Political Socialization of Soviet Schoolchildren as Part of Children's Public Diplomacy: International Visits

The article describes the concept of political socialization of Soviet schoolchildren based on children's public diplomacy in 1982–1986. The authors concentrated on the international visits made by Samantha Smith and Yekaterina Lychyova. The research did not involve other factors of political socialization, e.g., weekly political information, fundraising events for the starving children of Africa and Nicaragua, foreign pen-palls, etc. These international visits provided valuable practical experience of interaction between Soviet and foreign children. Children's diplomacy is a relatively new phenomenon for Russian historiography, and the authors attempted to define its theoretical and symbolic meaning. The ideology-affected political socialization transformed children's everyday life, depriving it of the freedom of choice and opportunities. The analysis of children's diplomacy with its potential opportunities and shortcomings made it possible to determine the bottlenecks of political socialization. It revealed the tension between the public and private dimensions of international politics and actualized the factor of transnational activity in the development of bilateral Soviet-American relations. The research relied on the personal experience of those children, their memories, memoirs of their contemporaries, media publications, etc. The project of children's diplomacy failed because it deviated from its original scenario. Every time the process was out of direct control of political elites, children’s psychology and behavior interfered with the plan.

1. Balakirev A. N. The establishment and activities of the international committee of children’s and adolescents’ movements (CIMEA) in the 1960s–1980s. Society: Philosophy, History, Culture, 2019, (5): 86–89. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24158/fik.2019.5.16

2. Belova A. V. International pen-pal friendship as a phenomenon of everyday life of schoolgirls in the socialist societies in the 1980s: GDR and the USSR. Everyday life under socialism. German and Russian Approaches, eds. Sorokin A. K., Dubina V. S., Berends Ya. K. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2015, 226–246(In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/zdstvx

3. Belova A. V. Concept "international friendship" in ideology and everyday life of later socialist societies in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Vestnik Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, Seriya Istoriya, 2018, (1): 4–19. (In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/uysnyk

4. Berezhkov V. M. Americans and us. Meetings. Episodes. Reflections. Novaya i Novejshaya Istoriya, 1988, (2): 127–147. (In Russ.)

5. Bonvech B. The Soviet image of America in transition: from coalition ally to Cold War enemy. The USSR and the USA in the XX century: the perception of the "other", comps. Fiziler B., Magnusdottir R. Moscow: Polit. entsikl., 2017, 47–59(In Russ.)

6. Bourdieu P. Symbolic power. In: Bourdieu P. Sociology of social space. St. Petersburg: Aleteiia, 2007, 87–98. (In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/tlwnrx

7. Valuiceva I. I., Vetchinina I. S. Speech features of children involved in politics. Issues of Applied Linguistics, 2020, (39): 7–32. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.25076/vpl.39.01

8. Verchagina I. Yu., Bakhareva A. N. Children in the technologies of political manipulation. Innovations in technology and education: Proc. XIII Intern. Sci.-Prac. Conf., Belovo, 26 Mar 2020. Kemerovo: KuzSTU, 2020, vol. 3, 152–155. (In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/mhynbi

9. Gachev G. D. National images of the world: America in comparison with Russia and the Slavs. Moscow: Raritet, 1997, 680. (In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/wxnjod

10. Golovakova G. A. Stereotyping as a method of bourgeois propaganda. Technique of disinformation and deception, ed. Zasurskii Ya. N. Moscow: Mysl, 1978, 37–63. (In Russ.)

11. Dzhurinsky A. N. History of education and pedagogical thought. Moscow: VLADOS-press, 2003, 400. (In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/zprnop

12. David-Fox M. Showcasing the great experiment: cultural diplomacy and Western visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921–1941. Moscow: NLO, 2015, 568. (In Russ.)

13. Zubkova E. Yu. Postwar Soviet society: politics and everyday life. 1945–1953. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1999, 229. (In Russ.) https://www.elibrary.ru/pxpcjp

14. Kasyanenko V. I. Truth and lies about the Land of the Soviets. Moscow: Mysl, 1987, 335. (In Russ.)

15. Kelly K. "Little Citizens of a Big Country." Internationalism, children and Soviet propaganda. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2003, (2): 218–251. (In Russ.)

