Small Comrades

• Introduction: Real and Imagined Children Part One: The Kindergarten and the Revolutionary Tradition in Russia 1. Pedagogy and Politics Part Two: The Children of October and the Civil War 2. Save the Children 3. The Family as Fiction 4. The Nature of Childhood Part Three: Rethinking Revolution and Childhood, 1921-1932 5. The Withering Away of Kindergarten 6. Rescripting Childhood 7. Thank You, Comrade Stalin, for Our Happy Childhood Conclusion Postscript: Three Childhoods

"Lisa A. Kirschenbaum's Small Comrades offers a bird's eye view of Bolshevik theory and life in the 1920's. While examining early childhood education in the new Soviet society, it also reflects on Bolshevik social practices after the revolution, charts the decline of utopian schemes for liberating women and children, and describes the triumph of work during the first Five-Year Plan. ... This in-depth review of early childhood education will interest students in Soviet history and women's studies courses, as well as those studying pedagogical theory in schools of education." -- Slavic Review