Russia

Homelessness among Children

However, homelessness did exist during the Soviet period and most certainly before. During and after the Russian revolution of 1917, especially in the decade that followed the revolution, there were homeless children who had lost their parents. While many were put into orphanages, many lived in gangs, finding shelter in abandoned buildings. These children were referred to as besprizornye (waif, homeless child), as they are today. They survived by begging and stealing in public areas such as on the [Page 483]streets, in train stations, and in markets. Homelessness among children was practically eliminated in the 1930s as a result of stringent regulations that forced street children into various types of institutions, depending on their reason for being caught. Most children were forced into orphanages and internaty (boarding schools for children with parents who are unable to provide them with proper care), while others, “charged with such crimes as theft, rape, assault, and murder” were tried in regular courts as adults (Ball 1994, 196).

Historically, homelessness was considered shameful. As a result, abandoned children as well as their families found themselves marginalized. Under Peter I (1672–1725), orphans were known as “children of shame,” born out of wedlock and abandoned as a result, and their mothers were viewed as sinners. Women in the eighteenth century often felt compelled secretly to murder children born out of wedlock in order to avoid the public shame of having to abandon them. In order to avoid this even greater sin, Peter I opened special hospitals to care for the abandoned.

...