Formation of the System of Education, Research, and Support for Children with Disabilities in Soviet Russia (100th Anniversary of the Experimental Medical-Pedagogical Station)

In the history of developing the system of institutions for children with disabilities in Soviet Russia, the early 1920s were characterized by the search for new forms of organizing their education, scientific research, and the transfer of accumulated experience within the network. The small number of institutions (275 units, covering 5–6% of the needs), the increasing number of children with defects (according to the terminology of the time), the lack of the effectiveness of educational and scientific vertical to develop and disseminate methods and experience of working with this category led the People’s Commissariat for Education (Narcompros) leadership to decide to reform the network of institutions for the social and legal protection of minors and the education of the defective. On October 1, 1923, the Experimental Medical-Pedagogical Station was created based on the House of Children Studying under the direction of Vsevolod P. Kashchenko. The main task of the Station was to work with all ages and groups of defective children (mental and physical defects). The institution was endowed with research functions (the study of children’s defectiveness), medical and pedagogical functions (education and training), and museum and demonstration and advisory functions (assistance to other specialized institutions and the population of Moscow). As a result, the Station became a unique center for communal research and experimental pedagogical work with defective children and the basis for the establishment on its basis in 1929 of the Experimental Institute of Defectology. The research was prepared based on archival materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation that are being introduced into the scientific community for the first time.