The Russian effort to care for children orphaned in the war

 WWII was a disaster for Russia, let us remember that 27 million of its inhabitants died in it, about 10 millions soldiers the rest normal citizens, among them millions of children and many were orphaned, the effort of the Russians to take care of them in the midst of this maelstrom and with scarce financial resources is commendable . 

In addition, the Germans in the rear  treated the children with all cruelty. “... Often, due to entertainment, a group of Germans on vacation would organize a détente: they would throw a piece of bread, children would run towards it, and machine-gun fire would follow. How many children died because of such amusements of the Germans throughout the country! Bloated with hunger, the children were able to take something, without understanding, edible from the German, and then there was a line from the machine gun. And the boy ate forever! (Solokhina N.Ya., Kaluga region, Lyudinovo, from the article "We do not come from childhood", "World of News", No. 27, 2010, p. 26).

Therefore, Red Army units passing through these places were sensitive to these guys and often carried them with them and after to the orphanages.

Here we will cite some small examples of their great effort.*

*https://www.archive-nnov.ru/?id=7633

The sudden outbreak of the Great Patriotic War found many children during their summer vacations in pioneer camps, sanatoriums and dachas. From its earliest days, the country's government and local leaders had to urgently deal with the evacuation of children from the frontline and from inland frontline areas, including the Gorky region.

Evacuation to Gorky

Already on August 27, 1941, 125,600 evacuees arrived in the Gorky region, including 70,000 children, of whom 3,500 had no parents. From the Union Republics of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Karelo-Finland, Moscow, Murmansk and other cities, 13 kindergartens, 9 pioneer camps and sanatoriums, 10 orphanages were evacuated.

During the war years, the network of orphanages steadily increased, as the number of orphaned and lost children grew. On January 1, 1941, there were 28 local orphanages in the Gorky region with a contingent of 2,267 people. As of January 1, 1942, the number of orphanages increased to 76 (of which 32 were local) with a total of 8,783 children. On January 1, 1943, there were 117 orphanages with 11,739 students.

Since 1943, orphanages, maintained at the expense of collective farms, as well as nurseries for children, were organized. As of January 1, 1944, there were 121 orphanages in total, including 27 collective farms and 2 nursery orphanages.

The leaders of the region needed not only to resettle so many new arrivals, but also to take care of their safety, household arrangements, food, education, providing them with clothes and shoes, which was especially difficult in times of war. The children were sent to the rural areas of the Gorky region, where it was easier to do so.

One of the main problems was the inadequacy of the premises in which the orphanages were located. There was not enough fuel, there were no toilets or laundries, there were difficulties with the supply of water, electricity, there were no kerosene lamps, the children had to sit in the dark. The situation was especially bad with furniture, inventory, utensils; there was a great shortage of beds and underwear, warm clothes and shoes.

Children of different ages came to the Gorky region, from kindergarten to school. In October 1942, 86 children's institutions with a total of 8,634 people were evicted, of which 30 were preschools (2,734 children), 52 schools (6,246 children) and 4 mixed (245 children and adolescents). In 1943, taking into account collective and local farm orphanages, the majority of pupils were school children - 10,489 people (the remaining 2,299 children were preschool children). The highest percentage fell on children subject to general education (8-12 years). Everything was done to ensure that they attended school and received an education. The progress of pupils in orphanages and boarding schools in 1943 was greater than the general progress in the schools of the region. According to the results of the 3rd quarter of 1943, it amounted to 96.7% against 89.6% in the schools of the region.

In the summer of 1943, questions about the preparation of schools for the new academic year were raised at the meetings of the sessions of the district and village soviets. Teachers, students and bosses jointly restored textbooks, teaching aids and books, and also created new visual materials. In the Pyshchugsky district, students and teachers renovated 17 of 25 schools, saving 23,000 rubles of public funds. The chiefs gave great assistance in repairing the school buildings for the 1943/44 school year and in delivering fuel. Machine Building Plant No. 92 im. IV Stalin completely overhauled the building of school No. 68 of the Kaganovichi district, aircraft plant No. 21 is named after it. S. Ordzhonikidze - the building of the school number 66. Automobile factory. V. M. Molotov helped to fully restore school buildings that were damaged during enemy air raids in June 1943. The students themselves did a lot to prepare schools for winter. The boys sawed and cut firewood, worked on the school plots and had a good harvest. He would prepare hot breakfasts for them in school canteens and buffets. The Arzamas schoolchildren planted special beds for hospitals on their plots. They harvested 16 tons of potatoes, 350 kg of cucumbers, 1,500 kg of carrots and the same number of tomatoes.

