Orphans in the Soviet Union
At certain periods the
Abandoned children, 1918–1930
By the early 1920s, Russia was home to millions of orphaned and abandoned children, collectively described in Russian as besprizornye, besprizorniki (literally "unattended").
The
Most besprizornye were beggars.[7] Public response varied, and the media discouraged giving the children any money, recommending donations to charitable organizations instead. When alms grew scarce, children with more experience and energy sought money through selling small items such as flowers or cigarettes. Some were recruited by tobacconists or newspapers to sell their products.[8] Besprizornye also performed tasks for pay, such as carrying luggage at the train station or holding a place in line at the theatre. Some entered restaurants in hopes of obtaining scraps. Competition for locations was fierce.[9] Thousands of children, particularly girls but also many boys, turned to prostitution. Of 5,300 street girls aged 15 and younger surveyed in 1920, 88% had worked as prostitutes. This means of support was more common in the winter, when begging outdoors was more difficult.[10]
The existence of millions of homeless youths led to widespread juvenile delinquency throughout Russia. When street children looked beyond begging and petty trade, they turned to stealing.[11] Juvenile crime rose rapidly during World War I with its growth rate increasing during the famine of 1921–1922. Minors arrested by the Russian police stood at 6% of all people apprehended in 1920, and reached 10% by the first quarter of 1922.[12] More than other factor, hunger prompted waifs to steal. Abandoned children arriving from the countryside were often slower to embrace thievery than those from urban backgrounds, but in general, the longer a child was left astray, the more likely he or she was to succumb to crime.[13] Gangs would operate in groups as large as thirty to assure successful pickpocketing and other forms of robbery.[14] Tobacco, drug, and alcohol addictions were common, and the first half of the 1920s saw the influx of a larger supply of cocaine as well as the development of a more extensive network of drug dealers. Urchins lived and worked in the midst of this network and drug expenses spurred on juveniles' thefts.[15] The street introduced large percentages of its inhabitants to early sexual activity. Waifs generally began their sex lives by the age of fourteen, many girls as early as seven. Many contracted sexually transmitted diseases, and rape was common.[16] Crime, drugs, sex, and the harsh nature of life on the street had a lasting impact. Besprizornye developed qualities considered undesirable by the rest of society, and had a range of mental and physical health issues.[17]
Following the October Revolution the new
By the mid-1920s, the Soviet state was forced to realize that its resources for orphanages were inadequate, that it lacked the capacity to raise and educate the USSR's stray children. The Soviet government now initiated new policies. The state reached out to society for assistance.
During the second half of the 1920s, the conditions of orphanages improved significantly, but deficiencies remained. The Soviet state succeeded in saving stray children, but its mission of socialist upbringing stagnated.[23]
In the aftermath of the
Children of "enemies of the people", 1937–1945
The mid-1930s witnessed the
In 1937, the Politburo decided to accommodate children of the enemies of the people in normal orphanages administered by the
There were no official orders to discriminate against children of enemies of the people, yet orphanage staff often beat, underfed, and abused such pupils.[28][29] Any misbehavior was understood as the product of a counter-revolutionary upbringing, and punished harshly.[30] Treating children like budding criminals had diverse effects. In some cases, the induced "class guilt" inspired orphans to prove their loyalty to the ideals of Communism, but in other cases abusive treatment incited resentment toward the state.[31]
If judged to be "socially dangerous," the NKVD sent orphans to either a colony for young delinquents or a
War orphans, 1945–1953
With World War II came a new wave of orphans. After 1945, the NKVD was responsible for accommodating 2.5 million homeless children.[35] However, the war softened attitudes towards bereaved children, a shift which eventually led to the improvement of the welfare system. The public regarded war orphans as innocent victims rather than subversives, and many citizens dedicated themselves to providing relief. There was a reversal of the previous era's stigma; adults caught in occupied zones did not pass their criminality on to their children. The state nurtured these children alongside other war orphans.[36]
Orphanages now focused on making children feel at home. Special orphanages were built exclusively for children of officers and soldiers.
