The Child Homelessness as a Kind of Social Anomalies in the Zhytomyr Region in 1921-1928s and Ways to Overcome it by the Soviet Authorities

Abstract

The purpose of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the measures taken by the relevant Soviet authorities in the Zhytomyr region during the New Economic Policy (NEP) to eliminate the manifestations of child homelessness. Objectives of the study: to determine the main causes of child homelessness and its manifestations in the region during the NEP; to explore the ways and the methods of struggle by the Soviet autorities against them. The methodological basis of the study are general scientific (logical, comparative), special historical methods (problem-chronological). They allowed us to determine this period, in which the problem of child homelessness is studied specifically, in chronological and logical sequence. Comparative analysis was used to study individual phenomena of this process. The study based on the principles of science, historicism and objectivity. The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the problem of manifestations of this problem has been condact in this region in 1921-1928 and ways to combat them. New archival documents on this problem and materials of periodicals of those years were put into scientific circulation. The attempt has been made to give an objective, unbiased assessment of these phenomena and the actions of the Soviet authorities in those years.

Conclusions. The new economic policy of the Soviet state during the 1920's was implemented against the background of increasing manifestations of various social anomalies. The struggle against them took place against the background of the difficult socio-economic situation in which society found itself after the civil war. According to the analysis of archival sources, the Soviet authorities paid great importance to these measures, and first of all to their termination. These problems were caused by various factors, but primarily - the destructive processes in society itself and the struggle of the soviet authorities for the establishment of their power. This also applies to the events and the recent Civil War in the former Russian Empire and the state liberation struggle in Ukraine in 1917-1921. The establishment of the Volyn Commission for Assistance to Children in 1923 helped reduce the development of child homelessness in this region.