Children of ennemies of the people as victims of the Great Purges* - article ; n°1 ; vol.39, pg 209-220

Corinna Kuhr

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Cahiers du monde russe : Russie, Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants - Année 1998 - Volume 39 - Numéro 1 - Pages 209-220
Corinna Kuhr, Children of enemies of the people as victims of the great purges. Several hundred thousand children lost their parents during the years 1936-1938 as a result of the purges. Many of them were sent to orphanages, colonies for young delinquents or even to labour camps. Plans for the registration and accomodation of these children existed. They are to be viewed as a consequence of the arrest of thousands of people and the need to take care of a great many children. This, and not an ideological goal, was the reason for such treatement of the children of enemies of the people. Memoirs and interviews of contemporary witnesses make it possible to reach several general conclusions: on the one hand, most of the children were treated like other orphans and their future in the homes depended on the local people and special circumstances. On the other hand, there were conditions which made discrimination probable: being a member of a family which belongs to the old Soviet élite, being older than fifteen years of age, and showing signs of opposition.
Corinna Kuhr, Les enfants des « ennemis du peuple », victimes des grandes purges. Plusieurs centaines de milliers d'enfants perdirent leurs parents au cours des années 1937- 1938 à cause des purges. Un grand nombre d'entre eux fut envoyé dans des orphelinats, des colonies pour jeunes délinquants ou même dans des camps de travail. Des dispositions furent prises pour enregistrer, loger et nourrir ces enfants. Ces programmes furent établis pour gérer les conséquences de l'arrestation de milliers de personnes et pourvoir aux besoins d'un grand nombre d'enfants. Ce sont ces nécessités, et non pas des motifs idéologiques, qui ont été la raison de ce traitement réservé aux enfants des « ennemis du peuple ». Des témoias contemporains de ces événements ont laissé leurs souvenirs ou nous ont transmis leur témoignage au cours d'entretiens, ce qui nous permet de tirer quelques conclusions d'ordre général. D'une part, la plupart de ces enfants fut traitée comme les autres orphelins et leur avenir dans les maisons d'accueil fut essentiellement dépendant des circonstances et des personnes. D'autre part, certaines conditions favorisèrent la discrimination comme le fait d'appartenir à une famille de l'ancienne élite soviétique, d'être âgé de plus de quinze ans et de manifester des signes d'opposition.
12 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: CAHIERS_DU_MONDE_RUSSE_-_RUSSIE-_EMPIRE_RUSSE-_UNION_SOVIETIQUE-_ETATS_INDEPENDA
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1998
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Corinna Kuhr
Children of "ennemies of the people" as victims of the Great
Purges*
In: Cahiers du monde russe : Russie, Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants. Vol. 39 N°1-2. pp. 209-
220.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Kuhr Corinna. Children of "ennemies of the people" as victims of the Great Purges*. In: Cahiers du monde russe : Russie,
Empire russe, Union soviétique, États indépendants. Vol. 39 N°1-2. pp. 209-220.
doi : 10.3406/cmr.1998.2520
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_1252-6576_1998_num_39_1_2520Abstract
Corinna Kuhr, Children of "enemies of the people " as victims of the great purges. Several hundred
thousand children lost their parents during the years 1936-1938 as a result of the purges. Many of them
were sent to orphanages, colonies for young delinquents or even to labour camps. Plans for the
registration and accomodation of these children existed. They are to be viewed as a consequence of the
arrest of thousands of people and the need to take care of a great many children. This, and not an
ideological goal, was the reason for such treatement of the children of "enemies of the people." Memoirs
and interviews of contemporary witnesses make it possible to reach several general conclusions: on the
one hand, most of the children were treated like other orphans and their future in the homes depended
on the local people and special circumstances. On the other hand, there were conditions which made
discrimination probable: being a member of a family which belongs to the old Soviet élite, being older
than fifteen years of age, and showing signs of opposition.
