Acknowledgements: The study was supported by the joint research project FICUSOV 1917–1941 (Financing of Soviet Culture) — CNRS–UMR Eur’ORBEM. Project completed in 2021.

Abstract:

In the USSR of the 1920s and 1930s, the democratization of children’s books was based on three phenomena: the boom in picture books along with extensive and intensive growth. The first part of this article traces the evolution of these phenomena in the economic environment and details their relation with editorial policies to uncover how the effort of democratization was intertwined with the definition of the Soviet children’s book. The second part of this study reveals how the contexts surrounding the popularization of children’s books defined the working conditions of illustrators and the ways of thinking about methods of remuneration. It examines the criteria on which the remuneration of graphic artists was based and how the amounts offered reflected their recognition. In conclusion, this article contributes to research devoted to the status of the artist in the USSR by showing how the recognition of the graphic artist evolved and how the system established in the 1930s laid the foundations for the illustrative activity of the 1960s, when certain visual artists saw it as a financial refuge.