Social status of abandoned children in the Russian Empire in the end of the XIX – the beginning of the XX centuries (on the example of Volyn province)

Abstract

Being based on a wide source material the article defines the social status of abandoned children in the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth – early twentieth centuries (on the example of Volyn province). The causes of the occurrence of abusers are analyzed, their number is calculated, the role of the state and the public in solving the orphanage problem is shown. The author pays considerable attention to the functioning of the Zhytomyr Orphanage, shows the algorithm of caring for the abandoned children in it. The article contains valuable statistical material on the number of children abandoned and killed in Volyn province, which demonstrates the dynamics of this phenomenon in the early twentieth century. The turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a time of rapid development of the processes of modernization and urbanization, which also determined a significant transformation of marital and family values, and the Institute of the Family itself underwent dramatic changes. Unemployment, low pay, poor living conditions combined with excessively high expectations of urban lifestyles have led to an increase in the number of illegitimate and abandoned children and the spread of child loss. Orders for public care and zemstvos were taken to solve the urgent problem of orphans' appearance, orphanages and shelters were run by the latter. The problem was solved by the media, which constantly informed the public about the cases of the abduction of children, published brief reports on their activities. The article makes a comparative analysis of the functioning of educational establishments and Zemsky institutions in the territory of the Russian Empire. Much attention is paid to the high mortality rate (70–100%), which is associated with the existence of a long bureaucratic procedure for the registration of infants. The author analyzes the soundness of the existence of “windows of life” in the provincial public institutions, which, on the one hand, managed to save the life of a kid, but on the other – these nurseries pushed women to throw their own children in order not to participate in their upbringing.