Blunting the Bitter Taste of Hunger : Can Americans give the people of the former Soviet Union a happy holiday?

The United States celebrated Christmas last Wednesday. Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the new Commonwealth of Independent States, following the Orthodox church calendar, will celebrate the same holiday Jan. 7. But what kind of Christmas will it be this year? On Jan. 2, prices in Moscow are expected to triple. The sweet taste of freedom will fight with the bitter taste of hunger.

Since December, 1990, the United States has given $2.5 billion in food aid, all but $165 million in the form of guaranteed private loans for grain, especially livestock feed. Some lawmakers wanted to spend an additional $1 billion from the Pentagon’s budget on direct food aid for the Soviet people. Others blocked such aid as life support for dying communism.

Such quarrels are behind us now. Communism has expired. In January, Secretary of State James A. Baker III will convoke a conference in Washington to coordinate humanitarian aid among potential donor countries. But what of private aid on a quicker timetable?

Each year this country produces tons of specially wrapped holiday foodstuffs. What isn’t sold by Dec. 25 is essentially unsalable. Can a few--or a few tons--of those fruitcakes and hams be sent to Moscow and Kiev to supplement the soybean meal, powdered milk and other aid staples?

Ukrainian-Americans have organized an effective privately managed lifeline; for details call Ukrainian Community Information at (213) 665-5862. Russian-Americans have a secured path through the Russian Orthodox Church; locally, Bishop Tikhon of the Church of Holy Virgin Mary, at (213) 663-4752 or 666-4977, is prepared to accept food, especially dried soup, as well as Christmas toys and candy for children. (Money for shipment is, of course, also welcome if not indispensable.) Another safe channel is the group To Russia With Love at (916) 361-1037; ask for Arild Barrett.

A series of Moscow, Kiev, Minsk, etc., airlifts may yet prove as important to freedom as the famous Berlin airlift was.

Will the new, post-communist nations come through the winter believing that they have joined the Free World? Or will they, next spring, lay their freedom at the feet of some demagogue and say, in Dostoevsky’s famous words, “Make us your slaves, but feed us”? The answer may be given over the next three months.

One hopes the Bush Administration will now drop some of its understandable early caution. If so, the brilliance of Operation Desert Storm may shine again in Operation Winter Bread. Meanwhile, it isn’t too soon for direct action.