This article explores the role preschools played in state politics aimed at the family in Soviet Russia. The study is inspired by Foucault’s theory on governmentality and is based on an analysis of Doshkolnoe vospitanie, the largest Soviet magazine on preschool education. This article shows that Soviet children were analyzed scientifically and that parents in Soviet Russia were not freed from the responsibilities of bringing up and educating their children. The central function of preschools was to remind the parents of their responsibilities and to control their performance of them.
Ann-Katrin Hatje, "Private and Public Welfare: Sweden’s Child Day-Care in Comparative Perspective," in Civil Society in the Baltic Sea Region, ed. N. Götz and J. Hackmann, (Surrey: Ashgate , 2003), 119-32, 124.
2.
Adelaida Simonovich , ‘‘K istorii detskogo sada,’’1 sentiabria, (2005 N 2 and N 3), first published in Vestnik vospitaniia, 1896, http://dob.1september.ru/2005/02/4.htm,http://dob.1september.ru/articlef.php?ID=200500304.
3.
Soo-Hyang Choi, ‘‘Early Childhood Care? Development? Education?,’’ UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood (N 1, March 2002), http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137337e.pdf.
4.
I. A. Kurganov, Zhenszhiny y kommunism (New York 1968); Tatizna Teplova, ‘‘Welfare State Transformation, Childcare, and Women’s Work in Russia,’’ Social Politics (Fall 2007); Zhanna Chernova, Semeinaia politika v Evrope i Rossii: gendernyi analiz (St. Petersburg: Norma, 2008); Zhanna Kravchenko, Family (versus) Policy. Combining Work and Care in Russia and Sweden (Stockholm University, 2008).
5.
Graham Burchell , Colin Gordon and Peter Miller, The Foucault Effect. Studies in Governmentality ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 2.
6.
Kennet Hultqvist , ‘‘Changing rationales for governing the child. A historical perspective on the construction of the child in two institutional contexts-The school and the preschool,’’Childhood, (1997, N 4), 406.
7.
Thomas S. Popkewitz, "Governing the child and pedagogicalization of the parent. A historical excursus into the present." In Governing children, families, and education, ed. M. Bloch, K. Holmlund, I. Moqvist, and T. Popkewitz, (Hampshire : Palgrave, 2003), 55.
8.
In spite of the frequent assumption about a fully controlled Soviet society, scholars of the subject (Stephen Kotkin, Lewis Siegelbaum, and Andrei Sokolov) or specific topics like fashion (Jukka Gronow and Sergei Zhuravlev; or childcare by Jean Ispa) have shown a considerable range of actions available to experts or those in managerial positions; Stephen Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); Lewis Siegelbaum and Andrei Sokolov, Stalinism as a Way of Life. A Narrative in Documents (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000); Jukka Gronow and Sergei Zhuravlev, ‘‘Krasota pod kontrolem gosudarstva: osobennosti i etapy stanovlebnia sovetskoi mody,’’ The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review (vol., 32, N 1, 2005); Jean Ispa, Child Care in Russia: In Transition (Westport and London. Bergin & Garvey, 1994), 21-28.
9.
For example, articles about education written by L. Ostrovskaia can be found in issues published between 1969 and 1986.
10.
For example, in 1965, an issue had a special section called ‘‘Conversations with parents and teachers.’’ However, some articles suggest that most of its readers were those who worked in preschool education system-Golos chitatelia, DV (1965, N 1), 4.
11.
Between 1938 and 1945, nurseries had to accept children from their twenty-ninth day of life.
12.
The Russian yasli is close in meaning to the French crèche or German Krippe, and this word has its origin in Christian tradition. In Russian, it is derived from an archaic form of the Russian term verb ‘‘to eat.’’
13.
V.S. Sobkin and P.S. Pisarskii.Tipy regionalnykh obrazovatelnykh sitzuaii v Rossikoi federatsii ( Moskva, 1998), 75.
14.
Sobkin and Pisarskii, Tipy regionalnykh obrazovatelnykh sitzuaii v Rossikoi federatsii, 75.
15.
E. Demurova , ‘‘Luchshe znat detei,’’DV (1965, N 2), 79.
16.
