We shall see him as he is: Image of god in Soviet children's literature of the 1960s

The 1960s were marked by a renewed wave of attacks against the Russian Orthodox Church. Atheist education through literature became the cornerstone of the campaign. Children's books were expected to emphasize the predominance of the communist ideology over Christianity. Atheism as a new religion had its own scriptures and a pantheon of saints, whose martyrdom heralded by mass literature was to inspire younger generations of readers to follow suit. These books comprised both ideological pamphlets, often written by former priests, illustrated in this article by the analysis of Alexey Chertkov's brochure, and works of fiction by well-known children's writers such as Lyubov Voronkova, Vladimir Tendryakov, Irina Pechernikova. At first sight, their novels fully correspond to the task set before the writers, i.e. making children believe that «there is no God». However, the analysis of anti-religious discourse contained in certain books reveals an internal discrepancy between the explicit propaganda of atheist dogmas and the implicit message of real human values. This ambivalent discourse is created by the writers, whether intentionally or not, by a true-to-life and talented portrayal of characters such as Lyubov Voronkova's dilogy about the Streshnevs. The purpose of the article is to study the image of God and Christianity in the children's books by the aforementioned authors dating back to this period. © 2016 eum (Edizioni Università di Macerata, Italy).