with a certain amount of scepticism because this la ter registration would only apply to those children who were still alive, who were still living in Saratov, or who had been privately buried in a Saratov cemetery ". It should be added that still-births were not entered in the birth or death registers.

As regards deaths, the data for the settled population in Saratov were probably almost complète, because it was necessary to get a death certificate in order to get a private burial in a cemetery (see note u above). There were however problems concerning the burials handled by the civic authorities themselves for people who died in hospitals, children's homes, other civic institutions (including refugee camps), or who presumably just died in the streets or at the railway station, with no relative or friend to make the necessary arrangements.

Kovalevskii complained that the data for this part of the population was sent in to the registration authorities with far less regularity: in particular at the peak of the choiera épidémie that aecompanied the stampede of refugees in July 1921, only a fraction of those who died from choiera were recorded in the registers u. But he claims that this was exceptional. For ail other cases Kovalevskii assures

334 S. G. WHEATCROFT

us that the Démographie Statistics Section of the Statistical Bureau insisted in getting the appropriate authorities to send in the data, even though it inevitably arrived considerably later than the bulk of the data from the settled population.

The data that arrived late were not initially included in the current statistics. But, thanks to the work of Kovalevskii and the students in the statistics department of Saratov State University and with some financial assistance from the "M. Gorkii" Research Institute of the South Volga, ail thèse late data were reworked (using over 150,000 cards) so that the figures on deaths and births could be corrected.

The death registration required information on âge, sex and cause of death. As regards the cause of death a modified version of the International classification proposed by Bertillon was used. The cause of death had to be attested by a doctor or another médical worker, presumably in most cases a feldsher (a semi-trained médical worker). Undoubtedly some of the causes of death were incorrectly diagnosed. The classification also failed to identify complicating secondary causes of death. This is of particular importance since it was the combination of malnutrition and épidémie infectious disease which undoubtedly contributed to the exceptionally high rates of mortality at this time. This is an insuperable problem with data from this time.

The registration data for the non-settled population appears to hâve been collected and processed separately from the data for the settled population, but unfortunately the results were not presented separately. We are not therefore able to separate out the mortality of the settled from that of the non-settled population. Instead we can only produce very rough mortality indicators which reflect the mortality for both thèse groups.

Kovalevskii provides estimâtes of the annual population of Saratov during this period, but he provides no indication of the size and flow of refugees. Only very scattered data are available on the démographie as opposed to the epidemiological significance of thèse refugees. Their epidemiological significance in spreading the différent épidémies is beyond dispute 13, but their démographie significance in contributing to the mortality registered in Saratov town is less certain. Kovalevskii in his study on the demography of Saratov did occasionally refer to the fact that the extremely high level of mortality amongst the refugee population did account for "a not inconsiderable amount" of the high levels of mortality caused by starvation, épidémies and other infections H. But he generally belittled their importance, and took no steps to assess their scale.

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922) 335

From the available scattered data it is clear that the numbers of refugees staying in Saratov at any one time varied between several hundred and 15,000 (équivalent to 0-8% of the town population). They were particularly concentrated there during major mortality peaks. It is also clear that at crisis times the level of mortality in the refugee camps was extraordinarily high 15.

Faced with this magnitude of the démographie significance of the refugee population it is difficult to décide how best to treat the available mortality figures. They need to be deflated by some population figure, and Kovalevskii's estimâtes of the annual population of Saratov does claim to include them.

The problem is particularly serious when we wish to consider the monthly data since we hâve no reliable indicators of the large monthly change in the numbers of refugees in the Saratov population. In my calculations of monthly mortality I hâve simply extrapolated monthly figures on the size of the Saratov population from Kovalevskii's annual figures lfl. Because this undoubtedly results in inaccuracies I hâve referred to the figures calculated as "mortality indicators" rather than true "mortality rates"!

The mortality data presented by Kovalevskii is extremely detailed 17. In his book Kovalevskii provided a detailed analysis of 24 différent causes of death relating the annual but not the monthly data to the population studied. The diseases were ail treated separately or divided along principles that would not nowadays be accepted I8. It is rather difficult to conceptualise the movement of ail 24 cause-specified annual mortality rates and relate them to the monthly movements in absolute numbers.

