Houses of industriousness. The history of the creation in the 19th century of workhouses and charity houses

Peter I, embarking on the creation of city magistrates, thought to charge them with the establishment of orphanages, almshouses, hospitals, workhouses and penitentiaries "for the delivery of work and food to all who are able to correct any work."

The system of public charity created by Catherine II provided for the opening, along with a hospital and an almshouse, of special institutions for the employment of the unemployed, the poor and vagrants. In accordance with the Institution for the Administration of Provinces issued in 1775, it was obligatory to create workhouses and penal houses. In 1785, a restraining house was created in Moscow. Unlike the workhouse, which was supposed to provide labor for volunteers, the penitentiary was a forced labor colony where people were interned for antisocial behavior.

The workhouse and the penitentiary soon merged and turned into a forced labor colony, on the basis of which a prison was subsequently formed. Since 1870, the house of restraint began to be called the Moscow City Correctional Prison.

In contrast, they can be called the emergence of houses of diligence, whose activities were

aimed at solving the problems of the unemployed. The purpose of the houses of diligence

was to give the poor the opportunity to earn bread by honest labor - with the assistance of society. These institutions were created as a means of reducing poverty, preventing crimes often committed from hunger, and to promote the development of people's labor.

The main reason for coming to the house of industriousness, according to Guerrier, was "reduced ability to work"; the help of the house of industriousness could be required, for example, by a woman with a child, an elderly person, lazy, an alcoholic or a teenager.

In 1882, the first house of industriousness was opened in Russia. The idea of ​​its foundation is narrow

associated with the name of the spiritual shepherd - Father John of Kronstadt.

At first, guardianship, not yet having a special house of industriousness, was forced

was content, which consisted of artels in need of work, who were hired by the day for "black" work. Having collected donations for the construction of the house of industriousness in a year, the house was opened in 1882. The house of industriousness was designed for men, they were asked to pinch the hemp. The house proved itself well and in 1896 alone it gave work to 21,876 people.

in 1886, the 1st house of industriousness appeared in St. Petersburg. At first, the financial situation of the house was unsecured, because to find Good work it was difficult for men. And in 1892 the men's department was closed. This house looked after only women and girls.

In 1886, another house of industriousness was opened in St. Petersburg. In the house, rooms were arranged for the overnight stay of men, who had just been taken care of by the house. In parallel with this, the house of industriousness could carry out one more task and stop issuing wages to the working people, which should go to the maintenance of the detainees, but meanwhile often goes to drinking and revelry. Now the detainees do not receive any wages, and they are only assigned a small reward.

In connection with the long stay in the house, his detainees also found that

the kind of work that is closer to them. The house had several workshops: carpentry, bookbinding, cardboard, shoemaking, tailoring, metalwork and others. In the house, the trainees were trained in the chosen specialty.

The internal regime in is quite strict, but the main means to maintain it

serve as a persuasion rather than a punishment. The most severe punishment is removal from the Home, and the rest of the ladder of punishment consists of either a reduction in remuneration or the deprivation of certain general rights (ex. The right to smoke for a certain period of time).

In 1896, the Women's House of Diligence was founded at the Moscow workhouse. Under him, there were workshops equipped with sewing machines, where visiting women could earn a livelihood.

diligence: “In addition to the main task - to provide urgent,

short-term assistance by providing them with work and shelter - this kind

institutions have a number of other functions: - food, lodging for the night, charity for the children of workers, - finding employment.

In 1895, the Guardianship of the Houses of Diligence and Workhouses was opened,

later (in 1906) renamed the Trusteeship for Labor Assistance. It helped the organization and maintenance of various institutions of "labor assistance". Since anyone who wanted to work could find an occupation in the Houses of Labor, they introduced

Here, crafts “do not require any special professional knowledge.” Among the unskilled jobs were: plucking tow, bast, hemp; gardening and horticulture; gluing packages; cleaning the premises and caring for the house; chopping and sawing firewood; cleaning streets and squares; carrying and transportation of goods, cleaning and plucking of feathers For those who had any qualifications, workshops were opened in the houses of diligence.

Work here was paid more modestly than it would be in a permanent workplace. IN

permanent place. In most Houses visitors were provided with food, and in some

received full shelter.

Anyone can be on the street. Help seemed to be nowhere to be found. But there are those who are ready to lend a shoulder. TASS correspondents visited the Noy House of Diligence. This is where people go through their personal hell. Here they are trying to return to normal life.

House of industriousness "Noah"

Noah House of Diligence is a network of shelters for the homeless. The first one was opened in 2011. Founder - Emilian Sosinsky. "Many organizations help targeted, specific people," he says. "My task was to deal not with units, but with thousands."

Employees of "Noah" are sure: work is the main thing in life, and a person must understand that everything in life needs to be earned. This is also why all guests are regularly paid. Emilian Sosinsky is convinced that this contributes to socialization.

Now the network has 12 branches located in Moscow and the Moscow region. Of these, two are social houses (mainly for the elderly, the disabled and women with children), the rest are labor houses (for able-bodied men). Inhabitants of labor houses earn money for the whole community, taking jobs as workers. In social homes, people run the household, providing the community with meat and eggs.

"Standard Story"

Moscow region forest. Behind the high fence is a vast area and several large red brick houses with many entrances and exits. “Everyone who enters the fence is purged for alcohol,” an employee of the foundation, who asked not to be named, tells us. railway station".

Most people who find themselves in "Noah" get here right from the station. “I came to Moscow from Krasnodar,” says a 40-year-old woman. “I found a job here, and a school for my son. I had 50,000 rubles to rent an apartment until the first salary. I turned away to buy water for my child - both money and documents were stolen.” . "Noah" found through the Internet. Here they help to restore the passport, but for this you need to live in the house for a month. "Then it will be possible to get a job," she says. "I worked half my life at a confectionery factory, I remember the recipes for all the cakes by heart."

This is a relatively happy story. It gets scarier.

Women and men live in different rooms. Any relationship outside of marriage is called "fornication" and is strictly prohibited. And even if the couple signs, this does not mean that they will automatically be given a common bedroom - only the most "deserved" inhabitants of the house receive them. Mothers live separately with their children. When the working day begins, one of the women stays with the kids - that is, actually works as a nanny. This is the principle of "Noah": here everyone works to provide a comfortable life for themselves and others. Everyone does what he can and what he has the strength to do.

Residents work at home six days a week. Rise - at 8:00, lights out - at 23:00. Although the cook, for example, gets up at half past five in the morning to prepare breakfast for everyone. The food is simple and satisfying - today, for example, there was borscht for lunch, and buckwheat with meat for dinner. In "Noah" subsistence farming: pigs, goats, rabbits, chickens. Meat and eggs inhabitants social home provide themselves completely. They save on gas thanks to a field kitchen donated by the Intercession Convent.

The bedrooms in the buildings are crowded with bunk beds so tightly that it is difficult to walk between them. And yet there isn't enough room for everyone. Therefore, some inhabitants of the house spend the night in a barn - in literally. In the future, some of the guests are planned to be transferred to a new branch, which will open in the Sergiev Posad district of the Moscow region. But so far there is not enough money for it.

“Homeless old people, women with children and the disabled, including those who are bedridden, should move there,” says Emilian Sosinsky. “According to my calculations, the branch would accommodate all disabled homeless people in the Moscow region who are ready to accept our rules. help." The able-bodied homeless have the opportunity to get into the "Noah" from the street already now - and many disabled people do not yet have such a chance.

"I got so low that I couldn't walk"

Olga is 42, she has black painted eyebrows and bright scarlet manicure, she confidently scribbles on a typewriter - she makes aprons for local chefs. “I am a professional seamstress?” Olga laughs. “What are you talking about! I learned to sew in places not so remote. Olga had three terms, in total she spent five years in the zone for fraud and forgery of documents. And in her youth, she "was good", was engaged in acrobatics, received ranks. But then she dropped it. Olga has an adult son, she never lost touch with him, but "I won't sit on his neck, let him arrange his life." Now she is looking for a job - she knows how to do a lot, from sewing to repair, but they don’t take a seamstress with a “camp” education, but on a heavy physical work health is no longer enough. Until he finds it, he will stay here.

There are dozens of such stories in Noah. “I drank for years, lived on the street, kind people brought me here”, “I sat, took drugs, my family hasn’t known anything about me for a long time” and even “I’m an uncomfortable person, I didn’t get along with my son-in-law, I had to leave home” - the most typical explanations for this why people come here. The guests in "Noah" are completely different. From a worker with three grades of education to a mathematician who worked at secret facilities in Soviet times. But when you listen to their stories, they seem to merge into one.

"... I had two apartments in Moscow. I sold them in order to buy one simpler and set aside money for my child to study. I was robbed. I can't tell, I don't even want to remember, it makes me shudder. I don't have anything..."

"... I am from Dagestan, in 1996 I fled from the war to Volgograd. And then I had to leave. I didn’t have my own house. I have relatives, but everyone has their own family. If you don’t have money, who needs you? Who are you Well, the first month, the second, and on the third they say: "Sorry, but we are not obliged to feed you ..."

"... One woman came here after the hospital: a thief poured acid on her. And while she was lying, her husband managed to take out and sell all the property. But she stayed here only two months: she quickly divorced and remarried..."

"... I drank on the street for two years. I reached such a low that I could not walk. When they brought me here, they told me: "Brother, how can we take you? You have to go up to the fourth floor, sleep on the second tier of the bed. "I climbed on my knees to the floor, and by some miracle onto the bed. I hung from there, smiled and said:" I fulfilled your conditions. "Now I take care of the pigs. I've never dealt with animals before...

This house really looks like Noah's Ark. Here everyone is given a chance to survive - no matter what hell they have gone through before.

"I didn't want to live"

Lyudmila does laundry here. This is a large woman of 39 years old, quiet and reserved. She has five children, two live with her grandmother, three live here with her. The younger girls are three months old, they are twins. Lyudmila has been in "Noah" for three years, her husband is the head of one of the labor houses. Looking at her, you would not think that she once sold drugs.

"We were never close to my mother," Luda says. "I could leave the house and come back a year later." Once she "came out" so much that she was married at the age of 16. But there was an accident, and the husband fell into a coma. Ludmila got drunk. Then everything turned out to be predictable. “I was such a girl… adventurous,” she says. Drugs, a colony, a connection with a gypsy company - there really were enough adventures in her life. Once the gypsies called her to Moscow, allegedly to work in a chain store. In reality, Luda's documents were taken away and she was forced to beg. And then they raped me. “I ran away from the gypsies all beaten up,” she recalls. “I didn’t want to live.” Lyudmila tried to commit suicide, but failed. The social patrol found her on the street. So she ended up in "Noah" - as it turned out, pregnant. “I didn’t want to leave the child, I thought he would remind me of what happened,” she says. “But still gave birth to a son.” The boy turned out to be HIV+. As it turned out, Lyudmila was infected.

