Russia considers working age of 12 to solve wartime jobs crisis
Children’s rights champion suggests reopening Soviet labour camps in summer holidays
Antonia Langford | 04 June 2026 | 12:06pm BSTRussia is considering lowering the country’s working age to 12 and reopening Soviet child labour camps to solve a jobs crisis driven by the war in Ukraine.
Moscow’s children’s rights commissioner proposed the change to get young people into employment during the holidays, claiming “almost all of them want to work in the summer”.
Olga Yaroslavskaya argued the camps would provide employment and structure for teenagers, particularly those whose parents cannot afford to give them a “three-month fiesta”.
In an interview with the radio station Govorit Moskva, Ms Yaroslavskaya said: “It seems to me that the return of labour camps is a realistic scenario that our children will support.”
Russian labour laws allow children to work from the age of 14 with written consent from their parents, or to independently sign a labour contract from the age of 15.
“When we talk to teenagers aged 12 and over, they all want to work in the summer, almost all of them,” Ms Yaroslavskaya told a press conference about child safety.
She argued children should be allowed to take up part-time work in the summer holidays to earn “a little money”, insisting “it is no secret that we need to change federal labour legislation”.
She cited her own experience working in the summer in a Soviet youth camp, saying: “In the 7th grade [year 8], we were taken to weed tomatoes in 40-degree heat in a barrack in the middle of the fields.”
“We survived, and moreover, I brought home 120 rubles,” the commissioner boasted.
Economists have warned that Russia’s labour shortage is so severe that it threatens to drag down its already flagging economy for years. . . .
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/06/04/russia-considers-working-age-12-to-solve-wartime-job-crisis/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_to-solve-wartime-job-crisis/
