Figure 1.-- This 1871 photograph shows Russian children at play. Unfortunately I have no further information about the image. Photographs taken outside the srudio in the 19th cenbtury are rare.

We do not yet have information specificaly about children's play in Russia. Here we aew collecting information on ganes and toys but do not yet have much information on Eussian play. A factor here is that the photographic record in Soviet Russia is not as large as one might think for such a large country. The eason for this is so few Russian citizens had cameras to take family snap shots. Despite the claims of a worker and peasant paradice, it is in the Soviet Union that workers and farmers recrived earnings afording families to have private cameras pr afford film and processing. The reason is the ieffiencies of Communist enterprises and the huge military expenses. So thy could mot aford to take large numbers of snapshots. Much of what we have are studio poertraits. We do not yet have much information on many on the games played by Russian children, Russian children played were the same as those played in Europe. Presumably there were some destinctive Russian games, although we are not yet familar with them. We note that some Russian boys wore school uniforms. After school boys took off their uniforms to put on their play clothes. Of course climate is an important factor in Russia. The Summer season is relatively short which means that play clothes had to include cold weather items. Neither do we know much about the toys that Russian children played with. We suspect that many were the same as this familiar to children in the West. Although the generally low incomes did not permit parents to purchase toys to the same degree as the West. Nor were toys available in the same quality or quantity as in the West.

Types

We do not yet have information specificaly about children's play in Russia. Here we aew collecting information on ganes and toys but do not yet have much information on Eussian play. A factor here is that the photographic record in Soviet Russia is not as large as one might think for such a large country. The reason for this is so few Russian citizens had cameras to take family snap shots. Despite the claims of a worker and peasant paradice, it is in the Soviet Union that workers and farmers recrived earnings afording families to have private cameras pr afford film and processing. The reason is the ineffiencies of Communist enterprises and the huge military expenses. So thy could mot aford to take large numbers of snapshots. Much of what we have are studio poertraits. We do not yet have much information on many on the games played by Russian children, Russian children played were the same as those played in Europe. Presumably there were some destinctive Russian games, although we are not yet familar with them. We note that some Russian boys wore school uniforms. After school boys took off their uniforms to put on their play clothes. Of course climate is an important factor in Russia. The Summer season is relatively short which means that play clothes had to include cold weather items.

Toys

We see some images of toys in the Tsaeist era. Children were some rimes picy=tures with toys in studio photography. This convention seems less commom than in the West. And of course it was almost all the prosperous upper and middle class in the cities. Rhe toys we dp see are the same as those in the West. Russia was still a largely agricultural society with al large rather poor rural population. 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. We suspect that many were the same as this familiar to children in the West. The few toys that we do see are simolar to those in the West. The same reason that there are relatively few Russian snapshots means that that Russian children had relatively few toys and we have very few images of thevtoys they dud have. The generally low incomes did not permit parents to purchase toys to the same degree as the West. Nor were toys during the Soviet period available in the same quality or quantity as in the West. Since the fall of Communism, Russia has increasingly participated in general European trends. This os especially the case of the prosperous secror of the major cities. Russian has cointinue=ued, however, to be a realtively poor country. The economy is almost entirely based on the export of saw materails, rsoecially oil and gas. As a result., income and consumption levels are below the more prosperous European countries which of couese affects toys the children play with.

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Created: 5:27 AM 9/5/2004
Last updated: 10:52 PM 4/17/2020