In 2002 the Russian Prosecutor General’s office estimated that there were 3 million homeless children in Russia. In the same year the Moscow Office of the International Labour Organisation stated that there were up to 50,000 homeless children in the capital, however earlier reports by the Militia estimate the number of homeless children in Moscow to be as high as 130,000. The American Red Cross has described the growing population of homeless children in the former Soviet Union as an Epidemic.

It is said that the term “BESPRIZORNIKI” which was used to describe the war orphans of the Bolshevik revolution, meaning, “neglected ones” has been resurrected.