“For example to all pioneers”: the theme of travel in a picture book of the 1920s

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider a little-studied layer of domestic children’s literature: picture books of the 1920s-early 1930s, related to the theme of travel, using mainly book — study, as well as art, philological,
source-study methods. Analyzing the samples of publications of this kind, the author reveals the most characteristic plot schemes, genre cliches, typical images, design techniques. Children’s travelogues of those years can be
divided into three thematic groups. The first includes improbable, but fascinating stories about the adventures of Soviet pioneers abroad, about  their exploits in the name of the world revolution and the liberation of oppressed peoples. In works of this type, fairy-tale motifs are especially common, the propaganda principle prevails over the educational one, the artist, as a rule, has time to tell the child about the life of other countries more than the writer. The second group consists of books about the pilgrimage of disadvantaged foreign children in the USSR. Fantastic assumptions are also often used here, the differences between the two worlds being emphasized by both literary and graphic means. In the publications of the third group devoted to the trips of Soviet children in their native country, the image of the child-traveler often becomes passive and impersonal, the text is reduced to a minimum, and the main narrative functions are transferred to the artist. Although children’s travelogues of the 1920s-early 1930s are for the most part far from artistic perfection, they are of undoubted interest for research, because they contain a variety of visual interpretations of formulaic subjects, are a valuable source for the study of mythology, social psychology, book culture of the post-revolutionary era.

Keywords: children’s book, picture book, travelogue, pioneer movement, international education, illustration, graphics