There was a significant peak that coincided with the start of the first five-year plan: between 1929 and 1930, the number of day care centers increased from 2,000 to 4,000. For more about this, see Olga Issoupova, ‘‘‘From Duty to Pleasure?’ Motherhood in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia,’’ in Gender, State and Society in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, ed. Sarah Ashwin (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 30-55.
Sobkin and Pisarskii, Tipy regionalnykh obrazovatelnykh sitzuaii v Rossikoi federatsii, 75.
20.
Catriona Kelly, Children’s World: Growing up in Russia, 1990-1991, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), 349; Yulia Gradskova, Soviet People with Female Bodies: Performing Beauty and Maternity in Soviet Russia in the mid 1930-1960s, (Stockholm: Edita, 2007), 212-222.
21.
Medvedeva, ‘‘Sotsialnaia pomoshch gosudarstva v vospitanii detei v detskikh uchrezhdeniiakh,’’3.
22.
E.I. Volkova , ‘‘Ustranim nedostatki v doshkolnom vospitanii,’’DV (1945, N 4), 11.
23.
Yasli-sad. Iz opyta raboty yasli-sada N 286 Elektrozavoda g.Moskvy (Moskva, 1967), 3.
24.
Sobkin and Pisarskii, Tipy regionalnykh obrazovatelnykh sitzuaii v Rossikoi federatsii, 76.
25.
However, it is possible to say that during the perestroika, educational aims were discussed to a greater extent. See, for example, discussion of what does it mean to be ‘‘educated’’ (Ostrovskaia, L. 1986. Pokazyvat primer detiam vo vsem. DV 10:54) or how to develop correct speech of children (Cheveleva, N. 1989. Etogo moglo by i ne byt. DV 2:89).
26.
Popkewitz, ‘‘Governing the child and pedagogicalization of the parent,’’47.
27.
V. Iadeshko and F.A. Sokhina, Doshkolnaia pedagogika, ( Moskva: Prosveschenie, 1986), 151.
28.
L. Ostrovskaia , ‘‘Vospityvat usidchivost, teppenie, voliu,’’DV (1969, N 12), 82.
29.
A. Loginova, ‘‘Pedagogicheskie chtenia’ po voprosam vospitania v semie,’’ DV (1955, N 10), 21; L. Levinova, ‘‘Trudovoe vospitanie v semie,’’ DV (1973 N 9), 69.
30.
For more on the changing interpretation of childhood associated with the introduction of modernity, see Ann-Katrin Hatje, Från treklang till triangeldrama (Lund: Historiska Media, 1999), 223, 246; Kathleen Uno, Passages to Modernity (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999), 5-9; Viviana Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child. The Changing Social Value of Children (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).
31.
Iadeshko and Sokhina, Doshkolnaia pedagogika , 136.
32.
K.A. Bykova , ‘‘Vospitanie kultury povedenia detei v detskom sadu,’’DV ( 1955 N 8), 23.
33.
E.P. Dervitskaia , ‘‘Portrety detei,’’DV (1945, N 1), 39-40.
34.
Hultqvist, ‘‘Changing rationales for governing the child,’’405-24.
35.
L. Ostrovskaia, ‘‘Vospitatelroditelskoe slovo,’’ DV (1973, N 7), 73-74; Cheveleva, ‘‘O rabote s roditeliami,’’ 90.
36.
A.Belenkaia, ‘‘Kogda v dom prikhodit beda,’’DV (1989 , N 2), 96.
37.
‘‘Novyi uchebnik po detskoi psikhologii.’’DV (1986, N 9), 65.
38.
Ostrovskaia, ‘‘Vospitatel-roditelskoe slovo,’’ 1973, N 7, 72; Il. Okunev, ‘‘O stulchike na kolesakh i prochem,’’ DV (1986, N 9), 62-3.
39.
S. Itskovich , ‘‘Iz dnevnika vospitatelia, ’’ DV (1979, N 4), 58-59.
40.
K. Volkova , ‘‘Otvet tovarischu K,’’ DV (1969, N 12), 68.
41.
O. Korotkova , ‘‘Pedagogicheskaia pomosch molodoi semie,’’ DV (1986, N 11), 48.
42.
