According to a patriotic cliché of the post-Stalin era, the Soviet people was “the most given to reading in the entire world”(samyi chitaiushchii narod v mire). As a corollary, reading was, commentators argued, given a central place in the socialization of children by every Soviet family, however humble. A pronouncement by Lev Kassilin 1964 is typical:“One can say with absolute confidence that throughout the extent of our motherland there is not a single dwelling with even one child in it where there is not also at least one children’s book.” 1 But teaching children about reading was not left purely to

Acknowledgment is made to the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust (Grant F/08736/A), the Ilchester Fund of the University of Oxford, and New College, Oxford, for sponsorship of the larger project on which this paper draws,“Childhood in Russia, 1890–1991: A Cultural and Social History.” Interviews sponsored under the Leverhulme project are cited in the form “Oxf/Lev” plus a city code (SPb, M) and a year code (03, 04). The interviewers were Aleksandra Piir in St. Petersburg, Iuliia Rybina and Ekaterina Shumilova in Moscow, Iurii Ryzhov in Taganrog, and Ekaterina Melnikova and Oksana Filicheva in Leningrad province. Interviews coded “CKQ,” plus a place code (SPb, M, T,‘V’for villages in Leningrad province,“Ox” for the United Kingdom—not just Oxford) and a year code (03, 04) were recorded by Catriona Kelly using the same questionnaire. My thanks to the institutions involved, to our informants and interviewers, and to the project co-ordinators, Albert Baiburin in St. Petersburg and Vitalii Bezrogov in Moscow, for their help. It goes without saying that none of the individuals and institutions acknowledged here bears any responsibility for the analytical conclusions I have drawn in this article. In citations from the interviews, all personal names have been omitted or changed, and all toponyms other than those of major cities omitted, to protect the privacy of the informants. Details of the informants (DOB, class background, place of origin, etc.) and extracts from interviews are available on the website “Childhood in Russia,” www. mod-langs. ox. ac. uk/russian/childhood. html. My thanks also go to Kritika’s anonymous readers and to Michael David-Fox and Peter Holquist for their useful suggestions on an earlier draft.