Mothers of Misery: Child Abandonment in Russia

David L. Ransel

Published by Princeton University Press 1988

Mothers of Misery

Child Abandonment in Russia

David L. Ransel

Volume 906 in the series Princeton Legacy Library

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400859443

Overview
Contents

About this book

At the height of its operation in the second half of the nineteenth century, the central foundling home in Moscow was receiving 17,000 children each year. The home dispatched most to wet nurses and foster care in the countryside, where at any one time it supervised over 40,000 children in Moscow province and six adjoining provinces. Established by Empress Catherine II in the middle of the eighteenth century, the two central foundling homes (the other was in St. Petersburg) were intended to deal humanely with the growing problems of abandonment and infanticide and to serve as social laboratories for educating artisans and craftspeople. David Ransel explores the creation and management of these institutions, shows how they functioned as a point of contact between educated society and the village, and compares them to the European foundling care programs on which they were modeled. "There were two central foundling homes in Russia, one in Moscow, one in St. Petersburg. . . . [In this book] no significant aspect of their history is left untouched, and many issues are described and analyzed in rich detail. . . . the book becomes, in part, a history of rural Russia over a one-hundred-fifty-year period, or, more accurately, of the provincial hinterlands of the two capitals. . . . The interaction between city and countryside turns out to be much more than a clich in this fascinating study."--Reginald E. Zelnik, American Historical Review

Originally published in 1988.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND FIGURES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
LIST OF TABLES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
ABBREVIATIONS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiv
ONE. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
TWO . Illegitimacy and Infanticide in Early Modern Russia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	8
THREE. "You Too Shall Live": The Betskoi System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
FOUR. The Era of the Turning Cradle in Europe and Russia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
FIVE. Public Criticism and Piecemeal Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
SIX. A Break with the Past Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
SEVEN. Sex Ratios of the Abandoned Children Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
EIGHT. The Abandoning Mothers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
NINE. Fosterage: The First One Hundred Years Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
TEN . The Foundling Market: A Network of Exchange between Town and Village Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
ELEVEN. Geography of the Fosterage System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
TWELVE. Social and Medical Consequences of Fosterage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
THIRTEEN. Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	294
APPENDIX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325

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