Visual image of "happy childhood" in the newspaper "Kazakhstanskaya pravda" (1960 s)

Abstract

Introduction. This study analyzes visual sources on Soviet childhood, placed in the periodical "Kazakhstanskaya Pravda". This topic has not been covered in the national historiography. The content of the periodical in the field of childhood is analyzed for the first time. For a long period, the newspaper was the main daily printed mass media of the Communist Party at the republican level, reflecting the state policy. The research was carried out in the context of visual anthropology. Through the analysis of visual content the mechanisms and technologies of formation of the Soviet identity of the new younger generation are revealed. Visual sources, expressed mainly by photographs, presented children in the format of "happy Soviet childhood". The newspaper "Kazakhstanskaya Pravda" necessarily touched upon children's topics timed to dates: New Year and New Year vacations, International Children's Day, Knowledge Day, etc. As a rule, these articles were accompanied by photographs serving both informative and propaganda functions. Children and accompanying adults on the photographs were the embodiment of the Soviet image. Visual children content placed in the main republican newspaper demonstrated not the existing reality, but the desired one, thus constructing social expectations.