Résumé
Corinna Kuhr, Les enfants des « ennemis du peuple », victimes des grandes purges. Plusieurs
centaines de milliers d'enfants perdirent leurs parents au cours des années 1937- 1938 à cause des
purges. Un grand nombre d'entre eux fut envoyé dans des orphelinats, des colonies pour jeunes
délinquants ou même dans des camps de travail. Des dispositions furent prises pour enregistrer, loger
et nourrir ces enfants. Ces programmes furent établis pour gérer les conséquences de l'arrestation de
milliers de personnes et pourvoir aux besoins d'un grand nombre d'enfants. Ce sont ces nécessités, et
non pas des motifs idéologiques, qui ont été la raison de ce traitement réservé aux enfants des «
ennemis du peuple ». Des témoias contemporains de ces événements ont laissé leurs souvenirs ou
nous ont transmis leur témoignage au cours d'entretiens, ce qui nous permet de tirer quelques
conclusions d'ordre général. D'une part, la plupart de ces enfants fut traitée comme les autres orphelins
et leur avenir dans les maisons d'accueil fut essentiellement dépendant des circonstances et des
personnes. D'autre part, certaines conditions favorisèrent la discrimination comme le fait d'appartenir à
une famille de l'ancienne élite soviétique, d'être âgé de plus de quinze ans et de manifester des signes
d'opposition.CORINNA KUHR
CHILDREN OF "ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE'
AS VICTIMS OF THE GREAT PURGES*
Vladimir Moroz was born into a Jewish family, and both of his parents were
active members of the Bolshevik party.1 The family — Vladimir had two brothers —
lived in a well-known building on the banks of the Moskva River, the so-called "dom
na naberezhnoi." In October 1937, the parents were arrested as enemies of the
people. The eldest brother Samuel was arrested just a few weeks later and accused
of organizing a youth counter-revolutionary group. After the arrest of his parents,
Vladimir and his younger brother were brought to the gathering-point for homeless
children in Moscow, the "Danilovskii detipriemnik." There the NKVD staff took
photographs of Vladimir. For easier registration, a sign with a number was hung
around his neck. A thumb-print completed the humiliation and the feeling of being
treated like a young criminal. Vladimir was sent to a home for orphans located far
from Moscow on the Volga River. He could not accept what had happened and, in
contrast to many children in the same situation, started to fight for justice and his
freedom. He did this by writing very critical letters to his brother in which he called
the children's home a place of banishment. He accused the teachers and the
educational staff of trying to silence him. In his diary, he analyzed the political
situation of the Soviet Union, wrote about the fact that the best politicians and
specialists were arrested, and called the new Bolshevik leaders hypocrites and
corrupt people. He did not try to hide his convictions and spoke frankly about his
opinions in the children's home. It took only a few months before he was arrested
and accused of counter-revolutionary activity. At that time, he was only 1 5 years old.
In theory it was not allowed to put children under the age of 16 on trial for political
opposition. In his case, however, the local NKVD received special permission from
Moscow and was in fact entitled to sentence him to three years in a labor camp for
counter-revolutionary activity. On his way to the camp, Vladimir died of tuberculosis
at the age of 16 in a prison.
Vladimir was one of many children whose parents were victims of the Great
Purges in the years 1 936- 1 938. In this period, thousands of people — party members,
specialists, army officers, as well as workers and peasants — were shot or interned
in labor camps. We do not know exactly how many people victims of these
repressive measures. According to latest estimates 2,5 million people were arrested
and 700,000 of them shot.2 These figures are based on reliable archival materials that
give us information about the age, profession and sex of the arrested people, but
Cahiers du Monde russe, 39 (1-2). janvier-juin 1998, pp. 209-220. 210 CORINNAKUHR
unfortunately they do not help us know how many children were in direct or indirect
ways victims of the purges. If the number of arrests is taken into consideration, it
seems obvious that at least several hundred thousand children lost their parents. More
detailed estimates follow later in this essay, but first of all it seems more important
to answer the question: what happened to all those children? Was Vladimir's case
typical or was it the exception? Was he himself seen as an enemy of the system or
was he guilty just because of the fact that his parents were accused of being
Trotskyites?
The Bolshevik party gave great attention to the younger generation because it was
seen as the builder of a new society, of socialism and of the new man. Many
educational projects for youth were discussed and implemented. So we also have to
ask whether special plans were developed for the accommodation and education of
the thousands of children who lost their parents because of the purges. Were they
purposely separated from their parents to give the state the chance to have a more
direct influence on them? In general, the terror can be seen as a mechanism for
disciplining a society which had its own dynamic and functioned very much
according to the spontaneous reactions of the leadership to handle the chaotic
situation of state and society, In that light, the measures against the children of so-
called enemies of the people can be seen as a pragmatic response to their appearance.
But even if there did not exist specific plans to discriminate against this group of
young people, the arrests themselves were traumatic experiences in the lives of these
children. They meant the loss of their parents and their homes. The fact that the
parents were shot or sent to camps had a great influence on their future lives, on their
professions, their social relationships, and their attitudes towards the state.
There are many historical studies about different aspects of the terror: about the
victims, the mechanisms, the repression organs, the role of Stalin, denunciations, the
winners of the purges, and the relationship between Moscow and the regions. Taken
together, these perspectives provide some sense about the causes of the Great Purges.
But still the phenomenon is not really understandable. We still need more detailed
studies to complete the picture. Working on the fate of children caught up in the
purges adds one more small piece to our understanding of the whole process. It is a
study about a certain group which was affected by the purges without being the main
target of it. Indeed, the very fact that measures against children can not make any
sense in terms of consolidating power or the struggle against oppositionists can help
us understand better the dynamics of the terror. The fact that there existed a mass of
homeless children on the streets of the Soviet Union makes it even more difficult to
understand why the leadership with its repressive measures made the problem worse
and created a disastrous situation in the orphanages. To comprehend this
phenomenon, we need to ask whether or not state institutions worked out detailed
plans for the treatment of children of "enemies of the people"