Measures of social Support and Protection of Motherhood and Childhood in the Irkutsk Region and B-MASSR (1936-1953)

Burdina Dar'ya Aleksandrovna Postgraduate student, Department of International Relations and Customs, Baikal State University 664003, Russia, Irkutsk region, Irkutsk, Lenin str., 11 lisa-udachi@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Social policy has always been a key component of the general political course of the state. In the broadest sense, it should be understood as a way to meet the needs of citizens, and in a narrow sense – a tool for resolving contradictions in the social sphere. Most often, researchers include the following four main sectors of society in the concept of "social policy": demography, labor, personal income and social infrastructure.

A special place in social policy is given to the development of measures aimed at supporting motherhood and childhood. In the Soviet Union, this issue was more relevant than ever, since since the creation of the state, the regulation of family relations and demographic situation has become one of the leading tasks of the country.

Among the researchers of this topic, it is important to note the works of E. N. Afanasova, E. V. Banzaraktsayeva, A.V. Shalak ^{[1, 2, 3]}. The authors made a significant contribution to the study of the social history of Eastern Siberia. E. N. Afanasova considered in detail the issues of child protection in the Irkutsk region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the pre-war period ^[1]. E. V. Banzaraktsayeva conducted a study of measures to support families with children in Buryatia during the Great Patriotic War ^[2]. A.V. Shalak considered the issue under study in the context of the situation of the population of Eastern Siberia during the war period ^[3].

Social policy in the field of motherhood and childhood was regulated by the legal framework of the Soviet state, which actually divided the subject under study into three main stages of its implementation. Thus, it is advisable to consider social policy, limited to the following periods:

- 1936-1940 – the period of formation of social support measures for motherhood and childhood, as well as their constitutional consolidation;

- 19441-1945 – the period of the Great Patriotic War, in which the state needed to mobilize all means to support not only the front, but also the rear;

- 1946-1953 – post-war social policy in the field of motherhood and childhood, aimed at increasing the birth rate and improving the financial situation of families with children.

An important impetus in the development of the social sphere of the USSR was the adoption of the Constitution of 1936. Article 122 of the document for the first time guaranteed the protection of the interests of the mother and child by the state, the country's assistance to large and single mothers. Women were also granted maternity leave with maintenance for the first time. Emphasis was placed on the development of a wide network of maternity hospitals, nurseries and kindergartens. The Constitution of the USSR of 1936 became the basis for the beginning of the adoption of new legislation regulating the foundations of social policy in relation to motherhood and childhood.

Within the framework of legally fixed guarantees, the Decree of the CEC of the USSR No. 65, the SNK of the USSR No. 1134 of 27.06.1936 was issued "On the prohibition of abortions, increasing financial assistance to women in labor, establishing state assistance to multi-family families, expanding the network of maternity hospitals, nurseries and kindergartens, strengthening criminal penalties for non-payment of alimony and on some changes in the legislation on divorce". This Resolution defined the following features of social security for motherhood and childhood, as well as the foundations of family policy of the state:

- a ban on abortions has been introduced, except in cases where there is a threat to the life and health of the mother, with severe hereditary diseases, as well as exclusively in maternity hospitals. For violation of the law, a penalty of up to two years in prison was imposed on a doctor (up to 3 years if there was no medical education), as well as public censure, and on the second attempt – a fine of up to 300 rubles. for women who committed the act;

- alimony has been introduced for collective farm mothers in workdays. This measure assumes that if both former spouses work on the same collective farm, the father's workdays are deducted as alimony to the mother's workdays. At the same time, for non-payment of alimony, the child's father was threatened with up to two years in prison with payment of the costs of searching for a negligent parent;

- the main measures of social protection of minors have been defined. In relation to them, the application of measures of a medical and pedagogical nature, and not judicial and correctional, is determined. The use of measures of a judicial and correctional nature has become possible in relation to minors from 14 to 16 years old if the Commission on Juvenile Affairs recognizes the need to apply such measures;

- social protection measures of a compulsory nature have been introduced: compulsory treatment, placement in a medical institution in isolation;

- the measures of a medical and pedagogical nature were recognized as the return to the care of parents, relatives, if they have the opportunity to support a minor, as well as placement in a special medical and educational institution;

- the state's financial assistance to women in labor has been increased and state assistance to parents with many children has been established. Benefits were increased from 32 to 45 rubles, and a mother's allowance for feeding a child in the amount of 10 rubles was also paid. Payments to uninsured persons were made from mutual assistance cash registers;

- the allowance for mothers with many children was established depending on the number of children born in the family [CEC of the USSR No. 65, SNK of the USSR No. 1134 of 06/27/1936].

