Builders of communism, 'defective' children, and social orphans : Soviet children in care after 1953
This thesis investigates Soviet residential childcare in its political, ideological, and social context, as well as the impact of life in institutions on children in care. It depicts the Soviet effort to raise children from the margins of society close to socialist values. This effort needs to be considered in the context of Nikita Khrushchev's relaunching of the Soviet socialist project after the death of Stalin. Residential childcare institutions were part of the leadership's policies against deviance from the socialist norm. In the Soviet context, deviant meant being unwilling or unable to perform useful work for the state. These policies thus targeted children whose parents could not or did not take care of them, as well as children with disabilities, but affected children from socially marginal and poor families disproportionately. The increasing involvement of the sciences in social policy led to a shift from a criminalization to a pathologization of deviance. This thesis shows that the Soviet administration ran residential childcare institutions at a low priority. The authorities only intervened in individual cases in very specific circumstances, especially if the boundary between institution and outside
Galley, Mirjam
Builders of communism, 'defective' children, and social orphans : Soviet children in care after 1953. This thesis investigates Soviet residential childcare in its political, ideological, and social context, as well as the impact of life in institutions on children in care. It depicts the Soviet effort to raise children from the margins of society close to socialist values. This effort needs to be considered in the context of Nikita Khrushchev's relaunching of the Soviet socialist project after the death of Stalin. Residential childcare institutions were part of the leadership's policies against deviance from the socialist norm. In the Soviet context, deviant meant being unwilling or unable to perform useful work for the state. These policies thus targeted children whose parents could not or did not take care of them, as well as children with disabilities, but affected children from socially marginal and poor families disproportionately. The increasing involvement of the sciences in social policy led to a shift from a criminalization to a pathologization of deviance. This thesis shows that the Soviet administration ran residential childcare institutions at a low priority. The authorities only intervened in individual cases in very specific circumstances, especially if the boundary between institution and outside
communism defective child social soviet child care investigates soviet residential political_ideological social_context well impact life institution child care depicts soviet effort raise child margin society close socialist value effort need_consider context khrushchev soviet socialist project death stalin residential institution part leadership policy deviance socialist norm soviet context deviant meant unwilling unable perform useful work state policy thus child whose parent could take care well child disability affect child socially marginal poor family disproportionately increase involvement science social_policy lead shift deviance show soviet administration run residential institution low priority authority intervene individual case specific circumstance especially boundary institution outside