Now the woman and her son are taking medication. Babies were born with a negative status. She even began to keep in touch with her mother, who lives in Ukraine. Luda has a 22-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter there. Maybe someday she'll take her home with her.

The fact that there are HIV-positive people in the house is treated normally here. There is only one requirement in the house - follow the rules, and we will help you with everything else. HIV-positive people are registered and provided with therapy. Those who have lost their documents are helped to restore them. And women whose children were taken away because of drunkenness can return them as soon as they themselves return to a normal lifestyle. "Noy" closely cooperates with all authorities - from the precinct to guardianship. But the rules are strictly enforced here. For the mat - a fine of 50 rubles. This money is put into the general cash desk - they recently bought a TV set. For assault, the offender immediately falls into the black list and leaves the house until he is forgiven by everyone he harmed. And even then, you can return only after three months of rehabilitation (during this time a person works for free, only for shelter and food).

Smoking is allowed, but not encouraged. All types of intoxication are prohibited. "At meetings I say: I'm just as drunk as you are, but I haven't drunk for four years," says Sergey Sterinovich. Four years ago, he came here immediately after a pancreatic operation: "My stomach was still not sewn up, the wound healed by itself, there was a hole 15 centimeters in size." He began to sit on watch - because he could not help but work, and he was still not able to walk. Now he heads the security service of the entire organization, is married and has a child.

"I do not have"

Not all people stay in "Noah" for a long time. Here, for example, a couple - she is 40, he is 45, met here. Soon they will sign - "but without ceremony, I'm not a girl, so White dress They plan to find an apartment and leave: they want to live in their own home, “so that no one sticks their nose in, doesn’t say: you don’t live like that.” The employees of the house treat this normally: no one is obliged to live here forever. There is only one question - where does he go "If some negligent mother is going to go homeless, guardianship comes and decides what to do with the child, "they explain to us. But if a person has found a job and shelter, they will only support him and even help with registration.

Get out of Noah, heal new life, not worrying about accommodation for the night and coming to the station only when going on vacation is the best result for any guest. Many people get it. But sometimes even those who have somewhere to go are not ready to return to their families.

Galina Leonidovna is 58 years old, she has been a housewife all her life and will receive a pension only in two years - due to old age. 20 years ago, she left her husband and 18-year-old daughter in Krasnoyarsk. She went to Moscow to sell pine nuts and met a man in the market. Galina Leonidovna didn’t return home anymore - she didn’t even divorce her husband, therefore she couldn’t sign with her new lover either. Four years ago he died - cardiac arrest. "The apartment where we lived, the dacha, the car was seized by his son - he found an old will. And I was left without a husband and without an apartment."

At first she lived with her "mother-in-law", who is already 90 years old. “She either accepted me or kicked me out. She cried: “Why didn’t you sign with my son, you’re to blame!” Actually, it’s true - it’s my fault. Sometimes she woke up at night and started screaming. I’m going to the station. And I just sat at the station for several nights. I didn’t live on the street. Although, probably, if she died, I would immediately be on the street. " Galina Leonidovna's legs were paralyzed from stress. She came to "Noah" by accident: she became ill in the subway, and they helped her. Here she sews and understands that, most likely, she will stay here until the end. “I will not return home,” she says. “When all this happened, I said that I was going abroad for a long time and would not call. I saw that I left when my daughter was 18 years old, she was still studying. And now my grandson is 15 years old already.”

Pavel also once had a family, an apartment and a dacha. He is tall and strong man about 50, prepares firewood for the whole house. In appearance - a village man, in his soul - a philosopher. He himself admits: he was always told that he was "not a city man." Paul was an alcoholic. He held on for years, but still left - first on a binge, and then from home. I lived on the street for a long time. “There is a lot of food in Moscow - good things are often thrown away,” he says. “We grazed at the supermarket, there was anything: meat, milk, vegetables, fruits. There were a lot of bananas. Somehow I came, I think: damn it, bananas again.”

Emilian Sosinsky is sure that the fact that it is so easy to survive on the street in the capital corrupts many. “This is a real epidemic: more and more homeless people become parasites, because our region is favorable for doing nothing,” he says. “They understand that it is not necessary to work, stop drinking. him. Such people, if there are many of them, can be dangerous to society. Therefore, this epidemic must be stopped."

From the time of the baptism of Rus', the distribution of alms and hospice were considered an indispensable virtue of every Russian person - from a commoner to a grand duke. Charity for the needy was made a duty to monasteries and parishes, which were supposed to maintain almshouses and give shelter to wanderers and the homeless. In the 18th century, the attitude towards the poor, the poor, the orphans changed. Life, restructured in many ways in the Western manner, has given rise to philanthropy, when assistance is provided for reasons abstract humanism and not out of love for a particular person.

In the photo: House of industriousness in Kronstadt.

Mercy - instead of compassion (1). The condescending charity of the prosperous to the downtrodden and the orphan will exist in society until the revolution.

In the 19th century, private secular charity unfolded: charitable institutions, various charitable societies, almshouses, shelters, charity houses, and overnight houses were founded. Needy able-bodied men and women aged 20-45 could only hope for small cash benefits and free meals. Finding a temporary job was not easy. A man in rags, emaciated, without documents, but willing to work honestly, had practically no chance of getting a job. It broke people morally and physically. They got to the Khitrov market, where they became professional "shooters". It was not an easy task to teach such people to work again, to return them to society.

The first decree, which refers to the workhouse, where "young sloths" should be forcibly placed, receiving "sustenance from work", was given by Empress Catherine II to the Moscow chief police chief Arkharov in 1775. In the same year, the Institution of the Provinces entrusted the construction of workhouses to the newly created orders of public charity: "... in these houses they give work, and as they work, food, cover, clothing or money ... completely miserable people who can work are accepted and they themselves voluntarily come ... "(2) The workhouse was located at two addresses: the men's department in the premises of the former Quarantine House behind the Sukharev Tower, the women's - in the abolished Andreevsky Monastery. In 1785 it was combined with a chastity house for "violent sloths". It turned out to be an institution like a forced labor colony, on the basis of which in 1870 a city correctional prison arose, known today to Muscovites as Matrosskaya Tishina. Workhouses were still in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk and existed until 1853.

The number of beggars also grew, but there were no institutions where they could be helped. The situation turned out to be especially unfavorable in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where crowds of the needy flocked in search of work and food, especially in lean years. In 1838, the charter of the Moscow Committee for the Analysis of Cases of Beggars was approved. The Moscow city workhouse, established in 1837 with the aim of providing earnings to those who came voluntarily and forcing professional beggars and idlers to work, was also transferred to the jurisdiction of the committee. The Yusupov Workhouse, as it was called by the people, was located at 22 Bolshoi Kharitonievsky Lane, opposite the Yusupov Palace. The building was rented to the government in 1833 as a shelter for the poor. There were up to 200 people here. The shelter was supported by the Order of Public Charity. Over time, the number of prisoners increased. By decision of the Board of Trustees and thanks to the donation of the merchant Chizhov, the Yusupov Palace was bought. In 1839, he finally passed into the jurisdiction of the city and became a workhouse.

The Chairman of the Committee of Trustees Nechaev, and following his example, all members of the committee and employees of the workhouse worked without remuneration, making their own contributions. The number of prisoners reached 600 people, a hospital with 30 beds was opened. At the same time, G. Lopukhin donated his estate to the workhouse - the village of Tikhvino, Moscow province, Bronnitsky district (3).

New applicants were given a probationary period. After six months, they were divided into two categories: experienced good behavior and experienced unreliable behavior. The former were engaged in housework, receiving (4) kopecks per day and half the price for orders. The second was assigned a guard, they were entrusted with the most difficult work and forbidden to leave the house. Children learned to read and write.

TO mid-nineteenth century "the magnificent palace of Prince Yusupov, a noisy, brilliant house, in which taste, fashion and luxury reigned and self-willed for more than 20 years, where music thundered for whole months, bizarre balls, dinners, performances were given," became extremely unattractive, "equally huge, gloomy and sad." The three-story building housed the men's, women's and "old man's" departments. The latter contained the disabled, requiring care. In the large halls, bunks and bunks were side by side with tiled stoves, statues, and columns. The police often brought the convicts to the Yusupov house, but there were also volunteers who were driven to the extreme. Gradually, the influx of volunteers practically ceased. No orders were received, household work was not paid, the detainees refused to work. The workhouse turned into "a shelter where the beggars, detained by the police on the streets of Moscow, spent their time in idleness" (5). The problem of employment of the poor has not been solved.

In 1865, the charter of the Society for the Encouragement of Diligence was approved, the founders of which were A.N. Strekalova, S.D. Mertvago, E.G. Torletskaya, S.S. Strekalov, S.P. Yakovlev, P.M. A.N.Strekalova was elected chairperson. Since 1868, the Society for the Encouragement of Diligence has been included in the Office of the Imperial Humanitarian Society. Various charitable institutions were opened, for example, "Moscow anthill" - a society to provide temporary assistance to the poorest residents of Moscow. Members of the "Anthill" - "ants" - contributed at least 1 ruble to the cashier and during the year had to make at least two items of clothing at their own expense. The name "murashi" with time was assigned to the workers of the "Anthill" workshops.

In February 1894, at the corner of 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya and Glukhoy Lane, a women's house of industriousness was opened. Anyone could get a job - in sewing workshops or at home. Gradually, a whole charitable complex was formed: workshops, a folk tea shop, a bakery (located in a house on the corner of 4th Tverskaya-Yamskaya and Glukhoy Lane). The bakery supplied the women with quality bread at an affordable price. The poorest workers were given bread free of charge. While the mothers worked, the children were looked after in the nursery. For literate girls from poor families, a school of dressmakers and cutters was organized in 1897. Orders were received regularly, manufactured products were sold at a cheap price in open warehouses. It was the first Moscow charitable institution of this type. In St. Petersburg, by that time, there were already three houses of industriousness and one in Kronstadt for 130 people, founded in 1882 with private donations from Father John of Kronstadt. The main work of the detainees of the Kronstadt house was plucking hemp. There were fashionable and seamstress workshops for women and a shoemaker's workshop for boys.

