FILTH, MALNUTRITION, DISEASE AND GRAFT IN STATE OPERATED CHILDREN'S HOMES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00047R000300430001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 28, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

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, CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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INFORMATION REPORT
CD NO. 50X1
COUNTRY ussR DATE DISTR. :Lir Sep 1953
SUBJECT Filth, Malnutrition, Disease and Graft in State NO. OF PAGES 3
Operated Children's Homes
PLACE NO. OF ENCLS.
ACQUIRED (LISTED BELOW)
DATE SUPPLEMENT TO
ACQUIRE' REPORT NO.
DATE OF
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES, WITHIN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS, SECTIONS 193
AND 704, OF THE U.S. CODE, AS AMENDED. ITS 'TRANSMISSION OR REY,
LOTION OF ITS CONTENT. TO DR RECEIPT ST AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS
PRONISITED SY LAI. THE REPRODUCTION CF THIS FORM IS PROHIBITED.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
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orphanages in the other towns in the area including Alma Ata. OHMATDE are
orphanages for children under four years of age that are under the supervision
of local medical authorities, whereas DETDOM are orphanages for children sam
four to eight years of 'age and are operated by local educational authoritIeo.
2. The children in the OHMATDE in Kizil Orda were predominantly Russian, although
there were also many Tatars, Uzbeks, Kirghiz, etc. Not all of the children
were war orphans, some were children belonging to families whose parents were
liquidated or in slave labor camps, others were the children of parents who
were both drafted into military service/and still many others were children
born, out of wedlock. Very few of the children, whether purposely or otherwise,
had names when brought to these orphanages. An example of the only record that
went along with the few children would be a card 50X1
attached around the child's neck stating only the child's name and that it was
the son or daughter of a Captain in the Army, whose wife had died at birth.
For a nation which professes to love children and whose internal and external
propaganda claims that it is the friend of mothers and youth of the USSR and
? the outside world, the conditions in these children's homes were 50X1
unbelievable.
at the OHMATDE in Kizil Orda, shocked by the filth, 50X1
starvation and disease found there. 50X1
only 20 grams of toilet soap per month were issued
to each person in the OHMATDE, whether child or adult. Thererww no toilet or
laundry soap issued at all
This small amount is nardly enougn
to keep a child clean, certainly not an adult./
. Besides bein dirt the children were also kept on a starvation diet.
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the children were never fed more than 11500 calories of food per day, although they
were supposed to be getting a minimum of 2,5010*ealories.
the children were never given any fruit, vegetables, or meat. The
daily diet, which did not vary except that after 3.943 a little milk and sugar was
added to the tea and a slice of butter for each serving of bread, consisted of
the following:
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The
the
Breakfast (8:00 a,m ): a cup of weak tea and 50 grams of bread
Lunch (noon): a bowl of soup (almost clear water with a few grains of
rice) and one tablespoon of rice gruel
Tea (4:00p m,): a cup of weak tea and 50 grans of bread
Dinner (8:u0 p.m,): a bowl of soup (same as lunch) and 50 grams of bread
lack of toilet and laundry soap coupled with the near starvation diet
children to be comitetely covered with lice at all times./
caused
The
c ren were era y ea en ? el :-..r: : - :, : ? : .. ? ese un-
bearable living conditions, the OHMATDE and DETDOM orphanages were not heated at
all during the winter months which are extremely cold in that area. Because the
children lacked warm clothing, they-were kept in bed for weeks at a time during
the most severe cold spells. They just lay in bed motionless, their thin bodies
blue from the extreme cold.
the mortality rate at all of the OHMATDE in
the Kazakh SSR was staggering. At the OHMATDE in Kizil Orda approximately 50X1
400 children at all times during this period, yet the monthly mortality rate was
well ove %. . The deaths resulted from the aforementioned living con-
ditions which developed into diarrhea, pneumonial turunkulez (furunculosis) and
avitominoza (vitamin deficiency). There ware no official Statistics. or records
kept on the number of deaths.1
The few children :who Lived through the four years of "care" in OHMATDE orphanages
were both physically and mentally retarded due to their many illnesses and severe
malnutrition. .For instance, at four years of age the children were only startiig.
