Scope and Content Note
The papers of Dermot Heywood Hardy (1893-1982) span the years 1913-1924 and include correspondence, diaries, reports, speeches, newspapers clippings, notes, and printed matter. The material pertains to Hardy’s war service in Petrograd, Russia, in 1917-1918 with the American Red Cross Mission to Russia and provides an eyewitness account of the beginning stages of the Bolshevik Revolution. A native of Waco, Texas, Hardy was hired in 1913 as a secretary in the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He received a law degree from Georgetown University in 1917. After his work in Russia, he was attached briefly to the War Trade Board in Europe, employed as an attorney in the Department of Justice, and had a private law practice.
Upon completing his law degree, Hardy signed on as a stenographer and secretary for the Red Cross Mission organized and funded by financier William B. Thompson with the support of the United States government. Composed of prominent members of various professions, the mission sought to provide indirect support for the Russian war effort and humanitarian aid in order to boost morale. In his diary and correspondence, Hardy described general conditions in Russia, events surrounding the Bolshevik coup, inspections and arrests by the Red Guard, the work of the Red Cross, and his social activities in Petrograd. His reports include observations on political and social conditions and a history of the origins of the Red Cross mission. The collection also includes transcripts of speeches by Russian officials, biographies of members of the mission, accounts of distribution of supplies, printed matter, and Hardy’s stenographic notes.