Adoption as well as long-term fostering and short-term fostering became popular during the war. From 1941–1945, 200,000 children were adopted in the Soviet Union.[43] 'Model workers' featured in propaganda were often adoptive parents.[44] Courts preferred to place children with families, taking into account the importance of love, security, and happiness in childhood.[45] The population of homeless children declined in the years after the war, largely due to the public's participation in the foster care system.[46]
German children in Kaliningrad region annexed in 1945 didn't obtain state help during some period; some of them survived in Lithuania.[47]
Orphans after Stalin, 1953–1991
The government's approach to child homelessness continued to advance in the decades following Stalin's death. During the 1960s–1980s, rising prosperity reduced the orphan population, easing the problem of overcrowding.
This period experienced a continuation of the previous era's endorsement of foster care and adoption.
During the second half of the 20th century, there was a shift in Soviet law enforcement, from pure punitive and "resocialization" approach to crime prevention, which also targeted social orphanhood. Decrees such as the 1981 "On Measures to Strengthen State Assistance to Families with Children" reflect these changes.[55] Parents became increasingly responsible for their children's misdeeds. In the late eighties, a young offender was commonly characterized as "an adolescent deprived of family warmth".[56] The number of children sent to penal colonies decreased in favor of re-education programs. Special boarding schools were created for juvenile offenders.[57]
As the Soviet Union moved toward its dissolution, the orphan population began to rise once more. In 1988, 48,000 children were classified as homeless; in 1991, this number climbed to 59,000. The economic downturn, ethnic conflicts, and food shortages contributed to these statistics.[58] Poverty defined the plight of family life in the years to come.[59]
See also
- Orphans in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union
References
- ^ Alan M. Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened: Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918–1930 (London: University of California Press, 1994), xi.
- ^ Siegelbaum, 1921: Homeless Children
- ^ Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924 (New York: Penguin, 1996), 780.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 9; Figes, A People's Tragedy, 775.
- ^ Vladimir Zenzinov, Deserted: The Story of the Children Abandoned in Soviet Russia (London: Herbert Joseph, 1931), 62–63.
- ^ Ball, "State Children," 232–233.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 60.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 52–54.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 46–47.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 56–57.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 60.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 61–62.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 63.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 71.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 76.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 78.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 80–83.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened 87.
- ^ Zenzinov, Deserted, 32.
- ^ Ball, "State Children," 230–231.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 149.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 150.
- ^ Ball, And Now My Soul Is Hardened, 174.
- ^ John A. Getty, Gabor T. Rittersporn, and Viktor N. Zemskov, "Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence," The American Historical Review 98 (1993): 1017.
- ^ Corinna Kuhr, "Children of 'Enemies of the People' as Victims of the Great Purges," Cahiers Du Monde Russe 39 (1998): 210.
- ^ Kuhr, "Victims of the Great Purges," 211-12.
- ^ Catriona Kelly, Children's World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890–1991 (New Haven: Yale UP, 2007), 238.
- ^ Kuhr, "Victims of the Great Purges," 216.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 238.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 328.
- ^ Kuhr, "Victims of the Great Purges," 209-15.
- ^ Kuhr, "Victims of the Great Purges," 211.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 233.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 237.
- ^ M. R. Zezina, "The System of Social Protection for Orphaned Children in the USSR," Russian Social Science Review 42.3 (2001): 49–51.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 243-46.
- ^ Laurie Bernstein, "Communist Custodial Contests: Adoption Rulings in the USSR after the Second World War," Journal of Social History 34 (2001): 843–61.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 53.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 243-44
- ^ Marina Balina and Evgeny A. Dobrenko, Petrified Utopia: Happiness Soviet Style (London: Anthem, 2009), 13.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 54.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 247-50.
- ^ Bernstein, "Communist Custodial Contests," 844.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 243.
- ^ Bernstein, "Communist Custodial Contests," 845.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 56.
- ^ "Home". wolfskinderproject.blogspot.de. Archived from the original on 2018-03-23. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 267.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 56–57.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 260.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 57.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 262-67.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 61.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 269-70.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 60.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 277.
- ^ Kelly, Children's World, 272-74.
- ^ Zezina, "System of Social Protection," 62.
- ^ Fiona Werge, "Child Poverty Soars in Eastern Europe," BBC News (2000)
Sources
- Ball, Alan (1993). "State Children: Soviet Russia's Besprizornye and the New Socialist Generation". The Russian Review. 52 (2): 228–247. JSTOR 131345.
- Ball, Alan M. (1994). And Now My Soul Is Hardened: Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918-1930. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20694-6.
- Lewis Siegelbaum (2012). "1921: Homeless Children". Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2012.