Ukrainian children's homes in the post-war period: material providing and children's living conditions (1945 - first half of 1950's).

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Ukrainian children's homes in the post-war period: material providing and children's living conditions (1945 - first half of 1950's).

Bezliudna Iryna

The present article aims to shed light on the living conditions of orphans who were in orphanage by the Ukrainian SSR during 1943-1950th.

In Ukrainian historiography the topic of orphans is covered not enough. During the Soviet period, the problems of orphan's children were closed for the outsiders, but it was represented in official correspondence, reports, etc. In modern Ukrainian historiography, this topic was covered only partly, mainly in the complex studies.

The article uses the method of scientific analysis of archival sources.

The article deal with material condition of orphanages in Ukraine ^ from 1945 to the first half of the 1950s. In particular, the level of provision by the state of all children's needs is considered -- food, clothes, furniture, heating in winter and, in fact, the children's homes themselves with sufficiently spacious rooms. Also non-state assistance for children's homes, which were periodically provided by charitable organizations and patrons of children's homes is highlighted.

The main results of this study were: a detailed research of material aspect of the everyday life ofpupils of orphanages in the postwar period.

Key words: children, orphans, orphanage, Ukrainian SSR.

ukrainian children's home

The myth of happy childhood was actively spreading in the Soviet Union. He continued to invest in the consciousness of citizens also in the post-war period. The care of the authorities about all Soviet children was emphasized in the press, in particular, provision of all material needs of children. Data on real living conditions, in particular, of orphans, were concealed from society.

The issues of children upbringing, ensuring their comfort and livelihoods had repeatedly become the object of studying of Soviet historians. However, the problem of material provision of children's homes in the UkrSSR was almost not highlighted. This was partially mentioned in the general works on pedagogy and in the coverage of achievements in the post-war reconstruction of the national economy [1; 2]. Scientists paid more attention for children's homelessness and neglect. In modern historiography, this topic was studied in the complex works of L. Golysh [3], M. Solovey [4], N. Kasyanova [5], also in some works of T. Vronska [6], V. Shvydky [7].

Part of state-owned organizations was left without a pre-location because of military ruin. The buildings were destroyed or half-destroyed, and therefore unsuitable for work. In addition, there were cases when private owners returned from the evacuation and found their home occupied by other people or organizations. Rooms of orphanages were also often used by individuals and organizations which lost their homes or buildings. For example, in 1946 in Kiev five premises which had belonged to children's homes were occupied by a beer factory, a radio station, a children's reception center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a district police department and private residents [8, p. 125].

This situation didn't changed in the coming years. Consequently, orphanage also had to occupy borrowed premises for the replacement of children. For example, in 1948 the Bila Tserkva Orphanage No. 1 (Kyiv Region) was placed in 3 rooms of kindergarden. However, it could not meet the minimum needs of children. The building, released by the school of deaf children, was illegally passed to the construction site to be used as a dormitory for workers, instead of being transferred to the orphanage [9 p. 335]. In 1951 in the city of Chernobyl, a children's home was used by a craft school; in the city of Tarashcha -- by a technical school of agricultural mechanization and industrial complex; in the small village Gora the premises and the farmstead were used as an auxiliary farm for the police department of the city of Kyiv [10, p. 295]. A part of the premises of the Tivrivsky orphanage (Vinnytsia region) was transferred for the cinema for rent, despite the lack of premises for the needs of pupils [11, p. 76].

In addition, the regional Councils of Workers' Deputies closed the orphanages that didn't met the sanitary and technical requirements without providing new premises. In particular, this situation there was in Izmail, Zaporozhye, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Sumy regions. So, pupils needed other children's homes. This created not comfortable, and sometimes simply unbearable living conditions for all children.

Although most orphanages remained in their premises, they were not always suitable for children's residence. Much of these buildings have not been repaired properly. This was due to the chronic shortage of glass, wood, nails and other building materials.

Thus, in 1947, orphanages of Izmail, Kamyanets-Podil's'k, Zhytomyr, and Mykolaiv regions could not complete the repair due to lack of glass [12, p. 19]. Catastrophic shortage of timber was observed in the Kherson region [12, p. 47]. The orphanages of the Vinnytsia region had a threat to meet the winter without poorly repaired roofs due to the lack of roofing materials. Internal window frames were not glazed due to the same deficit of glass in 25 children's homes in this region [12, p. 52].

In the winter of 1948, pupils of the Bolgradian Orphanage (Izmail region) had to stay in a building, in where two rooms had flowed roof, the entrance doors didn't close poorly, and many windows and internal doors had no glass [12, p. 184].

In addition, the overwhelming majority of children's institutions were not ready for the next winter season because of shortage of fuel. Thus, in 1947 the children's homes in the western and southern regions of the UkrSSR heated up very poorly. For example, the children's homes in the Stanislav region were provided with fuel for only 25% of the norm, city residential buildings in Izmail areas -- by 30%, and rural -- even less. Hrushkivka village children's home (Kirovograd region) didn't have a set fuel supply [12, p. 52].

Negative winter preparation situation remained unchanged in subsequent years. In particular, Olenivsky preschool orphanage (Kyiv region) had a fuel for 10-15 days and was threatened to remain without heating due to lack of transport. This situation was detected during the inspection in 1948 [8, p. 334]. Uktonosivsky orphanage pupils (Izmail region) had to sleep in cold bedrooms, as only a quarter of the required 2000 tons of fuel was provided [12, p. 184].

In the winter of 1953, children's homes in the Chernivtsi and Izmail regions had air temperatures in the bedrooms and working rooms about 10-14 degrees Celsius. The educators were forced to stay in top dress constantly. In addition, constant being in cold rooms led to a sharp deterioration in the health of children and had a negative impact on adherence to normal sanitary conditions in orphanages.