One of the most passionate propagandists of "labor charity" in Russia was Baron O. O. Buksgevden. Through his efforts, by 1895 houses of industriousness were opened in Vilna, Elabuga, Arkhangelsk, Samara, Chernigov, Vitebsk, Vladimir, Kaluga, Simbirsk, Saratov, Smolensk and many other cities of the Russian Empire, including the Evangelical second house of industriousness in St. with funds raised by the baron among the Lutheran merchants. All employees of the House were from the number of conscripts, which allowed to reduce costs and increase the number of jobs. The institution was closed, that is, the detainees in it were fully supported. “Experience has shown that the workers did not know how to manage the money they received and remained in a distressed state, which prompted the council to provide them with shelter and food. In view of this, with the exception of a few married old people, everyone who was looking for work was given the condition that they live in a house of industriousness "(6).

Gradually, benefactors became convinced of the need for two types of labor assistance institutions for volunteers: one - where a person would receive only temporary work before finding a permanent one; the other is closed, providing for the isolation of the detainees from outside world for educational purposes and, accordingly, their full content. In the latter case, "self-sufficiency" was out of the question; financial support from the state and private benefactors was required. The most expedient form of institutions of the second type seemed to be an agricultural colony: "A person who came in rags to look for work is no longer capable of independent work ... For such an individual, the only salvation would be a working colony far from the city" (7). A person who recently lost his job could well have been helped by the city house of industriousness.

Almost all houses of diligence were subsidized by the state or private benefactors. The average supplement to cover the expenses of the House was 20-26 kopecks per day per person. Mostly unskilled people came, their work was low-paid: plucking hemp, making paper bags, envelopes, mattresses from bast and hair, ruffling tow. Women sewed, combed yarn, knitted. Moreover, even these simple crafts often had to be taught first, which significantly increased costs. Some of the houses of industriousness, as already mentioned, simply turned into houses of charity. The earnings of a laborer in the workshops ranged from 5 to 15 kopecks per day. Work on cleaning the streets and sewage dumps was paid more, but there were not enough such orders for all the detainees.

House of industriousness for exemplary women in St. Petersburg. It was opened in 1896 on the initiative of O. O. Buksgevden and with the support of the Trusteeship for Labor Houses and Workhouses (see Trusteeship for Labor Assistance), which allocated 6,000 rubles for the establishment. Originally located at: Znamenskaya st. (now Vosstaniya street), 2, by 1910 moved to Saperny per., 16. The Chairman of the Trustee Committee in the 1900s was a bar. O. O. Buksgevden, then - V. A. Volkova, secretary - G. P. Syuzor.

The institution provided women with the opportunity for intelligent labor and constant earnings "until a more stable arrangement of their fate." As a rule, graduates of secondary schools applied here. educational institutions, orphans, widows, ladies abandoned by their husbands, often burdened with children or elderly parents and not receiving pensions.

There were houses of industriousness for children- in Kherson, Yaroslavl, Yarensk. The Kherson Society generally believed that such institutions were necessary in the first place precisely "for the younger generation, in order to give them proper upbringing from childhood and eradicate the begging and begging of children that has developed in the city. It seemed less necessary for the time being to set up a house of industriousness for adults in view of the very favorable conditions when they find work and a fairly high salary for almost the entire year ... "(8) In Yaroslavl in 1891, the local Charity Committee for the poor opened a cardboard-binding workshop for the poorest children to distract them from begging. She had a cheap canteen. For work, children received 5-8 kopecks a day.They could stay in the House from one month to a year.Children's labor, even less than the work of adults, paid off the costs of charity.

The budgets of houses of diligence consisted of membership dues, voluntary donations, proceeds from the sale of manufactured products, payments for city works, funds received from charity concerts, lotteries, mug collection, as well as from subsidies from the state and the Society. "The meaning of labor assistance is not everywhere correctly understood by local leaders of houses of industriousness. There is a significant difference between labor assistance, which is provided to a person under the condition of real work, and such assistance to an elderly person or a child. The work required of them has no real character. It happens that a house diligence becomes its own end, forgetting that it must be a means to another higher end" (9).

Until 1895, 52 houses of industriousness were established in Russia. In 1895, a regulation on guardianship under the auspices of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was issued to assist and provide material assistance in the opening of new houses, as well as to maintain existing ones. By 1898, there were already 130 houses of industriousness in Russia. In November 1897, the Trusteeship Committee began to publish the journal Labor Assistance. The idea of ​​labor assistance is firmly embedded in public consciousness: "We serve a piece of bread, which the poor man repels with anger, because he remains homeless and without clothes and cannot get by with bread alone. We give the beggar a coin to get rid of him, and we realize that we are actually pushing him even deeper into need , as he will drink the alms given to him. Finally, we give clothes to the undressed, but in vain, for he returns to us in the same rags.

On May 15, 1895 the hereditary honorary citizen S.N. and S.N. Gorbov. For construction, the Duma allocated a plot in Bolshoy Kharitonievsky Lane. The two-story stone building, facing the lane, was designed for 100 workers. On the second floor there were two workshops where linen was sewn, on the first floor there were apartments for employees and a folk canteen, transferred by the founder to the city. The workers received lunches consisting of cabbage soup, porridge and black bread, at a price of 5 kopecks. Free meals were often donated by philanthropists.

Women came to the House themselves or were sent by the city guardians and the Council. They were mostly peasant women and petty-bourgeois women between the ages of 20 and 40, often illiterate (10). Upon admission, each was given a passbook, a sewing machine and a cabinet for storing unfinished work. On average, 82 women worked here daily. Wages were received once a week - from 5 to 65 kopecks per day. The cost of material, thread, deductions in favor of the House were deducted from earnings. In 1899, a nursery was organized at the House. Sales of products were provided by regular city orders for various charitable establishments. For example, in 1899, an order was received from the City Council for sewing linen for all Moscow hospitals.

In more difficult conditions was the city workhouse, which provided labor assistance to both volunteers and those delivered by the police. Until 1893, it was under the jurisdiction of the Committee, which had very meager funds, for the analysis and charity of beggars. No work was done here, mostly beggars brought by the police (the number of volunteers was minimal). Soon the Committee was abolished, and the charitable institutions subordinate to it were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Moscow City Public Administration. Gradually, things began to improve.

In 1895, the House was given work at the Spasskaya sewage dump, the bookbinding and envelope and basket-linen workshops were revived. P.M. and V.I. Tretyakov donated two thousand rubles to the House. In 1897, 3358 people were accepted for voluntary charity. About 600 people (11) had shelter directly in the House.

Those sent to work were divided into two categories: those who had their own good clothes and shoes and those who did not. Workers of the first category formed an artel and elected a headman who supervised the work and received for this an increase of up to 10 kopecks in addition to their daily earnings. Those belonging to the second category also formed an artel, but worked under the supervision of an overseer. Earnings in summer were up to 25 kopecks a day, in winter - up to 20 kopecks. Volunteers of the first category received 5-10 kopecks more than the second. The last to be given out were clothes, shoes, underwear - of course, very, very second-hand. Here is the testimony of S.P. Podyachev, who described his stay in the House in 1902: “Clothes were given out old, torn, smelly and dirty ... sometimes they were underwear... The pants were also different: some were made of thick cloth and were quite strong, others were blue, thin, like a rag... The legs were soft, made of "chuni" woolen cords, exactly the same as the women pilgrims go to St. Sergius in the spring..." (12) "Chunies" were woven from old rags and hemmed with felt. Such shoes had to be tied with a belt or rope, which were not always given out, so the "chuni" were sewn by workers to the underpants. "The worker's legs are constantly sewn up, as if in a sack, and then one has to sleep in "chuns", and work, and walk from one end to the other," notes Dr. Kedrov (13). He also writes that “many workers have to go to work with their heads tied with a handkerchief, torn shawl or scarf, including any dirty rag or cloth that comes under their hands. go to work and where at the same time they sleep, spreading on the floor and hiding on the bed, not only dirty, but almost always with torn sleeves, collars, floors.

Over time, about 500 people accumulated in the House, designed for 200 people. S.N. Gorbova temporarily provided the workhouse with most of the premises of the house of industriousness. In 1897, the city government opened a branch of the workhouse in Sokolniki at Ermakovskaya Street, house 3, acquiring for this the estate of the former Borisovsky factory. Two- and three-story buildings accommodated more than 400 prisoners. The falconry branch gradually expanded, which eventually made it possible to receive more than 1,000 people, as well as to open workshops - blacksmith and locksmith, shoemaker, carpentry, box, basket.

In the Moscow workhouse there were also children and teenagers delivered by the police, who in 1913 were transferred to an institution called the Dr. Haas Orphanage. Homeless children under the age of 10 were brought up in the children's department of the shelter. There were also nurseries for the children of the workers of the house of industriousness and the workhouse.

One characteristic touch. “Ask anyone how, they say, you got here,” S.P. Podyachev writes in his essay, “due to a drunken affair ... We are all in a drunken affair ... We are just too weak ... we are prone to wine” (14). Or another testimony: “Our grief is driving us here, and the main reason is weakness for the wine business ... I’m a merchant ... I made such money in the wild, but here for the fifth day without business it’s impossible to leave, I drank to the exhaust gas. we need a whip, bug to remember ... "(15)

The working day started at 7 o'clock. We got up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Before work, they received tea with sugar and brown bread in unlimited quantities. "You can drink morning tea from earthenware mugs, which are kept by those who are being cared for under the pillow or tied to their belts" (16).

However, according to the memoirs of S.P. Podyachev and Dr. Kedrov, “Due to the lack of teapots and mugs for workers, morning tea is always taken with a fight. greenhouses), covering their bottoms with bread or putty. Some of the workers manage to make themselves “cups” for tea from ordinary bottles. The bottle is cut into 2 parts, the neck is corked, and 2 “cups” for tea are ready. At noon, the workers received lunch: hot and porridge with bacon or vegetable oil, in the evening - the same dinner. "Bread and" sparrows "(the so-called small pieces of meat) were given out at the doors of the dining room. Before getting into the dining room, we had to wait a long time in the cold ... Cups with cabbage soup were already standing and smoking on the table - each for 8 people - and there were spoons They started eating, waiting for the full set to be assembled, that is, when all the tables were occupied ... "(17) Workers employed outside the House took with them a piece of black bread and 10 kopecks of money, on which they drank tea twice, and on their return they received a full meal and tea. The total working day was 10-12 hours.

On holidays and Sundays, most of the convicts rested. In their free time, those who wished could use the library and take books to the bedroom, where they read aloud to the illiterate. On Sundays, they also gave concerts in the hall of the Sokolniki branch. In the central department there was an amateur choir. Those who wished could participate in dramatic productions. For example, in February 1902, Gogol's comedy "Marriage" was staged here. Prisoners and two employees of the workhouse participated. great success used the production of "Inspector" (18).

