[AL160]

Certainly tried! About a month spent in an Internet directory . I found nothing ! Approached from a historical point of view ... appear to correspond to the period of Russian- Turkish war of 1828-1829. Just before the first mass action of workers and sailors of Sevastopol against the authorities in 1830 . In Sevastopol, at the time there were about 30 thousand inhabitants. The bulk of the population was made up by the military. Brutal drill, cane discipline , overwork , malnutrition , beatings, imprisonment in solitary confinement , shackling - it was common for sailors and soldiers. Was not in the best position of the working people . The government followed a policy aimed at the free and unimpeded trade in foreign and local merchants. Accordingly, the situation of children was unimaginably worse. I think, begging child at the time was the usual pattern of Sevastopol.
Maybe Kurt Melech a pseudonym, though , it was a military ...

Added after 3 minutes 32 minutes
Boris Cohn, Thanks for the info!