Little Subjects of a Big Empire: Identity Legacy in Childhood Recollections in Twentieth-Century Soviet Literature

• In Event: Soviet Multinational Literature: Between Identity Politics and the Discourse of Empire

Abstract

Memories of childhood in Russian-language literature during the Soviet era were influenced by two dominant models: Tolstoy's portrayal of "a happy childhood" and the model of "a difficult and unhappy childhood" that emerged under the influence of Maxim Gorky's recollections. Soviet childhood occupied the prevalent narrative of childhood happiness, while conversely, a childhood entirely of deprivation shifted toward depictions of prerevolutionary childhood with all its struggles for survival. This portrayal of a challenging childhood had a long history, initially appearing in children's literature before Gorky's memoirs in the stories and novels of nineteenth-century liberal writers, who depicted children from the periphery of the Empire suffering under harsh conditions of social and ethnic inequality.
In Soviet children's literature, the binary model constantly broke down, mainly due to childhood memories spent on the Empire's periphery. The authors' focus of these recollections, while certainly paying tribute to the Soviet paradigm, was still concentrated on the story of the national peculiarities of their childhood, including colorful descriptions of food, everyday life, games, and the exploration of distinctive relationships within the family. In such a context, ethnography took precedence over ideology, and attention on national history allowed writers to sidestep the obligatory theme of collective and politically correct upbringing. To illustrate these dynamics, I intend to analyze such works as Childhood by the Georgian writer Akaki Tsereteli (1962), Chik's Childhood by Abkhaz writer Fazil Iskander (1971), and Lord of the Winds by Chukchi writer Yuri Rytkheu (1968).

Author

• Marina Balina, Illinois Wesleyan U