Box collecting is a form of mass fundraising for charitable purposes. In Europe it has been known since the Middle Ages, when it was widespread everywhere.
In Russia it was recognized by a Senate decree of April 20, 1781, “On measures to provide food for the poor,” as a fundraising tool for the Boards of Public Welfare (provincial institutions established in 1775 by order of Empress Catherine II to organize aid to the poor by setting up hospitals, schools, almshouses, and orphanages). The decree, in particular, stated: “The Board of Public Welfare, being responsible for feeding the needy, is obliged to establish boxes for collecting alms made by willing donors.”
From the late 18th century, box collections began to be organized by private individuals, and from the 1870s also by charitable organizations. Both acted in coordination with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In each case, the location of the boxes, and the procedure for removal, counting, and registration of the collected sums were agreed upon.
The boxes were usually made of tin, with a lid, a lock, and a slot for coins. At first, such boxes (officially called “public” or “collection” boxes) were typically placed at church entrances. Later, in the 19th century, they were also installed in busy trading areas—shopping arcades and street markets—as well as inside railway stations and in state and public institutions. The boxes were usually fixed permanently to a building’s stone wall. Nearby, five or six steps away, there was always a guard or a police officer to deter thieves.
One of the first effective box collections was a charitable campaign devised by merchants for the benefit of children’s shelters. It was organized on the initiative of the head (trustee) of the First Vasilyevsky Island Children’s Shelter in St. Petersburg, the merchant Nikolai Terentyev. In December 1841, Terentyev submitted a report to the chairman of the Main Board of Trustees of Children’s Shelters, Count Grigory Stroganov, proposing that boxes be installed in places of brisk trade. Every merchant, the report said, began the workday with a prayer before “ryad” icons (that is, icons placed in the trading rows). Beneath them there were always church boxes for collecting money to buy candles and lamp oil. Terentyev proposed placing charitable collection boxes next to the church ones: “the latter are guarded by the row guards,” who “must also guard these boxes.”
Terentyev’s proposal attracted the interest of high-ranking officials. The plan of the shelter trustee was also approved by Emperor Nicholas I. A special regulation of the Committee of Ministers was issued setting out the rules for this box collection. A five-person Commission to supervise the box collection was formed, including the merchant Terentyev. The rules required the counter (one of the Commission members) to remove money from the boxes once every two months, between the 25th and 30th. Then, in locked leather bags, the counter delivered the money to the Commission. There it was counted in the presence of all members, and the amount was entered into a register. The funds were then allocated to the needs of St. Petersburg children’s shelters.
In the spring of 1842, Terentyev had 56 boxes made at his own expense. They were installed in the Gostiny Dvor, at the Apraksin and Nikolsky markets, at the cattle yard, in waiting halls of railway stations in St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo, and Pavlovsk, at the St. Petersburg port customs office, and also on six steamships running between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt, and between St. Petersburg and Shlisselburg.
The boxes were engraved with scenes on biblical themes and quotations from the Gospel, intended to remind benefactors of the need to care for orphaned children.
The first removal of funds took place in June 1842 at the Gostiny Dvor. From eight boxes, a total of 84 rubles 29 kopecks in silver was collected. With this money one could, for example, purchase 4.8 tons of flour (in those years, a sack of flour weighing nine poods (147 kg) cost 2 rubles 60 kopecks in silver in summer).
Box collecting received an active response from residents of St. Petersburg and its surroundings, as evidenced by donation ledgers that have survived to this day. Thus, for June–November 1843, 286 rubles 85 kopecks in silver was collected in 45 boxes.
In the second half of the 19th century, box collections became ubiquitous in Russia. People participated willingly, since this form of philanthropy was accessible to everyone, had strict accounting, and was transparent: newspapers reported the amounts collected.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, at the request of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna (wife of the future Russian Emperor Alexander III), donation boxes were installed on Nevsky Prospect at the gates of the Anichkov Palace, an official royal residence. These donations were transferred to the Russian Red Cross Society and used to purchase medical equipment for field hospitals and mobile sanitary detachments in the Balkans.
In January 1895, Vladimir Kovalevsky, director of the Department of Trade and Manufactures of the Ministry of Finance, authorized placing a box in the ministry building. Ministry officials and numerous visitors—mostly entrepreneurs—dropped money into this box to support a free children’s canteen that had been set up earlier near the Admiralty on the initiative of Priest John of Kronstadt.
In addition to stationary boxes, portable ones also came into use at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Collectors carried them during mass charity campaigns, for example on White Daisy Day and Red Egg Day during Easter Week.
On Red Egg Day, the Elisaveta Charitable Society collected money for children’s night shelters and children’s labor cooperatives. Thus, on April 9, 1913 alone, across the country more than 50,000 rubles were collected in 2,159 boxes (with only 72 boxes found to be empty).