BROADCASTING FOR CHILDREN ON LENINGRAD RADIO IN THE 1930S

Abstract

Mass radio broadcasting, which emerged in the early years of Soviet power, was established with two principal aims: the rapid exchange of informa- tion and the dissemination of the new ideology and authority. Gradually expanding not only geographically but also by attracting new categories of listeners, radio became an important medium for communication with chil- dren. The creation of content focused on audio imagery required greater inventiveness from its producers, as well as new approaches to evaluating and selecting material based on criteria such as musicality, volume, genre, airtime, plot, dynamics, and other characteristics. Children’s broadcasting was expected to be more creative than anything designed for adult audiences. In the 1920s and 1930s, the development of radio programs for children was discussed at various levels — from decrees and resolutions of the Soviet government to the publications of the Society of Friends of Radio and local radio clubs. Recommendations, critical articles, and thematic collections on the organization of children’s broadcasting and the selection of suitable con- tent became widespread. Drawing on published children’s radio schedules, critical essays, methodological materials, archival sources, and documents of the All-Union Radio Committee on the radiofication and broadcasting of the USSR, this study seeks to reconstruct the activities of the Leningrad Radio editorial office for children’s broadcasting in its formative years and to recreate the repertoire of regional children’s radio programs.