Goods for the Smallest Citizens: Consumption, Spaces, and the Material World of Toys in Early Soviet Ukraine

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates toys and their consumer spaces as a part of the history of early Soviet childhood in Ukraine. Particular consideration is paid to the influence of communist ideology on determining a toy's role in children's upbringing. The study highlights the various spaces established in Ukraine for children's collective consumption and the material world of play, such as the children's branch of the central department store and the Palace of Pioneers. However, it has been shown that the low purchasing power of households and the underdevelopment of light industry made hand-made play items an inseparable element of children's material culture, as well as an important part of children's everyday consumption practices. In the 1930s, the growing tensions inside Soviet society, Europe, and around the world caused the militarization of childhood and raised the role of war toys.