Silja Pitkänen, Uniformity in Uniforms: Children and Visual Propaganda in the Soviet Union and the Third Reich

The Soviet Union and the Third Reich exploited images of children in their propaganda in the 1930s. This kind of imagery was abundant in newspapers, magazines and children’s books. How children were represented as a collective in Soviet and German propaganda? In which ways the representations were similar or different in these two states regarded as totalitarian? What was the purpose of these images? And, finally, were the totalitarian societies abusing children by using them as subjects and objects of visual propaganda? In the essay I am pondering, among other things, upon these questions. The main focus of the visual analysis is children depicted in the context of various institutions of the society, such as kindergartens, schools and youth organizations. Furthermore, I ask was there room for individuality in the so-called totalitarian states?