Protection of motherhood and infancy in the first decade of Soviet government in the Tambov Region (1918–1928)

The social policy regarding motherhood and infancy, including the system of social protection of orphans in the Tambov Governorate in the first decade of Soviet government (1918–1928) was specially and comprehensively studied in the context of state, public and private support of the agrarian society. The focus was on the reconstruction of the conformity of the program of maternity and childhood protection proclaimed by the Soviet government at the regional level. On the basis of a wide range of primary materials (archival sources, periodicals, published materials) various little-known aspects of a scientific problem are representatively investigated. We summarize the successful and unsuccessful experience of the formation of a welfare state system and public initiatives of the medical community and women’s departments in provincial Russia, which often had significant differences from metropolitan events and management decisions. A staged organization has been identified of creating subdivisions of motherhood and infancy, the actual care of orphans at the regional and county level, which makes it possible to assess the op-portunities and needs of social protection and the care of children in urban and rural society during the chronological period. We clarify the transformation of social institutions in relation to the maternity and childhood, both at the level of the governorate and at the county level. The situation of abandoned children and the social policy of transferring these children to private education are specifically considered, the financial problems associated with the transfer of orphans to childless peasant families are assessed. The main trends of social care for the “children of misfortune”, the motives for helping and supporting them by the local community, collectives of enterprises and state institutions of the period under review are revealed. Conclusions are made about the results and historical regional experience and traditions, peculiarities of supporting motherhood and childhood at the level of the province and counties, which made it possible to successfully reconstruct this social protection system of the new Soviet Russia. Attention is drawn to the importance of taking into account regional specifics and concrete historical manifestations of the social state in the era of social cataclysms (Revolution, Civil War, Antonovschina, New Economic Policy), as well as assessing social and political, social and cultural tendencies of the Soviet government.