It is generally acknowledged that the beginning of the “Thaw” epoch in Soviet literature was marked by the publication of Vladimir Pomerantsev’s article “On sincerity in literature” (December, 1953). There sincerity was interpreted not as a writer’s inclination to “open” his/her inner world to the public, but rather as a moral demand to critically represent the social environment and social conditions. This view acquired wide support in the milieu of reformatory-minded Soviet writers, especially those who specialized in children's literature. This talk is intended to discover what literary plots, images and devices were required and were really used in order to fulfill this moral and social duty and what peculiar and sometimes odd literary forms arose in response to the new imperatives.

Maria Maiofis is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the School of Advanced Research in the Humanities, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. She is the author of Appeal to Europe: the Literary Society “Arzamas” and the Russian Modernization Project of 1815-1818 (in Russian, 2008), and a co-editor of volumes on the history of Soviet children’s and youth culture and education, most recently, Islands of Utopia: Social and Pedagogical Approaches to Modeling Post-WWII School (in Russian, 2015).