III. Demographic crises

In this section of the article I will présent my recalculations of Kovalevskii's mortality and natality data into monthly rates with a more manageable and meaningful division of cause of death. This will

S.G. WHEATCROFT

enable us to identify better the différent stages of the démographie crisis and to compare the monthly mortality pattern from différent causes in the différent phases of the démographie crises.

Graph 1 : Démographie crises in Saratov town

The définition of a démographie crisis is always somewhat arbitrary, but the crisis must be marked by a distinct departure from the normal seasonal fluctuations in natality and mortality if the word is to hâve any meaning at ail. In the above graph we can see signs of five serious démographie crises: one natality crisis and four mortality crises.

(a) Natality Crises

The pattern of normal natality for this period is very difficult to establish because of the mobilisation of large numbers of men into the Tsarist army during the first world war (from July 1914 to October 1917) and into the Red army between 1918 and 1920. This helps explain the dépression of birth rates during 1915-1918 and again in 1919-1920. By 1921 and 1922 we would hâve expected to hâve seen a post-war bulge

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922)

in birth rates, but instead we see signs of a very serious natality crisis developing from fuly 1921 to April 1923.

The fluctuations of the birth are given in more détail in the following graph where they are seen in comparison with the monthly pattern for 1918 which appears to be relatively normal. (The seasonal natality pattern is similar to the normal pre-war pattern).

Graph 2: Natality (Vive births) in Saratov per 1,000 population,

The fall in natality between January and August 1919 probably reflects incomplète birth registration in the early months of the new civil registration procédure rather than any real décline in births 19. The high level of birth registrations in the first six months of 1921 may well reflect the rush to register unregistered infants in order to qualify for the rations M.

The dramatic décline in births by 10 to 20%o from July 1921 until May 1922 does appear to be a real indication of a natality crisis, and a conséquence of the immédiate effects of the famine on births. The décline took effect so immediately during the famine period that it must reflect an increase in miscarriages and still-births rather than a décline in conceptions.

In contrast the smaller décline in births by lO%o from September 1922 to February 1923 is evidently a conséquence of a décline in conceptions in the period from December 1921 to May 1922, the worst mùnths of the famine.

Graph 3: Monthly mortality indicators: deaths per thousand, per year for separate causes in Saratov town

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922) 339

Finally, from April to October 1922 the exceptionnally high rate of births may well be a conséquence of an increase in the number of conceptions between July 1922 and January 1923 among those women who would normally hâve conceived between December 1921 and May 1922, but did not because of the famine conditions.

The average décline in births for the 11 months of the direct natality crisis from July 1921 to May 1922 was 13.9 per thousand points below the équivalent 1918 levels (or 45% less). This would be équivalent to a loss of 41% of an annual cohort. The average décline in birth rates for the 6 months of the secondary crisis from September 1922 to February 1923 was 8.9 per thousand population below the 1918 levels (or 29% lower). This corresponds to a loss of another 14% of an annual birth cohort. However the average increase in birth rates for the seven months of the compensatory upsurge from April 1923 to October 1923 was 6.5 per thousand population above the 1918 levels (21%); this corresponded to an increase of 12% in the annual birth cohort. It may therefore be estimated that the famine resulted in a loss of 41% + 14% — 12% = 43% of an annual birth cohort.

