Soviet Children’s Literature – an Instrument of Educational Colonisation Cover Image

Literatura sovietică pentru copii – instrument de colonizare educațională
Soviet Children’s Literature – an Instrument of Educational Colonisation

Author(s): Cristian Serdeșniuc
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Romanian Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Institutul de Filologie Română „Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu”
Keywords: ideological colonization; homo sovieticus; children’s literature; proletcultism; the generation of the 1960s; national identity; censorship

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the role of Soviet children’s literature as an instrument of indoctrination in postwar Bessarabia. During the Stalinist period, writers were compelled to promote the model of homo sovieticus, along with themes such as the cult of personality, socialist labour, and the denial of national identity. Literature thus became a vehicle of propaganda, sacrificing aesthetic value in favour of ideology. However, after 1953, the Khrushchev Thaw allowed for a degree of liberalisation and the recovery of the Romanian classical tradition. This shift in paradigm was carried out by the generation of the 1960s, represented by authors such as Grigore Vieru and Aureliu Busuioc, who redefined the aesthetics of the genre by replacing rigid slogans with texts that emphasised authenticity and human values.

  • Issue Year: LXVIII/2026
  • Issue No: 1 (326)
  • Page Range: 133-142
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Romanian
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