The problem of social orphanhood has always caused emotional discussions among specialists working in this field and caring people. It cannot be said that today it has been resolved in Russia. Perhaps the historical experience of solving problems with orphans will tell us something useful for developing modern methods of working with orphans and adapting them to society.
During the formation of Russian statehood (Rurik's Rus), care for orphans was also in private hands. The state did not care about children left without parents. This responsibility was assumed by the child's close relatives. After the Baptism of Rus and the introduction of a new ideology into the masses, the traditional attitude towards the poor, children and the suffering changed. Helping those children left without parental supervision was seen as an act of beneficence and atonement for sins. By doing such an act, a person received forgiveness and approached God.
Skudelnitsy became the first example of the social organization of orphans. Common graves in which the dead were buried from hunger, during epidemics, frozen in winter, etc. At Skudelnitsy there were guards where orphans, foundlings and abandoned children were accepted. Their upbringing was carried out by the poor elders living in these huts. The children were supported by voluntary donations from the residents of the surrounding villages and villages. Clothes, shoes, toys and food were also accepted as alms for children. Such "orphanages" in ancient times were an expression of truly popular care for children. The skodelniks monitored the health and physical condition of each child, taught them the rules of communication with people.
In addition to the poor, the church took care of orphans. If in Western Europe the church considered its main task to live and feed orphans, then the Russian church not only fed and gave shelter to children, but also healed and educated them. In Russia there was no temple or monastery that did not have an orphanage. Until the middle of the 16th century, this Christian model of working with orphans was the main one and was able to provide a solution to a complex social problem. There is information that by order of Ivan the Terrible, special almshouses were created in each city for children in need of supervision and care.
The Russian state took up measures to raise orphans only in the 17th century (the era of the Romanovs). Moreover, the state began to take care not only of the homeless, beggars, vagrants, but also of juvenile criminals.
It is no secret that child orphanhood is directly related to social cataclysms, in which intra-family relations and families themselves are destroyed. Children cannot survive on their own, therefore, as a rule, they rushed to those places where it is easier to find shelter and food - to cities. For large cities, the increase in street children has become a real disaster. During the reign of Fyodor Alekseevich, there were shelters-courtyards in the cities, in which orphans were taught crafts and literacy.
Under Peter I, the state system of caring for children in need of help was enshrined in laws and orders. Thus, the order of private charity was regulated. New shelters “for shameful babies” were opened - illegitimate babies were accepted there and the secret of their origin was ensured. Near each church, so-called "goshpitali" were arranged, in which it was possible to throw a baby, keeping the names of the parents secret. The state treasury paid for the work of all these "reception departments" for abandoned babies. Children grew up and they were given either to adoptive parents or to almshouses, and boys who reached ten years of age were given to sailors.
Peter I declared the struggle against begging, including begging for children. Young beggars were caught and given a feasible job. Gradually, the “secret” reception of children was replaced by the “explicit” one, when help was provided to a specific mother with a baby: she was given food, money, clothes, offered work in an orphanage and everything possible so that the child would stay with her and not become an orphan. If the woman did not stay in the shelter, then for two years she was paid child support.
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Catherine II made her contribution to helping orphans. She created educational homes. So, in the code of the Moscow Orphanage, the importance of a humane and careful attitude towards children was fixed, all corporal punishment was prohibited, the importance of physical education was affirmed, and great attention was paid to the education of a positive outlook on the world. In the St. Petersburg and Moscow orphanages, children mastered various crafts. The workshops trained rural teachers, nannies, healers, midwives, telegraph operators, skippers for the merchant marine, and road patrolmen. All children who lived and studied in orphanages had an important privilege - "they and their descendants remained free."
All these orphanages received significant funds from the state and private benefactors. However, it must be admitted that in most of these houses there was a barracks atmosphere, embezzlement and poverty. The result of the work of such orphanages was deplorable. The morbidity and mortality rate in them reached a high level - only 15% of the pupils survived in such conditions. At the same time, in church orphanages, the survival rate was the same as in any peasant family. All orphanages were liquidated, and the children were transferred to peasant families. In this connection, for a long time the state policy of helping street children was reduced to providing conditions for orphans to live in foster families, church and private shelters.
At the end of the 18th century, the contingent in need of help from society and the state increased significantly, it included: orphans; infants whose mothers had no means of subsistence or were sick; all children born out of wedlock whose mothers need help; foundlings. Agricultural colonies were opened for young vagrants. The first such colony was opened in 1819 on the estate of Count Y. Rumyantsev (Gomel volost).
In 1837, the first secular orphanage was opened at the Demidov House for daytime supervision of children whose mothers went to work.
