Inside the Rainbow: Russian Children's Literature 1920-1935: Beautiful Books, Terrible Times

by Julian Rothenstein, Olga Budashevskaya

INSIDE THE RAINBOW reprints for the first time in English a unique compendium of Soviet picture books from the 1920 and 1930s – a highpoint in the history of children’s literature. In the dark and dangerous world of revolutionary Petrograd, a group of Russian poets and artists, among the greatest of the century, came together to create a new kind of book for children about to enter a Brave New World. These artists and writers dreamed of endless possibilities in a new world where children and grown-ups alike would be free from the bitterness of ignorance. For a time, when children's publications still escaped the scourge of state censorship, their books became a last haven for learning, poetic irony, burlesque and laughter.

In this book 250 brilliant examples of illustration and design are complemented by some wonderful translations of poems and stories as well as texts from the victims, criminals and witnesses to the Russian revolution.

Genres: History, Art, Nonfiction, Childrens, Russia

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2013

About the author

Julian Rothenstein is the publisher, editor, and designer of Redstone Press. He lives in London, England.

Reviews

[Angelique · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's very well put together. It's like a little art exhibition. It gives a great insight into 'what it was like back then' (or so I imagine from the history I read). The illustrations are mostly just incredible. My favourites are the ones with animals. I love the advice on child care 'DO not help a child who is in a difficult situation unless it be dangerous; he must learn to care for himself.' I also love Daniil Kharms 'The Four-Legged Crow'. A little gem of a book. So pretty.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning children's book reproductions scattered with text introduce Western adult art snobs about the colorfully modernist art of a new society, storybooks that throw off the bourgeois shackles of tsars and princesses, witches and fairies. This is socialist literature for socialist children and society grinds joyfully like a well-oiled machine, but with plenty of fun because "play is the work of children." Also, if you were anybody in Russian literature at the time, you were apparently writing for children and not mentioning it so much, but it's where the paychecks were coming from. I've read plenty about poets like Mayakovsky and Mandelstam and not a word about their vast bodies of work for young people. Not to mention Kornei Chukovsky, the Dr. Seuss/Roald Dahl/Edward Lear of Russian children's literature began writing around the time of the revolution, and several of his poems are printed in full here. Inside the Rainbow excerpts stories in English, or includes them in the reproduction of book art. There's a fantastic hodgepodge of stuff, from Civil War child soldiers to poems to photo montages to Lenin's gripings to memoirs of Soviet childhoods. The trouble is when funnest of books are not reproduced in full, like the fantastic rhyming story of a letter mailed from Leningrad to London and delivered by that most efficient of Soviet workers, the postman. Will the letter be delivered? Will Maksim Maksimovich write a letter back? How did Maksim Maksimovich flee to London? Why are postmen so cheerful?

http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/20...

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"With the imposing, primary-colored Inside the Rainbow, editors Julian Rothenstein and Olga Budashevskaya have done a comprehensive, fun survey on an overlooked side of Russia’s history – its kiddie books. In focusing on the visually dazzling work put out in turbulent post-Communist Revolution years of 1920-35, the volume earns its subtitle Beautiful Books, Terrible Times. Divided into thematic chapters such as 'How the World Works' and 'Let’s Study, Study and Study,' insightful essays and page spreads from dozens of different books demonstrate how the Communist message was distilled for its youngest members. Obviously, you get a lot of striking, modern Russian Constructivist design from El Lizzitsky and the like here, but what struck me was the variety of illustration styles throughout these pages. Lots of images have a uniquely Russian folklorist feel, yet they could also fit in the pages of American kids’ books of the era (my favorite section, in terms of purely gorgeous imagery, is the chapter on animals). Accented with poetry and text excerpts, this book accurately reflects the 'cheery-on-the-outside, oppressed-on-the-inside' outlook of the time." - Scrubbles.net review, April 13, 2015.

[Yellowoasis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The people at Auckland City Libraries rock! Super reproductions of the original books, and the foreword by Philip Pullman is brilliant of course. I would have liked more discussion of the books throughout.