Children’s stories written in Russian first appeared during the 18th century and replaced the folk tales that had until then been circulated orally. The first book about childhood, which laid the foundations for the development of classical Russian children’s literature, was Childhood by Lev Tolstoy, in which he described the life of a teenage Russian aristocrat. Despite the difficulties and disappointments the hero faces, childhood, as it is presented in this work, is the most beautiful and tranquil period in a person’s life.

However, this representation of childhood as a lost paradise quickly disappeared from the literary world. In Dostoyevsky’s stories, children are presented as pitiful pure spirited souls who pay the price for the cruelty and wickedness of adults. Chekhov also emphasizes suffering and sorrow in his characters of children. Maxim Gorky, in his novel My Childhood, viewed by critics as the antithesis of Tolstoy’s novel, rejected the nostalgic view of tranquil childhood. Gorky’s heroes suffer a range of trying experiences.

Childhood and how it is represented in Soviet literature acquires greater meaning after the Russian Revolution, because childhood is responsible for building the consciousness of the new Soviet citizen. Arkady Gaidar and Lev Kassil were talented authors who wrote during this period, a period that can be summarized as a return to the idealistic representation of childhood. At the beginning of the Soviet era, the genre of children’s literature was a shelter for many writers, where they could write freely without fear of government criticism.

At the end of the Perestroika and following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the nature of Russian children’s literature again changed. This period was characterized by a total change in the vision of childhood as a period of happiness and serenity. The best example of this is Pavel Sanaev’s They Buried me Behind the Baseboard, which describes adults as insensitive tyrants toward children

The course will focus on changes that occurred in Russian children’s literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will examine several topics, including the changes that occurred in the literary sphere and how these changes were connected to politics, economics, and society as well as the literary progress and the development of the art. The bibliography includes works by Lev Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, chapters from the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, novellas of Arkady Gaidar, Lev Kassil, and Pavel Sanaev as well as stories by Anton Chekhov, poems of Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, and Daniil Kharms.