In 1902, both institutions of labor assistance, located under the same roof and having a common administration, received an independent status. In addition to those serving sentences under the verdict of the city council, the children's department and departments for adolescents incapable of work, as well as chronicles, were assigned to the workhouse. This improved life and simplified the procedure for accepting volunteers. First, they went to the prefabricated department, located in Bolshoy Kharitonievsky Lane, where they were kept for no more than two days. All accepted went to the bath. "The washing procedure did not last long, because they hurried and urged. Those who washed and dressed were not allowed to stay in the bathhouse, but were ordered to go outside and wait there for the rest to come out ..." (19) Then they received outerwear and "distilled" in Sokolniki. Craftsmen concentrated there, while unskilled workers lived in the central department or in the Tagansky department (on Zemlyanoy Val, in the house of Dobagin and Khrapunov-New). The largest orders for work - removing snow from the tracks - came from the railways. The main problem still remained the provision of employment, as more and more people wished to enter charity every year.

Another house of industriousness was opened in 1903 on Sadovaya-Samotechnaya Street, in the house of Kashtanova (it was maintained by the Labor Assistance Society in Moscow). 42 women worked in the House. There were institutions to help in finding work. The Moscow Labor Exchange named after T.S. Morozov, which began functioning in 1913, made it possible for workers and employers to easily find each other. It was founded on the donations of M.F. Morozova and was located at the Ermakovskiy doss house on Kalanchevskaya street. Up to 200-250 people were employed here daily, mostly rural workers. Employers came from Yaroslavl, Tver, Ryazan and other provinces. Labor contracts were concluded in a two-story stone building. The exchange provided services free of charge.

As you can see, the measures taken by charitable societies and the government were very thoughtful and focused nature. However, they did not solve the problem of poverty and unemployment in general. This problem, exacerbated by the revolution and civil war, was to be solved by the Russia of the Soviet era. The same problem is once again tormented by "post-perestroika" Russia...

Notes

1. Ostretsov V. Freemasonry, culture and Russian history. M., 1998.
2. Speransky S. Working houses in Russia and abroad. P.19.
3. Tikhvin estate, later withdrawn from general management workhouse, will become an agricultural colony, where there were few detainees: they worked mainly wage-earners engaged in the removal of firewood, firing bricks, stone mining, carpentry.
4. Yusupov house and those who are being treated in it // Modern chronicle. 1863.? 4.
5. Prison messenger. 1897.? 8.
6. Ger'e V.I. What is the house of industriousness // Labor assistance. 1897.? eleven.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. City institutions of Moscow based on donations. M., 1906.
11. Moscow City Workhouse in its past and present. M., 1913.
12. Russian wealth. 1902.? 9.
13. Medical conversation. 1900.? 8.
14. Russian wealth. 1902.? 8.
15. Ibid.
16. From the life of the Moscow workhouse. M., 1903.
17. Russian wealth. 1902.? 9.
18. News of the Moscow City Duma. 1902.? 2.
19. Russian wealth. 1902.? 9.

E. Khraponicheva
Moscow magazine N 9 - 1999

Jul 08

The House of Diligence "Noah" (a shelter for the homeless from the temple of Cosmas and Damian in Shubin) invites people who, for various reasons, find themselves in Moscow and the Moscow region without a roof over their heads and are ready to live an honest working and sober life. For those staying with us, the shelter provides assistance in the restoration of Russian documents and employment. Doctor's appointments and legal consultations are held regularly. Full three meals a day are organized, it is possible to wash and walk in clean clothes. We have forbidden swearing and assault.

We accept people who are sober and have undergone (if necessary) disinfection treatment.

Contact phone numbers:

Sheremetyevo 89262365415

Yurlovo 89645289784

Yamontovo 89262365417

Khovrino 89263723872

Office 89262365415

Emilian (head) 89262365415

11 comments to “House of industriousness “Noah” invites you to stay”

1. Kovalenko Lev Nikolaevich wrote:
   

   “People who find themselves without a roof are invited to live,” but for how long and what will they have to do?
   The fact is that just a week ago, Engels, who was being released from the strict regime colony IK-2, turned to me with a request to advise him which monastery he could apply to in order to move there for permanent residence, given that his left arm was paralyzed and leg. He is about 60 years old. I would like to know; could he count on permanent residence in the house of industriousness "Noah"?
   If we recall similar cases, we recall that several years ago the Engels Nursing Home sheltered three people who had been released from places of deprivation of liberty. But soon these guests were denied shelter, because. they persistently began to establish zonal rules in the shelter. In this regard, the question is: how are they going to ensure conflict-free living in Noah for quite problematic people?

2. Vladimir wrote:
   

   Good afternoon
   I have a difficult situation and will soon be homeless
   could you tell me more about your living conditions?
   regards Vladimir
   8926-496-81-47

3. Julia wrote:
   

   How much money do women earn per week? And what kind of work do they do?

4. Eremin Yuri Mikhailovich wrote:
   

   I am homeless and temporarily live in the Ryazan region. Sheltered caring people so as not to freeze in winter, but there is no food! I don't smoke or drink! I’m trying to get out of this situation, but so far I haven’t been unsuccessfully in prison, not a narcotic but quite an adequate person with useful skills, for example, a tinsmith, a cook, making blocks for the economical construction of buildings and utility rooms, but my dream is to create an Orthodox radio station for monks who cannot attend services! And this I can do immediately upon arrival in Noah! For a few days, only the Internet and one assistant are needed! Everything else will come with me! I will be glad to answer all your questions. George.

5. Vitaly wrote:
   

   HELLO to everyone!!)) Alena, Nikolai, Vladimir and others.

6. Vitaly wrote:
   

   I lived in your house for a while. I THANK YOU for your support!!

7. Andrey wrote:
   

   My name is Andrey, I can work with my legs, I ended up in Moscow because of the war in Ukraine, I was left without documents and housing. I will ask for help

8. marina. wrote:
   

   my name is Marina. A month ago I lost all my documents and money. The house in which I lived after the sale of the apartment is not suitable for habitation. I became a victim of realtors. Now I live with a friend. like that. I think about the monastery I don't know how to get obedience. Help me. I'm 62

9. Sveta wrote:
   

   good time days! By chance on this site, I am ready to help Marina if she has not found shelter, or another woman who is in a difficult situation. The fact is that I live in Moscow, my mother is in the provinces, lives in big house, where there is gas, water, sewerage in the house, a large garden, outbuildings. She lives alone and she is 70 years old, so that she would not be bored, we are ready to accept a decent woman in our house for a permanent place of residence, she will be a friend for her mother and she will not be bored. Not for the sake of self-interest, if anyone thought so, we have everything. It’s just that mothers are bored alone, together they would plant a garden for themselves, keep chickens, etc. tel.89067044342

10. Andrey wrote:
    

    Collection of information on Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who is under the Augustus.

    Report to the Guardianship on houses of diligence and workhouses. - Issue. IV. - St. Petersburg, 1902. (Extracts)

    Institutions for labor charity

    Homes for industry for adults and mixed and similar institutions

    The growth and development of houses of industriousness shows with complete clarity that institutions of this kind, if they are intended only for labor charity, far from satisfying very many vital needs of life and, solely under the influence of such, take completely different forms that are theoretically created for them.

    A review of the houses of industriousness, undertaken in the year under review at the direction of the Committee, gave quite definite confirmation of this.

    The houses of industriousness at their establishment were understood by the founders themselves as institutions more or less simple, uncomplicated, intended to provide temporary work to persons who had, but then lost it due to unfortunate circumstances. They did not take on educational and corrective purposes, they did not take on general tasks of charity, and therefore, in their pure form, they should be closed to professional beggars, children and the disabled.

    Meanwhile, as a review of the houses of industriousness in 1901 showed, this type of them in life found only very weak use: at present there are hardly many such houses that, with the correct development of their activities, would not turn into more complex institutions. .

    This happened, on the one hand, because, under the influence of living conditions, a number of auxiliary institutions had to be opened at the home of industriousness of a pure type, on the other hand, because in some areas there was an urgent need, along with able-bodied adults who needed temporary work, to take disabled, children and professional beggars, and, finally, with the third - that life forced us to take care to strengthen the help provided in the homes and make it preventive.

    A clear example of the complication of the original simple type of the house of industriousness can be at least the Orlovsky house, subordinated to the Guardianship of the houses of industriousness and workhouses. September 22, 1901, exactly 10 years have passed since the founding of the aforementioned labor assistance institution, which was opened on September 22, 1891 for the temporary care of the homeless poor in need of work and food; it was calculated at the opening for 50 people. In the same 1891, the Trustee Society filed a petition about him

    • 0 supplementing the charter of the house of industriousness in the sense of granting the Society the right to open an overnight shelter at the house for the poor who do not work in the house, which shelter was opened to
    • December 1. At the same time, at the suggestion of the Diocesan Committee, established to collect donations in favor of the victims of crop failure, a free canteen for 100 people was set up in the shelter. In 1892, due to a poor harvest in 1891, the need for food and care for the poor residents of the city and peasants arriving to work became even more urgent, therefore, in addition to the mentioned free canteen, 4 more cheap canteens were opened at the expense of the Provincial Charitable Committee, which were received under the supervision of the Society of Trustees. In the same year, the leaders of the Society saw themselves forced to open a children's department at the house for temporary care of orphaned and generally homeless children. In view of the fact that the orphanage children, of which 50 people were accepted at first, could not be arranged for permanent places due to their unpreparedness for work, it became necessary to inform them of handicraft knowledge. This goal was pursued by the Society of Guardians, teaching children in the shoe, box and hosiery workshops, at home, in the kitchen and the bakery, which was also already open by this time, and also sending them to the printing house, bookbinding and city locksmith workshop. In addition, the Trustee Society for teaching crafts to children arranged for them in the workshops of various workshops.

    A school was established at the asylum, enjoying the rights of an elementary zemstvo school, under the direct supervision of a special teacher.

    In 1893, the activities of the Trustee Society expanded further, namely, in order to combat the cholera epidemic, a second overnight shelter and a cheap canteen were opened. To combat begging, the Society in the same year issued penny checks with a statement in them that a check is given a portion of hot food or half a serving of porridge, for 3 checks - hot food, a pound and a half of bread, and so on.

