Russian Children’s Literature During the Cold War

During my first blog post I focused on the children’s literature that was accessible during the WWII Era in Germany under the lead of Adolph Hitler. I mentioned that me and my father had an interest in history, so I wanted to stick with that theme for my second blog post. Now, I will be focusing on the children’s literature that was created during the Cold War in Russia, so focusing on the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Cold War was a time for heavy propaganda and media outlets, so I was curious to see how this translated down to the literature that children were reading.

I came across an article in The Moscow Times by Ola Cichowlas titled, How a Group of Writers and Illustrators Revolutionized Children’s Books in Early Soviet Russia where Cichowlas visits a gallery dedicated to this topic. The article says, “Before the grey days of Stalin’s 1930s, early Soviet children’s literature was humorous, exotically illustrated and far less controlled by state censors than adult literature.” (Cichowlas). This was my first assumption before I began to research this topic. My next curiosity was how this began to transition during the cold war, and I think Cichowlas did a great job answering my question. In the article she notes, “Whereas pre-revolutionary Russian children’s literature focused on romantic fairy tales and toys, the 1920’s brought a new era of explainer books. The subjects became more complicated: stories were written about factories, gold mines and oil refineries.” She also says, “A significant part of the exhibition is dedicated to books that introduced children to urban life.” (Cichowlas). I thought this was a very interesting finding because it reminded me a lot of my first blog post where Hitler began to control what literature children had access to. Here, it seems that the Soviets were beginning to breed children to think in a certain way when they grow up, and have a certain respect for their country. I am glad that I chose to research this subject, along with my last blog post, because it really showed how a war or major historical event can affect the current literature and media that are available to our children.

Works Cited

“How A Group of Writers and Illustrators Revolutionized Children’s Books in Early Soviet Russia.” The Moscow Times, The Moscow Times, 28 Jan. 2017, themoscowtimes.com/articles/how-a-group-of-writers-and-illustrators-revolutionized-childrens-books-in-early-soviet-russia-56960.