A barbaric country or a police kingdom: a negative image of Russia in the children’s literature of Great Britain of the late 19th – the early 20th century

Abstract

In the children’s literature of Great Britain in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, during its greatest heyday, also known as the “golden age of children’s literature,” is forming a negative myth about Russia. Initially, Russia appears to be a country of barbarians, murderers and thugs, later – as a “police state”, a country of jails, cold dungeons, political prisoners, where injustice rules, a tyrant triumphs, and truth is trampled and suppressed. In our article we will try to trace the genesis of this myth, the history of its development, the main works in which it appears – and the possible tendencies of its further existence. It is obvious, that the children’s literature forms the reader’s consciousness in its early stages, and therefore the emergence of a pronounced – and even more negative – myth can have significant consequences and a colossal impact on the further way of thinking and perception of the reading audience.