Fir Trees and Samovars: Literature for Russian Children in the Post-Revolutionary Moment

Abstract

This section continues with Sara Pankenier Weld’s article on “Fir Trees and Samovars: Literature for Russian Children in the Post-Revolutionary Moment”. The author discusses the very first children’s books that were published after the revolutionary events of 1917; the Christmas Tree collection of January 1918 provided Russian children with reading materials in the post-revolutionary moment and preserves many elements of the unique times in which it was created. After examining the uneasy coexistence of discordant
influences and times evident within the volume, as well as discussing revolutionary themes in the collection, this article focuses particularly on Maxim Gorky’s Samovar, which reads as a revolutionary allegory that revisits pre- and post-revolutionary moments and their reverberations.