Everyday life of orphanages of the Yenisei province in the Early Soviet period

Kattsina Tatyana Anatolevna ORCID: 0000-0001-6566-9678 Doctor of History Associate Professor, Department of Theory and Methods of Social Work, Siberian Federal University 660074, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Krai region, Krasnoyarsk, Maerchaka str., 6 ksetishkina@mail.ru Mezit Lyudmila Edgarovna ORCID: 0000-0003-3341-4237 PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Russian History, Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University 660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, ul. Kurchatov, 1a, sq. 79 mezit@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Tishkina Kseniya Alekseevna ORCID: 0000-0002-2342-0548 PhD in History Research Fellow, Office for the Development of Scientific Activities 660049, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodny str., 79 ksetishkina@mail.ru

Interest in the history of everyday life and the phenomenon of childhood has undoubtedly grown recently. The study of everyday life makes it possible to find out the difference between the image of an ideal childhood created by political propaganda and the real childhood of that time. There are still different opinions about the subject of the history of everyday life, an overview of which is given, for example, by N. L. Pushkareva^[20].

The proposed article draws attention to the everyday life of orphanages in the early 1920s in a particular region. The interest in children is explained by their position as an object of increased political and ideological influence and, at the same time, the subject of the historical process in the period under study.

Among the works devoted to children's institutions of the early Soviet period, we single out the studies of T.M. Smirnova ^[24], A.A. Salnikova ^[23], E. N. Afanasova ^{[1, 2]}, Z.U. Kolokolnikova , O.B. Lobanova ^[18] and, where the analysis of the activities of state bodies on various aspects of child protection, the implementation of this policy on the ground, the creation of a system of state social children's institutions.

The history of everyday life of children's social institutions of the early Soviet period is rarely studied. The most interesting are the works of M.A. Perova ^[21,22], A.V. Chebakovskaya ^[25], which reconstruct the everyday practices of children's social institutions in the 1920s based on the materials of specific regions (Ural, Karelia). There is no such study based on the materials of the Yenisei Province.

The source base of the study was made up of regulatory documents of higher authorities (resolutions, decrees, etc.), which give a detached picture of what is happening, idealize the state's policy towards children, where supply, financing and other problems are solved properly. It is necessary to treat them critically, because they sometimes have nothing to do with reality. The most valuable are office documents (acts of surveys, protocols of public commissions, etc.) conducted by third parties interested in normalizing the situation in orphanages and stopping the flight from orphanages. Such documents were compiled directly during the visit to the orphanage, i.e. they were close to the object of study and therefore differ in greater reliability.

Methodology and methods of research. The leading method of research is historical and anthropological. The state of the material base of children's social institutions, the diet of street children and orphans, etc. is considered from the standpoint of the interrelationships between social structures and the practice of the subject. A detailed study of a particular person, his daily practices, allows us to understand how individual requests were interfaced with real opportunities.

The historical and systematic method contributed to the consideration of the state social policy in relation to children as an integral system of interrelated measures, depending on changes in the political and economic sphere. The use of the historical-comparative method made it possible to carry out a comparative analysis of the implementation of the state social policy in relation to children on a national and regional scale, rural and urban areas.

After the end of the civil war, the number of homeless, neglected children and orphans increased. However, not a single department (Narkompros, Narkomzdrav, Narkomsobes and NKVD), subordinate to which there were orphanages in the Yenisei province, had complete information about the number of homeless and neglected children, as well as could not provide clear coordination of actions, proper management of institutions of social and legal protection of childhood ^{[18, p.67]}. According to archival data, at the beginning of 1920 there were shelters and orphanages in the province – 21 with 1612 children, mostly orphans, in 1921 there were already 37 such institutions, in 1922 – 42, with the number of children 2,268 and 2,630, respectively ^{[19, p.123]}.Most of the orphanages in the province belonged to Engubono.

Archival materials show that during the 1920s in the Yenisei province, as in the country as a whole, a system of children's social institutions was formed, which were designed to help minors homeless and orphans to survive and socialize. Orphanages played a leading role among them. The general rules for the organization of orphanages were adopted back in 1918 and provided for the beginning of work, schooling, wide participation of children in self-service, self-government, cleanliness, discipline ^{[3, l. 13-13 about]}. Orphanages were designed to prepare children for the future independent life, as real citizens of the Soviet country.

Unfortunately, until the end of the 1920s, there was no unified system of children's institutions in the country. In the early 1920s, there were three types of orphanages in the RSFSR: pre-school orphanages for children from 3 to 7 years old; orphanages for school-age children from 8 to 15 years old, labor communes (urban or rural) for teenagers from 13 to 16 years old who did not attend school and who were it is necessary to give elementary education and industrial training.

With the restoration of Soviet power in the Yenisei province (January 1920) and until 1923, formally all orphanages were on state support. In practice, already in 1922, the passive unloading of overcrowded orphanages began (they refused to accept children from rural areas) and their active unloading (the transfer of orphans to the maintenance of local budgets), which actually meant their return to the street ^{[19, l.34]}.