V. Kuzina, ‘‘Roditeliam na zametku,’’ DV ( 1969, N 7), 74.
43.
Arlie Hotschild , The Time Bind.When Work becomes Home and Home Becomes Work (New York: Metropolitan Books, 1997).
44.
Volkova, ‘‘Otvet tovarischu K.,’’68.
45.
Natalia Lebina and Aleksandr Chistikov, Obyvatel i reformy: kartiny povsednevnoi zhizni gorozhan v gody NEPa i khruschevskogo desiatiletia ( St.Peterburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 2003 ), 275-307.
46.
L. Levinova , ‘‘Rebionok idet v shkolu,’’DV (1969, N 12), 79.
47.
Itskovich, ‘‘Iz dnevnika vospitatelia,’’60.
48.
L. Levinova, ‘‘Rebionok idet v shkolu, fizicheskaia podgotovka,’’ DV (1969, N 9), 95; L. Ostrovskaia, ‘‘Detskoe ‘khochu’ i roditelskaia sniskhoditelnost,’’ DV (1973, N 9), 74.
49.
Kelly, Children’s World, 380-382.
50.
O.S. Babushkina , ‘‘Kak ya vospityvaiu kulturno-gigienicheskie navyki u detei mladshei gruppy,’’DV ( 1945, N2-3), 28.
51.
L. Ostrovskaia , ‘‘Detskoe ‘khochu’ i roditelskaia sniskhoditelnost,’’74.
52.
L. Ostrovskaia, ‘‘Vospityvat usidchivost, terpenie, voliu,’’ DV (1969, N 12), 85; V. Kuzina, ‘‘Roditeliam na zametku,’’ DV (1969, N 7), 73.
53.
L. Ostrovskaia , ‘‘Skromnost ukrashaet cheloveka ,’’ DV (1979, N 3), 46-47; V. Terskaia i L. Fedosova, ‘‘Istoki trudoliubiia,’’ DV (1986, N 7), 68; L. Ostrovskaia, ‘‘Pokazyvat primer detiam vo vsem,’’ DV (1986, N 11), 45-46.
54.
Ostrovskaia ‘‘Skromnost ukrashaet cheloveka,’’ 46-47; Terskaia i Fedosova, ‘‘Istoki trudoliubiia,’’ 68; Ostrovskaia ‘‘Pokazyvat primer detiam vo vsem,’’ 45-46.
55.
For the meaning of cultural backwardness, see for example Gradskova, Soviet People with Female Bodies, 128-133.
56.
Babushkina, ‘‘Kak ya vospityvaiu kulturno-gigienicheskie navyki u detei mladshei gruppy,’’ 25, 28.
57.
In Russian dobilas’, a word that implies that she had to overcome some resistance.
58.
Babushkina, ‘‘ Kak ya vospityvaiu kulturno-gigienicheskie navyki u detei mladshei gruppy ,’’ 26-27.
Galina Zhdanova , ‘‘Vsegda vmeste, ’’ DV (1973, N 8), 76-78.
62.
Zhdanova, ‘‘Vsegda vmeste,’’79.
63.
According to Catriona Kelly many Soviet parents during this period were doing everything possible to make their children appear fashionable; Catriona Kelly, ‘‘Roskosh ili pervaia neobkhodimost? Pokupka i prodazha tovarov dlia detei v Rossii v poststalinskuiu epokhu,’’ Teoriia mody, 2008, N 8, 159, 165.
64.
Itskovich, ‘‘Iz dnevnika vospitatelia,’’60.
65.
N. Mikhailenkoi N. Korotkova, ‘‘Rol igry v organizatsii povedenia rebionka,’’DV ( 1986 , N 9), 56.
66.
Zhdanova, ‘‘Vsegda vmeste,’’79.
67.
For discussion of the satirical criticism to this educational approach, see also Maria Antonova, ‘‘Satira kak instrument distsipliny tela,’’ in Sovetskaia sotsialnaia politika: stseny I deistvuiuschie litsa, 1941-1985, ed. E. Iarskaia-Smirnova and P. Romanov (Moskva: Variant, 2008), 294-295.