16. Kogan S. I. Public diplomacy as a form of cultural cooperation between the USSR and Great Britain during the Second World War and in the post-war period. Society. Environment. Development (Terra Humana), 2012, (1): 94–98. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/pananx

17. Kozlova N. N. Soviet horizons of everyday life: voices from the choir. Moscow: IP RAS, 1996, 215. (In Russ.)

18. Krom M. M. Everyday life as a subject of historical research: Preface. History of everyday life, ed. Krom M. M. St. Petersburg: EUSPb, 2003, iss. 3, 7–14. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/ywdhek

19. Kuts L. G. International friendship clubs as educational centers in the experience of Russian school. Man and Education, 2010, (2): 58–62. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/mlmqet

20. Livshin A. Ya., Orlov I. B. Power and society: a dialogue in letters. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2002, 205. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/wlqhlh

21. Lüdtke A. The history of everyday life in Germany: Reconstructing historical experiences and ways of life. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2010, 271. (In Russ.)

22. Lüdtke A. What is the history of everyday life? Achievements and prospects in Germany. Social history. Yearbook. 1998/1999, eds. Borodkin L. I., Anderson K. M. Moscow: Polit. entsikl., 1999, 78–80. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/srvudf

23. McIntyre A. After Virtue. Moscow: Akad. proekt, 2000, 384. (In Russ.)

24. Manoshkina O. A., Fufaeva A. P. Children's diplomacy. Sotsialno-ekonomicheskie issledovaniia, gumanitarnye nauki i iurisprudentsiia: teoriia i praktika, 2015, (3): 109–113. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/uvedyh

25. Manucharyan L. S., Sokova Ya. D. "Children’s diplomacy" as a method of solving of the military conflicts. Vestnik Luganskogo natsionalnogo universiteta imeni Vladimira Dalya, 2018, (6-7): 81–88. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/xykest

26. Martynenko E. V., Matvienko V. V. Public diplomacy in the context of modern interstate communication. Vestnik RUDN. International Relations, 2012, (1): 57–60. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/oqljil

27. Mychko E. I., Denisova N. Y. Formation of children's public diplomacy in the USSR and the USA. Bulletin of the Kaliningrad branch of the Saint-Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 2021, (2): 84–87. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/urqcvb

28. Nagornaya O. S. "When the USSR became strong and powerful... many nations seek our friendship": aspects of the studies of cultural diplomacy in the socialist camp (1949–1989). Dialog so Vremenem, 2015, (53): 269–278. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/vofnfb

29. Nagornaya O. S. Through the looking glass of soviet modernity: foreign representations of the USSR in the epoch of the "great turn". Rossiiskaia Istoriia, 2017, (3): 164–167. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/ytmvcb

30. Nagornaya O. S., Popov A. D., Raeva T. V. Children’s charm in the arsenal of Soviet cultural diplomacy. In: Nikonova O. Yu., Popov A. D., Raeva T. V., Tregubov N. A., Nagornaya O. S. Soviet cultural diplomacy in the conditions of the Cold War. 1945–1989. Moscow: Polit. Entsikl., 2018, 367–390. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/szoccv

31. Nye J. S. Jr. Soft power the means to succeed in world politics. Novosibirsk-Moscow: Foundation for Socio-Prognostic Research "Trendy", 2006, 221. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/uljjzf

32. Novikov M. V., Morozov A. S. Soviet cultural diplomacy in the Western countries during the Cold War. Verhnevolzhski philological bulletin, 2020, (2): 264–270. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.20323/2499-9679-2020-2-21-264-270

33. Popov A. D. World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957 and the formation of the "cultural matrix" of the Soviet mega-event. Culture and power in the USSR. 1920–1950s: IX Intern. Sci. Conf., St. Petersburg, 24–26 Oct 2016. Moscow: Polit. entsikl., 2017, 726–736. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/zvolfx

