Datsyshen V.G. Children and Childhood in Soviet-Chinese Relations in the 1950s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of the place and role of children in the systemof “people’s diplomacy” that took place in Soviet-Chinese relations in the 1950s. The research is basedon sources of personal origin, as well as materials of a clerical nature, both previously published andintroduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The documents were found in the fonds of thecentral, local and museum archives. On the basis of historical sources, a picture of participation ofchildren and children’s organizations in the Soviet-Chinese interaction is being reconstructed. The visitto children’s institutions was included in the program of mutual visits of the delegations of the twocountries. In the 1950s there were also mutual trips of children’s groups and pioneer delegations to theirforeign neighbors, as well as direct ties between Soviet and Chinese schools and other educationalinstitutions. Soviet specialists who once worked in Chinese schools kept in touch with their students fora long time. The main form of direct interaction between Soviet and Chinese children in the 1950s wasfriendly correspondence, which, as a rule, was established through the mediation of the Sovietauthorities, the media and public organizations. In addition, Chinese children wrote en masse letters tofamous Soviet statesmen and public figures. Soviet and Chinese children participated in “people’sdiplomacy” until the early 1960s. The use by state and socio-political institutions of the “children’squestion” played an important role in the formation of friendly relations between the two peoples andstates in the 1950s, and also became an important factor in the successful restoration of Soviet-Chineserelations in the 1980s.