The Image of the Soviet Family on the Pages of the Magazine “Family and School” (1946–1964)

Abstract

The article actualizes the historical experience of the formation of the image of the Soviet family as a tool of educational practices. The purpose of the article is to show the ways and techniques of forming the image of the Soviet family accordingly to the analysis of articles published in the magazine “Semiya i Shkola” (“Family and School”) in 1946-1964 (time period from the beginning of the magazine’s second edition, which coincided with the first post-war years, to the end of the thaw period in the USSR). Methodology. Considering the problem of the family as a subject of education in a historical and cultural retrospective, the authors are based on historical and cultural, subject and socio-pedagogical approaches. The work uses a set of theoretical research methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization, analogy, interpretation, concretization). The conclusion is that the formation and presentation of the image of the Soviet family was a separate direction of the editorial policy of the journal “Family and School” in 1946-1964, while constructing a holistic, accessible and attractive image of the family, causing respect and desire of Soviet citizens to comply with it. The main directions and methods of forming the image of Soviet family in wide public opinion included levelling the image of bourgeois family with parallel idealization of Soviet family; forming respect to the image of Soviet family through positive images of families of famous revolutionary Bolsheviks; generation in mass consciousness of necessary stable qualities of Soviet family on the example of working and peasant families; strengthening the ideology of dominating public education over family through active interaction of school and family Among the actively used techniques for forming an image of the Soviet family were contrasting; accentuation; comparison; emotional pressure; priority of positive information about the Soviet family over negative, critical information; extensive reference to the example of both famous families and families of ordinary citizens; reliance on the normative image of the Soviet family; description of the experience of interaction between family and school, family readiness for interaction, cooperation. The image of the Soviet family emphasized such characteristics as social orientation and activity, industriousness, a subjective position in bringing up children, the personal development of the spouses, and readiness to cooperate with the school and children’s public organization that were welcomed in society.