In the Baikal region, the Barguzin aim executive Committee was one of the first to pay benefits. Payments in December 1936 were received by five mothers with many children, for four of whom they amounted to 2000 rubles, and for one – 4000 rubles ^[4]. In the Kuytunsky district, similar payments were addressed by the State Bank to 10 women. In turn, mothers with many children addressed letters of gratitude personally to I. V. Stalin. In 1940, mothers with many children of the Irkutsk region received 750 thousand rubles of benefits. On average, from 1936 to 1940, they were paid 12-18 thousand. Only in the Irkutsk region in 1940, 360 mothers received this benefit ^[5]. In all official documents concerning women and children, it was emphasized that the upbringing of children – the future builders of communism – is recognized as a responsible and honorable task of the Soviet woman.

The resolution of the CEC of the USSR No. 65, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 1134 of 27.06.1936 proclaimed measures that were really necessary for the state. The main directions of support for the institution of family, motherhood and childhood showed the following trends in the development of Soviet society: in contrast to the policy of the first post-revolutionary decade, active propaganda of the cult of motherhood and childhood began, large families were encouraged, including through financial incentives.

When studying social policy in the field of motherhood and childhood in 1936-1940, it is also worth considering the policy regarding minors. Thus, the Decree of the CEC of the USSR No. 3, the SNK of the USSR No. 5 of 07.04.1935 "On measures to combat juvenile delinquency" continued to operate, in which it was determined that acts committed by minors who have reached the age of 12, convicted of theft, causing violence, bodily injury, mutilation, murder or in attempts to murder. Punishment was also introduced for inciting minors to the listed acts.

Some features of the legal responsibility of minors were determined by the norms of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Article 50 was determined to reduce the term of imprisonment or forced labor for minors, depending on the age of the offender: the term was halved if the minor was from 14 to 16 years old, from 16 years – by one third.

Specialized labor houses were opened for minors, in which they had to serve their sentences until the moment of correction. However, upon reaching the age of 18, it was no longer possible to stay in labor houses, so in practice early release or transfer to a colony was applied.

As D. A. Krasnov notes, in 1940, 77% of the total number of convicted minors were convicted precisely for theft, only 4% for hooliganism, and the total number of serious violent crimes committed by them was insignificant ^{[6, p. 97]}. However, the general state of affairs caused alarm, which was fully justified during the war years.

In general, in 1936-1940 a significant leap was made in the material support of motherhood and childhood, which became the foundation for the development of the social sphere, social protection and provision.

During the Great Patriotic War, there were changes in the legislation dictated by the conditions of wartime. By the decisions of the Executive Committee of the Irkutsk Regional Council of Workers' Deputies No. 175 of February 4, 1942 and No. 212 of February 11, 1942 in the Irkutsk Region, an allowance of 2000 rubles was assigned to mothers with many children annually until the child reaches 5 years [Decisions of the Executive Committee of the Irkutsk Regional Council of February 4, 1942 No. 175, of February 11, 1942 No. 212].

The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 10, 1942 on local taxes and fees introduced duties for the registration of marriages, divorces, change of names and surnames, for the restoration and modification of civil status records. The exception was the issuance of birth and death certificates, as well as adoption.

Since in wartime the entire social sphere was focused on the mobilization of labor resources, it is impossible not to mention the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 26, 1941 "On the working hours of workers and employees in wartime." According to Article 2 of this Decree, persons under the age of 16 may be involved in mandatory overtime work lasting no more than two hours a day. The decree also prohibited the involvement of pregnant women in compulsory work, starting from the 6th month of pregnancy, as well as nursing mothers during 6 months of feeding. These categories of the population were paid overtime in one and a half times.

The Decree of September 8, 1943 "On adoption" played an important role. The decree determined the possibility of assigning the surname and patronymic of the adoptive parent at his own request, as well as recording the adoptive parent as a parent. In addition, it was determined that the adoption of children who have reached the age of ten, the assignment of their surname and patronymic by the name of the adoptive parent, as well as the registration of adoptive parents as parents without the consent of the adoptees is not allowed ^[7].

In the Irkutsk region, the adoption of children who have lost contact with their parents into families has become widespread. Back in January 1942, the USSR Council of People's Commissars issued Resolution No. 75 "On the arrangement of children left without parents." In particular, in Kirensk, Tulun, Cheremkhovo and many other district centers, families appealed to the chairmen of local government bodies with a request to send them to raise children in need of supervision and guardianship. People were ready to accept several children at once, providing them with proper care. During the days of the war, more than a hundred children were taken for adoption from the Irkutsk Mother and Child Home and Orphanage No. 4 alone ^{[8, p. 4]}. There was no such wide distribution of foster families in Buryatia.

