«They had been waiting for death, they but it did not come, had been hoping for freedom, but it was not...»: reality in children’s essays about what they witnessed in the years of the Second world war

Abstract

In article, the author analyzed the essays on the topic: «What I experienced during the Great Patriotic War / occupation», written by pupils of the 6th-8th grades in Konstantinovka and Snezhnoe Donetsk region in May 1946, on the occasion of anniversary of the victory over Germany in the World War II. The author tried to reconstruct social values, stereotypes, children’s emotional experiences connected with their own military experience. Reconstruction is carried out on the basis of Textual Analysis of narratives (30 essays). The work combines qualitative and quantitative content analysis for greater validity of the results.

Evaluation of the facts and events which are described in the essays are not the main subject of research because they are duplicated in the essays. The main focus was given to how children remembered and described their own military experience and personal private impressions.

During the survey, the author paid considerable attention to revealing Cultural models of Soviet society, stereotypes and Children's perception of military reality. Scientist discovered that the most common Children’s emotions during the War were fear, yearn for the family, confusion, grief, despair, anger, hope, belief in the victory, the triumph.

Except of individual characteristics survey also showed gender differences of the Pupils' works, which is evidenced by the size and content and content of essays.

The clear majority of essays disclose image of «happy Soviet childhood, which was interrupted by the war» and «a return to a happy childhood after the Liberation». Soviet social stereotypes, connected with the cult of personality of the Soviet leader, education and religion, are also reflected in the most of the essays. So, pupils intimately associated a happy childhood with the ability to study, which was typical to Soviet traditions. Even a hint of religiosity was absent in analyzed works.

Essays help to understand individual and collective opinions of young people about «the other» and «personal» and help to reconstruct understanding of the military reality and to identify the most influential «social fathers» for children. The organization of the essays allows to understand social values and priorities for the young generation. Criticism of the reality in the essays shows pragmatic children's thinking, despite the fact that totalitarian system tried to strain the system of values of its own citizens.

The author made up conclusions, that even a cursory evaluation of school essays gives insight of cultural values, which were typical for the country in wartime. Moreover, such a survey allows to recreate spiritual world of «children of war», feelings of youth, their perception of military events, sympathy and ideals, and provides an opportunity to talk about some regional features. Besides being considerably independent, rational and humanistic, Children’s thoughts about the war were influenced by Soviet propaganda. Author’s appealing to social stereotypes demonstrates success of Soviet propaganda and children's acknowledgement of the system of moral values in the Soviet society during the war.