34. Popov A. D. International activity of "Artek" in the context of children’s diplomacy in the period of Cold War. Magistra Vitae: Electronic Journal of Historical Sciences and Archeology, 2018a, (2): 81–88. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/ypvqvv

35. Popov A. D. The last Soviet mega event: the XII World Festival of Youth and Students in 1985 in Moscow. Modern History of Russia, 2018b, 8(4): 1017–1031. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu24.2018.415

36. Raeva T. V. Soviet peace movement in postwar cultural diplomacy: institutions, discourses, practices. Bulletin of the South Ural State University. Ser. Social Sciences and the Humanities, 2017, 17(2): 19–25. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.14529/ssh170203

37. Hollander P. Political pilgrims: travels of Western intellectuals in the Soviet Union, China and Cuba 1928–1978. St. Petersburg: Lan, 2001, 590. (In Russ.)

38. Tsvetkova N. A. Russia in U.S. public diplomacy: from the promotion of democracy to the support of social activism. USA & Canada: Economics, Politics, Ideology, 2012, (10): 37–46. (In Russ.) https://elibrary.ru/qzvzox

39. Adam J. Ordnungen des Nationalen und die geteilte Welt: Zur Praxis Auswärtiger Kulturpolitik als Konfliktprävention. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2018, 444. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839442623

40. Alexander J., McConnell S. Children as peacemakers: Promoting the development of cooperation and conflict resolution. Nonviolence: Social and psychological issues, ed. Kool V. K. University Press of America, 1993, 107–128.

41. Ang I., Isar Y. R., Mar P. Cultural diplomacy: Beyond the national interest? International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2015, 21(4): 365–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2015.1042474

42. Conover P. J. Political Socialization: Where’s the Politics? Political science: Looking to the future. Vol. 3: Political behavior, ed. Crotty W. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991, 125–152.

43. Cummings M. C. Cultural diplomacy and the United States government: A survey. Washington, DC: Center for Arts and Culture, 2009, 167.

44. Edelman M. J. Constructing the political spectacle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988, 142.

45. Edelman M. J. Politics as symbolic action: Mass arousal and quiescence. NY: Academic Press, 1971, 188.

46. Edelman M. J. The symbolic uses of politics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964, 233.

47. Foglesong D. S. When the Russians really were coming: citizen diplomacy and the end of Cold War enmity in America. Cold War History, 2020, 20(4): 419–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2020.1735368

48. Galicich A. Samantha Smith: A journey for peace. Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1987, 68.

49. Groh D. "Geschichte von unten – Geschichte von innen". Blick über die Grenzen. In: Groh D. Anthropologische Dimensionen der Geschichte. 1. Aufl. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1992, 175–177.

50. Hixson W. L. George F. Kennan: Cold War iconoclast. NY: Columbia Univ. Press, 1989, 381.

51. Hyman H. Political Socialization: A study in the psychology of political behavior hardcover. NY: Free Press, 1959, 175.

52. Kozovoï A. L’enfance au service de la guerre froide Le voyage de Samantha Smith en URSS. Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’histoire, 2007, (96): 195–207. https://doi.org/10.3917/ving.096.0195

53. Lancy D. The anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 480. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139680530

54. Montandon P., Beebe M. Making friends: Katya from Moscow and Star from San Francisco: Two eleven-year-old girls discover America together. NY: Henry Holt & Co, February 1989, 122.

55. Neumann M. Children diplomacy during the Late Cold War: Samantha Smith's visit of the ‘Evil Empire’. History, 2019, 104(360): 275–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.12818

56. Peacock M. Innocent weapons: The Soviet and American politics of childhood in the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014, 304.

57. Politikvermittlung und Demokratie in der Mediengesellschaft: Beiträge zur politischen Kommunikation, Hg. Sarcinelli U. Bonn: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 1998, 479.

58. Sarcinelli U. Politische Kommunikation in Deutschland. Medien und Politikvermittlung im demokratischen System. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Springer Fachmedien GmbH, 2011, 407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-531-93018-3