The Theme of the Revolution in the Children’s Books of the 1920-ies

Reflection of the events of the October Revolution of 1917 in the domestic publications for children in the 1920-ies — early 1930-ies is a very significant and interesting, but insufficiently studied topic. This theme had been mainly explored from the standpoint of literary analysis, without considering peculiarities of the crucial component of the books graphics. In the article there is made an attempt to analyse mainly from the bibliological and art critical point of view a number of editions, directly or indirectly related to the theme of Revolution, to consider stylistic features of their external design, to identify the most typical art techniques used by illustrators of those years. The considered period is interesting because there were no ready-made models to emulate for the writers and artists, there were no rigid canons of the “Revolutionary children book”; the most important topic from the point of view of Soviet ideology had been mastered by trial-and-error method. In the mid-1920-ies, writers and graphic artists preferred the allegorical, fairy-tale interpretations of the Revolution theme: in the illustrative cycles of such different masters, as M.V. Dobuzhinsky, B.V. Joganson, D.A. Bulanov, V.S. Tvardovsky, the victorious revolts were committed in a fantastic country, in the kingdom of toys or in the world of animals. Rather unsuccessful should be recognized the experience of graphical interpretation of revolutionary themes with the use of heavy-weight allegories; much more convincing, though not undisputed, was the method of describing the class battles from the point of view of a child. In publications of the early 1930-ies, all sorts of allegory give way to the direct access to the historical events of 1917; however, the graphical language of the books remains conditional. In the works of A.I. Poret, P.M. Kondratyev, B.I. Inozemtsev, N.V. Svinenko, the epic scale of the Revolution is emphasized with the use of unexpected lines of sight, bold spatial solutions; and primitive style is often synthesized with the techniques of avant-garde art. Using different strategies of mythologization and poetization of the Revolution, illustrators were successfully resolving the problem of not only political, but also aesthetic education of the younger generation.

book Graphics, Children’s Literature, Fairy Tale, Allegory, October Revolution of 1917, M.V. Dobuzhinsky, B.V. Joganson, A.I. Poret, D.A. Bulanov, V.S. Tvardovsky, P.M. Kondratyev

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