Some Particularities of Childhood in the Former European Communist Countries
Some Particularities of Childhood in the Former European Communist Countries

Summary/Abstract: It might seem odd to interrogate a recent period of time about the meanings of childhood! Most of the people born after 1945 lived their childhood in a space – part of Europe and Asia – and a period – 1945-1989 – under communism! They are vivid sources about their lives, they can tell and write stories, suitable for the history of communism, as it was lived, not theorized; their stories oppose the official discourse, the official propaganda which legitimated the political system for over half a century! As the readers of this special issue will have the opportunity to see, our childhoods has much in common: the kids from the Eastern Bloc lived under the same auspices, as the entire society does! All citizens work according to their capacities and abilities and they are getting everything that they need (“from everyone according to capabilities, to everyone according to their needs”). The egalitarian system was extended in all spheres, including private life: all people should have the same chances to go to school, to get a job, to live according to the same principles, to eat the same industrialized food, to raise the children according to the party rules etc. Children had to be organized, childhood had to be structured, as well as the entire society.

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