Constructing a Utopia about Soviet Childhood in La Littérature internationale

Abstract

This article expands existing studies of the institutional history of the La Littérature internationale magazine, the press organ of the International Organisation of Revolutionary Writers. The author analyses the second French issue from 1934 in comparison with similar English and German issue. The issue’s structure and themes are not typical of the literary-critical Marxist magazine, as it brings together literary and journalistic texts on children. Collections of this kind appeared in the magazine in all languages except Russian. This article aims to determine the place of the issue with the “children’s” selection in terms of the journal’s general concept. For the first time, La Littérature internationale is studied through the prism of a complex diachronic and synchronous comparative analysis of versions in different languages. The texts of the second French issue from 1934 is studied in detail because it contains the most material on children compared to other versions with “children” compilations. The analysis of the French texts shows some key themes, metaphors, and images used in the representation of Soviet childhood. The issue of La Littérature internationale is placed in the context of Soviet journalism of the 1930s in adult (Pravda) and children’s (Pionerskaya Pravda) periodicals. The research demonstrates that the set of agitational essays and interviews, positioned in the magazine as socio-cultural material about real Soviet childhood, is close to fiction written in the socialist utopia genre due to its genre and narrative features. By publishing this compilation in La Littérature internationale, the editors made the French version another showcase of Soviet propaganda for the Western French-speaking reader, where the main export product was the image of Soviet childhood. This research provides empirical support and development of some concepts worked out in the framework of Soviet studies on strategies for forming images of the USSR abroad and narratives about Soviet childhood.