“I dare to offer you pencil portraits of delinquent children": visual sources on the history of the Medical-Educational Colony of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. 1922-1923s

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doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-4-1140-1159

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Sliskova, Valeriya V., (2024). “I dare to offer you pencil portraits of delinquent children": visual sources on the history of the Medical-Educational Colony of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. 1922-1923, Herald of an Archivist, no. 4, pp. 1140-1159, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-4-1140-1159

Sliskova, Valeriya V., Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia

“I dare to offer you pencil portraits of delinquent children": visual sources on the history of the Medical-Educational Colony of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. 1922-1923s

Abstract

The purpose of the publication is to introduce into scientific use one letter and several pencil portraits of morally defective children that studied in the Medical and Educational Colony (Russian – LVK) of the Institute for Morally Defective Child (Russian – Gindefreb, GIDR) of the People's Commissariat of Public Health Protection (Russian – Narkomzdrav, NKZ) in 1918–1924. The published documents belong to the problematic field of the history of soviet science and illustrate history of the Colony and work with morally defective children in 1918–1924. The published sources are fourteen pencil portraits of the Colony’s students: Pavel Vasin, Petr Gavrishev, Yurii Gimmer, Alexandr Gorokhov, Viktor Dymkov, Alexandr Zabegaev, Lev Kozin, Fedor Krylov, Sergei Kybantsev, Dmitrii Petrov, Mikhail Chekmazov, Leonid Chekmarev, Zorefa Shamakov, and one unsigned portrait. The portraits were painted by Boris P. Bulgakov that worked as an art teacher in the Colony. The portraits were accompanied by the letter written by Maria I. Popova to soviet anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov in 1951. M. I. Popova worked as a psychiatrist in the Colony in 1918–1924. She kept portraits and considered them useful for M. M. Gerasimov’s studies in the field of forensic facial reconstruction. Despite the M. M. Gerasimov did not use the portraits in his work, they were kept in his fund in the Scientific Archive of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of N. N. Miklukho-Maklai of Russian Academy of Sciences (no. 100). The pencil portraits are valuable visual sources on the history of the Medical and Educational Colony that allow to restore the appearance of its students. Also, the portraits complement the Colony’s documents stored in the Central State Archive of Moscow. The portraits are original documents. In the thirteen portraits, there are surnames of students and dates of creation made by B. P. Bulgakov. One portrait was not signed. The letter of M. I. Popova is published in accordance with current rules of spelling and punctuation. Obvious shortcomings and errors have been corrected in the text. Information about persons mentioned in the source is given in the footnote. The pre-publication comment updates the published sources.

Keywords

Visual sources, 1920s, M. M. Gerasimov, M. I. Popova, street children, medical and educational colony.

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About authors

Sliskova Valeriya V., Russian State University for the Humanities, Center for the History of Russian Science and Technology, junior researcher, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of N. N. Miklukho-Maklai of Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Archival Department, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-952-696-58-07, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

ORCID: 0000-0003-1724-184X

Grant information

The research was prepared at the Russian State University for the Humanities and was carried out with support of the State assignment on the topic “Soviet science: mechanisms for the development and management of science and technology”, no. FSZG-2024-0001.

The article was received in the editorial office on 20.03.2024, recommended for publication on 20.09.2024.