Republican and regional commissions for work with children left without parents were created in the Irkutsk region and the BMASSR in order to prevent child homelessness. The main task of the regional commission was the placement of children, the organization of control over their lives in conditions of adoption or homelessness. The same bodies assisted the NKVD in establishing and registering street children. A reference and address service for children's tables was deployed in Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude ^{[2, p. 63]}.

On March 5, 1942, a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the BMASSR "On the arrangement of children left without parents" was issued in Buryatia. The commission included local leaders of such bodies as the Department of Public Education, the police, representatives of trade unions and the Komsomol. Led by Comrade Bolsokhoev, active work was underway to distribute children to children's institutions or foster families. Orphanages worked continuously, but family custody of children who lost contact with relatives was not as large as in the neighboring Irkutsk region. Starting from adolescence, all able-bodied children were sent to industrial enterprises, where working conditions were organized for them. It was mandatory to provide such children with housing ^{[9, op. 3, d. 244, l. 26]}.

The responsibility to facilitate the everyday existence of working women mothers was placed on the shoulders of local government bodies. Both in the Irkutsk region and in the BMASSR, women regularly received benefits, could attach themselves to public catering places, had ration cards, and received guarantees for the placement of children in nurseries and kindergartens, if available. To improve the nutrition of needy children, the Council of People's Commissars of Buryatia in 1943 allocated funds for the opening of 6 additional children's canteens in Ulan-Ude, Nizhneangarsk, Kyakhta and Ust-Barguzin. For emaciated children and children with diseases, additional rations were issued. As A. N. Soboleva notes, the situation in cities was much more favorable than in villages and villages. Even with their own vegetable gardens, people could not feed their children ^{[10, p. 64]}. Constant hunger led to the fact that the children did not experience either sad or joyful feelings. In the memoirs of M. Fedorov notes: "The guests had fun, sang, and at the end of the evening they talked about the war, cried and dreamed of victory. And we were waiting for them to leave, sit down at the table and eat what's left" ^{[11, p. 51]}.

The next step in the legal regulation of the institute of motherhood and childhood was the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 8 , 1944 . The decree decreed the payment of state benefits to large families (including families with only one parent) in case of the birth of the third and subsequent children. Previously, such payments were possible only at the birth of the seventh child in the family. The allowance was paid monthly, but only from the second year of the child's birth for the period up to the age of five. Support measures for single mothers allowed them to receive payments until the children reached the age of sixteen, and in the case of being in training – up to eighteen years.

The decree also established maternity leave, which increased from 63 to 77 calendar days, increased labor rations for pregnant women and nursing mothers, expanded the system of benefits for paying for kindergartens.

In order to actively implement the Decree, the Ulan-Ude City Committee conducted an inspection of the working conditions of pregnant women and nursing mothers. The inspection of the PVZ, the glass factory and the meat processing plant found that the restrictions for these categories of workers are fully respected, but no separate accounting of such workers is made. Hygiene rooms are organized for women in enterprises, but there is no help for sick people. There was also no accounting of large and single mothers, families in need of help. The report indicates that material and food assistance is not fully provided ^{[12, op.2, d.1113, l. 58]}. The decree also introduced new incentives and rewards for mothers.

The presentation of medals and orders in the Baikal region was not organized immediately. As of November 1944, not a single case on awarding mothers was presented in Buryatia. The City Committee of Ulan-Ude regarded this fact as a lack of attention in relation to women with many children, since until 1944 only in the capital of the republic there were 178 mothers with 7-9 children, whose age already reached 5 years ^{[12, op.2, d.1113, l. 62]}.

 Special attention was paid to the support of military families. The primary party organizations and executive committees of village councils were charged with the duty to timely transmit to the district council information on the appointment of benefits for women and children from the families of Red Army soldiers ^{[13, op. 3, ed. hr. 269, l. 39]}. By the decree of the Bureau of the Irkutsk Regional Committee of the Komsomol "On the work of Komsomol organizations to help children of front-line soldiers" dated August 24, 1942, special brigades were created that were supposed to verify the correctness of payments of benefits to military families, assess the standard of living of families and identify problematic aspects of their provision ^{[13, op. 3, ed. hr. 269, l. 39]}.

These measures made it possible to maintain the minimum necessary standard of living of the population at a time when most men were at the front. During the Great Patriotic War, women and children more than anyone else needed the help of the state, which it provided within the possible limits that the war allowed.

