ABSTRACT
In her discussion of Soviet educational policies, Catriona Kelly (2006) noted, “Bolsheviks’ determination to … construct a radically different new society meant that, from the first … children were pushed to the forefront of ideological discussion.” 2 Leaders of the Russian revolution viewed Soviet cinema as an essential tool of education and propaganda for the illiterate masses, above all, children. Moreover, infantilization of the masses was part and parcel of the regime's myth of the future utopia. As Evgenii Margolit (2002) contended, Soviet children's cinema articulated the ideal community of the future as a land of children with the government as the people's authoritarian father. In this respect, cinema for children always attempted not only to embrace its intended audience of children but also to engage the entire movie-going audience of the Soviet Union. To enter the future, the new Soviet man had to accede to a state of eternal infancy. To watch children's cinema was presumably a sure path to such an ideological transformation.