(b) Mortality Crises

Table 1: Mortality by registered cause of death, In Saratov, 1917-1924

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922) 341

The normal mortality pattern in Saratov was that the prédominant summer peak in mortality was about twice as high as the winter levels (see graph above). For the years 1918-1922 the levels of mortality were signifîcantly higher (four to six times higher) than normal. The data indicate four fairly distinct periods of crisis with peaks in July 1918 (119%o), November 1919 (133%o), June 1921 (169%o) and February to April 1922 (147 %o). In the above séries of graphs (see page 338) we can see the monthly fluctuations in mortality from différent causes of death grouped on aetiological principles. It can readily be seen that the July 1918 mortality peak was primarily caused by the sharp increase in deaths from water- and food-borne diseases at this time. The November 1919 peak was a conséquence of a combina tion of a sharp peak in deaths from air-borne diseases, the tail of a high level of mortality from water and food-borne diseases and an early stage in the upsurge of deaths from the other vector-born group of diseases (mainly typhus). The June 1921 crisis was similar but somewhat more serious than the 1918 crisis with a sharp summer peak again from water and food-born diseases. The final February to April peak in 1922 appears to be the conséquence of a high level of mortality from ail three groups of différent vector born micro-organisms, as well as a high level of mortality from starvation and from other non micro-organisms (mainly cardio-vascular disease).

The contribution of thèse différent groups of causes of death to mortality in individual years, and the crisis period in gênerai and the contribution of the major individual diseases are indicated in the table (see p. 339-340). For this exercice I hâve been forced to use 1923 levels of mortality as my indicator of "normal" mortality, because of the absence of any cause specified data for years earlier than 1917. This is unfortunate because the normal level of mortality after thèse crises appears to hâve been considerably lower than the pre-crisis normal level, but there is no alternative. In the table the total mortality figure for 1917 has been included to remind us that the 1923 level of mortality was very low.

IV. The main factors causing famine and epidemics in Saratov, 1918-1922

(a) the food supply situation, grain production.

No reliable grain production figures are available for thèse years, because under the impact of the grain requisitioning policy the peasants concealed and under-estimated their grain sowîngs and in particular their grain yields. Fortunately it is possible to make some rough assessment of the likely fluctuations in grain

yield levels in Saratov gubernia from the meteorological data and thèse are presented in the table below with the available contemporary officiai indications of grain sown area levels 21 and with the officiai data on the level of state grain (réquisitions until 1921 and then state grain collections and the tax in kind) from the Central Volga Région (Saratov gubernia, Simbirsk gubernia and Penza gubernia).

Table 2: Grain production net of state collections in the Central Volga Région

1. Grain sown area in min. hectares - 2. Grain yield in tsentners/ hectare : A = trend ; B = agro-meteorological déviation ; C = estimate 3 - Grain production in min. tons - 4. State grain collections in min. tons - 5. Balance in min. tons.

Source: Grain sown area 1913-17 S.G. Wheatcroft, "Grain production...", vol. 3,

p. 39, 1913; 1917-22 Statisticheskii sbornïk po Saratovskoi gubernii, Saratov, 1923,

Grain yield, trend and agro-meteorological estimation from S.G. Wheatcroft, "The

use of meteorological data to supplément and analyse data on grain yields in Russia

and the USSR, 1883-1950", unpublished paper presented to the Annual Conférence

of the British Social Science Research Council Work Group on Quantitative Methods

in Economie History, Cambridge, 1982, p. 20.

Grain collection: Itogy letiya vlasti v tsifrakh, 1917-27, Moscow, 1928, p. 379.

Food, consumption

During this period considérable energy and resources were devoted to a séries of food consumption studies conducted on a regular and systematic programme throughout the country in both rural and urban households. Thèse surveys were carried oui with

remarkable competance right through the famine period and présent a detailed picture of food consumption unique for such troubled circum- stances 22.

Table 3: Food consumption investigation results for Saratov gubernia average consumption per adult per day in K. cals

1. Workers family - 2. Peasants family divided according to sown area - 3. Peasant family for whora agriculture secondary.

Sources: Sostoyaniye pitaniya gorodskogo naseleniya SSSR, 1919-1924gg., Trudy TsSU, Tom XXX, vyp, Moscow 1926, p. 100-249.— Sostoynaniye pitaniya sel-skogo naseleniya SSSR, 1920-1924gg., Trudy TsSU, Tom XXX, vyp. 2, Moscow 1928, part 2, p. 2-155.

The high level of inflation makes it extremely difficult to use what scattered régional price indicators that are available. In order to make thèse data more manageable I hâve constructer two price indices: one relates the price of rye flour in Saratov to the price of rye flour in Moscow; the other relates the price of rye flour in Saratov to the price of a non-food good (cotton cloth) in Saratov.

