Антоненко Валентин Сергеевич

This article examines the work of orphanage staff in Novosibirsk during the Great Patriotic War (1941—1945), addressing a significant gap in historical scholarship regarding the contribution of childcare professionals in maintaining children's institutions in rear areas during and after the war. The study analyzes key aspects of staff activities, highlighting the unique challenges of their work and assessing their role in addressing wartime orphanhood and child welfare issues. The research explores organizational challenges, solutions to social and domestic problems, and the crucial role of orphanage staff in rehabilitating war-affected children. The mass evacuation of children from frontline areas to Novosibirsk, including many orphans, necessitated the rapid establishment of new orphanages. Staff faced the monumental task of building these institutions from the ground up: assembling teams, creating organizational structures, and securing basic necessities like food, clothing, and hygiene supplies. These efforts occurred amid severe shortages of qualified personnel, requiring staff to possess multidisciplinary expertise in pedagogy, medicine, and psychology to care for traumatized children needing special attention. Novosibirsk's wartime orphanage workers formed a diverse group whose collective dedication enabled the care and education of children under extreme conditions. Their professionalism and tireless efforts allowed for the rapid expansion of institutional networks that accommodated thousands of evacuated children, establishing foundations for their postwar upbringing. This historical investigation provides valuable insights into regional social history and the broader experience of childhood in the USSR. The findings significantly enhance our understanding of social work development in Novosibirsk and its critical role in protecting children during national crises

The experience of social welfare of orphans, neglected, abandoned children and adolescents accumulated by the Soviet state is of scientific and practical interest for the activities carried by state and public social institutions in modern Russia. It contributes to the identification of certain trends and regularities at the level of individual constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the process of developing and functioning of both state and public organizations involved in solving this problem. The article analyzes the provision and living conditions of orphanages in the Novosibirsk region in the 1940s - early 1950s. Particularly, it describes the measures taken by local authorities and party bodies to solve the domestic, material, food, clothing and sanitary problems of orphanages. The article argues that throughout the war and post-war years the situation with supporting orphanages and providing them with everything they needed was very difficult due to the social and economic situation in the country. In the Novosibirsk region, the problems of providing for the children were a priority and on the agenda of both party and regional authorities. Moreover, the issues of supplying orphanages remained topical throughout the entire post-war two decades. Nevertheless, despite the war and post-war difficulties, many tasks were successfully accomplished. The research used the sources of the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region

The article analyzes the works studying the problems of social and actual orphanhood during the Great Patriotic War and the first post-war period with reference to the materials of some regions and oblasts of the USSR. It is concluded that the regional approach to the study of the question in question makes it possible to find and introduce personalized and specific data into scientific circulation, to reveal not only the general features but also the specifics of the manifestation and solution of the problems of orphanhood, homelessness and neglect in the war and post-war years in the field