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