In the 1920s, the "Children's Friend"1 (ODD) Society aimed to provide practical assistance to the Soviet state in organizing education, training, improving the life of the younger generation, and above all in eliminating child homelessness caused by the First World War and the Civil War. The "Friends of Children" groups, which included workers, students, and high school students, began to operate from the end of 1923 under the Moscow Provincial Commission for the Improvement of Children's Lives. Summarizing their experience, the commission appealed to the workers of the capital: "Those who care about children, who want to fight against the greatest danger posed by homelessness, should join the ranks of "Friends of Children" 2 . In 1924, similar organizations began to appear in the regions, territories, and provinces. By September of the same year, they numbered over 310 thousand people3 . In August 1929, during the First All-Union Meeting of Pioneers, the question of combining the efforts of individual organizations that appeared on the ground was raised at a meeting in the Central Committee of the Komsomol, and on September 2, 1929, the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) adopted a resolution "On the results of the Pioneer meeting", in which it set the task of reorganizing the activities of groups "Friends of children" so that they show maximum activity in mobilizing the public to fight for the communist education of young people and the development of the pioneer movement 4 . On the basis of the magazine "Friend of Children" published by the Moscow organization ODD, an organizing committee was created, and in May 1931 the First All - Russian Congress of the society was held, which formalized the creation of a mass public organization-the All-Russian Society "Friend of Children". The congress resolution "Communist education of children and the tasks of the DD" specified the principles and goals of the society's activities, and emphasized that "in the struggle for comm ... Read more