The results are presented in the graph below:

Graph 4: Price indices

Priées indices: 1. Retail priées for rye flour/retail priées for cotton in Saratov.

2. Retail priées for rye flour in Saratov/Retail priées for rye flour in Moseow.

Calculated from Statisticheskii ezhegodnik 1918-1920, Trudy TsSU, T. VIII, vyp. 1,

Moseow, 1921, p. 96-118.

Statisticheskii ezhegodnik 1921 g. Trudy TsSU, T. VIII, vyp. 4, Moseow, 1923,

p. 334-363.

See S.G. Wheatcroft, SIPS, No. 21, p. 26-27.

Famine relief

A very important élément of food supply in the famine period was the supply of food by international famine relief agencies, mainly the Nansen affiliated societies and the American Relief Administration.

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES ( SARATOV, 1918-1922)

The following table indicates the scale of international relief in Saratov gubernia:

Table 4: International famine relief in Saratov gubernia 1921-1923: Meals provided per day

Source : ARA numbers : H. H. FISHER, The Famine in Soviet Ru3sia 1919- 1923 : the Opérations of the American Relief Administration, Stanford, 1927, p. 556-557.

Numbers from Nansen affiliated organisations : Comité International de Secours à la Russie, Haut Commissariat du Dr. Nansen, Report, N° 1, p. 1-13, N° 8, p. 1-6, N° 21, p. 9, N° 26, p. 23, N° 30, p. 20.

See also the Soviet local officiai famine journal for Saratov : Chernaya godina, N° 1, Saratov, 1922, p. 27-29, and N° 2, p. 24.

From the above data the following conclusions can be drawn. Until the 1920 harvest the food supply position in Saratov gubernia and the Central Volga was relatively good despite a fairly high level of grain requisitioning. The free market price for grain in Saratov remained significantly lower than the free market price in Moscow and lower than the price for non-food goods in Saratov. The food consumption surveys also indicated a relatively high level of food consumption amongst the families of workers in the towns and amongst ail groups of the peasantry.

346 S.G. WHEATCROFT

The food supply position in Saratov and the Volga began to seriously deteriorate following the 1920 harvest it became extremely serious in 1921 and acute in 1922.

The problems began with the 1920 harvest which was much lower than earlier harvests, partly because of the exceptionally poor weather, and partly because of the décline in sown area. Despite this sharp fait in production the level of state grain requisitionings remained high. By February 1921 peasant food consumption was reported to be almost 30% below the February 1920 level.

It was at this point that the government decided to change their basic food supply policy. The policy of requisitioning and rationing food was drastically modified. Requisitioning was replaced by a limited tax in kind on the peasant producers. Centrally supplied rations were reduced, mainly being restricted to the army and to workers in important industries in the north. The local market was restored: peasants could legally trade their surplus production with those non-agricultural producers who had been taken off central food supplies.

The main immédiate resuit of thèse measures was that a large number of people were forced into the private market for their basic food requirements 23. On this market millions sought to purchase a relatively small supply of grain, and priées began to rise precipitously, particularly in those producer areas, such as Saratov, which had been taken off central supplies.

The price of rye flour in Saratov began to rise sharply in April 1921 well before the prospects of the future harvest were known. Once it became clear that there was a major drought in the Volga and that the 1921 harvest was going to fail, priées rocketed and food consumption was seriously reduced. In the autumn the price-rates of rye-flour to cotton fell back a little from the summer panic level, but remained relatively high until the 1922 harvest. The price of rye-flour in Saratov remained considerably higher than the Moscow price until August 1922.

Food consumption surveys continued to report extremely low levels of consumption by workcr and peasant households, with levels of consumption in workers families in April 1922 more than 30% below average and with levels in peasant households less than half the average February level in June 1922 24.

