Philanthropic Society, Imperial

Categories / Social Life/Charity
IMPERIAL PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY, the largest charitable establishment of the19th - early 20th centuries in Russia. Founded on 16 May 1802 by Emperor Alexander I as the Beneficial Society for providing the poor with assistance of all kinds on voluntary private donations. On 18 May 1802 the society established Medical Philanthropic Committee for rendering free medical assistance to the poor, which, in its turn, founded clinics and hospitals in various parts of St. Petersburg in 1804. In 1805 the Society founded the Committee for the Relief of the Poor, which was entrusted with the gathering of information about the poor and providing them with material assistance. In 1814 the Emperor took the society under his patronage, renamed it the Imperial Philanthropic Society with the motto Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself. The main trustees in 1816-24 included the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs and People's Education Prince A.N. Golitsyn, and in 1824-1917, St. Petersburg Metropolitans. The society was headed by a board of 11 people. Funds were supplemented from the sums donated by the Imperial Family (over 150,000 roubles a year), from the treasury (from 1900 - 35,000 roubles a year), capital gains and rents, as well as donations. The majority of the finances were spent on financing establishments for orphans and children of the poor, including: upbringing and education, the maintenance of the aged, disabled and sick, on free medical care and one-off provision of free or cheap lodging, food and clothes. By 1917 the Philanthropic Society ran 280 charitable establishments in 40 towns of Russia. In St. Petersburg (Petrograd) 32 establishments functioned, including the Charitable House of the Juvenile Poor, Gymnasium, Ivanovsky Girls' School, Mariinsko-Sergievsky Orphanage, Orlovo-Novosiltsevskoe Charitable Establishment and the Count Kushelev-Bezborodko Rest-House for Poor Women. A complex of establishments of the Philanthropic Society's was formed in the late 19th century (see Isidorovsky House of the Crippled). In 1918 all its funds and properties were nationalised.

Reference: Очерк деятельности Совета Императорского Человеколюбивого общества за сто лет, 1816-1916 гг. Пг., 1916.

S. V. Boglachev. Alexander I, Emperor
Golitsyn Alexander Nikolaevich, Duke
Очерк деятельности Совета Императорского Человеколюбивого общества за сто лет, 1816-1916 гг. Пг., 1916 Isidore's House for Paupers
1802