The attitude to children, their right for life and development in Russia (X cent.-beginning of the XVIII cent.)

The article discusses the problem of treatment of children and care for them during the period of Kiev and Moscow Rus and Russia at the beginning of the XVIII century. The basic legislative acts and documents reflecting the situation with children and their legal status, relationships between parents and children are analyzed. The basic principle of relations within the family was lawlessness, unquestioning obedience children to parents which was maintained by both oral reprimands and corporal punishment. Peter I had a systematic program of little-year-olds’ charity on the state level. A number of his decrees aimed to stop infanticide , to change the system of orphans’ protection and help, to alleviate the fate of illegitimate children (including the organization of hospitals for “bastards” and wet nurses service), to create conditions for upbringing and education of children, to reduce beggary. Speed, pragmatism, brutal methods of his reforms splitted the Russian society which was not ready for the new, including the state regulation of orphans’ charity, so the fulfillment of his decrees met great difficulties.

social position of children and their legal status, charity, orphans, illegitimate children, Russia in the X cent. - beginning of the XVIII cent