Mediatization of Soviet Cultural Patterns in Soviet Print Media for Children: Analytical Review

Abstract

This paper provides a review of contemporary literature (both by Russian and foreign researchers) on Soviet children print media. The project constructed the model of Soviet society in the 1970–1980s presented in the Soviet children print media of that period. The authors discuss the existing approaches to Soviet media practices with a focus on the potential for their own research. The basic assumption for the review is admitting the process of reading as an essential social practice in the USSR, supported by both the government and citizens. A large part of the reading population was young generation who became a target audience of education policies implemented by the Soviet mass media. The authors distinguished between three groups of literature sources: 1) studies that analyzed Soviet culture policies and creation of “the new citizen/man”; 2) studies that focused on the development of central (all-Soviet) and regional mass media from 1917 to 1980-s. This group considers children print media as a functionally separate subtype of the Soviet mass media; 3) studies that examined the representations of Soviet political and social models in children mass media. The findings revealed that the problem under scrutiny proves important and highly attractive for scholars with a particular emphasis on two interrelated aspects of children’s media — promoting universal axiological guidelines for a younger generation as well as being an instrument of propaganda. In conclusion, the authors identified their research niche area as finding out discursive mechanisms (linguistic, semiotic and strategic) as lying in the foundation of ideologically motivated and non- ideological representations of the Soviet society.