The Impact of the Siege on the Physical Development of Children

Abstract

Growth studies are very important for what they tell us about vital activity. Individual morphometric differences are genetically and environmentally conditioned. Statistics on the growth and development of children of all ages are of particular significance because they reflect the most intensive period in the establishment of body shape and functions. In addition, many constituents of blood and organs alter along with growth. Great attention was paid to the health of children in the Soviet Union, and the health of the rising generation was also a key problem during the war in besieged Leningrad, as is shown by a series of decrees of the Leningrad Soviet and gorkom.1 Physical development is one of the most important pointers to the state of health of children. A. G. Tsetlin gives the following definition: ‘We take human physical development to be the totality of morphological and functional characters in their interconnection with and dependence on environmental conditions in which the central nervous system plays a determining role.’2