Becoming the vanguard : children, the Young Pioneers, and the Soviet state in the Great Patriotic War
Journal: Texas ScholarWorks (Texas Digital Library)
Year: 2016

This dissertation combines institutional history and social analysis to provide a more nuanced depiction of the Soviet experience in the Great Patriotic War, a portrait which considers the experience of children, the state’s expectations of children, and an exploration of the institution responsible for connecting child and state, the V.I. Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. It argues that the state’s expectations for children during the Great Patriotic War were issued primarily in order to sa