the juridical act of taking and agreeing to raise another’s child and of establishing with the child the juridical (personal and property) relations that exist between natural parents and children. Adoption is a humane, legal institution that makes it possible for orphans, as well as children deprived of parental supervision and support, to be brought up in a family.
In the USSR, adoption is regulated by the 1968 Basic Principles of Marriage and Family Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics and by the republic codes on marriage and the family. An adult is permitted to adopt only a person not yet of age and only if it is in the minor’s interest. The act of adoption is formalized by a decision of the executive committee of the district or city soviet of people’s deputies; the decision must then be recorded in a registry office for documents of civil status (ZAGS). In order to adopt a child who has reached the age of ten, the child’s consent must be obtained. If the parents of a child are alive, their consent is required for adoption, except in those cases when they have been deprived of parental rights, when they have been recognized in the manner established by law as incompetent or missing, or when they have neglected their duty to provide the child with a proper upbringing.
Any adult citizen may become an adoptive parent, with the exception of persons deprived of parental rights and persons recognized by established procedure as incompetent or of limited competence. If a child is adopted by one member of a married couple, the consent of the other spouse must be obtained. When the decision on adoption is rendered, at the request of the adoptive parent the child may be given the last name of the new parent and the appropriate patronymic.
The secrecy of adoption is protected by law (including art. 1241 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). Adopted children (and their descendants) and adoptive parents (and their relatives) have the same personal and property rights and duties with respect to one another as the corresponding relatives by birth. Adoption carried out in violation of the conditions established by law may be recognized as invalid, for instance, adoption procured by false documents, and the act of adoption may be declared void in the interests of the child. Upon nullification of adoption, the adoptive parent may still be obligated to support the child.