The increase of the social group of war invalids during World War I raised many questions and suggestions about possible ways to support them. In previous periods, the problem of the loss of the ability to self-sustain was solved by placing an invalid in an orphanage and providing charitable assistance. In the conditions of the new war, this was not possible – the shortage of allowable pensions and the absence of a state rehabilitation system prompted concerned public figures to debate. Modern historiography of this topic focuses on the state and public organizers of social assistance and implemented acts of aid, with little attention paid to public discussions on this issue. Based on periodicals and publicist literature, this article reconstructs the social status of military invalids, created in these sources. Apparently, Russian society's perception of the military disabled was influenced by many factors, including the dream of a welfare state and ideas about the relationship between state and public initiative in social policy. This social imagination influenced assistance decisions, postulating the general public as an important actor in their formulation. Through the case of the maimed warriors, one can see the construction of an organized progressive public that was able to assert itself in the patriotic mobilization of the First World War. This context was perceived by imperial public figures as a space for the realization of their abilities and the implementation of modernization projects in the framework of progressivism.
First World War; Russian Empire; war invalids; general public; publicist literature; charity; social policy.