THE SOVIET CHILD

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1932, Page 7

THE SOVIET CHILD

The production of children's books in the Soviet Union vies in quantity v/ith the proposed production under tho Five-year Plan of coal, oil, aiid tractors. There arc as yet no shock brigaders in the book profession, and perhaps no Socialist competition, but the best illustrators and artists arc used both for the text and illustrations and the musical settings of children's songs, says a writer in the "Manchester Guardian." A friend who was taken to an artist's studio in Leningrad and found it large, clean, and comfortably furnished, with sketches of still-life and nudes on the walls, could not imagine what this man lived on. "He doesn't seem to have any connection with the Revolution," she said, "I saw no evidence of posters or any kind of 'practical' work in his studio." Then she mentioned his name, and I recognised it as that of one of the most prolific illustrators of children's,book's..•"' Children's books ; (like books for adults) are almost always bound in paper covers and are extremely cheap. Tho average price is around fifteen or twenty kopecks, but many are only ten or.five kopecks. They aro ritlily illustrated in colour or■, with photographs or pen and ink sketches. Production never flags; every 'month-a new sheaf appears.' -..-.- _ Books are sold not only in every shop of the Gossesdat and Dietskydat "(State Publishing House and Children's State Publishing House) but also in the many kiosks dotted about the streets that sell newspapers, magazines, and/- occasionally, "stationery." There, is a. great shortage of paper in\the,X7nion, and the quality of all'stationery supplies: is.still poor. The books are bought so fast that practically no children'sboqks xoi .earlier years can be had this year, aiid even this year's. best ; are already ,; out of print. And this, aithpugli they are printed in, editions of many thousands. ■■'; .'-':'■■ NO "TOO YOUNG." Host children take their reading into their own hands, and insist that. their parents bring tticni' homeithe new books: "Myjboys,?' a father of a'six'and- an eight-year-old told me, •ff ask for. ; at least eight to ten new books every, week;; and nothing will, put rthcia off. "Children take their new position—given them by the Revolution—of \ young-adults very seriously in this country;.: Everything and everybody- (except perhaps a .tired or_ former "bourgeois" mother) conspires to have them know all about what.is going on in the country. :"When a little girl of seven daked to have the political cartoon in "Pravda" explained, and her mother told her. she was too young ,to understand, , she' replied: "There is no 'too young.' A -childcan understand everything if you will only explain it in .terms that it can.understand." ; ' . " ■ . . ■

The books for.children foster-such knowledge. Even for the;tiny ones for whom pictures without, words areiprint-

Ed, such pictures may bear on the life of to-day—illustrating Bed army parades, the.new buildings of Moscow, the Park of Culture and Kest. There are also, however,. very charming picture books of animals, flowers, boats, or circuses,/which, seem: to have no visible connection with Socialist: construction. (One cannot -.be sure, '. however; the .book oh Moscow's buildings, for instance, which, is in cardboaid and opens out';'has on one side.only, the new workers' blocksj and very attractive they are, drawn in child-style by'Chiffrine.) Many, such picture books are serials; one called ''Milk-factory" starts from the individual cow standing alone and forlorn in a field and ends with great lorries hurrying in every direction from the collective dairy to workers' homes. REVOLUTIONARY BOOKS. As soon as a child, can read there are books on every aspect of the life of to-day for it,''historical, geographical, military, economic, political. World events appear reflected in : children'a picture-books almost as soon as reported by " Pravda." Thus the newest book gives the story of Amundsen, with a shadowy portrait of the explorer on the cover; the book is seen in stacks everywhere, while the ice-breaker Malygin, in Arctic waters and- withK"obile on board, is searching for traces of the lost hero. • '" ' . The headings in the catalogue o£ the "Hundred Best-Books for Children" show -what subjects they deal with. Social and revolutionary books, science, production, and Socialist construction— among which, appear such.,titles as "From Rubber to .Galoshes,""Five-, year Plan," "How : a "Tool made a 1 Tool," International, Children 's "Way of Life,' Nature, Games arid Behaviour, Humorous Books. There are ■innumerable books-about Lenin,- his childhood, his youth, how he spent his leisure, and' these are really adored/ by the children.' They .seem1 to,have quite a special and personal adoration for-the founder of the first Soviet Republic; it is not at all the dry and perfunctory homage paid by most children to their national heroes, and' indeed, in these books he appears as a very human and lovable person. . -.-'."' NO FAIRY TALES. Most attractive are the international books with their- brightly coloured '' brothers'' — little negro : babies, Chinese, Indian, and white children of all nations. These are all shown at slave labour, negroes hauling heavy loads on their backs, Indians picking cotton with a martinet with folded arms watching over them, little Chinese girls dully spinning, and so on; and all ond with a: Red Star'on their helmets or working side by side in the factories at last owned by' themselves. Children's/writers who still persist in writing meaningless tales about donkeys or absent-minded gentlemen who forget to put on their waistcoats are considered "counter-revolutionary" and looked on with disfavour. The children themselves are no longer interested in such books. "Bring me home something on Dnieperstroy, Turksib, or peat or oil," the child will ask, "I want to know what is going -'on:'" My little.<girl friend of seven is honestly bored by

fairy-tales. "But what does he write those things for?" she asks. ""What does it mean?" Fairy-tales are not to be bought in the shops. At least, not the fairy-tales <f the "good old days." ,To-day Tovarish coal, Piatilctka, and the adventures of aeroplane,-Zeppelin, crane, and tractor have taken the place of the princess on the pea and the broad bean that burst. The Soviet child, though , -joyous and laughing, is made fully aware of the tasks that await him and the rolo he is going to play in building his country.