Implementation of the Experience of the Elberfeld System in the Cities of Siberia in the 19th - early 20th centuries (on the Example of Tomsk)

The Elberfeld system, which originated in Germany's charitable community at the communal level in the middle of the 19th century, represented an innovative breakthrough in the organization of social assistance to the poor in the early industrial era. Thanks to a careful selection procedure for those in need, strict adherence to the principles of individualization and decentralization, it ensured the targeting of permanent and temporary assistance, a wide range of preventive and rehabilitation measures, including the formation of life skills, the ability to leave the care of society and independently support their existence. Elberfeld's experience in solving the problem of poverty was used not only in Germany, but also in the cities of Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Austria, and Switzerland. Many similarities with the German Elberfeld system can be traced in the organization of institutions for the care of the poor in the Russian Empire during the period of industrial modernization of the late 19th - early loth centuries. In this article, on the basis of office materials, testimonies of contemporaries (lawyers, city public administration officials, charity functionaries), the application of general provisions on social support to those in need, developed by the practice of the Elberfeld system, is considered in Russian reality. The geography of the study covers Tomsk - the administrative, cultural and economic center of the south of Western Siberia.