Figure 1.-This cabinet card portait was taken near Maloarkhangelsk in southeastern Russia, near Ukraine durin 1919. This was in the middle of the Civil War which followed the Bloshevik Revolution. It was a dreadful time in Russia perhaps 2 million children were displkaced and wondering the country side, reduced to stealing and other petty crimes to survive. These children, however, look cared for, well dressed and fed.. The dealer describes them as a 'children's club'. The adults caring for them are seated in the middle. Wev have no idea, however, what kind of instityition this was or who was sponsoring them. We can make out Maloarkhangelsk and the date in the script at the bottom, but do not know what the rest means.

We have found some Russian group photographs of children that we do not fully understand. They are not school images. And do not seem to be youth groups or summer camp images. Nor do they seem to be orphanages. These seem to be Revolutionart era Soviet-era not Tsarist-era images. As a result of World War I, the Revolution, the Civil War, and famine. huge numbers of displaced children wandered the country, surving by stealing and other petty crimes. Orphanages were opened to care for them, but were for many years were unequal to the task. We think some of the groups we see deal with these these children displaced children, And the problem would not end with Bolshevik victory in the Civil War. Children would suffer from the Ukranian Genocide, Stalinist Terror, Gulag, Stalin's alliance with Hitler leading to the NAZI invasion, and finally the NKVD repression in countries invaded and annexed to the Soviet Union. Hopefully our Russian readers will be able to provide some insights. At this point we can only load the images and describe what we see.

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Created: 5:01 PM 7/4/2019
Last updated: 5:01 PM 7/4/2019