What Were the Bolshevik Ideas About Childhood?

Russia – Childhood and Education, 1917-1953

In this course, Dr Elizabeth White (University of the West of England) discusses childhood and education in the early decades of the soviet Union, from the Revolution, through Stalin’s years. In the first lecture we explore Bolshevik ideology and theories around childhood, building on Marxism. In the second lecture we examine the early Bolshevik approach to education. In the third lecture we inquire into what life really looked like for children in the early Soviet Union in the face of a transformed political landscape, but also a world marked by war and famine. Fourth, we identify how conceptions of childhood shifted under Stalin. Finally, in the fifth lecture we look at education through the late 1920s to the early 1950s, as Stalin’s reforms transformed life and education for children across the USSR.

What Were the Bolshevik Ideas About Childhood?

In this lecture we think about the Bolshevik’s ideology about childhood, focussing on: (i) the aims of the Bolshevik Revolution, seeking to transform social life, including family structures and childhood; (ii) the introduction of progressive reforms like equal rights for all children and state-controlled education; (iii) although some radical ideas about abolishing the family were suggested, the focus remained on shaping children into future socialist citizens.