ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Lazar Lagin's novel Starik Hottabych, in which the perfect child character is joined by an imperfect adult character, who symbolically takes the role of the child in the story. It explores the relation between the figures of the perfect child and an imperfect adult in Lagin's story and consider the subversive potential of the text. In Lazar Lagin's novel The Old Man Hottabych, the impossibility of character education for a perfect child is circumvented by introducing alongside the child an adult character, who takes the role of the child in the story. The book was immensely popular in the Soviet Union and is still considered a beloved children's classic. Volka is a perfect example of a Stalinist-era model child, for whom, as Catriona Kelly describes, minor indiscipline was allowed as long as it 'could be seen as a manifestation of harmless mischief, rather than of social subversion'.