68.
L. Pavlova , ‘‘Uvazhaite tekuschii chas,’’DV ( 1979, N 4), 57.
69.
Cheveleva, ‘‘Etogo moglo by i ne byt,’’89.
70.
O. Korotkova , ‘‘Pedagogicheskaia pomosch molodoi semie,’’DV (1986, N 11), 48.
71.
Volkova ‘‘Otvet tovarischu K.,’’ 68-69; G. Blinov, ‘‘Vrach o vrede alkogolia,’’ DV (1973, N12), 64.
A. Belenkaia , ‘‘Kogda v dom prikhodit beda,’’DV (1989, N 2), 100.
74.
Belenkaia, ‘‘Kogda v dom prikhodit beda,’’94-95.
75.
The post-Soviet critique of the Soviet preschool system can be found in many posts at internet forums, for example http://forum.materinstvo.ru/index.php?showtopic=27810, accessed October 16, 2008.
76.
Burchell, Gordon & Miller, The Foucault Effect, 5.
77.
This included everything from ‘‘anti-Soviet’’ involvement of children in religious practices to parental alcohol abuse.
78.
However, I was never able to confirm that it actually occurred through either interviews or archive material.
79.
Loginova, ‘‘‘Pedagogicheskie chtenia’ po voprosam vospitania v semie,’’23.
80.
E.S. Liubomtseva , ‘‘O rabote s roditeliami,’’DV (1955, N 12), 27-30.
81.
Kh. Akhtamzian , ‘‘Ne khochu v detskii sad!,’’DV (1969, N 9), 97.
82.
Loginova, ‘‘‘Pedagogicheskie chtenia’ po voprosam vospitania v semie,’’23.
83.
Yulia Gradskova , ‘‘Kulturnost, gigiena i gender: sovietizatsiia ‘materinstva’ v Rossii, 1920-1930-t gg.,’’ in Sovetskaia sotsialnaia politika 1920-1930-kh godov: ideologia i povsednevnost , ed. P. Romanov i E. Iarskaia-Smirnova (Moskva: Variant, 2007), 242-261.
84.
E.S. Popova , Sestra-vospitatelnitsa yaslei i mladshikh grupp detskikh sadov ( Moskva: Meditsina, 1980), 516.
85.
Babushkina, ‘‘Kak ya vospityvaiu kulturno-gigienicheskie navyki u detei mladshei gruppy,’’27.
86.
K.L. Tolstikova , ‘‘Razvitie rechi,’’DV (1945, N 1), 34.
87.
Liubimtseva, ‘‘O rabote s roditeliami,’’29.
88.
E. Malygina , ‘‘O nekotorykh formakh raboty s roditeliami,’’ DV (1979, N 3), 49-50.
89.
Popkewitz, ‘‘Governing the child and pedagogicalization of the parent,’’48.
90.
Hotschild, The Time Bind, 41.
91.
L. Kitnik, ‘‘Rabota s roditeliami po vospitaniyu u detei liubvi k prirode ,’’ DV (1979, N 3), 48-49.
92.
N. Popova, ‘‘Esli rebionok govorit nepravilno,’’DV (1973, N 7), 70.
93.
Akhtamzian, ‘‘Ne khochu v detskii sad!,’’98.
94.
Akhtamzian, ‘‘Ne khochu v detskii sad!,’’99.
95.
A. Smirnova , ‘‘Neveselo,’’ DV ( 1973 , N 10), 97; E. Zakharova, ‘‘Valebudetkhuzhe,’’ DV (1973, N 10), 97-98.
96.
‘‘Na uroven novykh zadach,’’DV (1986, N 8), 3.
97.
From 1981 mothers were allowed to stay at home with a child until it was one year old, receiving a small child benefit and non-paid childcare until the child was 18 months, Teplova, ‘‘Welfare State Transformation,’’ 294.
98.
L. N. Litvin (red.), Istoria doshkolnoi pedagogiki. Uchebnoe posobie dlia pedinstitutov ( Moskva: Prosveschenie, 1989), 330-333.
99.
Popkewitz, ‘‘Governing the child and pedagogicalization of the parent,’’36.
