“If War comes tomorrow…”. Preparation for the War as a Part of Education Program of Soviet Pioneers in the 1930s

This text is devoted to the analysis of different aspects of representation of past and future wars as well as the images of the enemies in the “Pioneer” and "Chizh" magazines and also in the films of the pre-war period of 1936-1939's. In the 1930’s these subjects and images became an important element of Soviet education: forming the official narrative, they were repeated in the summaries of party and state documents presented to the readers and penetrated into the literature, tales as well as into the speech of pioneers themselves. As a result of this, by the time the war began a whole generation acquired the understanding of the meaning of struggle, with who the country was going to fight and what was at stake in the coming war. Using the texts of “Pioneer” and "Chizh" magazines from 1930—1939 one can see how publications educated readers, forming their consciousness, preparing the youth to fight a war with the capitalist states. Magazines published for Soviet pioneers in the 1930th are not studied well enough. Researchers usually concentrate their attention on the continuity vis-a-vis previous traditions and practices, pointing to trends that were common for postrevolutionary magazines. Usually, these studies are limited to the period of the early 1930s and don't cover events of the second half of the decade and putting emphasis on the formation of the pioneer press. This text is broadening our view of the Soviet press for children, helping to better understand the causes of heroic behavior of the young generation mobilized to defend their country during Great Patriotic War.