    In 1894, the idea arose of arranging an almshouse for elderly women, which was carried out in the following 1895. This year, women's workshops were especially developed, which, in addition to executing small orders from private individuals, also began to accept contracts for the supply of products for different institutions. Special craftswomen were hired to train the prisoners. For the sale of stockings made in women's workshops, in addition to selling them at the workshop itself, a warehouse was opened at the store of the local merchant Vlasov. In May 1895, the Oryol charitable society about the house of industriousness made a proposal to transfer to its jurisdiction the charitable society of the “Kasli” shelter at the Mariinsky Shelter, with all the inventory; moreover, the Charitable Society undertook to provide the House of Diligence with an annual subsidy of 150 rubles. Under such conditions, the “Nursery” shelter was accepted by the Guardian Society together with the three children who were in it. Actually, the nature of this shelter does not quite correspond to the generally accepted concept of shelters with the name "Nursery", it would be more correct to call it the juvenile department of a children's shelter, in view of the fact that children are left here not only for the daytime, but live permanently. In 1895, due to the cheapness of bread, the need for cheap canteens was so reduced that the Board of the Society decided to close them until a new need. Nevertheless, the Society, so that the extremely needy were not deprived of the opportunity to receive cheap bread, arranged a cheap canteen at the House of Labor itself.

    In 1896, the number of children in care in the children's department of the House reached 80 children, and in the orphanage "Nursery" it increased from 3 to 22.

    In view of the fact that orphans living at the House of Labor, the poor, the elderly were deprived of the opportunity, due to the remoteness of city churches and the lack of sometimes warm clothes and shoes, to visit the temple of God, there was a natural need to build a home church at the House of Labor, which was built on donated money and consecrated on September 15, 1897, Fr. John Sergiev.

    In 1898, the activity of the women's workshop expanded even more, it brought a net profit of 2200 rubles. In addition to the former workshops, a brush room for despised men was added.

    In 1899, men's workshops were especially developed, giving for the first time, instead of the usual deficit, an insignificant profit; at the same time, the expansion of the bakery existing at the House of Diligence was started.

    In 1900, an intermediary office was established at the House of Diligence to find places and employment.

    According to information from 1901, the Orlovsky House of Diligence with its subdivisions is a series of buildings near the city center, on the banks of the river, surrounded by gardens and forming, as it were, a whole colony of charitable institutions, comprising the following institutions: 1) a church; 2) library; 3) the House of Diligence proper for the temporary care of adult men and women with workshops: hosiery, seamstress, box-work, package, shoemaking, carpentry, locksmith and bakery; 4) shelter "Nursery"; 5) a shelter for boys; 6) a shelter for girls; 7) school; 8) an almshouse for elderly women (one old man is also cared for in a separate room);

    9) an overnight house for the poor who come; 10) a cheap canteen for them, and 11) an intermediary office for finding places and activities.

    Every day the House of Diligence matures up to 225 people.

    The value of the Company's property exceeds 75,000 rubles. The parish for 1901 received 20,877 rubles. 94 kop., for the same time spent 23,002 rubles. 50 kop.

    The same - to a greater or lesser extent - complex institution of labor assistance is, for example, the Kronstadt House of Diligence (not subordinated to the Guardianship), which has: 1) a church, 2) an orphanage, 3) an almshouse, 4) an overnight shelter, 5) canteen, 6) needlework classes, 7) Sunday School, 8) a bookstore, 9) cheap apartments, 10) an intermediary office for hiring female servants, 11) a hospital, 12) a public school, 13) a children's library and 14) organizing public readings. The value of the real estate of the Kronstadt house is 350,000 rubles, the amount of available capital is up to 490,000 rubles, the annual income is more than 77,600 rubles, the expense is 59,580 rubles.

    Then, the 1st house of industriousness of the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Guardianship Society for Houses of Industriousness (subordinate to the Guardianship) was also built with its workshops: sewing, weaving, carpentry, wallpaper, rope products, locksmith and foundry, painting, shoemaking and rug making workshop and tracks; it has: 1) a hostel, 2) a kitchen, 3) a dining room, 4) a library, 5) a labor point (a free sewing workshop), 6) an office for finding places,

    7) organization of external work, 8) laundry, 9) disinfection chamber, emergency room and first aid kit; it is also planned to open a nursery and set up a bakery and an overnight shelter. The capital's trustee society has property worth only 65,240 rubles. The arrival of the Society for 1901 was expressed in the amount of 24,611 rubles. 12 kopecks, expense - 18,145 rubles. 65 kop. The total number of 1 house of industrious care received reached the figure of 30,907 rubles.

    Complex houses of industriousness and, moreover, significant in terms of capital and real estate (over 30,000 rubles) also include the following institutions subordinate to the Guardianship of houses of industriousness and workhouses: the house of industriousness in Vilna, in Rostov-on-Don named after P. R. Maksimov, in Kiev, in Nizhny Novgorod them. Mikhail and Lyubov Rukavishnikov, in Yelets, in Poltava, in Rodom, the 2nd house of industriousness of the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Trustee of the houses of industrious society, in Saratov, in Tula, in Kharkov, in Odessa and in Rybinsk, in total with the above two - 15 institutions.

    The same houses of industriousness, but not subordinated to the Guardianship, are available: in Baku, Warsaw, Vyatka, Grodno, Kursk, Moscow named after N. A. and S. N. Gorbov, in Moscow the Sergius House of Industriousness of the “Moscow Ant Hill” society, Samara, Simbirsk , St. Petersburg - the Evangelical House of Diligence and the House of Diligence of the Petrovsky Society for Helping the Poor, in Tsarskoye Selo, Tver, Torzhok, Chernigov, Revel and Yaroslavl - a total of 19 institutions.

    Of the other existing houses of industriousness, some still remain simple and uncomplicated institutions for temporary earnings, but, apparently, most of them have already embarked on the path of complexity. Undoubtedly, the rest will follow these latter, as life steadily directs them to this. There is no doubt that in the future all of them, or at least the vast majority of them, will turn to complex institutions and open the doors of their institutions not only to workers who are looking for temporary work in workshops at home, but to all who need them - many facts convince of this. . That houses of industriousness of a pure type are theoretical and that, on the contrary, houses of a complex type are vital, came to the conclusion, among other things, that those present at the Congress held from April 16 to April 22 of this year, the heads of the aforementioned institutions of labor assistance and their caretakers.

    According to the data of 1901, there are up to 130 guardianship societies, circles and guardianships for houses of industriousness (for adults and mixed). special statutes, completely or not quite consistent with exemplary ones.

    In the reporting year, five houses of industriousness were reopened: the Annunciation House of Industriousness for disadvantaged women in St. Petersburg; the house of industriousness, established by the Society for the Care of the Families of Exiles and Convicts on about. Sakhalin; the industrious house for women established by the Cross Charitable Society in St. Petersburg; the industrious house of the Menzelinsky Society for the Benefits of the Poor and the industrious house of the Society for helping the needy population of the Khvalynsky district, Samara province, in the village. Noble Tereshka, - the first three are subordinate to the Guardianship, the last two act on the basis of special charters. In addition, it is planned to open: the House of Diligence in the city of Vengrov, Sedlec province, the draft charter of which, agreed with the exemplary one, is now being approved; then the houses of industriousness - in the city of Czestochowa, Petrovsky province; in Cherkasy, Kyiv province; in St. Petersburg, the house of industriousness for tailors and the house of industriousness in the city of Nikolaev, established by the Nikolaev Society for the arrangement of doss houses.

    Of these institutions, the house of industriousness on about. Sakhalin and the house of industriousness proposed for opening in the city of Częstochowa.

    The rules of the Sakhalin House of Diligence were approved on December 5, 1901, while the institution itself actually began its activities in mid-September of the same year.

    The extremely difficult material situation of a part of not only the exiled, but also the full-fledged population of Fr. Sakhalin, explained mainly by the lack of local demand for labor, has long pointed to the need for intervention in this area of ​​private charity to help at least those in need who do not refuse work to support their own and their families.

    Imbued with the conviction of the urgent need for such an intervention, the Society for the Care of the Families of Exile-Convicts decided to take the lead in this matter, and since labor seemed to him the most rational form of assistance, then general meeting members of the society on March 17 last year and decided to establish on about. Sakhalin in the post Aleksandroven House of diligence.

    The execution of this resolution was started without delay, for which the Sister of Mercy E. K. Mayer was sent by the Board of the Society to Sakhalin.

    During the first two weeks after the opening of the House, 150 people worked in it, but soon after that the daily number of employees reached 150, and if it did not increase even more, it was only because the funds not only did not allow the Society to increase the contingent of workers, but also forced him to subsequently reduce this contingent to 70-60 people. in a day.

    Work in the House of Diligence consists of sewing linen, clothes and shoes, weaving carpets, weaving nets, making mops and mattresses, etc. In addition, outsiders contacted the House to hire people from it to work outside the House, for example, earthen. Orders for products and their sale, at first insignificant, although they gave 800 rubles in September and October. income, should, in the opinion of the Board and the recall of the sister of mercy E. K. Mayer, significantly increase in number, after the House of Diligence acquires greater fame among the administrations of prisons, hospitals, mines, etc.

    Sister Mayer, with the assistance of local officials who offered their services, Sundays folk readings with humane pictures are arranged in the House, a gramophone and drafts are purchased. These readings are very eagerly attended not only by the workers of the House of Diligence, but also by many of the residents of the Aleksandrovsky post. In addition to Sunday readings, evening literacy classes are organized at the House (3 times a week).

    Since most of the workers who find employment in the House belong to the homeless and huddle in all sorts of dens where there can be no question of observing any hygienic conditions, some of the workers were placed in a bathhouse adapted for housing in one of the rented houses. Over time, an overnight shelter will be arranged at the House.

    In view of the extreme need for a recommendatory office that would serve as an intermediary between employers and workers, it was proposed to open one in the city of Nikolaevsk, where annually, after the opening of navigation, a significant number of job seekers, and employers, taking advantage of the servitude of many exiles, exploit their labor to the extreme limits.

    It can be seen from the foregoing that already the half-year existence of the House of Diligence in question has proved the urgent need for this institution on Sakhalin and that its activity should develop in the shortest possible time to very significant proportions. To help this young and so attractive institution of labor assistance, the Committee for Guardianship of Houses of Diligence and Workhouses did not fail to come, allocating to it at the beginning of this year, according to its magazine decree graciously approved by Her Majesty Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, a non-refundable allowance of 10,000 rubles. for the construction of their own building and 5,000 rubles. in a loan for the formation of the working capital of the house of industriousness.

