The Phenomenon of Sacrifice in the USSR on the Example of Children's and Youthful Images in Popular Culture 1930-1940-s

The research is devoted to the victimization of pioneer heroes in Soviet discourse in the Stalin era. In the 1930s and 1940s, the soviet government tried to create a "new Soviet man" by propaganda, and the image of the victim was one of the techniques. The purpose of the study is to describe the main features of the "victim" construct in the USSR and trace its transformation. Using the methodology of Evgeny Dobrenko (Dobrenko, 2007), who sees socialist realism as compensation for Soviet reality, we studied children's magazines and novels about pioneer heroes and found common and particular in the design of sacrificial images. As a result, we concluded that exemplary pioneers (usually girls) are usually represented as victims, and in their description, a demonstration of body plays a big role. In addition, the study proves the relationship between the images of the hero, victim and enemy in Soviet propaganda. The study is important for further study of the policy of designing a new person and attitude to childhood in the USSR.