🏠 Moscow Orphanage

The Moscow Orphanage, also known as the Foundling Home, was an ambitious project conceived by Catherine the Great and Ivan Betskoy, in the early 1760's. This idealistic experiment of the Age of Enlightenment was intended to manufacture "ideal citizens" for the Russian state, by bringing up thousands of abandoned children to a very high standard of refinement, cultivation and professional qualifications. Despite more than adequate staffing and financing, the orphanage was plagued, by high infant mortality and ultimately failed as a social institution.