Famine and the Problem of Child Homelessness in 1932–1933

Abstract

This article examines the problem of mass child homelessness during the 1932–1933 famine in the Soviet Union, focusing on the mechanisms of state policy, institutional responses, and the lived experiences of children. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the paper integrates social, legal, and demographic analysis to reconstruct how famine-related family disintegration and repressive administrative measures led to a humanitarian crisis among minors. Special attention is paid to the role of shelters, labor colonies, and state propaganda in shaping the social identity of orphaned and homeless children. In contrast to previous research that emphasized general demographic or economic aspects of the famine, this study places children and their experiences at the center of analysis. It argues that child homelessness in 1932–1933 was not an incidental byproduct of famine but a systemic consequence of state policies aimed at social control, repression, and ideological formation. The article presents new interpretations based on underutilized archival sources from Kazakhstan and Russia (ЦГА РК, РГАДА), memoir literature, and psychological studies. It highlights the institutionalization of child suffering, the loss of intergenerational memory, and the suppression of identity as key mechanisms of trauma transmission. The findings demonstrate that mass child homelessness during the famine was both a humanitarian disaster and a tool of political repression. Children were subjected to physical deprivation, labor exploitation, and ideological reeducation. These experiences produced long-term psychological trauma and ruptured family traditions and cultural transmission. The legacy of this catastrophe still echoes in the silence of survivors and the fragmentary memory of society. Understanding this phenomenon is essential for reassessing the ethical dimensions of state power and the vulnerability of childhood under totalitarian regimes.