Children and de-Stalinization Policies: Narratives about Stalinism in the Pioneer Magazine, 1985-1995

Abstract

This article, based on materials from the magazine ‘Pioneer’ (with additionaldata from the Koster and the Tramway magazines), looks at narrative transformationsin the representation of the totalitarian past and the Stalinist purges,specifically with regards writing published for children between 1985 and 1995.This starts with the emergence of the first texts on the subject to their peakof popularity, culminating with the gradual fall of interest in this theme. Theauthor draws on the cultural memory conception of Aleida Assmann. Accordingto the author’s findings, one of the key reasons for the disappearance of thenarratives about Stalinism in Russian children’s magazines had been the lack ofa clear and attractive narrative model, adapted for children, that could representthe memory of Stalinist repressions. Narratives about Stalinism were clearlyless suitable for didactic storytelling than narratives about ancient epochs. Thatis why, following a surge of interest, articles about the repressions soon disappearedfrom the magazine’s pages.