Public Campaigns as a Measure of Social Problems Solution during the Post-Revolutionary Period in Yenisseyskaya Province

The article analyzes the stages of social campaigns organization and holding in the further-flung Siberia that aimed at giving material support to the people in hardships and at gathering the population around the new government. The period under study (the first half of the 1920s) bears a special interest thanks to the newly-formed Soviet welfare system character which was determined by political, economic and ideological factors. Studies of Soviet social policy during the complicated post-Revolutionary period allow better understanding of contradictory Soviet reality. Documents from the State Archive of Krasnoyarsk Region and published resources let us reveal the fact that numerous issue-related social campaigns represented a specific way of collaboration between the state and the public institutions; social support measures carried out through organization and holding thematic events touched upon a wide range of problems (maternal and child welfare, children famine relief, disabled and Red Army soldiers welfare). These measures coincided with the declared social policy basic directions. They were conducted in a resource-constrained environment (financial as well as human) in the sphere of social care and service. Although held in Yenisseyskaya Province quite often, the campaigns did not achieve desired result, and financial takings were insignificant. However, they managed to gain the experience of the campaigns conduct and to form a core group among the social care sub-units that supported all the governmental initiatives. Working by campaigns as a way of acute problems solution carried out educational function as well by showing the progressiveness of the taken measures and the humanism of the Soviet State to the citizens. Social campaigns conducted during the period in question played a significant part in the development of welfare system to the population in hardships in Yenisseyskaya Province. The formation of state welfare institutions and mass public organizations finished by the mid-1920s. They organized the registration of the population in need for state support and established the paternalistic assistance measures. The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Government of Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk Region Science and Technology Support Fund to the research project № 16-11-24002 Revolutionary Russia: Alteration of models and practices of social care in the first quarter of the 20th century (on the basis of materials for East Siberia).

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