    The need for a house of industriousness in Czestochowa was explained by its founders, on the one hand, by the fact that in Czestochowa, as a large factory town, a mass of working people accumulate - men and women, many of whom, for various reasons, do not get to local factories and plants, remain positively without a piece of bread and are forced to earn their living by begging and other reprehensible means. To deliver temporary earnings to the aforementioned persons, the projected labor assistance institution is intended, which will be under the jurisdiction of the Guardianship of the Houses of Diligence and Workhouses. On the other hand, the need for the aforementioned institution is motivated by the very important indication that the house of industriousness in the aforementioned city can serve to prevent all kinds of social democratic teachings that are being spread in Częstochowa, as a frontier town, by workers coming from Prussia and Austria. The proletariat is especially sympathetic to the extremes of the above teachings, among which an element is created that is politically unreliable. The house of industriousness in a given locality, providing shelter and subsistence for the poor, and thereby reducing the number of those who are in distress from unemployment, will undoubtedly be an institution that helps to suppress the spread of the above-mentioned harmful teachings.

    House of industriousness in with. Noble Tereshka, Khvalynsky district, opened with private funds collected by subscription. Mats and coolies for bark are made in it. Under the guidance of two masters, in 1901, 14 teenagers from local residents aged 12 to 16 years. In the absence of handicraft and factory crafts among the local population that could provide any help in the economy, strengthening the existence of the House of Diligence in the said village is highly desirable.

    Menzelinsky, Ufa province, the house of industriousness was opened by the local society for helping the poor in 1900, but the first information about it was delivered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is in charge of the aforementioned society, only at the end of January of the reporting year. The house of industriousness in Menzelinsk is, in fact, an educational and demonstrative workshop, insignificant in terms of the number of boys born in it (only 5 in 1900). In it, in order to teach local residents useful skills in their everyday life, weaving of sarpinka on an aircraft loom, weaving of carpets, matting, weaving of napkins were organized, work was organized from tin and black tin, and, in addition, the Board of the society proposed to introduce carpentry and locksmith skill.

    The Annunciation House of Diligence in St. Petersburg aims to provide assistance and shelter to destitute women and girls by preparing them as scientists and nurses.

    The rules of the First House of Diligence for Women in St. Petersburg, established by the Cross Charitable Society, were approved at the end of the reporting year. The aforementioned institution outlined for itself the common tasks pursued by the houses of diligence.

    The statutes of the other houses of industriousness proposed for opening are being worked out by their founders.

    In 1901, following the example of past years, the Committee of Trustees for Houses of Labor and Workhouses and its bodies took a number of measures that served to develop and strengthen the activities of houses of industry.

    Thus, according to the most graciously approved journal resolutions of the Committee, some institutions were granted allowances and loans from the funds of the Guardianship; other institutions converted previously issued loans into non-repayable benefits, while others delayed the payment of such loans. From the first group of labor assistance institutions, 1,550 rubles were allocated to the Guardianship Society for the House of Diligence in the city of Yamburg for the installation of a bathhouse, laundry and disinfection chamber, 413 rubles to the Laishevsky Guardianship Society for the House of Diligence for the needs of the weaving workshop run by this society, and the Kiev House of Diligence for expansion of the building occupied by him 10,000 rubles, Dvina house for the purchase of an estate 1200 rubles, house of diligence in Isaklah for the expansion of the activities of this institution 1000 rubles, the house of diligence in the city of Khvalynsk, Saratov province, for the same subject 800 rubles. and according to Nezelenova's will, 7,967 rubles were issued to the III House of Industriousness of the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Trustee Society for Houses of Industriousness. 67 V 2 kopecks, so that this amount would be turned into the inviolable capital of this institution and that the annual interest from it would go to the current expenses of the house. From the second group of institutions, loans were converted into non-refundable allowances: the Oryol House of Diligence (3,000 rubles), the Volsk Society (3,000 rubles), and the Saratov Trustee Society for the House of Diligence from the 9,000 rubles issued to the society. loans credited 2500 rubles. In a non-refundable allowance and deferred repayment of the remaining loan of 6500 rubles. for three years, i.e., until 1904. In addition, the payment of loans issued to the Vitebsk House of Diligence in the amount of 2,500 rubles was extended for 10 years. and Radom charitable society in 5000 rubles.

    Finally, with regard to the particularly successful performance of the Boards and individuals, which served for the benefit of the houses of industriousness, the Committee was brought to the attention of Her Majesty the Sovereign Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the journals of meetings, and the August Patron of Guardianship of the houses of industriousness and workhouses graciously deigned to declare Her Majesty's full satisfaction to the Council of the Rostov-on-Don house of industriousness named after ETC. Maximov, the Board of the Kyiv House of Diligence, the figures of the Odessa House of Diligence and Ms. Gorbova, the head of the House of Diligence arranged by her in Moscow. In addition, Her Imperial Majesty was pleased to deign to declare gratitude on behalf of Her Majesty to Mr. Konstantinovsky for fruitful work for the benefit of the Pskov House of Diligence.

    Orphanages of industriousness

    There were only ten purely orphanages of industriousness. Among them, two operated in villages, two in county towns, and the rest in the provincial cities and capitals.

    Among the largest institutions of this kind is the industrious house for teenage boys Galernaya Gavan in St. Petersburg. It employs 70-80 children aged 12 to 15, distributed among workshops: shoemaking, carpentry, bookbinding and metalwork. The latter is now closed. The most diligent and skillful boys receive a wage of 3 to 5 kopecks. per day, but the money earned is given into the hands of children only when they finally leave the House of Diligence.

    The orphanage of industriousness in Riga is also relatively large, in which more than 60 girls were cared for. The salary in this institution is assigned only from the 2nd and 3rd year of visiting the home of industriousness by girls and, in general, is also small.

    Almost the same size is the house of industriousness in Kherson, maintained by the local charitable society. It consists of a school, workshops and a boarding school where up to 30 boys live.

    From the data on orphanages for industriousness, it can be seen that their type can hardly be considered established so far. In theory, this is an open (without a boarding school) institution, designed primarily to provide income for children when, instead of studying, they are forced to earn a living by the labors of their own hands.

    In fact, it turned out that many orphanages of industriousness turn, on the one hand, into closed establishments, thereby approaching shelters, and on the other hand, to institutions for professional training, resembling by its organization training and demonstration workshops. Providing only a small income or not providing it at all, these institutions do not achieve their goal in this respect and, under the influence of living conditions, develop into institutions of a completely different, in turn, very useful type. It is highly probable that in the near future orphanages of industriousness will retain only their name, but in reality they will turn into shelters and workshops.

    Nurseries, day shelters and nurseries

    The aforementioned institutions were intended not only for the care of children, but also for the release of parents from caring for them in order to be able to freely relate exclusively to work, at a time when work reaches highest voltage(for example, during a bad time in the villages), and therefore, in turn, can be considered as institutions of direct labor charity.

    Nurseries run by the Guardianship contain, firstly, societies and circles established mainly for the maintenance of other institutions, for example, educational and demonstration workshops, orphanages, etc.; secondly, societies and circles specially organized for the establishment of a nursery; thirdly, zemstvo institutions that use a subsidy from the Committee for these purposes, and, fourthly, individuals.

    Societies and institutions that open nurseries as auxiliary institutions shall submit information about them, together with reports on the main institutions they maintain.

    Societies and circles specially established for the maintenance of nurseries draw up reports on the forms compiled for them, annually sent to them by the Office of the Committee. There were 11 such societies and circles in the reporting year, 3 of them in cities (Simferopol, Akkerman and Syzran) and 8 in villages and villages. One of the district societies (Birsk) opened 6 nurseries in the reporting year, another (Menzelinsky) - 5, the third (Nikolaev) - 3, and the rest one at a time, with the exception of the Buguruslan Guardianship of the nursery, which in 1901 did not open a nursery at all.

    Of the zemstvos, with the allowance of the Guardianship, the nursery in 1901 was maintained by the Malmyzhsky, Vyatka province, district zemstvos. On the 400 rubles allocated by the Committee. the named zemstvo opened a nursery, which functioned during the summer in 6 points.

    As for the nurseries opened under the supervision of the Guardianship by private individuals, there were 22 of them in the reporting year. Of these, 3 were maintained exclusively at the expense of private individuals who donated a total of 200 rubles for the nursery. 68 kop. The remaining 19 nurseries were financed by private individuals who donated a total of 581 rubles. 39 kopecks, and on allowances in the amount of 1925 rubles issued by the Guardianship of the houses of diligence and workhouses. 2 kop. (including 156 rubles 46 kopecks remaining after the closing of the nursery in the summer of 1900).

    Each of the 19 heads of the nursery, who had general supervision over them, received about 13 rubles for the entire time the nursery was in operation. 50 kopecks; each of the 41 nannies received about 6 rubles in the same time. 50 kop. And each of the 23 cooks - about 5 rubles.

    The nursery was placed in one or two rooms, allocated free of charge in zemstvo, parochial schools or schools of the Ministry of Public Education; where there were no schools, a hut was hired for a nursery or a barn was built; about 4 rubles were paid for renting premises in peasant huts. during the operation of the nursery.

    The expenditure on food for children and employees in each shelter-nursery was on average 44 rubles. 71 kopecks, including donated products; the total expenditure for each shelter-nursery (with donated products) was equal to the sum of 88 rubles. 70 kop. The total expenditure per child per day was 10 kopecks, while food for each child was 5 kopecks.

    The required number of nannies for a known number of children cannot be established on the basis of average calculations for nurseries, because, as can be seen from the data for individual nurseries, there were cases when salaries were given to 4 nannies who cared for 11 children (s. B. Glushitsy, Nikolaevsky district of the Samara province), but there were also cases when only 1 nanny was hired for 56 children (the village of Kamennaya Sarma, Nikolaevsky district of the Samara province). Approximately, it can be said that one nanny can cope with 20 or even 30 children, in the latter case, of course, provided that older children are involved in the care of younger children.

    As in 1900, there were no nurseries proper, that is, institutions for infants, at all. There were either day shelters for children from 2 to 10 years old, or nursery shelters, that is, mixed institutions for both the above-mentioned children and infants.

    Educational-correctional institutions of labor assistance

    Houses of industriousness with educational and corrective character

    Among these, the most attention is paid to the Evangelical House of Diligence in St. Petersburg and the House of Diligence in Tver, then the Moscow and Mitavsky workhouses.

    Industrious people enter the Evangelical House of Industriousness voluntarily, but the condition for entering the house (with a boarding school) is to observe a rather strict regime, reminiscent of the regime of a medical institution. For alcoholics, for whom even this regimen is insufficient, there is a special hospital in Terioki. I have my own house worth over 50,000 rubles and over 7,000 rubles. in Terioki. Annual income is 15,600 rubles, expenses are approximately the same amount. There are 326 men a year and 25 in the nursing department. The annual production is about 10,000 rubles, for which amount products are sold, raw material is purchased in the amount of about 6,000 rubles. 75 people work, about 25,000 working days.

