I. Shugaloyva, PhD in History, Associate Professor

Holodomor Research Institute of National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide, Kyiv, Ukraine

ORCID: 0000-0002-2397-0611

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2020.146.14

SOVIET FACTORIES OF ANGELS: THE SYSTEM OF FOSTERAGE BEFORE AND DURING THE HOLODOMOROF 1932–1933

The article reveals mechanisms of the fosterage system establishment and its organisation. Foster care used to mean a system of care for children to adjust them to society and labour activity. It is important to notice that fosterage discredited itself when the Communist authorities stopped paying over to families that took their children into foster care (during the imperial period, families with a foster child used to receive a regular pay-offs in an amount of 3 rubbles). Having lost government financial support, many foster parents began to dishouse children. In fact, among the population, fosterage was traditionally called as "angel factories".

In the article demonstrates the analysis of the reasons for the actualization of the fosterage practice by the communist authorities, different types of patronage, as well as the attitude of children and patrons to such a system of education is clarified. Furthermore, the authors studied the genesis of fosterage, identified the features of its activities during the years of artificial famine in the 1921 – 1923, as well as its transformation during the NEP and the late 1920s. Significant attention was paid to the characteristics of the fosterage during the Holodomor 1932 – 1933 and transforming them into the factories of angels. The authors conclude that the communist system of education tended to use fosterage to relieve shelters. The living conditions for children were not under control by the authorities. For the peasants exhausted by the norms of grain procurement, it was physically impossible to keep a foster child. As a result, the mortality rate of foster cared children used to be extremely high.

The republican social education authorities were aware enough of the difficult situation concerning the fosterage practice. In 1934 and 1936, numerous legislative attempts were made to improve the situation of foster children. However, the published guidelines remained only in the frameworks of the Soviet legislative myth-making. Therefore, the Soviet "factories of angels" never underwent any transformations, once again destroying the communist myth of a happy Soviet childhood.

Keywords: system of social education, fosterage, children, Holodomor, Soviet myths.

Received by the editorial board: 02.09.2020

Download Full Text

References:

1. State Archive of Odesa Region (SAOR). F. R-2009. List 1. File 10. 38 sheets. [in Russian].

2. State Archive of Kharkiv Region. (SAKR). F. R-1962. List. 1. File. 961. 287 sheets. [in Russian].

3. SAOR. F. R-2009. List 1. File 10. 38 sheets [in Russian].

4. DAKHO. F. R-2. Op. 1. File 991. 15 sheets [in Russian].

5. Ball, A.M. (1994). And Now My Soul is Hardered. Abandoned Children in Soviet Russia, 1918–1930. Berkeley: University of California Press. [in English].

6. Ball, A. (1992). The Roots of Besprizornost' in Soviet Russia's First Decade. Slavic Review, 51(2), 247–270.

7. Bernstein, L. (2001). Fostering the Next Generation of Socialists. Patronirovanie in the Fledgling Soviet State. Journal of Family History, 26(1), 66–89.

8. Bernstein, L. (1997). The Evolution of Soviet Adoption Law. Journal of Family History, 22(1), 204–226.

9. Goldman, W. (1993).Women, the state and revolution: Soviet family policy and social life, 1917–1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10. Bendzir, V. (2013, June 8).Children Were Afraid that They Would be Cooked as Jellied Meat.Horrible Memories. Government Courier. [in Ukraine].

11. Note of the Chairman of Central Executive Committee of USSR and All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee G. Petrovskij to the Head of Leningrad Soviet I. F. Kodatskyj. 16.09.1933. (2002). In A. Yakovleva& S. Vilenskij (Eds.), Children of GULAG of 1918–1956. Moscow: MFD. Pp. 146-147. [in Russian].

12. Declaration of N. I. Mohylchynkovoi,the Director of Childcare Center Named after Krupska, to Balakliian Regional Nursery Comission with the Request to Provide Assistance with Foodstuffs, 03.05.1933. (2008). In O. Hniezdilo& O. Koptieva& L. Panasenko (Eds.), Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Kharkiv Region. Kharkiv: Original. P. 166. [in Russian].

13. Summary of the Food Apportionment Process for the Orphanage of Pervomaisk Selsoviet of Balakliian Region, 5-10.06.1933. In O. Hniezdilo & O. Koptieva& L. Panasenko (Eds.), Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Kharkiv Region.Kharkiv: Original. P. 179. [in Ukrainian].

14. Zinchenko, A. (2002). Child Homelessness in Soviet Ukraine of the 1920's – the 1st Half of the 1930's. Abstract of Unpublished Thesis (PhD in History). I. I. Mechnikov Odesa National University. [in Ukrainian].

15. From the Porotocol 104/598 of the Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee Meeting of 16.04.1934. In A. Yakovleva & S. Vilenskij (Eds.), Children of GULAG of 1918-1956. Moscow: MFD. P. 164. [in Russian].

16. From the Inquiry of Children Comission of All-Russian Central Executive Committee about the Children Homelessness. Confidential. 1935. (2002). A. Yakovleva& S. Vilenskij (Eds.), Children of GULAG of 1918-1956. Moscow: MFD. P. 177. [in Russian].

