Archives at Cornell

Soviet Union child care propaganda postcards

Collection — manuscript box: 96 - Folder 1

Identifier: 8919

Content Description

Two postcards by the artist Aleksei Komarov (1879-1977) that were issued by the Museum Exhibition for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy in Moscow. The postcards depict a colored illustration of a child with cyrillic text introducing basic rules of child care, such as giving a child boiled water without sugar during heatwaves. Each postcard contains a handwritten translation on the verso.

Dates

1920

Biographical / Historical

Pregnancy and child care were considered important work for the good of Soviet society; in the 1920s, to fight the very high mortality of infants, state-run child counselling centres were set up across the country to spread useful recommendations for improving healthcare of infants and to combat the misconception about child care from previous eras.