Preliminary Programme

The First World War led to an unprecedented refugee crisis, primarily caused by invasions, material destruction, famine or general poverty. This was the case in Central and Eastern Europe, with multinational Austria-Hungary becoming an arena of constant forced movement of civilians. Additionally, the leadership of the Empire forcibly evacuated its own nationals (i.e. Ruthenians, Poles, Serbo-Croats, Slovenians, Jews, Italians). In order to contain this mass displacement, the Austro-Hungarian administration organized a network of approximately 30 refugee camps primarily established in Cisleithania. This paper addresses the ways Austro-Hungarian state authorities assisted refugee children, who, along women, represented the majority of inmates in these camps. Generally, this analysis looks at domestic relief practices via state institutions and thus addresses the broad policies implemented on behalf of refugee children of different nationality, religion or class. The paper specifically explores the ways authorities addressed issues of nutrition, sanitation or education of children as a form of control of displaced populations. In highlighting the case of displaced children in Austria-Hungary, the paper emphasizes that as the war went on, refugee camps were not mere haphazard structures, but were rather political tools of mass displacement management and spaces of state-driven social engineering during the Great War. (Show less)

One of the principle duties of Hungarian child protection during and after the First World War was to care for the orphaned and unsupported children of those fallen or injured in the war and those that were displaced due to the territorial reconfigurations. As the state considered it its primary task to rescue Hungary’s future generation from physical and moral degeneration, it opened war orphanages, provided food, health care, clothing, and vocational training, send the war orphans to summer camps or even placed them in foster families in the countryside or abroad. Various of these relief measures were supported or even initiated by international humanitarian relief organisations such as the Save the Children Fund or the Red Cross. Against this backdrop, this paper engages with the public discourses about Hungary’s war orphans and the various means to relieve their physical suffering and neglect. It explores the ways in which the destitution and relief of the innocent 'children of the war’s heroes' was taken to publicize Hungary’s fragile postwar constitution and to lobby for the restoration of its prewar territory and political order. (Show less)

This paper looks at the moral and political discourses and practices of transnational organisations, including the League of Nations and the International Save the Children Union, and individual states in dealing with the phenomenon of refugee children in the early 1920s. It looks specifically at the cases of refugee children from the former Russian Empire who arrived into Europe after a violent and protracted imperial collapse and class-based Civil War. It draws on archival sources from the League of Nations and Save the Children, as well as life writings and memoirs. The paper attempts to trace the dynamics of solidarity, power and humanitarian governance which influenced the projects and desires of European elites for the creation of sites of action, the provision of aid, education, and the organisation of adoption and resettlement schemes for Russian children and adolescents. Finally, the paper compares the attempts at the governance of Russian refugee children with that of Armenian child refugees in the 1920s to further elucidate the complex issues of religion, race, nation, and politics in the work of humanitarianism. (Show less)

During the Second World War, the unprecedented evacuation was carried out from the frontline to the rear areas of the USSR. The placement of a large number of evacuated people in Kazakhstan took place in particularly difficult conditions, due to the catastrophic shortage of both material and human resources, deficit of food and industrial goods.
The topic of the life of children in evacuation deserves special attention, since children made up a significant part of the population evacuated to Kazakhstan. Mass evacuation helped to save many children’s lives, but at the same time the kids were subjected to the hardest trials, both during the evacuation process and at the points of arrival. Children's life was different from the life of adults in evacuation. The war and evacuation became a key period of children’s’ life – it was the moment of maturation and development that affected their future life.
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In this paper, the specific features of material, medical and sanitary care and social security of children evacuated to Kazakhstan are considered on the basis of declassified archival documents. Many of these documents (of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the former party archive, the National Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan), are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.
Next categories of children who were evacuated with and without parents are identified in the study: students, children from kindergartens, nurseries, orphanages. These children were in even more difficult situation, suffering from separation from their parents, not knowing whether they were alive and where they were. The problems of placement and adaptation of the children in new places, issues of providing assistance to students of orphanages, gardens and boarding schools have been studied. The policy of the Soviet state related to the evacuation of children and difficulties that children faced in the rear is taken into account. Children were confronted with congestion, cold, lack of food, basic necessities, medical workers and teachers. Malnutrition, poor health standards led to an increase in diseases, including infectious diseases, and mortality among children. The paper shows that despite the great difficulties, the local authorities and the population did everything possible to save the evacuated children. (Show less)