Item #274 [CIVIL WAR THROUGH CHILDREN’S EYES] Detskaia knizhka o svoiom: Kniga o sovetskoi detskoi zhizni napisannaia samimi det’mi [i.e. Children’s Book About Themselves: A Book About Children’s Life Written by Children]. A. F. Grinberg.
[CIVIL WAR THROUGH CHILDREN’S EYES] Detskaia knizhka o svoiom: Kniga o sovetskoi detskoi zhizni napisannaia samimi det’mi [i.e. Children’s Book About Themselves: A Book About Children’s Life Written by Children]
[CIVIL WAR THROUGH CHILDREN’S EYES] Detskaia knizhka o svoiom: Kniga o sovetskoi detskoi zhizni napisannaia samimi det’mi [i.e. Children’s Book About Themselves: A Book About Children’s Life Written by Children]

[CIVIL WAR THROUGH CHILDREN’S EYES] Detskaia knizhka o svoiom: Kniga o sovetskoi detskoi zhizni napisannaia samimi det’mi [i.e. Children’s Book About Themselves: A Book About Children’s Life Written by Children]

Item #274

Moscow: GMPT, 1925. 140, [3] pp., [2] maps. 17x13,5 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Near fine, slightly soiled.

Very rare.
This edition was compiled from stories written by children about themselves and their lives (slightly edited by the compiler). Most of these children were from orphanages. The compiler doesn’t give children’s names with one exception - a son of the famous Bolshevik Podvoisky (in his story he described his trip to Germany with his father).
In 1920s there was an increased interest in childhood, education, various experiments in this field. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and pedology (soon to be banned) were at the top at that point. On the other hand there was a definite need of a new system as the society broke free from the old world including way of raising children. Children of October were of a real interest as they were a complete new generation of a new value system and ideology. One more possible reason for such interest to children’s art in 1920s is that Russian avant-garde understood children’s literary creativity as self-valuable and equal to adult’s.

This book is an amazing evidence of the time and everything of the above. It was made when the fight with illiteracy was just in the beginning. But all these stories here were told, and everything verbal became important at that point. These are the real stories of real children survived during Civil War. Horrible stories are put into non heroic context. It’s a possibility that the idea of this compilation was to see how this childhood trauma affected these children (there was a clear interest to freudism and psychology as well). And maybe to look at this terrible context with such absolutely unbiased, not politicized eyes of children.
Very soon these stories will be told only in propaganda manner.

Worldcat locates no copies.

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