Figure 1.-- This photograph shows what looks to be a scene at a Soviet boarding school in the 1920s. A caption on the back which seems to be a translation, reads "Russian children in a Soviet school working on Saturday (Subotnik) for the state." We are not sure what we are looking at here. It could be the dormitory of a Kadet school. It also could be a boarding school or an orphanage dormitory." A reader writes, "Most schools in Russia have a day when the students clean their classroom. This looks like an orphanage but it could be some sort of military boarding school."

We do not have much information on Russian schools before the Revolution. We do not know to what extent private schools operated. After the Revolution only state schools fuctioned. The Communists massively expanded the school system, but insisted in controling all institutions sealing with young people such as schools and youth groups. After the fall of Communism (1991), private schools once more became legal in Russia. One special school types are Kadet schools, although in this case as dar as we can tell are state sponsored schools. We notice boarding schools in early Soviet times. We do not, however know muvh about them. They could be Kadet schools or perhaps orphansges. In the wake of World War I and the Civil War, large numbers of Russian children were orpahaned or otherwise abandoned and roaming around Russia, normally graviating to the cities. There were millions of them. They were called 'besprizornye' or unattended. They were survived by begging and engaging in petty crime and were commonly seen as a kind of plague. Juvenile delinquency became a major problem. The Soviet State began creating orphanages and boarding schools. With the rise of Stalin, political repression, forced migrations, and World War II, which Stalin played a major role in launching, created more orphans or abandoned children.. We are not sure at this time to what extent orphanages had their own schools or attended local public schools. As by tyhe 1930s, many of the orphans were children whose parents had been aresed by the NKVD, we are not sure to what extent they were allowed to associate with children of families in good standing.

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Created: 1:35 AM 6/24/2019
Last updated: 1:35 AM 6/24/2019