In 1923, social education institutions were removed from state support and transferred to the local budget, which led to a sharp reduction in their number and contingent.

Based on the reports of regulatory authorities, it can be concluded that there is a weak provision of fuel, furniture, clothing and footwear for orphanages. The functioning of orphanages depended entirely on its financing. The lack of funds from the state in the early Soviet period, the lack of a clear accounting of the contingent of children held in children's institutions did not allow to debug an effective system of centralized financing. The weak local budget could not withstand the maintenance of an expanded network of orphanages, absorbing up to 50% of all funds released by the Gubono according to estimates for public education ^{[17, p. 96]}. In turn, the reduction in the number of orphanages coincided with an increase in the number of juvenile crimes by 25% ^{[16, p.194]}.

The buildings of these institutions were more often unsuitable premises, unheated, without repair; many orphanages did not have their own baths. Due to the lack of beds, the children slept on the floor ^{[6, l.35ob]}. So, at the time of the examination by the Children's Commission in 1922, the orphanage No. 6 in Krasnoyarsk had at its disposal 176 mattresses, 134 pillows, 174 sheets, 500 pillowcases, 300 towels for 224 children ^{[6, l.100]}.

In November 1921, the workers' and peasants' commission, which conducted an audit of orphanages in Minusinsk, stated the terrible conditions in which more than 100 children were: unsanitary conditions both in and around the premises, unheated, overcrowded buildings, lack of adequate warm clothes and shoes, sleeping accessories. Children (30 people) with typhus were kept in the infirmary without heating, slept on beds pushed together, since there were no beds and blankets for all patients ^{[19, l.138]}.

A survey in 1925 of the V.I. Lenin orphanage in the village of Shushenskoye showed that there were 23 beds, 18 mattresses, 3 blankets, 30 pillows for 50 pupils aged 4 to 16 years. Furniture in the institution was practically absent, including due to the tightness of the premises occupied by the orphanage ^{[7, l.132]}.

The orphanage No. 4 of the Krasnoyarsk District at the Znamensky Glass Factory at the Commissioner for improving the lives of children in Sibrevkom made a depressing impression. "The condition of this house requires the most urgent measures to improve the lives of children. The occupied building is far from suitable for accommodating 90 children, the air is spoiled, there is no ventilation. Some guys look exhausted, some of them are sick. The children are ragged, the linen is dirty, one part is barefoot, the other is in torn shoes…There is dirt in the room itself. Sewage, decomposing at the very doors of the premises, poisons the air, slops, water, waste are poured" ^{[19, p. 91]}.

We can agree with M.A. Perova that in the acts of surveys of orphanages of the 1920s, many important things for us were noted as insignificant, and the evaluative remarks: "depressing, threatening situation" and so on reflected "the flavor of the era and are the most important for the reconstruction of not only the everyday realities of everyday life, but also mental attitudes, attitudes to these realities, people's expectations" ^{[23, p. 85]}. Unsanitary conditions, bedbugs were problems of children's institutions, but were not perceived by contemporaries as catastrophic.

A serious problem of the study period was the provision of children's homes with clothes and shoes, underwear. Due to the lack of shoes and outerwear, pupils did not always have the opportunity to attend school. So, in the act of inspection of the orphanage No. 6 in Krasnoyarsk, it was found that many pupils do not have shoes, which is why school classes are missed. 21 pairs of shoes received did not fit any pupil in size. In total, the orphanage has 96 pairs of shoes, 525 pants for boys, 485 shirts and 33 copies of outerwear. In total, there are 224 children in the orphanage ^{[6, l. 35ob]}.

Analyzing the daily life of orphanages, the diet of the children in them was important, which was very poor during the study period. In the early 1920s, the state established daily food standards, but due to overcrowding in orphanages, there were not enough centralized funds, children were often malnourished and therefore engaged in theft in order to exchange stolen food for food. A survey of orphanages of the Yenisei province conducted by the deputy chairman of the gubchekadet in 1921 found that the burrows of issuing rations to orphanages in the province are not observed. For 4111 people, the children of orphanages of the province of Sibono released 2,400 rations for February-March, a little more than half. The bread ration rate was reduced from 30 pounds to 28.5 pounds. One ration should feed 1.5 people. Considering that children from the hungry provinces of the Volga region are in these orphanages. This meant that they were doomed either to steal food or to die of hunger" ^{[17, p.116]}.

In 1923, in the orphanage No. 6 in Krasnoyarsk, the daily ration of pupils was as follows: for breakfast: half a pound of bread with butter, tea; for lunch – half a pound of bread, meat soup (with a quarter of a pound of meat); for afternoon tea: half a pound of bread with sugar, tea; for dinner: porridge with butter ^{[6, L.100]}. In the Uyarsky orphanage numerically small (only 13 children), it was noted: the food is good, (excluding milk), white bread is given only on Sundays, on other days children receive rye bread ^{[11, L.7]}.

At the beginning of January 1923, in connection with the transition of the orphanages of Yeniseisk to the maintenance of the council of local economy, the nutrition of the pupils improved markedly. So, in the ration instead of the previously issued 22.5 pounds of bread, there were now 30 pounds, instead of 5 pounds of meat – 7 pounds. However, by the spring of 1923, the nutrition of children deteriorated again due to the lack of meat, butter and wheat bread in the county ^{[15, l.55]}.

