In the early years of this century in the Soviet Union there was a massive occurrence of an important social problem - the Russians called it besprizornost - children and teenagers who had neither parents nor care and attention from the state. At certain periods there were several millions of them. This book describes the features of the sub-culture which these Soviet citizens formed and the attempts by the government and other agencies to eradicate it. The material hopes to present the theme objectively exploiting both Soviet and Western sources.