Thèse levels would hâve fallen further had there not been substantial quantifies of food brought into Saratov gubernia by the foreign

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES ( SARATOV, 1918-1922) 347

relief agencies. They began supplying food in October 1921, and fed substantial numbers: Over half a million meals were supplied in April 1922: this was enough for one meal a day for 24% of the population in the gubernia. Over a million were supplied in May and over one- and-a-half million in June and July; at the peak this was enough for over one meal a day for over 60% of the population.

After the 1922 harvest the position began to steadily improve as priées fell and the food consumption surveys reported dramatic increases in food consumption.

(b) Refugee movements

Many refugees had moved to Saratov from the West during the Russian retreat during the first world war. During the Civil War other waves of refugees came from the areas of new military confrontation in the Ukraine, the Don and the Urals. Others came from the starving cities in the north. Alongside the refugees came the mesochniki or bag- traders (private individuals with sacks) and officiai réquisition agents looking for food supplies.

In reaction to the choiera épidémie of the summer of 1918, which was brought to Saratov by refugees from Astrakhan, the authorities attempted to isolate the refugees in a giant camp known as the "military town" in a spécial suburb of Saratov. By December 1918, 9,000 refugees were located in this camp, but of thèse 3,000 were reported to hâve typhus 25. It was not long before the épidémie spread to the town and to the rest of the gubernia.

The drastic change in the food supply position that became apparent in the summer of 1921 resulted in what has been described as " the great stampede " 26. Thousands of refugees rushed ot leave — the unemployed and those who had insufficient grain to last out the year or insufficient means or entitlements to purchase grain on the market...

Between July 1, 1921, and lanuary 1, 1922, 104,645 people were evacuated from Saratov gubernia through officiai channels 27. Thèse included 45,427 refugees, 1 1,387 abandoned children, 37,402 unemployed workers and 8,950 migrants mainly leaving in August and heading for the Ukraine which appeared at this time to be safe from the famine.

348 S.G. WHEATCROFT

As the famine began to take a grip in the winter of 1921-1922 new waves of refugees began to descend on Saratov only this time from the east. Dr. Chernikaev, writing in the Saratov health journal, explained that this new wave of refugees was mainly moving westwards, walking along old tracks whereas the earlier refugees had mainly corne from the west in a fairly organised way by rail. The new wave therefore came in contact with a completely différent group of the population than those who had earlier been exposed and had gained some immunity to the earlier épidémies. This he claims explains the intensity of the new flare up28.

The new flow did however continue to pass through Saratov. In January 1922 about 200 refugees a day were reported to be arriving in Saratov from neighbouring famine sufiering gubernii (Samara, Ural and Tsaritsin), of thèse 50 a day were evacuated and the rest were placed in spécial refugee shelters 29. As a conséquence of this back-log the numbers of refugees remaining in the four main camps in Saratov grew from 2,591 in November, 2,620 in December, 3,279 in January 1922 and 4,683 in February 30. The average mortality amongst thèse refugees was extremely high: it rosé from 500 and 700 per thousand in annual équivalents in November and December 1921 to 911 and 890 per thousand in January and February 1922. Of thèse, 15-22% died from starvation and 47% from typhus. It is clear that with this level of mortality the people in thèse camps would not last very long if they were not evacuated. Between January 1, 1922 and April 1 a total of 7,300 refugees were, in fact evacuated 31 (a rate of about 80 a day). But with the continued flow of refugees into Saratov, it would appear that thèse camps continued to grow until April and contributed a substantial share of the increase in mortality from starvation and typhus recorded in the Saratov data at this time.

One of the main factors in stemming the flow or refugees was of course the supply of large amounts of food aid and the distribution of this aid in villages from where the refugees were coming. It was this aid and the improved circumstances after the 1922 harvest that led to the return of the refugees and the sudden stabilisation of the epidemio- logical position.

(c) The epidemiological position

The following tables provide an indication of the number of notifications of the major serious infectious diseases and of scurvy in

i) Pre-revolutionary Russia and in that part of Russia remaining under Bolshevik control after 1917 and ii) Saratov gubernia from 1913-1923. (See Table 5.)

