Orphanages in Central Kazakhstan in 1954-1964: organizational structure, functioning, living conditions

Abstract

The desire of the Soviet state to create a new generation of "Soviet people" through the functioning of orphanages turned out to be difficult to implement in practice. The condition of orphanages on the territory of Central Kazakhstan left much to be desired, as evidenced by the inspection materials presented in the article. The contingent of orphans often exceeded the number of available places, the quality of food did not meet the standards, the buildings of children's institutions and outbuildings needed repair. These problems were fixed by inspections, but there was not always a result in the form of elimination of current problems. There were many reasons for why children were left without relatives: the inability to feed a family, having many children forced parents to take their children to orphanages, the loss of loved ones during evacuation, the separation of imprisoned mothers with children, etc. As a result, they ended up in orphanages, or became street children, or were adopted or given for foster care. The article examines the history of orphanages in Central Kazakhstan, based on archival data, which reflects the reality of orphans in the Khrushchev period. The article was prepared on the basis of archival materials of the State Archive of Karaganda region and the State Archive of Karkaraly district.