17. On Measures to Prepare Children from Orphanages for Socially Useful Labour. (1927). Library of Laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/ussr_3313.htm. [in Russian].

18. On the Procedure and Conditions for the Transfer of Children from Orphanages to Peasant Families for the Training for Agricultural Labour. (1926). Library of Laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/ussr_2875.htm. [in Russian].

19. Okun'kov, A. (1926).On the Patronage (Transfer of Children from Orphanages to Labourers Families). School and Life, 6-7, 38-31. [in Russian].

20. Notification of the Camp Village Council to the Secretary of the Balakliia District Executive Committee with Information about the Amount of Funds and Food Collected for the Nursery Campaign, 22.05.1933. In O. Hniezdilo& O. Koptieva& L. Panasenko (Eds.), Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Kharkiv Region.Kharkiv : Original. P. 174. [in Ukrainian].

21. Resolution of the Kharkiv Regional Executive Committee Faction on Issuing a Food Loan to Collective Farmers, Individuals and Their Needy Children, 04.04.1933. In O. Hniezdilo& O. Koptieva& L. Panasenko (Eds.), Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Kharkiv Region.Kharkiv: Original. Pp. 158-161. [in Russian].

22. Rodman, V. (1939).Tasks of Patronage.Issues af Motherhood and Infancy, 2-3, 31-37. [in Russian].

23. Statement of Anonymous Witness (UFRC01), 1924 Year of Birth, Poltava Region. (1990). In James E. Mace and Leonid Herets (Eds.), Investigation of the Ukrainain famine 1932–1933. Oral history project of the Commission on the Ukraine famine. Adopted by Commission, June 20, 1990. Vol. III. Washington: United States Government Print Office. Pp. 1464-1470. [in Ukrainian].

24. Statement of Barbara Lohan (SW85), 1925 Year of Birth, Protasivka Village, Smile District of Sumy Region. (1990). In James E. Mace and Leonid Herets (Eds.), Investigation of the Ukrainain famine 1932–1933. Oral history project of the Commission on the Ukraine famine. Adopted by Commission, June 20, 1990. Vol. III. Washington: United States Government Print Office. – P. 1349–1358. [in Ukrainian].

25. Statement of TeodoraSoroka (Trypniak) (SW83), 1924 year of Birth, Lozuvatka Village, Tsarychansk District of Dnipropetrovsk Region. (1990). In James E. Mace and Leonid Herets (Eds.), Investigation of the Ukrainain famine 1932–1933. Oral history project of the Commission on the Ukraine famine. Adopted by Commission, June 20, 1990. Vol. III. Washington: United States Government Print Office. Pp. 1326–1335. [in Ukrainian].

26. Smirnova, T. (2015). Children of the Soviet State: from the Public Policy to the Realities of Daily Life. 1917–1940. Moscow – Saint Petersburg: Center for Humanitarian Initiatives. [in Russian].

27. Memories of Vasyl Mytrofanovych Steblyanko (date of birth is unknown) Budylka Village, Lebedynskyi District of Sumy Region. (1993). In B. Tkachenko, Under the Black Seal: Documents, Facts, Memories. Lebedyn: White Swamp. – P. 119-125. [in Ukrainian].

28. Memories of Zubko Frosyna Hrihorivna (date of birth is unknown), Kostrive Village, Lebedynskyi District of Sumy Region. (1993). In B. Tkachenko, Under the Black Seal: Documents, Facts, Memories. Lebedyn : White Swamp. – P. 199. [in Ukrainian].

29. Memories of Ivan Vasyliovych Maiskyi, 1929 year of birth, Lebedyn of Sumy Region. (1993). In B. Tkachenko, Under the Black Seal: Documents, Facts, Memories.Lebedyn: White Swamp. P. 307–311. [in Ukrainian].

30. Memories of Kulyna Havrylivna Loboda (Tsikalo, date of birth is unknown), Prystailova Village Lebedynskyi District of Sumy Region. (1993). In B. Tkachenko, Under the Black Seal: Documents, Facts, Memories. Lebedyn: White Swamp. – P. 183–187. [in Ukrainian].

31. Memories of Nadiya Feodosiia Tokarieva (date of birth is unknown), Lebedyn of Sumy Region. (1993).In B. Tkachenko, Under the Black Seal: Documents, Facts, Memories.Lebedyn: White Swamp. – P. 201. [in Ukrainian].

32. Memories of Pavlo Panasovych Hrebets (date of birth is unknown), Born HrebtsiBowery of Lebedyn District of Sumy Region. (1993). In B. Tkachenko, Under the Black Seal: Documents, Facts, Memories. Lebedyn : White Swamp. – P. 98–99. [in Ukrainian].

33. Kulchytskyi, S. (Ed.). (2012). Ukrainian Soviet Society of the 1930's: Essays on the Daily Life: A Collective Monograph. Kyiv: Institute of the History of Ukraine. [in Ukrainian].

34. Shuhaliova, I.&Moldavskyi, R. (2019). State Orphanages Before and During the Holodomor of 1932–1933.Zaporizhzhya: Inter-M. [in Ukrainian].