According to the report of the Irkutsk regional Komsomol organization, during the war in the Irkutsk region, 900 thousand rubles were allocated for the payment of allowances for schoolchildren ^{[14, op. 1, unit ch. 369, l. 43]}. Additional support measures were taken in certain districts, mainly aimed at the families of the dead front-line soldiers, as well as orphans. Thus, in the Usolsky district, assistance was provided for women and children in the form of material support totaling 471 thousand rubles, as well as 1300 kg of flour, 85 liters of milk, 7 kg of butter, 11 quintals of potatoes ^{[14, op. 5, units of hr. 93, l. 55]}.

After the end of the war, the state faced the most important task – the restoration of the country. The main goal of the policy in the field of motherhood and childhood was to increase the birth rate and stabilize the demographic situation.

In 1947, a new amount of state benefits for large and single mothers was established. According to the Decree, the state reduced the payment of cash benefits by almost half, officially explaining this step by increasing the purchasing power of the ruble, however, it can be assumed that this measure was associated with an increase in the birth rate in the first post-war years [Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 25, 1947]. The allowance for single mothers was set at 50 rubles to 100 rubles. rub. per month depending on the number of children in the family.

An important change in the post-war period was the adoption of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 19, 1949 "On improving the state assistance to large and single mothers and improving the working and living conditions of women" ^{[16, p. 256]}. According to Article 4 of the Decree, criminal liability was imposed on persons who refused to hire breastfeeding mothers or reduced their wages for these reasons. This decree also established that when a child was transferred to a single mother to a guardian, an allowance was paid to the guardian. Pregnant women were given the opportunity to switch to another job at their place of residence while maintaining continuous work experience. Also, single mothers with an income below 600 rubles were given a discount on kindergarten fees.

At the regional level, special attention was paid to the health of children and mothers. The BMASSR has significantly expanded the network of maternity hospitals and women's consultations, children's medical and preventive and health-improving institutions. As of 1950, 504 beds were deployed for children in hospitals, which is almost 10 times more than in 1940. New pioneer camps have opened their doors, special wellness groups have appeared in kindergartens. In 1949, 6,750 students spent their summer holidays in pioneer camps. The number of places in maternity hospitals has increased by 1.5 times. The number of pediatricians and obstetricians-gynecologists grew in hospitals. Morbidity in the republic and infant mortality have significantly decreased ^{[17, op. 1, d. 150, l. 40]}.

 In the Irkutsk region, mothers' health also began to pay more attention. Since the early 50s, women's health surveys have been conducted regularly, which showed that expectant mothers suffer from a lack of vitamins C and D, as a result of which their immunity becomes weakened, and born children often have chronic diseases and poor health. In the Nizhneudinsky district in 1953, on the initiative of the women's council, a competition was announced for the cleanest child. It was a creative attempt to raise the level of sanitary and hygienic condition of the population in the post-war years ^{[18, p. 78]}.

In the Baikal region, the shortage of medical institutions and personnel was felt the most, drug treatment was not always effective. High mortality and low birth rate prompted the Government to expand the range of social measures. The fight against homelessness and child crime continued, and there was an active search for relatives lost during the war. The issues of combating homelessness were among the most urgent for the country in this period ^{[19, 20]}.

In general, the course of social policy in the post-war years underwent significant changes, but the emphasis on supporting and protecting the institution of motherhood and childhood remained until 1953, and after the death of I. V. Stalin it was completely revised and changed.

Thus, the normative and legal support of social policy in the field of motherhood and childhood began to develop with the adoption of the USSR Constitution of 1936. New benefits, social guarantees for mothers, measures to support and protect motherhood and childhood were introduced. All legislative acts of the USSR, which formed the basis of the country's social policy, contain legal norms applied in practice by the authorities and local self-government, regulating relations in the field of support and protection of the institution of motherhood and childhood. The considered regulatory framework became the basis of Soviet social policy, but the mechanism of its implementation on the ground was often difficult, which makes this topic relevant for consideration in a regional context.

Support for motherhood and childhood in the USSR was one of the priorities of social policy, which was given sufficient attention at the level of decision-making and legislative regulation. Local government bodies, even in the crisis conditions of wartime, created guarantees to improve the social and financial situation of mothers and children. On the territory of the Baikal region – in the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia – social policy in the field of motherhood and childhood had its own specifics. Its implementation largely depended on local governments, as well as on the attitude of people to each other, to the problems of their country. Active Soviet propaganda, solidarity, and indifference contributed to the fact that the state was able to survive one of the most difficult periods of its existence and restore the infrastructure from ruin with universal efforts.

The experience of Soviet social policy in relation to motherhood and childhood is a vivid example of how the state mobilizes all forces and means to solve socially important tasks. The foundation of social support measures laid down by the USSR Constitution of 1936 allowed creating a bulwark for further development of the social sphere. In subsequent periods, the course of social policy in relation to motherhood and childhood has been corrected more than once, but it contains valuable experience, which is largely relevant to this day.

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