The Ideologically Constructed Image of the Socialist Child and the Perceptions on its Body

Bulgarian Historical Review, 53 (2025), No. 3, pp. 113ß147
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71069/BHR3.25.YY05

Yana Yancheva

Chief Assist. Prof. Yana Yancheva, Ph.D. - Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia 1000, Moskovska Str. 6, Bulgariaö ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5016-8907, Web of Science Researcher ID: KCK-1085-2024, E-mail: yana.yancheva@iefem.bas.bg

Abstract: he text examines the concept of the ‘socialist child’ which was established in the period of socialism in Bulgaria. My interest is the utopian and ideologically constructed image of the socialist children by the ideological rhetoric and the expectations of the Communist party leaders towards children and their future development. The qualities that every Septemvriyche child (pioneer) was expected to embody outline a perfect, impossible and unbearable image of the socialist super child (‘harmonically developed child’). The paper’s main focus is on the institutional prescriptions about how children should care for their bodies and keep them fit and healthy in order to become a ‘worthy and decent future shift’. The fulfillment of these guidelines and expectations put every child/pioneer in a state of a constant examination. The research is based on a comparative approach, combining biographical methods (biographical interviews, personal memories and discourse analysis of other biographic data) and discourse analysis of archival school documents (chronicles and pioneer diaries), official documents of the Pioneer organizations, youth periodicals, influential during the socialist period. The empirical material is considered in terms of Foucault’s interpretation of the ‘exam’ as a possible analytical point of view.

Keywords: childhood, school, pioneer organization, (ritualized) body, socialism, Foucault’s concept of the ‘exam’

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