Moscow's street kids earn as much as their parents
1991 was not only a year of huge political upheaval in the Soviet Union, the economy also collapsed leaving most of the population below the poverty line.
A new type of worker emerged on the freezing streets -- children. Often very young, they plied Moscow's pavements finding ingenious ways to earn precious roubles to help their parents make ends meet.
AFP journalist Paola Messana went out to meet them. Here is her report.
MOSCOW, December 3, 1991 (AFP) - They are only around 10 years old. They do not care about the bitter cold and the darkness that falls at three in the afternoon. They work in the streets over the weekends and often even after school. In the space of a few months these Moscow kids have become the symbol of the Soviet jungle.
Sergei is 11, Valera 10, Maxim nine and Andrej, 13. These children, whose parents are engineers, workmen or officials, began appearing on the streets of the Soviet capital several months ago.
They would run towards cars stopped at red lights, quickly cleaning windscreens which often do not have wipers, earning 50 kopecks or a rouble a time.
It turned out to be profitable and more kids swarmed into the centre of the city. They can be found at the main intersections, where they work in gangs.
A small group works outside Moscow at the luxurious AGIP service station which opened several months ago on the road to the airport, the only one where their presence is tolerated by the management. They help fill up the cars -- petrol pump attendants are an unknown species in the USSR -- and then offer to clean the cars.
"Each of us earns around 70 roubles a day working for three or four hours," 12-year-old Yuri said. He manages to earn between 600 and 1,000 roubles per month, as much as his father, who is a computer technician.
- Giving everything to Mum -
Maxim's mother works in an army radio workshop and earns 300 roubles per month, the average monthly salary. She lives alone with her son, and says the boy's father is in America.
"The first time that she saw me return home with 1,000 roubles she was wide-eyed and then started to shout: 'Where did you get this money?' Now she thinks it's a good thing that I am learning to work", he said.
Maxim, for his part, no longer cleans windscreens. Aged nine he has already climbed the ranks and is working in front of McDonald's.
He offers to take the orders of the customers who are queueing or arrive in their cars -- he has a menu with the prices. He takes their money and delivers their order within five minutes.
While Maxim gets the order, his colleague Valera, 10, stands behind the car to make sure that it does not escape. They earn 20 roubles for each order.
"I give almost all of it to my mother," is a common refrain from these children. They keep just a small amount "to go to the cinema or to buy trainers" for themselves.