Orphanages are an initiative that emerged in Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great. Such houses were built in Moscow and St. Petersburg and were intended for orphans, foundlings and other "dysfunctional" babies. Initially, it was assumed that these houses would be a salvation for such babies: here they will be fed, provided with maintenance, and also taught to read and write. However, in practice, everything turned out to be not so rosy: orphanages became a place of mass infant deaths …
The orphanage in Moscow was founded by Catherine II on September 1, 1763 / lifeglobe.net
The Moscow Orphanage began its work in 1764, the St. Petersburg one - four years later. It was assumed that in such houses children would be brought up, who, having matured, would form the so-called. "Third estate", will work in factories and develop production, will be successful merchants or people of art. The work of the Orphanages was supervised by a specially assembled Board of Trustees. It was the responsibility of the guardians and trustees to collect donations for the maintenance of the children, since no government funding was allocated. Catherine herself regularly donated thousands of donations to houses, and she also called on her closest associates.
Orphanage in Moscow. Photo: lifeglobe.net
Children were brought to the Orphanage anonymously, the children were willingly accepted without documents. There was also a maternity ward at the institution, where obstetricians provided assistance to women in labor. The babies born were also sent to the Orphanages.
It would seem that the initiative was excellent, but no positive results were achieved. First, there was the problem of feeding babies, which were carried in hundreds of homes. If the staff of nurses turned out to be "understaffed", a series of starvation followed immediately. Secondly, epidemics constantly happened in homes, medicine was still at a primitive level. Despite the fact that the houses were designed for raising children until they reach the age of 16, in fact, no more than 10% of the pupils survived to this figure.
Scenes from the life of the Orphanage in the early 1880s. Photo: ru.wikipedia.org
In total, about 30-40 thousand children were admitted to both houses annually, but, contrary to expectations, the establishments did not grow, but functioned as usual. The number of pupils was regulated by "natural selection". Changes took place in 1830: according to the order of Nicholas I, children were now taken to Orphanages for several months, when there were free wet nurses, and then they were assigned to be raised in peasant families. True, almost half of the children simply did not live to see this redistribution.
Promotional video:
Pupils of the nursing department of the St. Petersburg Imperial Orphanage in cribs during a quiet hour. Photo: historymed.ru
The procedure for admitting children changed in 1891, it was decided to accept only babies with documents, and to transfer foundlings to the police for further investigation. Peasant families who agreed to take their children for upbringing were charged a monthly allowance - up to 4 rubles a month. The money was paid until the child was 15 (for girls) and 17 (for boys).
Babysitters of the St. Petersburg Imperial Orphanage with children in their arms in the nursing department, 1913. KK Bulla's photo studio. Photo: citywalls.ru
In order to control the adoptive parents, a system of filling the children was introduced: a cord with a medallion was put on for each pet of the Orphanage (and this is exactly what the children were called at that time). Such a decoration was sealed, so it was impossible to "outweigh" it to another child. Money was issued upon presentation of the seal. Today this method may seem inhuman, but at that time it was difficult to come up with other ways of "marking" adopted children. There were no photographs, the police officers could not remember each baby in the face, and the peasants often used this, “replacing” the deceased adopted child with their own, close to him in age.