The mid-1930s witnessed the peak of persecution of perceived political enemies , with millions of Soviet citizens imprisoned and hundreds of thousands executed . Up until 1937 , there were no specific guidelines on how to treat the children of these " enemies of the people " . Yet after the Great Purge there were " ... at least several hundred thousand children who lost their parents " . Now the government was forced to confront the problem of managing this new category of orphans
peak of persecution of perceived political enemies
Great Purge
Orphans in the Soviet Union