Orphanages of Zaporizhzhia Province in the Years of Mass Artificial Famine (1921—1923)

Abstract

The article analyzes the state of orphanages in Zaporizhzhia province during the mass artificial famine of 1921–1923 to explain the dynamics of how they were created and why they were closed, to characterize the attitude of Zaporizhzhia party nomenclature towards the aid for children starving in the orphanages. Statistics on the number of children's shelters and the number of children in them are summarized; on the basis of archival documents the author's tables of calculating the dynamics of movement of a contingent in shelters of Zaporizhzhia province are made; social and living conditions of children who were brought up there are disclosed.The mass artificial famine of 1921–1923 had devastating consequences for the starving provinces of Ukraine: the Bolshevik prodrozkladka exhausted the Ukrainian peasantry, and the famine was especially raging in the southern Ukrainian provinces, where more than 40% of the population were affected. The situation was aggravated by the systematic arrival in Ukraine of children from the Russian provinces, as a result of which the orphanages of the USSR were overcrowded, and the level of their provision with food and industrial goods was characterized by poverty.In 1921–1923, the Bolshevik Communist regime deliberately created a situation in which Ukrainians died en masse from artificial starvation. However, it was noted that the government had claimed responsibility for the crime. This was probably done unknowingly, but the presence of reports describing the poverty of shelters and recording the mass mortality of children suggests that officials were aware of the causes of the famine and its nature, and knew the names of its organizers. However, a caste of communist party nomenclature had already begun to form, which, under the guise of propaganda rhetoric, sought to seize control of food resources and people. In our opinion, the aggravating factor was the fact that Bolshevik officials appointed the management of shelters not on a professional but on a class basis. In Ukraine, the mass artificial famine of 1921–1923 significantly adjusted the juvenile policy of the Soviet system. It became distorted by ideology, corruption and bureaucracy, and children were turned into zombies by communist judgments.