A retrospective on care and denial of children with disabilities in Russia

Abstract

In tsarist Russia, disability care was little developed, yet showed certain similarities with other European countries. Disabled children received support through charities and private philanthropy. The October revolution of 1917 proclaimed a better future for all the country's citizens. Issues: How did the disability policy discussion change after the Russian revolution? Who took care of the so-called feeble-minded? What did this care consist of? Methodology: Study of political and scientific documentation of the period from the end of the 1800s to 1936, along with reflections on the ongoing situation found in the diaries of the head of one child institution, Ekaterina Gracheva. Outcomes: ‘Educable’ children received schooling, while ‘non-educable’ children were placed in separate institutions. This marginalisation was reinforced by the focus on the productive worker. Soviet Russia developed defectology as a science and increased the use of institutional solutions.

Keywords:

• child disability policy
• feeble-minded
• pedology
• defectology
• institutions
• Stalin's constitution

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Jørn Holm-Hansen at NIBR, Norway, for comments on a draft version. The research project was supported by University of Gävle, The Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies.

Notes

1. The late 1800s is known as ‘tsarist’, ‘imperialistic’ as well as ‘pre-revolutionary’ period.

2. When referring to Stalins's constitution, Stalins's regime, Stalins's terror etc. that includes the commissariats, the ministries, the leaders of the party and the USSR government under Stalin's leadership.

3. Scientific philanthropy – ‘An approach to helping that involved the collection of empirical data concerning each person or family to be helped coupled with efforts to coordinate the help provided by different social agencies within the community. The idea that charities should become organized to more systematically approach the question of poverty. It emerged from ideals of reform and social progress which were increasingly influenced by science. This concept believes in the scientific spirit, or being fact-minded and rational.’ Definition from Social work glossary www.socialpolicy.ca.

4. The manuscript of the diary is kept in Zamsky's fund at the Archive of Peoples Education in Moscow. The first publication of the diary in Zamsky's book “was represented in original form without any corrections” – the quotation from the preface of the text of the diary.)

5. Many scientists had a hard time after the revolution, particularly if they were against the Bolsheviks, among them Pitrim Sorokin who emigrated in 1923 and continued his research as sociologist in the United States.