Voluntary Help in Post-Reform Russia in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The author of this article considers the period of 1860s – 1870s to be a historical milestone marking the spread of Russian voluntary activity among the public that got involved in various kinds of community service. Volunteering in Russia evolved under the influence of unpaid selfless efforts and citizens’ initiatives through their work in numerous charitable institutions, public organizations and associations. The specific nature of this activity gave rise to a great number of voluntary practices, ensuring the participation of different classes and professional groups in them. Spreading these volunteer practices, the emerging non-profit sector gradually filled certain niches in the market of social services that the state did not or was not able to provide. The paper describes the experience of organizing volunteer work in the following charitable institutions: Societies for the Fight Against Alcoholism, Moscow Slavic Charity Committee, Imperial Philanthropic Society, and others. As a documentary basis for the study, the author used archival materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation revealing a variety of forms of popular involvement in volunteering. Moreover, the archives contain information on the participation of volunteers in charity events of charitable institutions. The charters and reports of charitable institutions and public organizations are also valuable sources, significantly expanding and clarifying our ideas about the history of unpaid public practices and the scope of voluntary efforts. The introduction of the aforementioned documents into scientific literature will help to clarify, rethink and better understand the phenomenon of enthusiasts’ voluntary practices and identify the characteristic historical sociocultural aspects of its development.