Figure 1.--Here we see a Russian brother and sister in a studio portrait. They look to be close in age, but tegirl looks a little older. We would gues they are about 3-4-years old. They are weariung matching sailor suits. The little girl clutches on to her doll. Notice hpw the boy has his arm around his sister. There is also a huge teddy bear. We are guessing that the teddy is a studio prop. Notice that it seems to be just placed into the imahe. It is unlikely that many Soviet families could afford a top of the line teddy like that. The portrait was dated 1941. HBC readers will know the significance of that date. Stalin had negoriared an alliance with Hitler. Yet Hitler would invade the Soviet Union (June 1941). Over 25 million Soviet citizens would perish in the resultung conflagration. Almost certainly, the portrait was taken just before the German invasion.

The Russian toys we do see are the same as those in the West. We do not see many of the more expensive toys, especially metal tools. The Soviet emphasis was on heavy imdustry. As a result, limited amounts of metal were diverted to consumer goods either for adults or children. We have no idea about toys the large numberr of children in the countryside played with. Many may have been home made. Neither do we know much about the toys that Russian children played with during the Soviet era. Realtively few families had cameras. Thus most of the photographs we have are studio portraits. We have realtively few family snapshots where we can see children playing with their toys. We suspect that many were the same as this familiar to children in the West. The few toys that we do see are similar to those in the West. We see stuffed animals. Teddies seem popular. And of course dolls for the girls. We think a lot of toys like electric train sets and bicycles that required industrial production were much less common than in the West--basically the kid version of notable Soviet shortages of consumer goods.

Blocks

We note construction blocks at well equipped kindergartens. They were a mainstay of a Doviet kindergarten. Presumbanly they also were a home toy, but we do not have a lot of home images.

Conveyences

We do not see many peddal convetyences for children (peddal cars, trikes, and bikes). We do begin to see some well after World War II in the 1960s. Besides industrial issues, there was a problem iof spves. mist urban Russiabs libedd in small apartments without a lot of space.

Dolls

The primary toy for girls was dolls. Most Russians girld had aleast one doll. The doll here is a good example (figure 1). We see countless examples in the photographic record. We do not see a huge diversity of toys for girls, but we see a lot of dolls. A Russian reader tells us that girls did not just play with dolls. Reporting in the 2000s, he boted girks playing with cars and other yoys commonly ee as boy toys. vpmmonly

Electrical Toys

We do not see many electrical toys during the Soviet era. This was a relection of the Soviet economy. Elctronics in the Soviet Union lagged behind the West. It ws a fcor in th Soviets losing th Cold war competition with America. A Russian reader tellls us fter the implosion of the Sivoet union, we dosee arange of electrical toys. They were popular in Russia as they are in the West.

Guns

Interestingly, we do not see a lot of toy guns, but we do see dress-up molitary uniforms. Wile we don't see guns, we note a huge interest in wwr. A Russin reader tells us that boys enjoy making militay aircraft models. A popular hobby was collcting World War II relics from the battle fields around Moscow.

Magic

A Russia reader writes, "Harry Potter was allhe rage. I had a magic club in which we made potions and imagined they gave imaginary powers -- mixing different soda pops!"

Military Uniforms

One thing we do not see in the Soviet photographic record is toy guns. That does not mean the military was not emphasized. Until the creation of Communist China (1949), the Soviet Union had the largest militryin the world. After 1949, it had the scond largest--a huge military establishment and after defeating the NAZIs in Wotlkd ar II, the most prestigious institution in ythe Soviet Union. We see countless image of kindergarners and younger primary boys wearing military inifirms or military items like helmets and caps. And this was not just the biys, the girks had nirses play uniforms. And there were military-oriented items like binoculars, but only rarely guns. This changed for older children reaching their teens. They began to get military trainming in the schools. This of course was not play which we are talking about here. Soviet schools has stocks of military uniforms and unifirm items to foster this play. And many Soviet boys had military items klike caps that they used for play, but we do not see toy guns.

Science

A Russian reder reoports a strong interest in science.

Stuffed Animals

Stuffed animals were popular toys. They were jnexpensive to make and we see quite a few in the photographic record. The teddy here is a studio prop (figure 1). notice how the children seem tgo be ignoring it. We see, however, quite a few teddies in the photographic record that children actually owned. Dolls and teddies were clearly the most common toys we see in the photographic record. A russian reader durung the 2000s trptysd both boys and girls had cuddly toys.

Vehicles

Metal toy vehicles were a mainstay of boys' toys in the west. Wesee these toys of all sizes. there were big ones the boys could sit on and then after World War II match Box tiny ones. This seems a major difference during the Soviet era. We suspect that this was due to the focus on heavy industry and the decision to use metal for other pirposes than toys. Another issue was the fact that the Soviets produced so few cars. Some of the metal toys we see are utilitarian vehicles such as trucks. Snazzy stylish cars were not a fact vof life for Russian children and we not see them appearing as toys that the children played with, even in well-equipped kindergartens. You might think there would be a lot of tractors as well, biut we do not see many. The toy focus was on industry, not agriculture. Which of couse mirrored the policies of the Soviet Five Year Plans. We think a lot of toys like electric train sets that required industrial production were much less common than in the West--basically the kid version of notable Soviet shortages of consumer goods.

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Created: 8:46 PM 5/16/2020
Last updated: 4:31 PM 6/27/2022