OVERCOMING CHILD HOMELESSNESS AND NEGLECT IN THE POST- REVOLUTIONARY VOLYN-ZHYTOMYR REGION IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 1920S

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reveal the forms and methods of combating child homelessnessand neglect in the first half of the 1920s in the Volyn-Zhytomyr region. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, and multifactoriality. The study was carried out using general sci- entific and special historical methods, in particular, the typological method was used to analyze and describethe general features of the work of children’s institutions, the systemic method was applied to highlight thespecifics of the structure and functions of state and public institutions that fought against child homelessnessand neglect. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive analysis and coverage of the problem of child homelessness and neglect, the activities of state structures that dealt with the issues of overcoming this crisis social phenomenon, which was a kind of expression of social transformations of the post-war, post-rev-olutionary society of the Volyn-Zhytomyr region. Author first introduced into scientific circulation materials from periodicals of the region of the first half of the 1920s, namely the newspapers “Volyn proletarian”, “Soviet Volyn”, “Peasant poverty”, “Voice of Labor”, “Soviet way”. Conclusions. Thus, the Soviet author- ities set the problem of solving homeless and neglected childhood as one of the priorities. The authoritiesinitiated the creation of the “Friends of Children” society, which significantly strengthened the work of statebodies in overcoming shortcomings in the protection of childhood – as one of the guarantees of the state. Theauthorities gradually tried to find the optimal solution to the problem in the absence of proper material support and the fictitious work of individual structures. “Friends of Children” turned out to be an association that grewin numbers only on the initiative of Soviet leaders, in fact, most of the cells showed disinterest and passivity in work. Communication with children and their upbringing were complicated by serious illnesses among the contingent, primarily tuberculosis, and the involvement of children in criminal activity. In conditions of under- funding, the authorities were partially able to implement plans for self-sufficiency in the functioning of chil- dren’s institutions by creating children’s communes and closed towns. Volyn-Zhytomyr region became one of the basic regions for providing assistance to children who were evacuated from the Volga region, which was hit by famine. Children’s institutions became a convenient platform for ideological processing of disadvantagedchildren, whom the Soviet authorities considered as the future generation of their followers. Local authorities,at the request of the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR, managed to mostly take control of child homelessnessand neglect by the end of 1925, however, given the multifaceted nature of the problems, the search for ways tosolve them could not be solved by any order or directive.