The NKVD of the Far East in the Fight Against Child Homelessness and Neglect (1941–1945)

Abstract

The problem of child homelessness and neglect in the USSR became one of the grave socio-economic consequences of the Great Patriotic war. These phenomena, instilling in children the skills of antisocial behavior, contribute to the criminalization of the younger generation, the degradation of future labor resources. This publication, based on documentary sources, a significant part of which is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, aims to analyze and summarize the historical experience of the NKVD of the Far Eastern region in the fight against homelessness and neglect in wartime conditions. The author solves the following problems: analysis of factors contributing to the sharp increase in the phenomena under consideration during the war in the Far East; characteristics of organizational forms and methods used by the NKVD in order to combat child homelessness and neglect; research of the reasons that negatively affected the effectiveness of the internal affairs bodies in this direction. The research uses the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency, as well as general scientific and special methods of historical science. As a result of the study, it is concluded that the Far Eastern NKVD bodies were able to achieve significant success by the end of 1945 in countering homelessness, neglect and child crime, however, for a number of objective reasons, they were not able to completely neutralize the negative impact of these phenomena on the Far Eastern society, which affected the level of its criminalization in subsequent years. Organizational forms and methods of combating child homelessness and neglect evolved during the war years, responding to the aggravation of the nature of the problem. In the organizational structure of the NKVD bodies, such elements as departments for combating child homelessness and neglect, children’s rooms of the police, labor educational colonies for minors appeared; interaction with the active public of the region was intensified. Keywords: Far East; children’s police rooms, NKVD receivers and distributors; NKVD bodies, World War II; homelessness and neglect