ABSTRACT
Soviet literature in general and Soviet children’s literature in particular have often been labeled by Western and post-Soviet Russian scholars and critics as propaganda. Below the surface, however, Soviet children’s literature and culture allowed its creators greater experimental and creative freedom than did the socialist realist culture for adults. This volume explores the importance of children’s culture, from literature to comics to theater to film, in the formation of Soviet social identity and in connection with broader Russian culture, history, and society.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |39 pages
Introduction: Reading Soviet and Post-Soviet Children's Culture—Contexts and Challenges
chapter 2|22 pages
From Character-Building to Criminal Pursuits
part 1|85 pages
Ideology, Literature, and Culture: Genres, Themes, and Issues
chapter 4|24 pages
Between Sputnik and Gagarin
part 2|87 pages
Popular Children's Entertainment
chapter 7|24 pages
Arresting Development
chapter 10|22 pages
“Nice, Instructive Stories Their Psychology Can Grasp”
part 3|127 pages
Authors and Texts