The phenomenon of abandoned children Between reality and myth in soviet totalitarian pedagogy as described by russian emigrants in Prague and Paris (1921-1930)

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of abandoned children (besprizornost’ in Russian), which constituted the most serious social problem in post-revolutionary and Soviet Russia, as described by some contemporary writings by Russian emigrants in Prague and Paris. The introduction presents the outcome of the historiographical debate on Soviet reforms, whose failure helps to explain the evolution of the Soviet regime in a totalitarian one, on the one hand, and the rise of the labour colony system of the famous Ukrainian pedagogue Anton Makarenko on the other. The first part analyses the works of Boris Sokolov and Vladimir Zenzinov, who describe the street children, condemned to live in marginalised conditions and to be considered dangerous by the regime. The second part presents the considerations of the jurist Aleksandr Maklecov, who paid special attention to the social and legal protection system founded by the new State.

Keywords: history of education, history of childhood, Soviet Russia, Russian emigration, 20th century.