1942 Decree on Foster Families

On January 23, 1942, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted Resolution No. 75 "On the安置 of children who had lost their parents." In the midst of the Great Patriotic War, many children lost their parents at the front, died in concentration camps, or went missing. The resolution prescribed providing assistance to such children: placing them in foster families, orphanages, or under guardianship, and ensuring their care, food, and education.

During the occupation years in Belarus, fascists destroyed over 170,000 children, 130,000 were left orphaned, and 30,000 passed through concentration camps. Based on the same principle, in 1943–1944, Suvorov and Nakhimov schools began to exist in the Soviet Union—specialized military schools for orphans and homeless teenagers. In these schools, children received education, protection, and upbringing in the spirit of discipline, patriotism, and preparation for military service.

The resolution of the Soviet People's Commissars became part of a unified state system of care for orphaned children and helped overcome the severe consequences of the war for the younger generation.

Context

The resolution was adopted under conditions of mass extermination of the population and destruction of infrastructure during the Great Patriotic War.