The Pedagogy of Images: Depicting Communism for Children ed. by Serguei Oushakine and Marina Balina (review)

Reviewed by: The Pedagogy of Images: Depicting Communism for Children ed. by Serguei Oushakine and Marina Balina E. Susanna Weygandt Oushakine, Serguei and Balina, Marina (eds). The Pedagogy of Images: Depicting Communism for Children. Studies in Book and Print Culture. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, ON, Buffalo, NY and London, 2021. xx + 546 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. $100.00 (hardcover, paperback & e-book). A resource for scholars of art history, history and literature, as well as students in courses of modernist literature and culture, this volume illuminates Soviet children’s literature that was written and illustrated to teach a young generation about Communism. It features stories published in the 1920s and 1930s that were written by poets of the Soviet avant-garde, such as Daniil Kharms and Vladimir Maiakovskii, and illustrated by artists who were skilled in the trademark techniques of Constructivism, Primitivism and Cubism, which in themselves can therefore be considered works of art. Lenin’s importation of Communism to Russia was enlightening for the social sphere in various ways. In addition to creating class consciousness and supporting the working class, women could and were encouraged to create an identity outside of the home, supported by massive literacy campaigns. The editors’ introduction examines the historical and social significance of such publications as Igra i trud (Play and Work, 1924) by K. Sokolov, a reading manual for pre-school and elementary-school children that, through its images and text, emphasized the importance of literacy and in a way that those who could still not read could understand that eventual literacy was essential for adulthood and for finding one’s place in the Soviet Union. Even in circumstances of dire poverty following World War One, the Revolution and Civil War, the Soviet state invested in literary production, launching mass newspapers and magazines and, within two decades, building libraries and reading clubs. While a limited number of private presses continued to operate, the major state presses for Soviet children’s literature were Molodaia gvardiia (Young Guard) which ran from 1933 until 1989, and Gosizdat, established in 1919 as the government’s consolidation of book production. A children’s division (detskaia sektsiia) within Gosizdat was directed by Samuil Marshak (1887–1964). As Marshak would explain to other editors, ‘children expect help from their literature, they expect encouragement and scientific and everyday facts that would affirm in them a new, still-forming worldview’ (p. 10). Also noteworthy in the dissemination of children’s literature was Kornei Chukovskii (1882–1969), who first ran a children’s literature studio in Petrograd, in addition to working as a writer, translator and editor. His feel for poetry and rhyme was perfectly situated to the goal of bringing young generations into the world of literature. Chukovskii once wrote: ‘In verses for children, […] melodic quality and rhythm should generate the effect of a quick dance tune, a ‘jig’ (pliaska), [End Page 369] while the graphic aspect of the verses should appeal to the imagistic tendences of children’s perception’ (p. 11). Aesthetic approaches were practised and developed in text layouts, illustrations and depicted objects in the genre of Soviet children’s literature. The essence of Soviet modernity could be found on the pages of these children’s stories, for instance, in Iunost́, idi! (Youth, Go!), an early Soviet motivational manual on how to become an exceptional worker and efficient manager. This book and previous works by its author, A. Gastev, were dedicated to the theme of labour. Permeating the images were all the elements of Constructivism: physicality, dynamic movement and workaday functionality. Its illustrations, and the slogans that accompanied them, were intended to inspire Soviet youth to become the leaders of the Soviet future by training their bodies and minds to function like high-performance machines. In the centre of the cover is a physically fit young man, dressed in utilitarian working clothes, the type designed by the Constructivist leader Vladimir Tatlin in the early 1920s, and often worn by Aleksandr Rodchenko. The book was published by the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (VTsSPS), and for this book the VTsSPS commissioned drawings from artists working in leading avant-garde styles such as Cubo-Futurism and Constructivism...

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