Modern Russia emerged as a consequence of the geopolitical rupture of the system of legal relations that marked the dissolution of the USSR. The profound dismantling of a closed system of economic relations predetermined a period of social crises across the post-Soviet area, a natural outcome of which was the phenomenon of mass orphanhood. The adoption by the Russian Federation of internationally recognized principles for the protection of children led to the proclamation of a paradigm prioritizing family-based upbringing. The Soviet policy of all-encompassing institutional upbringing of children in the system of state agencies was substituted by the strategy aimed at deinstitutionalization of organizations for orphans and children deprived of parental care. The paper examines the evolution of legal approaches and the legislative framework ensuring the realization of children’s rights in the new legal and economic reality. It also identifies and characterizes specific contemporary forms of care for orphans and children without parental care at the current stage of Russia’s social development.