There was a constant shortage of writing materials: notebooks, pencils, pens, ballpoint pens, ink, chalk, etc. In preparing for the new academic year, parents, company administrations and collective farms provided significant support to schools.

During the war years, much health work was carried out with children. Every effort was made to get them to out-of-town summer homes, pioneer camps, and sanitariums. Industrial enterprises, collective farms, trade union organizations and the Komsomol regional committee allocated funds for the opening and maintenance of health improvement institutions. In the summer of 1942, 50 pioneer camps were opened with a total coverage of 18,500 children; In the summer of 1943, 74 pioneer camps and 77 health improvement centers were already organized, where 42,140 pioneers and schoolchildren rested. For 3,000 children of front-line soldiers and orphans, vouchers were purchased at the expense of the Gorky Komsomol.

The fight against homelessness and child abandonment was carried out in different ways. The police, along with representatives of the Komsomol and other public figures, carried out raids on evacuation centers, train stations, river docks and markets. From August 1942 to 1943, the Komsomol organizations of the city of Gorky and the region, together with the rono and the police, carried out 91 raids to remove homeless children from the streets. During the "weekly", held from June 7 to 14, 1943, 862 people were detained in the city of Gorky, of which 140 were homeless children.

 Vetluzhsky orphanage

Door-to-door visits were made to identify homeless children, unemployed children and adolescents, who were then sent to police nurseries, created children's homes. The commissions were dedicated to the arrangement of children who had lost their parents. Children under the age of 14 were sent to orphanages, given up for adoption, under guardianship. In 1943 alone, 432 children were adopted through district and regional health departments, and 1,186 were taken under guardianship and 1,176 under sponsorship.

Orphanage students were entitled to 5 grams of sugar, 10 /grams of butter, 13 grams of noodles per day. A few more grams of cereal, but in old documents the exact figure can no longer be considered. These products were allocated from the state fund. But basically they lived at the expense of subsidiary agriculture and the help of collective farms. I found a report from the director of the orphanage from 1942, where he lamented that the potatoes were not born and that the children needed to be fed something. Then the collective farmers helped them: they gave them unpeeled rye.*

*https://nn.aif.ru/society/persona/tragediya_voyny_kak_zhili_detdomovcy_vdali_ot_linii_fronta

Claudina Norkina orphanage historian

The children foraged for berries and mushrooms, while there were no summer shoes - rags and grass were tied around their feet. It is also documented: there were only 80 felt boots for 130 students during the war years. There were simply no gloves. When I was already living in an orphanage, we would sew them out of old blankets and sweaters. And the winters were fierce then, not like they are now!

Sad histories.

Here is Galya Kozyreva, whom I have already mentioned. She was six years old when the blockade of Leningrad began. My father died on the front in the first months of the war. Mom once went grocery shopping on the cards and didn't come back; she died under the bombardment. Galya, her little brother Valya and her mother's younger sister Anya, 16, were left alone. Valya cried all the time and asked for bread. Soon the baby died of exhaustion. Anya carried her little body on a sled to a mass grave. Everyone in besieged Leningrad was buried like this ... To save Galya from death, Aunt Anya gave her to the Sestroretsk orphanage. She herself went to the hospital exhausted. The Sestroretsk orphanage was evacuated to the Vetluzhsky district, then Galya was transferred to the Vetluzhsky orphanage.

Here is the Belyantsev family from the village of Undal, Tonkin region. six children. Father was brought to the front. His mother died of typhus in 1943. They wanted to let my father go to the front with the children, but the day before his departure he died while crossing the Dnieper. The orphans lived for a short time with their grandmother and were then sent to an orphanage. As a result, four sisters and two brothers of the Belyantsevs also ended up in the Vetluzhsky orphanage.

I found the passport of our orphanage from 1955. In it, out of 95 people, 73 are considered complete orphans, these are the children of dead soldiers and partisans. They, born in the war, were brought to the orphanage from all over the country. Many had no first or last name, much less information about their parents. Each of those stories is a tragedy of war.

The neighbors took the children and the locals adopted them. But, for example, the older brother of the Belyantsevs, when they were taken to foster homes, did not allow them to adopt his sisters and brothers. He remembered that his father, before leaving for the front, bequeathed him to take care of his family.

Behind these figures there is a multitude of human dramas, countless sad stories, but the effort of the Russian people to improve the conditions of these poor children is commendable. A very little known aspect of WWII in Russia.