Mythologem ‘Happy Soviet Childhood’ in a Children’s Portrait of the 1930s–1960s

Abstract

The article examines the process of the birth and development of the mythologem “happy soviet childhood” in a children’s pictorial portrait. The author identifies two stages: the 1930s and 1950s–1960s. In Stalin’s time, children’s images were depicted in the utopian world of a “bright future”. It was like the “paradise garden” in the “golden age”. Surrounded by natural abundance, small models looked at the world of “fathers” and served as educational models. After World War II, children’s images moved to the safe space of the house and family. Portrait painters emphasized the material well-being of Soviet childhood. Many toys and other children’s objects appear in the children’s portrait, the image of the children’s room is clearly drawn out. Paraphernalia served as markers of a “happy Soviet childhood” for portrait painters. It also addresses the problem of depicting the “disciplined” body of a Soviet child, the peculiarities of the interaction of the children’s image with the social and subject environment. The article notes that in the portrait artists allow themselves to depart from mythology, as they refuse to depict the ideologically significant theme of collective and collective work towards the dominance of the motive of the family, leisure and home holidays. This indicates the desire of portrait painters to show an individual beginning in the child as opposed to impersonal-social. Consequently, this mythology had a development dynamics.