    At the opening of the Tver House of Industriousness, the local charitable society “Dobrohotnaya Kopeyka” in charge of it had the goal of eradicating or weakening beggary in the city of Tver, as a result of which various measures were designed by agreement with the governor. It was supposed to establish in the city police department the registration of persons detained for begging, of whom those with residence permits should be sent to their places of registry, and those who did not have to be treated like vagabonds; city ​​beggars, capable of work, to transfer to the council of the Society for placement in the house of diligence; the local governor expressed readiness to assist in the establishment of an almshouse by the Tver petty-bourgeois Society for the incapable of working Tver petty-bourgeois involved in begging; the detention of the beggars was supposed to be carried out not in the center of the city and not on church porches, and this measure should not be enforced suddenly, but on its outskirts, so as not to cause any unrest on the part of the beggars; It was planned to ask the residents of the city of Tver to stop the manual distribution of alms and instead of this distribution to contribute to the cash desk of the Society known amount money for the upkeep of the house of industriousness. These measures were introduced too hesitantly and did not meet with the expected sympathy from the residents of Tver. The house of industriousness received almost exclusively persons detained by the police for begging or beggars who did not have clothes for the winter.

    Since March 1895, the said Society, recognizing that the purpose of the House of Industry is not so much to eradicate begging, but to warn it that the House of Industry should provide urgent, if possible, short-term, assistance to the destitute, released from hospitals, released from places of detention, those who arrived in Tver and did not find a place for themselves, residents of Tver, who have no income, and generally fell into poverty - by providing them with work and shelter, until a more stable arrangement of their fate, took measures to attract such persons to the house of industriousness . To accomplish this goal, the latter was divided into two departments: in one of them different workshops were opened, master leaders were invited, and persons who were not engaged in begging, or although they were engaged, but for a short time and expressed a desire to leave this profession, were admitted to this department. ; the second department accepted professional beggars and persons whose moral stability seemed doubtful; at the same time, some of the second department, in case of a desire to start a working life and learn a craft and with completely moral behavior when they were in the second department, were transferred to the first. Particular attention was paid to persons of the second department who had not reached the age of majority, who, if desired, were transferred to workshops and learned the craft. Simultaneously with the establishment of workshops, a special building was built for the overnight shelter. An overnight shelter for visitors was transferred to the new building, but for those living in the House of Diligence, special rooms for overnight stay were allotted in this latter, and in them, just like during work, the prisoners were placed in groups, depending on age, moral character and partly by origin and former profession.

    In the House of Diligence, workshops are organized: carpentry, metalwork and blacksmithing, shoemaking, tailoring, seamstress, suitcase bookbinding, weaving of baskets, carpets, straw products, a bay of rubber galoshes, gluing paper bags, cardboard, plucking frayed, feathers, containers, washcloths, ropes and hair, dyeing, painting and painting, ash sifting, all kinds of work for laborers; in addition, in the case of admission to the House of Diligence of persons familiar with some special craft, the Society seeks for them a job corresponding to this craft. For all these crafts, orders are filled in the House of Labor, and in the absence of them, products are made for the store in the House of Labor. Both masters and workers are sent home to fulfill orders in their specialties, as well as to split firewood, clear snow and debris from yards, carry things, unload boats, do earthwork, etc. Since most artisans and those studying carpentry and metalwork in the house of industriousness go to places in the car building plant or factories near Tver, where all machines are set in motion by electricity or steam power, a kerosene engine is started in the house of industriousness, with the help of which some machines - drilling, turning, band saw etc. - are set in motion in order to accustom the workers to the handling of tools set in motion by mechanical force.

    Mitava House of Diligence to a large extent implements the idea of ​​German workers' colonies. In his use is the Shtathof estate allocated by the city of Mitavoy at a distance of half a verst from it (on a long-term basis), in which there are about 1000 acres. Of this number, only 10 acres are cultivated by those who are being treated, and the rest of the space is leased out in small plots. The general impression made by Stathoff is quite favorable: there is both order and discipline in the spirit of religious and moral, and at the same time a loving attitude towards people who are often, through no fault of their own, involved in an abnormal lifestyle and deviated from the common labor path. During 1901, up to 52 people stayed in the house. In general, the type of people visiting Stathof are workers with a weakened ability to work for some reason (including alcoholics, or pure alcoholics, or a special type of psychopaths, so successfully described in P.I. Kovalevsky’s article “Poor in Spirit” // Labor Assistance , September 1901), a type obsessed with the disease of vagrancy.

    His income is more than 9,000 rubles, including more than 7,000 rubles from the work of those who are being looked after. Consumption over 11,000 rubles. for the maintenance of the building and administration, including up to 3000 rubles. and for a wage of more than 500 rubles. 148 people live in the institution. In the workshops, work is carried out only during the time free from agricultural work and in the woodyard. If we exclude the operations of the woodyard, then the cost of production is negligible (slightly exceeds 500 rubles).

    The Moscow workhouse, the only one that fully implements the idea of ​​forced labor, was established in 1837 to engage the poor in work and to provide income to persons who voluntarily turn to it for help. Until the end of 1893, the Workhouse was administered by the Committee for the Analysis of Beggars and was a relatively small institution, the organization of which did not correspond much to its name and purpose; from the end of 1893, it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the city public administration. The latter put great care in organizing various works for the convicts, allowed a wide reception of volunteers, which was almost never practiced before, and greatly expanded the premises of the institution. Currently, the Workhouse consists of two parts, one of which occupies the old premises in the central part of the city, and the other is located in Sokolniki in new premises acquired and adapted for the Workhouse by the city. In terms of the composition of the detainees, the Workhouse is a complex institution, consisting of: 1) a prefabricated department for the detention of persons brought by the police for asking for alms, until their cases are examined by the city presence;

    • 2) compartments for persons held for begging;
    • 3) offices for volunteers. In addition, the Workhouse has departments for children and adolescents and a department for those unable to work. All convicts receive a full allowance in the Workhouse. During 1900, an average of 1,434 people were kept in the workhouse for each day of the year, including 960 able-bodied people. The work organized by the Workhouse is divided into 4 categories: external work, construction work, work in workshops and work for household needs. There are two types of workshops in the Workhouse: 1) crafts, which include blacksmith and locksmith, carpentry, shoemaking, bookbinding, wallpaper, saddlery, tailoring, 2) workshops of general production that do not require professional training, which are: box, hook, button, envelope , package and basket linen. In addition, a training basket and furniture workshop has been set up for teenagers in the Workhouse.

    The cost of maintaining the workhouse in 1900 was expressed in the amount of 171,342 rubles, not counting the cost of materials for work. Income from work extended to 564,552 rubles, including 72,608 rubles from external work, 73,049 rubles from work in workshops, and 413,442 rubles from construction and asphalt work. and from work for the needs of the institution 5453 rubles. Of the total income from work, 48,717 rubles. issued into the hands of those who are being treated in the form of earnings, 70,696 rubles. remained in favor of the workhouse, and the rest went to cover the cost of materials and overhead.

    The said houses of diligence and workhouses give a more or less definite expression of the idea of ​​corrective education which is the basis of their institution. But besides them, there are several smaller houses in which this idea is not so clearly expressed, but which, in turn, strive to organize their lives in the sense of educational and correctional.

    Artel of labor assistance

    The Yaroslavl Society, which has so far established the only artel of labor assistance in Russia, by the nature of the tasks pursued by it, is, as it were, called upon to make up for the activities of the houses of industriousness that do not pursue educational and corrective tasks in relation to the category of persons for whom the help of these institutions cannot be exhaustive.

    As can be seen from the practice of precisely such houses of industriousness, the contingent of those who apply without means of subsistence is quite significant, not because of the conditions of the social system, i.e., the excess of the supply of labor over its demand, but because of their own moral weakness.

    This is a free, walking people, known as tramps, gold miners, zimogors, etc., who live for a minute and see the goal of their life only in acquiring money for vodka.

    The composition of this relatively large group of people is extremely diverse. Among the tramps one can meet landless peasants, and workers, and, finally, quite intelligent people.

    Temporary material aid, rendered to such persons, without a systematic moral influence on them, does not achieve its goal, since, using the help provided to him, the tramp will drink everything he has and still remain a beggar.

    The houses of industriousness of the predominant type, to which the persons in question mainly turn, are not able to lift them out of poverty, mainly for the following reasons.

    Dealing with a large group of people, very heterogeneous in composition and knowledge, these institutions, naturally, cannot pay special attention to the quality of the work they organize and, by necessity, concentrate it exclusively on providing earnings to the largest possible number of those who seek it, which in in turn, of course, is achievable only with the introduction of public works that require neither special knowledge and skills, nor a comparatively long stay in an institution. The latter, moreover, would be contrary to the purpose of the houses of industriousness - to provide only temporary assistance to persons who, for random reasons, remained without income.

    The consequence of this peculiarity of setting up labor in the houses of industriousness, which is reduced mainly to plucking bast, gluing boxes, sorting garbage, and other little instructive activities, is the extreme unproductiveness of this work, both in a real and figurative sense. On the one hand, it is poorly paid, and on the other hand, it is completely devoid of that educational element, in the presence of which labor can have a beneficial effect on the moral side of a person. Thus, if the activities of houses of industriousness, which are not specifically aimed at educational purposes, are necessary and useful for the numerous poor people left without work, who really need only temporary assistance, then it should be recognized as little appropriate in relation to that group of disadvantaged people who require not only providing them with labor, but also moral support and guardianship.

    The device for them specially educational and correctional houses of industriousness is not always achievable, first of all, due to their complexity and high cost. In view of this, in order to carry out the work of moral support and care for already fallen people, one sometimes has to look for other ways.

    It was precisely this task that the Yaroslavl Society for Labor Assistance took upon itself.

    A feature of the activity of the Society in question is the organization of artels from persons who are physically quite capable of work, due to their own weakness, lack of will and inclination to drunkenness, who have gotten out of the rut of life.

    Adult people are accepted into the artel, able-bodied and promising to completely obey the orders of the administration. Artel workers receive food and are obliged to go to all the work found for them. The following is deducted from earnings: 10% for the Society's expenses, the cost of food, the cost of clothes released by them in case of need, and money sent by some to their homeland. The rest is given to artel workers after 3 months. This 3-month mandatory period for staying in an artel is one of the features of its structure and is explained by the fact that three months of correct working life with good nutrition and the absence of drunkenness, they give more likelihood of correcting a drunkard and a sloth than a shorter period. However, it should be noted that every week on Saturdays artel workers are given 10% of their weekly earnings for tobacco and other small expenses.

