Small Comrades: Revolutionizing Childhood in Soviet Russia, 1917-1932

by Kirschenbaum,Lisa A.

• ISBN13: 9780815339458
• ISBN10: 0815339453
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-12-08
• Publisher: RoutledgeFalmer

Summary

Small Comradesis a fascinating examination of Soviet conceptions of childhood and the resulting policies directed toward children. Working on the assumption that cultural representations and self-representations are not entirely separable, this book probes how the Soviet regime's representations structured teachers' observations of their pupils and often adults' recollections of their childhood. The book draws on work that has been done on Soviet schooling, and focuses specifically on the development of curricula and institutions, but it also examines the wider context of the relationship between the family and the state, and to the Bolshevik vision of the "children of October"

Author Biography

Lisa A. Kirschenbaum is an Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	vi
Acknowledgments	vii
Series Preface	ix
Introduction: Real and Imagined Children	1	(7)
Part One: The Kindergarten and the Revolutionary Tradition in Russia
Pedagogy and Politics	8	(26)
Part Two: The Children of October and the Civil War
``Save the Children''	34	(16)
The Family as Fiction	50	(13)
The Nature of Childhood	63	(26)
Part Three: Rethinking Revolution and Childhood, 1921--1932
The Withering Away of the Kindergarten	89	(15)
Rescripting Childhood	104	(29)
``Thank You, Comrade Stalin, for Our Happy Childhood''	133	(27)
Conclusion: Revolution and the Rising Generation	160	(5)
Postscript: Three Childhoods	165	(16)
Notes	181	(35)
Bibliography	216	(9)
Index	225