Blog Post: Children’s Literature in the Soviet Union as Propaganda

For my second blog post, I would like to focus on the topic of how the Soviet Union utilized children’s literature as propaganda while enforcing Stalin’s rule in the early to mid-20th century. In an effort to indoctrinate children into believing the Soviet ideologies, the children’s books were often censored by the government. If the books were not, then the authors, who were either forced into exile or executed for writing books that deviated from the Soviet doctrine (Burgess, 2017). The importance of influencing the children with books was recognized as writer Lew Kormchy described: “In the great arsenal used by the bourgeoisie to fight against Socialsim, children’s books occupied a prominent role. In choosing our cannons and weapons, we have overlooked those that spread poison. We must seize this ammunition from the enemy hands” (Lewycka, 2013). In week 5 of our class, we discussed the different version of fairy tales. It was mentioned that the Nazis had altered the canon fairy tales to insert Christian ideals and anti-Semitism to guide their children’s thinking (Greenspan, 2013). The Soviets did a similar thing by changing the thematic elements of their books. In one o the books written at the time, “The Tale of the Military Secret – In Which a Little Boy Keeps a Big Secret and Saves the Communist Motherland, an orphan reveals a traitor, is captured by the bourgeoisie, and refused to reveal military secret that would have compromised the Red Army. However, there is no happy ending since the orphan is killed in the end (Lewycka, 2013). This children’s book shows that the Soviet Union wanted to stress that an individual should place the greater good above themselves, a part of Stalin’s plan.

Recovering from a World War, it is easy to see why Stalin would have advocated for such a push to brainwash the children using their literature. After all it was his plan to “train them as future propagandists of Lenin’s materialistic and criminal doctrine” (Lewycka, 2013). However, this serves as a reminder of the past, present, and future to be wary in what we see. It can be mitigated by allowing for diversity, as we have for children’s literature in the United States.

Works Cited

Burgess, A. “The Artful Propaganda of Soviet Children’s Literature.” Altas Obscura, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soviet-childrens-books-propaganda

Greenspan, Jesse. “The Dark Side of the Grimm Fairy Tales.” The History Channel. 2013. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/the-dark-side-of-the-grimm-fairy-tales

Lewycka, M. “Inside the Rainbow: how Soviet Russia tried to reinvent fairytales.” Financial Times, 2013. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/fdaa6fc4-2523-11e3-9dcc-00144feab7de