    Spacious wooden barracks were built to house the artel. Artel workers sleep on bunks, moreover, they are located spaciously; they dine there and then there are educational, scientific and religious readings for them in the evenings, to which the special attention of the Society is drawn.

    For the use of patients there is a doctor and a first-aid kit. People who do not go to work without a legitimate reason and generally do not obey the orders of the administration are immediately excluded from the artel, and, however, the balance of earnings due to them is issued only after the expiration of the contractual three-month period.

    Each artel worker has in his hands a “contractual and settlement book”, in which his earnings and expenses made for him are entered daily. In addition, the rules of the order of the artel are posted in the barrack itself. The immediate supervision of the artel is the headman, hired by the board of the Society from outside the artel of people. In the barracks of the artel, there is a table of provisions for each day of the week with the calculation of the amount per person. Regardless of when the artel workers work away from the barracks, they are given 10 kopecks for breakfast every day. for everyone. Special attention is paid to good and plentiful food, because, judging by experience, in good food lies the best remedy fight against alcoholism. Artel workers themselves control the quantity and quality of supplies and hire a cook.

    This right of control and, in particular, of hiring has an extremely beneficial effect on artel workers, raising their self-esteem.

    The work performed by the artel is different: for example, unloading ships and wagons, sawing firewood, excavation, carrying and transporting heavy loads, etc.

    There is usually no shortage of named work, since employers willingly invite artel workers already because they do not have to recruit workers by person, but immediately and quickly receive a whole batch, without being forced to dress up with each one separately.

    From the above brief data on the Yaroslavl Society for Labor Assistance, it is clear that, thanks to the peculiarities of the artels organized by it, the contingent of persons protected by the Society lives not on charity funds, but on their own earnings. This is a very important condition, elevating a destitute person in his own eyes and morally elevating him. The very fact of issuing a workbook to each artel worker, recognizing, so to speak, the rights of a worker behind him, has an important educational value, giving him the opportunity to look at himself not as a worthless scum of humanity, but already as a worker, and, moreover, a person equal in rights with other artel workers. . Most artel workers, imbued with the conviction that they live on the means earned by artel labor, are ashamed to be the backbones of their own comrades and try to work hard. And earning money by hard work, artel workers begin to appreciate labor money, moreover, they gradually develop thrift and competition with comrades in saving more money - especially since work books show clearly how little, but accurately, each artel worker increases the amount earnings.

    From September 1901, for several months, 109 people stayed in the artel, of which many, having dressed with the assistance of the artel, entered the places for salaries, while others returned to their homeland. Most of them worked and were artel workers for 3-4 months. The number of artels, of course, fluctuates significantly depending on the time of year: in summer and spring, when the demand for labor is everywhere, there are fewer artels, but in winter and autumn the set in the artel is full.

    Artel workers' wages, depending on the time of year, from 45 kopecks. up to 1 rub. and even more per day; on average, the usual earnings of an artel worker are 60 kopecks. per day, or, minus absenteeism and unemployed days, 10-12 rubles. per month.

    Olginsky and other children's shelters of industriousness

    In the reporting year, there were 43 such shelters under the jurisdiction of the Guardianship, and of them 5 in the capitals, 6 in provincial cities, 19 in districts and 13 in villages.

    The largest of these shelters must necessarily be recognized as the St. Petersburg Olginsky orphanage for industriousness in Tsarskaya Slavyanka, maintained by His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor's Own funds.

    This orphanage was the prototype of the Olginsky orphanages in Russia. The regulation on it was approved by the Highest on January 31, 1896. The buildings were built in 1897-1898. with funds graciously granted by His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor.

    Under the shelter allotted 52 dess. 1621 sq. soot; the buildings are designed for 200 children of both sexes aged 6-15, left in the capital without care or shelter.

    The shelter is a large complex institution with a church, general education and craft classes, an agricultural farm, a hospital, a boarding school, and a kitchen. The multiplicity of buildings (24) was determined by the decision to place the orphans according to the so-called family system, i.e., several persons, headed by their caregiver, in each separate house, as well as by the needs of the heterogeneous departments of the shelter. 140 orphaned boys are placed in six separate houses, each of which is a general education school with a program of public schools. The women's department of 50 girls and the juvenile department with 32 detainees of both sexes make up two more schools. In addition to general education subjects, carpentry, metalwork, shoemaking and tailoring are taught in the workshops for boys (the tailoring workshop, as it is harmful to the health of children, is supposed to be closed). Boys are also trained in ordinary agricultural work in the field, in the garden, in the barnyard, when threshing bread, etc. Girls are trained in needlework: cutting, sewing, mending, simply embroidering, etc. and, in addition, in the hospital to care for the sick, work in the kitchen of the women's department, in the laundry, ironing and dairy. The orphanage hospital, run by a female doctor, not only serves the needs of the orphanage, but provides assistance to the local branch; at the hospital there is an outpatient reception for outsiders who made 2922 visits in 1900.

    The cost of buildings is estimated at 182,221 rubles. The shelter has an income of 4745 rubles. from the farm and 2071 rubles. from the work of the condemned. The total amount of expenses is 58,470 rubles, of which 38,928 rubles. for building maintenance and administration. The food of one prisoner per year costs 54 rubles. 90 kopecks, clothes and shoes - 17 rubles. Number of days spent 81,252 and working 42,075.

    Similar to this shelter, others arose, although with less funds, as a result of which they cannot implement, for example, a family (in separate houses) charity system. Nevertheless, many of these asylums deserve full attention, both for the way they operate and for their size.

    Of these larger shelters, it is necessary to note, first of all, Kazansky.

    This shelter was opened in 1892 under the name "School of children's industriousness", but in 1900 it was renamed the Olginsky shelter, with the approval of the corresponding charter. For the allowance of 10,000 rubles received from the Committee of Guardianship of the Houses of Diligence. bought a house which is currently being renovated.

    The institution is designed for 100 people, in 1900 there were 15 residents and 8 6 visitors. The company has a capital of 32,662 rubles. and has an income of 9395 rubles, including 568 rubles. from the work of the condemned. The annual expense is 6907 rubles, including 3914 rubles for the maintenance and hiring of the building and administration, and 280 rubles for revolving materials and tools. Food per pupil costs 72 rubles a year, and clothes 3 rubles. 68 kopecks, not counting donations. Works - carpentry, turning, bookbinding, tailoring, wire, shoe, and for girls - needlework.

    The Yelets orphanage for girls also deserves attention. He owns real estate worth 25,000 rubles. The annual income is 14,142 rubles, including 1,086 rubles from the work of the detainees, the expense is 8,673 rubles, including 1,606 rubles for the maintenance of the building and administration. and for material and tools 668 rubles. Food for children costs 22 rubles. 18 kop. and clothes 5 rubles. 91 kop. 65 permanently living children. Craft departments: sewing, hosiery, seamstress, ironing, blanket, lace, carpet.

    Very interesting data about the Omsk shelter.

    At the end of 1891 and at the beginning of 1892, there was an intensified movement of migrant peasants from the inner provinces of Russia to Siberia, caused by the lack of crops of the previous two years and the almost universal crop failure in Russia. In this difficult time, several thousand peasants appeared in the city of Omsk, who found themselves far from being in favorable conditions here, since they met the same lack of food in Siberia and the districts of the Akmola region. Despite all the measures taken to alleviate the plight of the starving newcomers, in the form of overnight shelters and free canteens, contagious diseases and mainly typhus soon spread among them, as a result of which many peasant families found themselves orphaned children, left literally without shelter, clothes and food, to the mercy of fate. The wife of the military governor of the Akmola region, E. A. Sannikova, took care of the arrangement and care of these orphans, on whose initiative a shelter was arranged in the free canteen of the Red Cross. This orphanage was originally intended to provide charity only to the orphans of the peasant migrants, and only with further existence was forced to open its doors for orphans of other classes, for foundlings, and, finally, for those young children whose parents are serving sentences in Omsk and other prison castles ( since the stay of innocent children in a prison environment cannot be considered convenient).

    When it opened on May 1, 1892, the shelter had absolutely no money and at first existed on the balances of the amounts allocated for the maintenance of the starving migrants. But then donations appeared, of which 6,500 rubles were received in the first year. This year, there were up to 40 people in the orphanage; their maintenance cost 1,425 rubles, so that more than 5,000 rubles remained free. The following year, the shelter received 5309 rubles. With the remainder of the previous year, during the second year, the shelter already had an amount of up to 10,500 rubles, which gave its administration the opportunity to attend to the arrangement of actually more convenient premises, instead of a rented one. In the place where the orphanage is now located, there was once a dilapidated, almost uninhabited wooden building of the clerk's school of the Ministry of State Property. At the request of the Governor-General Stepnoy, this building was given over to a shelter and in 1893 it was completely redone, which cost the shelter 7297 rubles. In the following years, up to 4,000 rubles were spent on repairs and extensions. Currently, the total cost of the shelter with all the buildings and other household equipment is estimated at more than 16,000 rubles.

    In 1896, State Secretary A. N. Kulomzin visited the orphanage. Having personally familiarized himself with the organization of the shelter and wishing to come to his aid, he, firstly, requested an annual leave of 1,000 rubles for the maintenance of the shelter. from the subsidiary amounts of the Committee of the Siberian railway and, secondly, in order to put the orphanage in a more stable and definite position, he offered to place it under the supervision of the Guardianship of the Houses of Diligence and Workhouses, which is under the August Patronage of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. As a result of this, a special charter of the Guardianship Society was developed for the Olginsky shelter for industriousness for orphans in the city of Omsk, which charter has already received approval; On July 11, 1900, the day of the celebration of St. Olga, the official opening of the Olginsky shelter took place, which, according to the new charter, was called for a broader organization of labor assistance on the basis of amateur performance.

    Currently, there are 80 children in the orphanage, including 26 boys and 54 girls aged 3 to 17. The reserve capital of the shelter reaches 13,574 rubles.

    The leaders of this institution believe that the task of each orphanage is not so much charitable as educational. The result of charity, as you know, is productive only if and under the condition that a useful and honest worker develops from a foster child, and when a pet that has left the shelter can earn its livelihood by independent work. Therefore, the administration of the orphanage constantly strived to ensure that, along with religious and moral education and upbringing and literacy, accustom children to some useful skill.