From Legislative Acts to Organizational Orders: Transformation of Sources of Law in Intitucional Care for Children under Three Years of Age in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of legal frameworks governing a specific aspect of cinstitutional care for children namely, the care of minors under three years of age in Czechoslovakia, provided through infant care institutions (kojenecké ústavy) and children’s homes for children under three years of age. The study traces both the legal and institutional developments from 1945 through the early 1950s, a period marked by the gradual adoption of organizational, administrative, and methodological regulations pertaining to collective institutional care and to social and health care institutions. Drawing on archival research of materials produced by relevant central state administrative bodies, the paper focuses on the processes through which legal norms regulating this area were created and implemented. In addition, it situates these developments within the broader social and ideological context that shaped institutional childcare during the post-war era and the ongoing sovietization of society. Particular attention is devoted to the internal organization, staffing, and everyday operation of these state-established facilities, which played a pivotal role in constructing the system of early childhood care and reflected contemporary conceptions of childcare, and upbringing of the next generation.