to utter incomprehensible sounds, a good half of them could not walk, they had no
control over. their elimination processes (which only added to the filth and disease),
and many were obviously feeble-minded. All of the children also Suffered from
konuktivit, which is an eye infection brought on by a combination of malnutrition
and uncleanliness. When the children awoke they could not open their eyes because
of pus that had glued them shut during the course of the night. ,Their eyes had
to be washed open first thing in the morning and bathed throughout the day. This
condition also caused the children to rest their eyes by closing them for long '
periods of time throughout the day/
After 1944, the donditions within these orphanages improved slightly.
getting se many war orphans the average number at Kidil Orda
from 400 to 150, and startea receiving some "luxuries" frOm'the US.
orphanage in Hitil.Orda occasionally received new bedding, clothing
soap, white bread, butter, chocolate and sugar.
the lice and other vermin were still
but in lesser numbers, and the deaths were somewhat less frequent.
stopped
ecreased
OHMIITDE
medicine,
present,
The conditions within these OHMATDE and DETDOM children's homes need .not have been
so bad if the Soviet administrators and workers within them had not stolen,for
their own financial gain, the major portion of the food, medicine and equipment
' allotted to the children. the regional medical administrators
of OHMATDE and the educational adminiatrators of DETDOM children's hones? diverted::
the biggett-quantity of food and goods that were earmarked for the children, and/':'
lesser quantities were taken by officials and workers down the line. On the level
of the individual orphanage, the ZAVHOZ (Zaveduiltshiy Hoziaystvo -.economic manager
of the household), Det Sistra (children's sister - literal translation) and cooks
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stole their respective shares of supplies.. Each day these 1ake
whole sacks full of rice, flour, soap, tea, etc and sell this te'the'loCillbladk
marketeers.
After the US supplies started arriving, this practice became even more bold and
50X1 P'?' lucrative. For instance orphanage received a supply of eight new
sheets per child,, or approximately three thousand sheets. There was great re-
joicing over this wondeOrul gift, yet within a matter of two weeks all of the
50X1 new sheets had disappeared. received three thousand pounds
of US-manufactured milk chocolate, something that the children had never tasted
in their lives. Yet, only once was this chocolate passed out amongst the Children,
each child being given only a small piece measuring approximately one inch square.
This practice occurred over and over again., in fact each time a: new supply of
anything was received. The most despicable instance of this practice WaS
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whenril]received a large quantity of a drug called sulfidin to treat the eyes of
the c dren against konuktivit. By ,giving
this drug to the children four times a day for only four days to a week, the eye
50X1 infection completelv cleared up./
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an
mme
a
e reoovery of some, of the children
a-Sample of the drug to
anal zed It was powdered aspirin and not sulfidin.
After the first f?s,
there were no furtherreeeveries.
a labotaterY' 50X1
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50X1 local blackmarketeers were
50X1 rubles per gram."
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11.
selling sulfidin for 200
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the parent,., erparente, of some child whose whereabouts they had trace4t1trough snyi
much,p0041'*rdship and mitery would Shew up beseeching - 50X1
to tell them Where their child was. Since no records were kept even in the case
of children Who were adopted by local residents or lived to be trailSferredto the
local DETDOM, this was in effect the end of their search. It was a'diffieult
task indeed to.persuade a.parent who,Im mostcaseawas a Soviet soldier who just .
returned froM the front, and who had In some cases traveled by foot frei the'veatern
regions of the USS4 thinking .that he would be reunited with his child0hat-he_need
not search any.fUrther.. They would describe their infants, as they saw them
to each of tlie, employees of the OHMATDE,. hoping someone would remember ozia- lead
them to their child.: It was difficult indeed to explain to these desperate parent's
Why adequate records had not been kept and the reason to persuade 50X1
them to abandon their search. ,
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15004etric calories equal 330, pound -calories
2500 metric calories equal 550 pound- calories 7
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