In loco parentis: Junior Cadet Schools in the Soviet Union during the Second World War

Abstract

The suffering and devastation visited upon Soviet society during the Second World War was unprecedented in scale and intensity. A soaring number of orphaned and unsupervised or neglected (beznadzornye) children became one of the tragic consequences of the starvation, epidemics, overwork and extreme poverty that accompanied the all-out mobilisation of the population for war production and military service. The regime’s own myopic policies of repression and the forced displacement of its subjects drove more children to the margins of society. Having sent their parents either to the front, to the factory or to the labour camp, the state had to assume greater responsibility for the children left behind, and to stand in loco parentis in the face of disintegrating family structures and social support networks.