Soviet Street Children and the Second World War ─ Welfare and Social Control Under Stalin

A time of intense suffering, the Second World War was a significant moment in the history of childhood in the Soviet Union. Faced with the rapid disintegration of family structures, the state had to assume greater responsibility for abandoned children. Nevertheless, the leadership's anxiety about public order and its punitive impulses ensured that on the whole the state failed in its role as caring parent.

Virtually hidden from sight until now, the story of nearly two million street children uncovers yet another facet of the repressive Stalinist regime. The messy reality of life on the streets and in children's correctional institutions stands in stark contrast to the triumphalist rhetoric of wartime legislation and post-war myths. This study is as much an investigation of children on the margins of Soviet society as it is a study of the impact of war on society itself, as well as the relationship between the regime and the family.