À l’assaut de la 3e année du Plan quinquennal ! : un exemple d’agit-prop soviétique à destination des enfants

Abstract

The book À l’assaut de la 3e année du Plan quinquennal ! (1930), written by Semion Kirsanov and illustrated by Alexander Deineka, belongs to the « livres de chocs » intended to promote the First of the Five-Year Plans among Soviet children. Characteristic of a major Soviet art trend in those years, it is an interesting example of one relationship between art and propaganda in children’s literature. This article intends to decode the book’s iconography and analyze its graphic language, to find a definition of visual propaganda according to Deïneka, a definition that questions the notion of both political and artistic construction. It also attempts to connect this work to the field of fine arts during the years 1928-1932, a transition period before Stalinism.

Keywords

• children’s book
• communism
• art
• illustration
• propaganda