Singing for Lenin in Soviet Ukraine: Children, Music, and the Communist Future

FAIN: FEL-289096-23

Maria Sonevytsky
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-9800)

Research and writing leading to a book about Soviet education and children’s musical practices in Soviet Ukraine, from 1934 to 1991.

Spectacles of musical childhood were widespread in Soviet life. Children’s groups performed at political events, factories, and international festivals. They were showcased on Soviet radio and television and institutionalized in "Palaces of Pioneers." Inculcating children into Soviet norms of citizenship, gender, and musicality was a vital project to ensure the longevity of the USSR, yet both children and music present unruly vectors through which to achieve the goals of norming. My research follows the “imperial turn” in Soviet historiography to Soviet Ukraine, where I interpret the dynamic arena of children’s musical practices through newly discovered archival materials and original interviews. My research reveals how Soviet Ukrainian children and their educators creatively recast the prerogatives of Soviet education, with its promise of a stateless Communist future. Soviet Ukrainian children’s music captures the tensions inherent in imposing Soviet ideology on musical practice.

Associated Products

Retrofitting the Bandura for a Soviet Childhood: Ukraine’s National Instrument, Violent Erasures, and the Plan for a Communist Music (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Retrofitting the Bandura for a Soviet Childhood: Ukraine’s National Instrument, Violent Erasures, and the Plan for a Communist Music
Author: Maria Sonevytsky
Abstract: This study addresses the Soviet regime’s creation of mass bandura orchestras for children in Kyiv, just years after the Soviet regime had executed much of the older generation of bandura players in Kharkiv for supposed "anti-Soviet activities." Anicia Timberlake (Peabody Institute-Johns Hopkins University), Knar Abrahamyan (Columbia University), and Joy Calico (Vanderbilt University) responded to the paper, drawing on their own research on music and childhood in Communist and post-Communist societies.
Date: 11/11/2023
Primary URL: https://childhoodyouth.ams-net.org/2023/08/30/ams-2023-childhood-and-youth-studies/
Conference Name: Invited keynote for Child and Youth Music Study Group at the American Musicological Society Annual Meeting

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