The location of the orphanage influenced his work. In the city, such institutions were checked more often and patronage assistance from labor collectives, public associations fell to them more often. Rural orphanages were mostly self-sufficient, as budget funds were allocated very little, they sought to start their own subsidiary farm. The Kansk orphanage No. 5, transformed in 1920 from a pre-revolutionary orphanage for orphans and fallen soldiers, had an arable land plot (50 dessiatines) and intended to carry out labor education of children through agriculture, for which gardening courses and a first-stage school were organized. But due to the fact that many children did not have shoes, they could not be regularly involved in agricultural work ^{[5, l.144]}.

The state sought to instill labor skills in children so that they could independently provide for themselves in the future. However, not all orphanages had workshops, so this problem was not solved. The work of workshops (shoemaking, repair, carpentry, etc.) in orphanages of the Yenisei province was artisanal, the products produced mainly satisfied the institution's own needs. At the same time, they covered 10-15% of adolescents in orphanages ^{[14, l.255]}. So in the orphanage No. 5 of the Krasnoyarsk district in 1922, the children's work was provided only through the organization of self-service, because the existing workshops had neither raw materials nor the ability to use outdated equipment in need of repair ^{[10, l. 17]}.

Educators played an important role in children's institutions. They were not only responsible for the safety of the children's contingent, but also had to create an environment that would contribute to the socialization of children: to teach hygiene skills, self–service, ideally, labor skills, etc. However, as follows from the materials of the survey of orphanages, the personnel problem was unsatisfactorily solved during the study period. The educators of orphanages believed that children needed to be "distracted from their former life by useful work and knowledge," which requires a good school and, if possible, more workshops with appropriate premises, "so that not parasites adapted to life, but honest workers and artisans, are not released from the boarding school" ^{[4, l. 83]}.

In 1922, at a meeting of the provincial committee of the RCP (b), it was stated that it was impossible to complete the curriculum in a number of orphanages, since there were no textbooks or writing materials. Only in orphanages that existed in the province earlier (before the revolution), the teaching staff owns teaching methods for children of different ages, have a certain stock of textbooks, teaching aids and conduct educational work according to the plan" ^{[17, p.121]}.

According to the data for the 1924/25 academic year, 50 children were brought up in the orphanage No. 5 of the Krasnoyarsk District, 13 people of pedagogical and 10 technical staff worked ^{[8, L. 42]}. The work of teachers in such institutions is "hard labor, there are not many hunters for educational places in them, who will enter, in a few months they tend to leave and get a lighter job" ^{[4, L. 83]}. This was explained by the rather modest earnings of teachers, which did not differ from the salaries of teachers in institutions for normal children, so staff turnover in these institutions persisted for a long period of time.

The problem of medical care of orphanages was absolutely unsolvable. None of them had full-time paramedics, nurses, so timely help was not available. In the act of examination of the Uyarsky orphanage for 1923, it was indicated that due to the lack of a paramedic, medicines in the past year there was a case of death of a child ^{[11, L. 7]}. In the middle of the spring of 1925, Gubono conducted a survey of orphanages in Krasnoyarsk and came to the conclusion that the lack of nutrition and poor conditions for children seriously affected their health. More than 150 children from orphanages in the city needed sanitary and spa treatment, but there were no funds for their maintenance in these institutions. In order to strengthen the health of children in the summer, it was supposed to take them out of the city to dachas, but a large number of premises were required to accommodate all the children of orphanages in Krasnoyarsk ^{[9, l. 23]}.

To strengthen the material base of children's institutions since 1922, Engubono began to use the practice of patronage of military units, institutions or enterprises over a specific orphanage. This practice was recommended in 1922 by the Children's Commission operating under the Central Executive Committee, but there were no significant number of enterprises and institutions in the province that would express a desire to patronize orphanages. At the same time, the situation of orphanages that found bosses turned out to be incomparably more stable, the children contained in them did not starve.

In the conditions of mass child homelessness, juvenile delinquency, the system of children's social institutions was designed to help children survive in difficult socio-economic conditions. A significant disadvantage of all types of social institutions was a weak material base, low funding, personnel shortage, lack of hygiene and self-service skills for many pupils, therefore, in the presence of weak funding, a significant part of these problems were not solved in existing orphanages and as a result - frequent cases of children fleeing from orphanages, child crime remaining high. During the years of the revolution and the Civil war, the concept of "norms and anomalies" was very deformed, so the absence or ignoring of hygienic skills in individual orphanages, unsanitary conditions in an orphanage was not perceived as a disaster. The actual practice of children's social institutions confirms that in the early 1920s they were not so much educational institutions, contributed to the preparation of pupils for future independent life, but helped them survive in the difficult conditions of the period under study. The work of institutions, first of all, was affected by material difficulties, budget deficit, lack of teaching staff, lack of systematic interaction in the activities of state bodies and public organizations involved in solving the "children's issue" in one way or another

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