In 1842, the Moscow Board of Trustees of orphanages began work. His main activity was the organization of classes with poor children in the daytime, whose parents were working. And by the end of the 19th century, the state paid special attention to minors who “fell into vices and crimes”: special shelters were opened for them. In these orphanages, children were taught not only to read, but also to craft, and all the pupils participated in the work related to the functioning of these orphanages: they cleaned, washed clothes, repaired, etc. The organizers of these orphanages took on the responsibility of caring for the pupils: they arranged jobs, provided moral and material support, and offered shelter to those who had nowhere to go after leaving the orphanage. The main goal of working with difficult adolescents was the education of high moral standards,responsible and competent person.
In 1893, Grand Duchess Elizabeth founded the Blue Cross organization, which took over the care of poor and sick children, as well as those who suffered from abuse. Under the auspices of this organization, shelters and dormitories with workshops were created.
At the end of the 19th century, such an extensive network of charitable institutions and societies working with children functioned in Russia that it outstripped the social and professional work of similar systems in Western Europe for many years. At the beginning of the twentieth century, more than 19 thousand boards of trustees operated in Russia, having significant funds at their disposal. Boards of trustees regulated teaching and educational work in homes for poor children, supervised night shelters for vagrant children, and also oversaw the work of public canteens. A stable positive attitude towards caring for children in need was formed in society. The best option was considered if it was possible to keep the child in his family. According to the calculations carried out then, it was much cheaper to support the mother and pay her benefits,than to keep the baby in the shelter.
After the revolution, when charity was considered a relic of the past, and the church was separated from the state, the state took over all the care of the neglected children. The most acute social cataclysms, like the First World War, three revolutions, the Civil War, led to an increase in the number of orphans. For comparison: before the revolution in Russia there were 2.5 million homeless people, and in 1921 there were already 4.5 million. The state faced the most difficult task of returning children who found themselves in difficult life situations to society. The Bolsheviks created an institution SPON (social and legal protection of minors), which was engaged in identifying and raising neglected children. All government departments and the public were looking for the homeless. The homeless child was sent either to an orphanage, or to a colony or commune,or to the reception and distribution point. Then the children were returned to their parents, or handed over for adoption, or employed. The children's social inspection carefully monitored the observance of the rights of the child. Efforts were not in vain - by 1935, homelessness in the USSR was practically eliminated. This was also facilitated by a large number of vocational schools and technical schools, the organization of leisure work, and an increase in the material situation of the majority of workers.and an increase in the material situation of the majority of workers.and an increase in the material situation of the majority of workers.
The Second World War brought grief to the whole country and children were no exception: "Now that thousands of Soviet children have lost their families and were left homeless," wrote the newspaper Pravda, "their needs must be equated with the needs of the Front." Children of the war were no longer treated as homeless, they were considered victims of the war. Boarding schools and orphanages were created for them. The population, soldiers and officers transferred funds to special accounts of orphanages and boarding schools.
In the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, special children's rooms were created, where street children, foundlings and small fugitives were brought. Then the children received shelter, clothes, food and shoes in the children's reception centers. During the war years, the bulk of refugee children were from the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the western regions of the USSR. Some children were looking for a place where they could survive, others were eager to get to the front. Children's romantics and street children were distributed among children's institutions, where they were taught, organized their leisure time, and developed a love for sports. Meetings with front-line soldiers were of great importance for the children.
Although in the postwar years, work with street children went in two directions: their placement on full state support in children's institutions or in a family, preference was given to the first method. The idea of the superiority of social upbringing prevailed, so children were further and further separated from their parents. The composition of inmates of institutions for orphans also changed, replenishment came at the expense of those "whose parents could not support and raise children due to need, illness, disability or an immoral lifestyle." According to statistics, in 1954 124 thousand children passed through the children's reception center: among them 43% of those who left the family due to lack of attention to them, 17% left their families due to material difficulties, and 14% are just amateurs travel.
Children who became orphans with living parents today are called “social orphans”. In our time, this phenomenon takes on a threatening character.
Let us compare some figures of the orphaned in the 20th century during the great upheavals: in 1922 - 540 thousand children, 1945 - 678 thousand, 2001 - 663 thousand orphans.
Today, the majority of children left without parental care are classified as “social orphans”. Among them are those whose parents are deprived of parental rights, or have limited rights. Although in each specific case there are court decisions and numerous commissions work, this does not make it easier for orphans. And no one will say that upbringing in orphanages, even if it is well provided for and equipped, can replace a loving family for a child.
It may be worth using the experience of our ancestors and making every effort to help the family. Then the child will not lose either parental support or the love of a loved one.