Charity as the manifestation of civil activity in Perm region during World War one

Abstract

The development of charity undoubtedly played a considerable role in Russian civil society’s formation. The given paper is devoted to the problem of charity as a sphere of civil identity in Perm region during World War I. A significant number of new charity organizations appeared there at that time by the efforts of public forces, and both charity committees under the patronage of the members of the Tsar family and charity organizations, inspired by the Zemstvo and city authorities, increased their budgets. One of leading parts in charity of the region belonged to the organs of local self-government and to their representatives. They played a big role in arranging local committees of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union, the Russian Union of Cities, nominal charity committees, as well as in subsidizing their activities, which gives a possibility to state that they became both the initiators of the foundation of charity organizations and their active participants. Civil charity initiatives developed mostly in the cities with some public institutes, but the circumstances of the war promoted civil charity activities outside city surroundings. They also contributed to the fact that the state created the conditions for the manifestation of civil initiatives where it was unable to cope on its own, for example in helping children. During the war women’s charity movement got a new turn of development: a number of women’s charity organizations increased, social staff of their participants widened due to the spreading of such organizations in plant settlements and village areas. In general, the participation in charity, as something like school of responsibility, was an important element of the development of civil identity in the region during the World War I.