PAPER CRAFTS IN SOVIET CHILDREN’S MAGAZINES AND CALENDARS: ON THE MATERIAL OF DETSKYI KALENDAR (“CHILDREN’S CALENDAR”) AND ZVEZDOCHKA (“STAR”)

Abstract

The subject of this study is paper handicrafts, which were offered as supplements to Soviet magazines and calendars for children. They are considered in the article as a phenomenon of Soviet mass culture in the context of the development of children’s creativity and play activities. Attention is paid to the constructors in the periodicals of the 1920s-1960s (“Murzilka”, “Det- skiy Kalendar” and “Zvezdochka”); their existence is linked to the ideas of personality building of a Soviet man, his general cultural development and socialization (including initiation to reading). In addition to forming the foundations of artistic and technical creativity and work culture, paper handicrafts solved the problem of a shortage of consumer goods, in particular toys.

The annual publication Detskyi Kalendar (“Children’s calendar”) for primary and secondary school age which was edited by methodologist Elizaveta Grozdova in the 1940s-1950s is discussed in detail. It was a part of a Soviet child’s reading circle and could offer its readers a variety of self-made paper models and designs. The publication Detskyi Kalendar (“Children’s calendar”) reflects the characteristic features of the development of artistic construction, namely the transition from creating a toy using an already existing blueprint, by analogy with self-made models of the pre-revolutionary period, to making a blueprint or one’s own model.

Keywords: hand-made toys, constructing, technical creativity, modeling, soviet childhood, Murzilka, Children’s calendar, Elizaveta Grozdova