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Visual images of “Sovietness” in ABC book of 1920s and 1930s: content, structure, dynamics
DOI of the paper: 10.15382/sturIV201745.57-72
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to identify and describe the dynamic, structure and content of visual images as a tool for “Sovietist” indoctrination in ABC books for North Caucasus schools from the period of 1927–1932. The author recommends the defi nition of the term “Sovietness”, which up to now has not been clearly conceptualised, and puts forward the idea that the most prominent feature of “Sovietness” was strong opposition of the Soviet canon to the “strange”. The latter was usually associated with the pre- Soviet period (monarchic and/or pre-revolutionary) and the Western world (bourgeois, capitalistic). Six ABC books were used as sources for the study. Each of them was published in the 1920s and 1930s for primary schools of North Caucasus. 494 pages have been looked through, 444 of them contain visual images. Methodologically, the first part of the paper follows the framework of the formal semiotic analysis of illustrations and visual images based on C. Pearce’s typology of signs. The second part of the paper employs P. Sztompka’s conception of the structural interpretation in the form of an INIS scheme. The aim is to interpret deeper social structures refl ected in the illustrations. The paper off ers two special terms, namely the “integral mark of Sovietness” and “visual mark of Sovietness”. Empirical data shows that the “Sovietness” visual index increased by 3.5 times from 1930 to 1932, when the integrated method of teaching was replaced with an education system involving various school subjects. At the same time, the role of text images in the sovietisation of primary school children became more prominent than that of visual ones. It appeared much easier to internalise Soviet ideals in the child’s mind by means of an ideologically tinted text than through a picture, as it was the case in the 1920s. In this particular situation, there is no reason to consider ABC books of the 1920s and 1930s to be a “concentrate” of “Sovietness”.
Keywords
ABC book, visual images, “Sovietness”, indoctrination, North Caucasus, 1920– 1930s
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