Catherine II endorses Foundling Home in Moscow
- When
- 1763
- Where
- Moscow, Russian Empire
- Episodes
- 1
In September 1763 Empress Catherine II of Russia formally endorsed educator Ivan Betskoy's proposal for a state-run Foundling Home in Moscow, an ambitious Enlightenment-era project the two had conceived together in the early 1760s. The endorsement preceded the institution's ceremonial inauguration in Moscow in April 1764.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. The Moscow Orphanage, also known as the Foundling Home, was an ambitious project conceived jointly by Catherine the Great and Ivan Betskoy in the early 1760s. The idea of a state-run orphanage in Moscow was an outgrowth of the Russian Enlightenment, and Betskoy, an educator, proposed it to the Empress.
The Endorsement of September 1763. On September 1, 1763, Catherine II of Russia endorsed Betskoy's plan for the Moscow Foundling Home. The endorsement came early in Catherine's reign, which had begun in July 1762, and the project was framed in the sources as an outgrowth of the Russian Enlightenment.
People involved
- Catherine II of Russia · Empress of Russia who endorsed the Foundling Home plan
- Ivan Betskoy · Educator who proposed the state-run orphanage in Moscow
Sources
- Moscow Orphanage Wikipedia, revision of 2025-11-17
- Catherine the Great Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.