Table 5: Disease morbidity per 10,000 population in Russia and Saratov gubernia

* Figures were given in this source for the population covered for ail years apart from 1917 and 1918. The population figures for thèse two years has been estimated on the basis of considering the régions covered and by extrapolation.

Source: Compiled from Statisticheskive materialy po sostoyaniyu narodnogo zdra- viva i organizatsii meditsinskoi pomoshchi v SSSR za 1913-1923gg., Moscow, 1926, p. 2-3, 144-5, 210-11, 282-3, 176-7, 242-3, 296-7.

Great care needs to be taken in interpreting thèse figures, since they reflect not only changes in the prevalence of différent diseases but also changes in the completeness in recording thèse cases. Professor

350 S.G. WHEATCROFT

Tarassevitch suggests that while the choiera data may be relatively complète, the other data "needs to be multiplied by coefficients varying between 2 and 5 in order to obtain a true estimate of the extent of the épidémies raging in Russia"32. He also points out that the level under estimation varied at différent times and must hâve been particularly great during the period 1918-1919 when disorganisation was at its height.

However, even bearing thèse réservations in mind, the data still provide a very interesting, albeit rough, indication of the magnitude, frequency and location of the major épidémie diseases. It will also be seen that the pattern and intensity of disease morbidity in Saratov gubernia bears a very close relationship to that for the country as a whole for typhus, relapsing fever, choiera and malaria. The relationship is slightly less strong for typhoid and considerably weaker for dysentery. For scurvy, which is of course a non-infectious disease the Saratov pattern bears no resemblance to the Russian pattern.

V. Conclusions

The mortality data for Saratov provide a remarkably detailed indication of the nature and the complexity of the démographie crises experienced in Saratov at this time, even if they are not an entirely accurate indicator of the scale of mortality experienced by the registered town population.

The cause-specified mortality data indicate the extrême complexity of the démographie crises. It was not just a question of an increase in the importance of major infectious diseases and of starvation. The deaths from typhus, choiera and starvation together account for just over a third of the increase in ail classified mortality in thèse crisis years. Over the 1918-1922 period the contribution to the total increase in mortality that was made by disentery (12%), gastro-enteritis (11%), pneumonia (9%) and even cardio-vascular diseases (9%) were ail greater than the contribution of the more sensational causes: starvation (8%) and choiera (8%). There was consequently an ail round élévation in mortality from the relatively common infectious diseases that were always présent, as well as the dramatic appearance in individual years of typhus (in 1919-1920, 1921-1922), choiera (1918 and 1921) and starvation (in 1921 and 1922). Of thèse three, typhus was by far the most important.

As explained above, it is difficult to know the extent to which excess mortality in thèse crises was shared between the settled and the refugee population of Saratov. However when we consider the natality crisis, it is quite clear that we are dealing primarily with the settled population amongst whom there were signs of a very acute crisis with the loss of over 40% of an annual birth cohort. There can consequently

FAMINE AND EPIDEMIC CRISES (SARATOV, 1918-1922) 351

be no doubt that the settled as well as the temporary population of Saratov was suffering from the famine.

This paper has paid particular attention to the chronology of the changes in food supply, the movement of refugees and the epidemio- logical position in order to see how they can be related to the detailed chronology of démographie change which is observable for Saratov town in this period.

It is clear that the refugees had great epidemiological significance and were the main active vector in the distribution of choiera in the summers of 1918 and 1921, and of typhus throughout 1919, in the winter of 1919-1920, and in the winter and spring of 1921-1922. The refugees were also undoubtedly of very great démographie significance: they were the victims of most of the mortality from starvation, and of much of the crisis mortality from the typhus and choiera épidémies.

The food supply position was of very great importance in many respects. It was extremely important epidemiologically in determining the scale and the direction of the flow of refugees i.e., the flow towards the Volga in the years of relatively good food supply hère before the 1920 harvest, the flow away from the Volga when the food supply deteriorated during 1921 (particularly in the summer of 1921) at the time of "the great stampede"), and finally the flow back when more food became available in the localities. And it was also of great importance demographically. Most dramatically, it caused large numbers of deaths from starvation. But also, far less dramatically, but far more significantly in démographie terms, it increased the level of mortality from the major as well as not so major infectious diseases and possibly also from cardio- vascular diseases. With the improvement in the food supply position in the summer of 1922 the démographie crises ended and mortality returned to normal.

