Campaign to end homelessness for children and youth, USSR 1924

Photos of Revolutionary Russia #34

Campaign to end homelessness for children and youth, USSR 1924 -- Photos of Revolutionary Russia #34

After the economic and social devastation of the civil war the newly formed USSR embarked on a series of sweeping and revolutionary social and educational reforms. These included wiping out illiteracy, instituting free and universal primary education and ending homelessness of all types.

Part of this included finding social housing and schooling for the street children of Moscow ,Petrograd and other cities and towns. While this had been a serious issue in czarist Russia it was made worse by the large numbers of children orphaned or abandoned during the upheavals of war, revolution and civil war.

In the early 1920s a comprehensive program by the Soviet authorities ended child and youth homelessness across the USSR once and for all. Other than during the Second World War it was never an issue again until the overthrow of socialism and counter-revolution.