Document 145

Memorandum from TsK of Komsomol to R. S. Zemliachka of SNK, 12 April 1941

TsKhDMO, f. 1, op. 23, d. 1472, ll. 49-50. Typewritten copy.

The unsatisfactory performance of the children's homes of Narkompros is borne out by the following fact: the Procurator's Office of Krasnodar Krai has cited the krai's children's homes for serious violations of the law: an inadequate supply of clothing, shoes and food for children, unsanitary accommodations for them, and in several homes, the embezzlement of state funds that were allocated for maintenance of the homes. Children's home No. 39 in Plastunka Raion had no fuel; the room in which the children slept was cold and dirty, and the air temperature was so low that the water in the washbasins froze and the children could not wash themselves. The business manager of the children's home, Serliuk, corrupted young girls, raping a girl named Alaeva (he has been sentenced for this to five years' imprisonment). It was also discovered that children's home director Korsakova misappropriated 9,500 rubles in state funds; the manager of the sewing workshop misappropriated 7,800 rubles; and the director of studies embezzled 1,500 rubles (all these individuals have been taken into custody) [Omitted is a description of a children's home in Novo-Kuban Raion.]

The following was detected at the children's home in the Cossack settlement of Ubozhenskaia in Uspensky Raion: the rooms in which the children were living were not heated, the rooms in general were dirty, the glass in the windows was broken, the stoves were out of order, the temperature in the rooms was 10 degrees below zero [C.; +14 degrees F.]; the water in the washstands froze, and the children did not wash themselves and were filthy; during the severely cold period, children burned overcoats, blankets, books, bedsheets and other belongings in the stoves; in all, ten thousand rubles' worth of various items were burned in this manner. Fifty children had no shoes, did not attend school, and some of them were forced to walk barefoot in the snow; a commission found forty six children with frostbitten feet. Children were often left without bread; some of them were beaten by children's home director Strel'tsov. Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the individuals who are to blame for these abominations, including children's home director Strel'tsov.

Similar facts have been found at other children's homes as well.