Humanization of the process of raising minors in the Russian Empire shelters: historical and cultural analysis

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of reforming criminal legislation in relation to juvenile offenders in the Russian Empire in the late XIX-early XX centuries. At that time, among the "judges of justice", who were based on ideas of humanity, values of a child’s personality, protection of his or her rights, the idea of changing the existing criminal legislation in relation to the child offender arose. One of the key issues in the article is consideration of the justification of the terms of staying children in correctional institutions. In order to ensure the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders in colonies-shelters, the authorities of the country attempted to amend some legislative acts. This had a great impact on the organization of juvenile justice, reflected in the practical activities of educational and correctional institutions of the Russian Empire in the late XIX-early XX centuries. The innovations in the criminal legislation became a big step towards the humanization of the process of raising delinquent children in pre-revolutionary asylum colonies. That was the first time that a child was considered not as an object, but as a subject of the pedagogical process, an individual with rights. The activities of educational and correctional institutions ceased to be punitive and were directed towards human treatment of children.