The children's homes in the countryside had difficulty with delivering fuel. Especially those who didn't have their own vehicles and which were located at a distance of 20-40 km from district centers. For example, Sokolovsky orphanage (Vinnitsa region) was located 22 km from the district center and the railway as well as 120 km from the base of the regional branch of public education. One hundred and sixty children lived in the orphanage. There were no bases for food and fuel nearby. So, the director had to spent almost all time to obtain food and materials in order to meet the daily needs of pupils. But still, the orphanage had food and fuel supply less than for 5 days as well as an opportunity to bring them. Totally, in 1949, only 177 out of 403 dwelling houses located in rural areas had their own transport [13, p. 149-151].

In addition, local authorities didn't hurry to help an orphans. But even those children's homes that received help from city and district councils could provide itself by fuel only partly. For example, in 1947, children's homes in the Stalin region were able to procure fuel only from 60% to 80% of the needs, even with the support of local authorities [12, p. 37-38]. Although it should be noted that these indicators were considered rather high in conditions post-war devastation.

Due to the chronic lack of facilities many children's homes were overcrowded by children, as well as the large number of orphans left after the war. Due to lack of beds pupils had to sleep two or three in one bed sn bedrooms in working rooms or even on the floor [14, p. 3]. So, in 1953, pupils of seven orphanages in the Chernivtsi region and most of the children's homes in the Volyn, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions were forced to sleep on two or even three in one bed. In the Tsyurupinsky orphanage of the Kherson region it was so small that the beds in the bedrooms for the boys stood almost back to back [15, p. 31-32].

Ordinary chairs were also in great shortage in the postwar period. For example, pupils of the Biloliskyy orphanage (Izmail region) did their homework, sitting by two at one chair. Pupils of orphanage № 5 c. Klishovtsy (Chernivtsi region) had to eat standing because of the lack of chairs in the dining room [15, p. 33-34].

Much better material conditions for children were created in the homes of departmental subordination or orphanages, which existed at industrial enterprises. They had (at least in comparison with ordinary children's homes) the necessary furniture, bedding, clothes and food [12, p. 41].

Pupils of the vast majority of orphanages in the UkrSSR weren't provided by clothes and footwear. For example, in 1946 Zhytenetskyy orphanage (Kyiv region) had only 56 sets of outrwear for 75 pupils [16, p. 416]. In the winter of 1947-1948, pupils from the Rus'-Ivanivka orphanage in the Izmail region hadn't the opportunity to go to school because they had no outrwear at all. Pupils of the Kotlovinsky children's home went to the dining room, wrapped in blankets because of the lack of coats [12, p. 184]. Although the issue of the purchase of new clothing and footwear for children was repeatedly addressed to regional department of public education, it remained unsolved [15, p. 3334].

As for the feeding of children, it also left much to be desired. In 1946, a number of inspections of twelve children's homes in the Kyiv region took place. As a result, the extremely poor nutrition status of the pupils was revealed. The standards of nutrition of children in all checked out orphanages are often not respected due to unmotivated savings in products. Trade organizations sold for orphanages products of the cheapest assortment. Quite often, trade organizations replaced butter with oil, sugar by cheap confectionery products, and from the cereals were supplied only wheat flour [17, p. 93].

Somewhat better was the state of orphanages, which had their own private plots. But until 1949, such institutions were only 15 [18, p. 137]. It was also easier for orphanages which had voluntary assistance, such as, for example, Motovilivsky Special Children's Home (Kyiv region). His pupils had enough clothing, footwear, bedding, and well-organized nutrition thanks to their patron -- the military unit that provided products [9, p. 334].

In the postwar period, various organizations provided affordable material assistance to children from orphanages. In particular, the International Organization for the Support of Revolutionary Fighters and the Red Cross collected money for help orphans, organizing performances, concerts, amateur parties [12, p. 34].

Komsomol and trade union organizations also didn't remain aloof. Thus, the Komsomol of Ukraine created a fund of help for orphans. The Komsomol and non-indifferent youth from cities and villages collected funds and necessities for it. For example, in Melitopol, 112 633 rubles, 601 units were collected things, 200 pcs. different dishes, 50 beds. Komsomol and youth of Voroshilovgrad collected 203,792 rubles and organized a gathering of shoes and clothes [12, p. 34]. In Zaporozhye region 824 068 rubles were collected, and also 579 pairs of shoes, 1446 clothes units, 85 545 kg of products [19, p. 12].

To carry out the decision of the Central Committee of the CPU of March 18, 1959, a public review of the work of orphanages and the state of patronage of children deprived of parental care was conducted from March 20 to April 20. For this purpose, in each oblast, commissions of representatives of party, Soviet, trade union and Komsomol organizations and public education workers were set up [20, p. 11].

As a result of the public inspection, 5 new orphanages were opened for 570 people in Rivne, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytsky, Stanislavsky and Dnipropetrovsk regions. In addition, for capital repairs and completion of premises executive committees of local councils additionally allocated funds and helped the children's building materials. Thus, in Dnipropetrovsk region 693 thousand rubles were allocated, in Odesa -- 345 thousand rubles, in Kiev -- 90 thousand rubles.

Consequently, the difficult period of reconstruction has affected the material provision of children's homes of the USSR. The state could not provide a minimum acceptable living conditions for a large number of orphaned children who remained after the war. But at the same time, the myth of happy childhood in the Soviet Union spread out unceasingly for the general public.

Supply problems were felt on all items of material support -- food, clothing, furniture, bedding, heating and, in fact, orphanages. More or less normal living conditions for children existed only in orphanages, which were took care by patrons. In addition, the Komsomol and charitable organizations periodically organized fundraising to help orphans. But this was a minimum aid that could not replace the proper state funding.

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