CHILDREN'S ORPHANHOOD IN THE PEASANTRY IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY (BASED ON MATERIALS OF VITEBSK AND MINSK PROVINCES)

The article is an attempt to study such a social phenomenon as child orphanhood among the peasantry in the first half of the 19th century in the Russian Empire using the example of Vitebsk and Minsk provinces. The sources were both a number of government decrees and codified Russian legislation. Previously unpublished sources from the collection of the National Historical Archive of Belarus were also actively used. The problem of peasant orphanhood in the Russian Empire in Russian historiography was considered quite sporadically. This topic is being raised for the first time in Belarusian historiography. The study revealed that guardianship law in relation to the class of rural dwellers in the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century was poorly developed. The law regulated the rules of guardianship depending on the category of peasants - court, state and privately owned. It was determined in the article that no legal norms were developed for serf orphans and no specialized class guardianship institutions were created. At the same time, the article established the basic mechanisms of guardianship over serf orphans - this is a family approach and the responsibility of the owner. The state assigned certain obligations to the Departments of Public Care. The study showed how peasant children left without care outside the community were marginalized.