Ukrainian Childhood and Soviet Rule Reconsidered

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable will deliberate new directions in the representation and interpretation of Soviet childhood. It will engage the ongoing effort to decolonize the field of Soviet history, which has often presented a Russian childhood as the default. The panel will examine how national and local considerations impacted Soviet youth and social welfare policy in Ukraine, as well as children’s experiences and perspectives. Of primary concern will be the role that the Communist Party and the Soviet state played in the raising of children and defining gendered expectations of public support. It will investigate the tension between the promise of children’s “liberation” and a frequent praxis of control and coercion. The panel will pay special attention to the Young Pioneers, Soviet political education in kindergartens, conventional schools, Pioneer Palaces, summer camps, and orphanages, in addition to the complex relationship between the Soviet state, employers, and parents/mothers. Lastly, the speakers will debate methodological approaches to the history of childhood, including the relative value of literary and performance studies, archival sources, memoirs and diaries, and oral testimonies.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Matthew Pauly, Michigan State U

Roundtable Members

• Matthew Pauly, Michigan State U

• Iuliia Skubytska, Princeton U

• Maria Sonevytsky, Bard College