Cheated of Childhood - Russia

Feb 2002
Russia's metro stations have become home to a generation of street children, who survive by begging or prostitution.

At first sight, 11 year old Yuriy and his 13 year old friend Max look like normal, happy children. But after family problems forced them to leave home, they've been reduced to living on the streets. "For me, the most dangerous thing about living on the street is paedophiles," states Max. "I know a lot of people who have been abused." Despite this risk, both boys would rather remain homeless than return to their families. Max and Yuriy are just two of the millions of children thought to be living on the streets. Once homeless, many children turn to glue sniffing and become infected with HIV. The issue of street children is a relatively new problem for Russia. The collapse of communism triggered many family breakdowns, driving children as young as seven onto the streets. The fear is that if something is not done to help them now, it may be too late to save future generations.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Childhood
• Lost
• Stolen
• Russia
• Street
• Children
• Prostitution
• Soviet
• Bloc
• Begging
• paedophiles
• news
• documentary
• current affairs
• journeyman
• journeyman pictures

[ihearttheplanet]

The fact that these children have nothing but yet are willing to share what little they had with those kittens, is heartbreakingly beautiful.

[skydome29]

The country was lied to under the ussr and,like always, the next generation are made to pay.

[Group51]

Terrible and sad.

[misstrucknmud10]

ATTENTION YOUTUBE I accidentally hit the flag while trying to pause it, in no way was i trying to mark this as inappropriate! I am working on a project for human trafficking. I apologize.

[mrkv39]

@PoppaBlue59 heh they used to do that.. dogs... pigeons...  in the 90s, when things were especially rough. My 2000s, it got better with NGOs providing food/clothes/shelter. What because worse is that cops started chasing them more so they stopped begging (and dressing like beggers) and started stealing/doing other crimes.

[PoppaBlue59]

Cook them cats and eat 'em.

[aghettonigger4u]

Look fellas...

I immigrated from Russia in 1976 to Los Angeles.

I was 8, went through school, and dropped out in 10th grade.

Went through BK-7 twice.

I have not gained anything today, and sometimes, I see myself on the same level like them.

We have some shit up here in Los Angeles, and we are not far away from you.

Keep your shit together, stay strong, join your local military, and maybe one day you'll be useful for your country.

You are not at fault.

Sorry for the loss of your mom. Fucked up.

[Rooskler]

I'm not justifying communism, but if it were still in effect, these children would have something to eat. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea

[mindytran]

This really breaks my heart..

[Kommunist93]

@sk8tafrnk The Allied intervention staged by the West in 1918 and the backing of the Czarist White Army didn't help the Reds any. Although they still pulled through despite enormous odds it'd clearly changed the perspective of the Revolution. This is clearly because at this time the Reds were fighting a just cause and the Czar clearly needed to fall. I think the key to any Communist Takeover is keeping the Revolutionary spirit strong and alive, Stalin was obviously counter-revolutionary.