S.G. Wheatcroft,

Centre for Russian and East European Studies. The University of Birmingham.

352 S.G. WHEATCROFT

* This paper is based on raaterials presented to the Famine in History work group in Vevey in the Summer of 1981 and subsequently reported to the Open Forum on Famine in History at the 8th Economie History Congress in Budapest in August 1982. I am grateful to Professor Michael Drake, Professor Derek Oddy, Dr. David Dickson, Professor R. Horvath and other members of the Work Group for comments on thèse materials. I am especialy grateful to Professor R.W. Davies for helpful comments on this article and to Professor J. Dupâquier for encouraging me to write it. My research on this topic forms part of my work for the British Social Science Research Council on the Social and Economie History of the URSS during industrialisation.

1 . F. Lorimer, The Population of the Soviet Union : History and Prospects, Geneva, 1946, p. 41.

2. J.-N. Biraben, "Essai sur l'évolution démographique de l'U.R.S.S.", Population, No. 13, June 1958, p. 38. Apart from the 4 million civilian population estimated to hâve died in the period 1918-1920, Professor Biraben estimated a further loss of 1.2 million in the ranks of the Red Army and a further 2.8 million from "the troubles of the Révolution".

3. Its population was 42,237 in 1840, 61,610 in 1856, 85,220 in 1870, 122,829 in 1885, 137,147 in 1897 and 217,418 in 1910 (see T.S. Fedor, Patterns of Urban Growth in the Russian Empire During the Nineteenth Century, Chicago, 1975, p. 198).

4. Thèse estimâtes of the population change, based on the results of the censuses of 1917, 1920, 1923 and 1926, and on registration and ration data were made by the head of the Démographie Statistics Sector of the Saratov gubernia (province) Statistical Bureau, Professor Kovalevskii. (A.G. Kovalevskii, Ocherki po demografii Saratova (rozhdaemost i smertnost za J914-1927gg.), Saratov, 1928, p. 21-2.)

5. Poste goloda, No. 1, Moscow, 1922, p. 163.

6. The population of Saratov gubernia at this time was 2.9 million (Statisticheskii sbornik po Saratovskoi gubernii, Saratov, 1923, p. 48).

7. The reliability of food production and consumption, price and epide- miological data is briefly discussed in section IV below.

8. Church registration of births, deaths and marriages was introduced among the Russian Orthodox clergy by Peter the Great in 1722. Metric books were issued to the clergy 1736. Other dénominations were included in the registration procédure in the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century. There was fairly good and reliable coverage for ail the population of European Russia by 1867. See S.A. Novoselskii, Smertnost i prodolzhteïnost zhizni v Rossii, Petro- grad, 1916, p. 41-3.

9. See A. G. Kovalevskii, "Rozhdaemost i smertnost naseleniya Saratov- skoi gubernii v 1920-22gg. i 1913 g.", Statisticheskii sbornik Saratovskoi gubernii, Saratov, 1923, p. 62. This was a cautious attitude not shared by Kovalevskii's colleague A.A. Malykov from the Saratov gubernia Health Office who subsequently published the data for 1919. Thèse purported to show that the level of mortality in the rural districts of Saratov gubernia was lower in 1919 (3O.4%o) than it had been in 1911 (33.5%o) and only slightly higher than in 1913 (29.5%o) or 1914 (also 29.5%o). (AA. Malykov, Estestvennoe divizhenie naseleniya Saratovskoi gubernii za period 1914-1925gg., Saratov, 1926, p. 62-3.)

10. A.G. Kovalevskh, Ocherki..., p. 4.

11. In order to be privatley buried in a Saratov cemetery the relatives of the deceased needed a death certificate. Children whose birth in Saratov had not earlier been registered, would hâve their births registered at the time of death registration.

