Politicization and militarization of children’s leisure in Soviet Ukraine in 1929–1939

Abstract

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the process of politicization and militarization of children’s leisure in Soviet Ukraine in 1929–1939. The content of the transformation of traditional and creation of new forms of children’s leisure is revealed. The key concepts of ideological substantiation of the need to maximally fill the child’s free time with political and educational practices are identified. The evolution of the new tradition of club leisure and its filling with political content is analyzed. Forms of political and educational work with children in their free time have been reconstructed. The methods of involving children in the political campaigns of the Soviet government by filling the discourse of children’s leisure with the political and militaristic rhetoric are described. The mechanisms of introduction of the state control over such kinds of children’s leisure as reading, thanks to the formation of new children’s literature and creation of the system of propaganda of new work are investigated. It shows how a network of libraries was built into this system, which was tasked with organizing the work of forming a new mass reader. The process of involving children in the culture of the new Bolshevik holidays and its connection with the main tasks of the government in the field of education of conscious and loyal citizens is demonstrated. During the second half of the 1930s, at the initiative of the Ukrainian Soviet leadership, the Christmas tree was restored and transformed, which was filled with new ideological content and used to promote Bolshevik’s achievements and demon- strate the Communist Party’s concern for young citizens. The influence of the political situation on the development of the game sphere of children’s leisure is highlighted, and the power of the process of its militarization on the eve of the Second World War is emphasized. This applied to both mobile children’s games and board games, which were made according to the party’s tasks with an ideological load and included political games and military-themed games. Children’s toys were also modernized, including Christmas tree decorations and toys related to military equipment, military and political events, collective farm construction, and Soviet symbols were added to the traditional toy theme.