Formation of Institutional Image of Childhood in Recent History of Russian Society

Abstract

The results of comparative-historical study of the content of the normative image of childhood that emerged in the Soviet Union and modern Russia are presented. It is established that the beginning of historically inextricably linked process of creating a single standard of childhood began in 1920s. It was the first time in our country when the task of creating a perfect image of childhood, which had to guide the adults responsible for the upbringing of future citizens of a new society, was set. Special attention is paid to such means of mass education and the psychological impact, as a poster, allowing to overcome the limits of the information space, the low level of literacy and social culture of general population. It is emphasized that the analysis of the poster is an important method of research in the framework of the comparative-historical approach based on verbal and nonverbal means of expressiveness. It is shown that the reflection of the ideas of motherhood and childhood in the Soviet poster allows to reconstruct the history of formation of the institutional image of childhood, determined by social, economic and ideological objectives of the Soviet state. Deep political and socio-economic changes that occurred in the country in 1990s, made some adjustments to the institutional image of childhood, freeing it from ideology and suggesting alternative approaches to training and education of children. It is noted that in contemporary Russia once again is growing the trend towards unification of the system of education and the development of guidelines of socially desirable image of childhood, fixed in Federal state education standard.