12. The registers recorded 379 deaths while according to Kovalevskii the local newspapers reported 1,476 deaths. The provincial health department also reported there to be about 3,500 cases in the town (A.G. Kovalevskii, Ocherki..., p. 4) and, given the normal high level of case fatalities for choiera, we would certainly expect the total level of deaths to be closer to 1,476 than to 379.

13. See below section IV.

14. A.G. Kovalevskii, Ocherki..., p. 49.

15. A rate of over 9OO%o in annual équivalents was reported in a camp population of 3,279 January 1922, See below p. 348.

16. See S.G. Whevtcroft, "Famines and factors affecting mortality in the USSR ; the démographie crises of 1914-22 and 1930-33", unpublished CREES, Birmingham University Discussion Papers, SIPS, No. 21, p. 10-12.

17. A.G. Kovalevskii, Ocherki... The démographie data are included in a 62 page appendix.

18. Instead of making the normal division between deaths from diseases caused by microorganisms spread by différent vectors and deaths from non micro- organisms, he uses a division in which typhoid (bryushnoi tif) a disease spread by a water and food borne vector is grouped together with typhus (sipnoi tif), relapsing fever (vozvratnii tif) which are both lice-borne diseases. The original analysis is therefore extremely cumbersome and difficult to digest.

19. See above p. 333.

20. The data covering the late registration of infants were reprocessed in order to record them at their alleged date of birth and not at the time of registration. But it seems highly likely that the parents would hâve tended to under- estimate the âge of their children in order to excuse themselves from not having registered them earlier. If so, some of the children born in the autumn of 1920 were registered as though they had been born in the spring of 1921.

Source : Compiled from data in A.G. Kovalevskii, Ocherki po demografii Saratova (rozhdaemost i smertnost za 1914-1927 gg.), Saratov, 1928, see S.G. Wheatcroft, SIPS, No. 21, p. 14-15, 21.

21. It must however be pointed out that thèse are greatly underestimated for the years 1920-22. See S.G. Wheatcroft, Grain production and its utilisation in Russia and the USSR before Collectivisation, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Birmingham University, 1980, p. 313-40.

22. For a more lengthy évaluation of thèse data, see S.G. Wheatcroft, Grain production..., p. 505-27.

23. According to an officiai publication of the People 's Commissariat of Food Supply, the number of people in Soviet Russia as a whole receiving central food rations was planned to fall from over 27 million to 8.5 million. (Neurozhai i gosudartsvenneya pomosch' golodayushchemu raionu 1921 g., Otchetnye materialy Narkomproda po voprosam pomoshchi golodayushchim, vyp. 1, Moscow, 1922, p. 17.

24. 1920 and 1923 are taken as "non-famine" years for this comparison.

25. Teziakov, "The typhus épidémie in Saratov gubernia", Saratovskii vestnik zdravokhraneniya, 1920 (cited hère from L. Tarassevitch, Epidémies in Russia since 1914, part 1, Epidemiological Intelligence Report, No. 2, Geneva, 1922, P- 21).

26. See L. Websteu, Report from Mr. Webster, Dr. Nansen's delegate on behalf of the International Save the Children Union, Riga 28, September 1921, Report No. 1, International Committee For Russian Relief, p. 7.

27. See data given in Byulleten' tsentralnoi komissii pomoshehi golo- dayushehim VTsIK, No. 3-4, Moscow, 1922, p. 103-4.

28. V.D. Chernikaev, " Parazitarniye tify v Saratovskoi gubernii", Sara- tovskii vestnik zdravookhraneniya, Tom III, vyp. 1-6, 1922, p. 70-1.

29. G. Oboletskii, "Borba s golodom v Saratovskoi gubernii". Chernaya Godina, No. 1, Saratov, 1922, p. 29.

30. V.D. Chernikaev, Parazitarniye..., p. 75.

31. Byuîleten tsentral'noi komissii pomoshehi golodayushchim VTsJK, No. 5-7, Moscow, 1922, p. 146.

32. L. Tarassevitch, Epidémies in Russia since 1914, part 1, Geneva, March 1922, p. 9.