ABSTRACT
Recently one of the oldest and most prestigious literary periodicals, Literaturnaia gazeta (Literary gazette), published a series of alarming articles by prominent children's authors, scholars, critics, and educators about the abysmal state of contemporary Russian children's literature. The discussion of this topic was initiated by the veteran author Sergei Mikhalkov (born in 1913), 2 who was an instrumental figure in establishing the institution of Soviet children's literature, saw its heyday, and in a sense, never retired from it. At the end of his career and on the ruins of the institution he helped build, Mikhalkov appealed to the state to help concerned authors and educators in their effort to restore a more central role of children's literature in the upbringing of future generations. 3
