New insights into the history of child rearing within Russian and Soviet families (1890-1940)

This article aims to analyse if and how child rearing changed from the end of nineteenth century until 1930 in the Soviet Union, making use of pedagogical sources which have previously been overlooked. For this reason, the first part of this essay presents the debates on family education before the Revolution, devoting particular attention to V.V. Rozanov, P.F. Kapterev, N.A. Ostrogorskij and M.M. Rubinstejn’s works. The second part outlines the reform introduced by the October Revolution which inevitably led to the reshaping of urban family structures. The third part describes Anton S. Makarenko’s (1888- 1939) theories about the educational relationships developed in different family contexts and how to cope with family crisis during the Thirties. In this way it is possible to understand that Makarenko’s works, one of the most famous founders of Soviet pedagogy, represent a rich and complex source for the analysis of child rearing in the Soviet Union of the 30s. Makarenko became famous for his An Epic Education (1933-1935), in which he described his educational theories about the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents in the Ukraine. Nevertheless, in 1937, he wrote several works on the role of the family in the education of the ‘new man’, i.e. the Soviet citizen: his Lecturers for parents, originally broadcast on radio, and A Book for Parents, also known as The Collective Family.