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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.L2
UDC 327.8 Submitted: 31.08.2023
LBC 66.4 Accepted: 03.11.2023
"MAY THERE ALWAYS BE SUNSHINE!": A SYMBOL OF CHILDHOOD IN SOVIET AND AMERICAN COLD WAR SONGS1
Tatiana B. Riabova
Herzen University, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Abstract. Introduction. The article is the first to study the use of the symbol of childhood by the USSR and the USA songs for the representation of Cold War issues. Methods and materials. Based on the methodology of constructivism, the author analyzes the reasons for the politicization of the image of childhood and the role of popular music as an instrument of symbolic politics. Qualitative content analysis is used to examine more than 400 songs of the USSR and the USA related to Cold War issues; about 70 of them use the symbol of childhood. The symbol of childhood in the Soviet song. A study of USSR songs demonstrates that images of children were an important component of the "cultural Cold War" on the musical front. The symbol of childhood in the American song. U.S. musical pieces contributed significantly to the legitimation of the Cold War and the construction of images of "us" and "them," including with the help of images of children. Results. The comparative analysis shows that in both the USSR and the USA, it was used to represent such issues as peace, war, security, nuclear weapons, freedom, justice, and the future of humanity. Not only did it create the image of the enemy, but it also deconstructed it by showing the similarity of the two nations in basic values, including attitudes toward children. In addition to the common features, songs in the USA and the USSR also reveal different characteristics. In the former, children are primarily the object of defense; in the latter, they are also subjects of politics and active fighters for peace. In the former, one can find negative images of childhood in the USSR; in the latter, young Americans are first and foremost children, just like everyone else. In the Soviet song, these images remain practically unchanged; in the American protest song, the symbol under study is used to delegitimize the policy of the authorities.
Key words: childhood, Cold War, political symbol, popular music, image of the enemy, international security.
Citation. Riabova T.B. "May There Always Be Sunshine!": A Symbol of Childhood in Soviet and American Cold War Songs. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4. Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2024, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 16-25. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu4.2024.L2
УДК 327.8 Дата поступления статьи: 31.08.2023
ББК 66.4 Дата принятия статьи: 03.11.2023
«ПУСТЬ ВСЕГДА БУДЕТ СОЛНЦЕ!»: СИМВОЛ ДЕТСТВА В СОВЕТСКИХ И АМЕРИКАНСКИХ ПЕСНЯХ ХОЛОДНОЙ ВОЙНЫ1
Татьяна Борисовна Рябова
Российский государственный педагогический университет им. А.И. Герцена, г. Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация
Аннотация. Введение. В статье впервые изучается использование песней СССР и США как символа детства для репрезентаций проблематики холодной войны. Методы и материалы. Основываясь на методологии конструктивизма, автор анализирует причины политизации образа детства, а также роль популярной музыки как инструмента символической политики. При помощи качественного контент-анализа исследова-Ю но более 400 песен СССР и США, связанных с проблематикой холодной войны; около 70 из них используют ^ символ детства. Символ детства в песне СССР. Исследование советской песни продемонстрировало, что образы детей были важным компонентом «культурной холодной войны» на музыкальном фронте. Символ детства в песне США. Музыкальные композиции вносили заметный вклад в легитимацию холодной войны @ и конструирование образов «своих» и «чужих», в том числе при помощи образов детей. Результаты. Срав-
нительный анализ показал, что и в СССР, и США его включали в репрезентации таких проблем, как мир, война, безопасность, ядерное оружие, свобода, справедливость, будущее человечества. С его помощью не только создавался образ врага, но и происходила деконструкция через показ сходства двух народов в базовых ценностях, включая отношение к детям. Помимо общих, выявлены и различные черты песни США и СССР. В первой дети - прежде всего объект защиты, во второй - это также субъекты политики, активные борцы за мир. В первой можно встретить негативные картины детства в СССР, во второй юные американцы - это, прежде всего, дети, такие же, как и все. В советской песне эти образы оставались практически неизменными, в американских песнях протеста исследуемый символ привлекается для делегитимации политики властей.
Ключевые слова: детство, холодная война, политический символ, популярная музыка, образ врага, международная безопасность.
Цитирование. Рябова Т. Б. «Пусть всегда будет солнце!»: символ детства в советских и американских песнях холодной войны // Вестник Волгоградского государственного университета. Серия 4, История. Регио-новедение. Международные отношения. - 2024. - Т. 29, №2 1. - С. 16-25. - (На англ. яз.). - DOI: https://doi.org/ ШЛ5688/ггоки4.2024.1.2
Introduction. The symbol of childhood is one of the most remarkable symbols of world culture. Emotionally intense, linked to myth, and appealing to the personal experience of each individual, it has long been in the arsenal of political propaganda. The symbol of childhood plays a prominent role in the legitimation of power, memory politics, identity politics, and other forms of symbolic politics. This symbol was particularly significant in the "struggle for hearts and minds" of the Cold War period, and its role in the Soviet-American confrontation is actively studied in Russian and foreign scholarship using cinema, literature, and posters as case studies [12; 13; 15; 17; 21; 22]. However, researchers have not yet turned to the analysis of such a source as a popular song. Meanwhile, the song as a type of mass culture was quite visible in the "cultural Cold War." For example, one of the hallmarks of song culture in the USSR was the song May There Always Be Sunshine! (Pust Vsegda Budet Solntse!, 1962, music by A. Ostrovsky, lyrics by L. Oshanin). Although this musical piece is nowadays perceived as a kind of symbol of children's cheerfulness, it simultaneously reflects the anxieties of the Cold War - first and foremost, the fear of a thermonuclear apocalypse.
The aim of the article is to explore how the symbol of childhood was used in Soviet and American songs to represent Cold War issues. In the first part of the paper, we will address the methodological issues of the study related to the politicization of the symbol of childhood and the use of song as an instrument of symbolic politics. Next, we will focus on analyzing how song images of children reflected the Soviet-American
confrontation and, in turn, strengthened or weakened it. We will conclude by answering the research questions, which can be formulated as follows:
- In the representation of which particular Cold War issues was this symbol most in demand?
- How were the song images of childhood associated with communist and anti-communist ideology?
- What were the dynamics of the reflection of Cold War issues in the songs of the USSR and of the USA during the period under study?
Finally, given the increasing attention in recent years to the need for comparative studies to understand the Soviet-American confrontation (e.g., [16; 20]), we will try to answer the question of the common and specific features of using childhood images in Soviet and American song representations of the Cold War.
Methods and materials. The connection between symbols and power relations determines their significance in political conflict [6]; this is also true for the symbol of childhood. The adult/ child opposition can be seen as one of the matrices of power: labeling an individual or a community as a child means demonstrating their lack of independence and justifying the need to control them [17].
The constructivist understanding of childhood emphasizes the socially determined, changeable, and contextually conditioned nature of ideas about children [3]. Noting the variability of the concept of "childhood" in different cultures and historical periods, nevertheless, it is possible to identify a certain set of meanings that are at least typical for Modernity. The common
characteristic of childhood is otherness in relation to the norm - the state of an adult, primarily an adult man [14]. In general, childhood symbolizes a not-quite-social existence that is closer to nature than to culture. The child is therefore destined to symbolize such qualities as non-self-sufficiency, subordination, and helplessness. Additionally, the child becomes an allegory of lack of experience; the child serves as an embodiment of the prioritization of emotion over reason, the inability to self-control, capriciousness, reverie, and ignoring the harsh realities of life; this is usually denoted by the term "infantilism." However, the Other is ambivalent: deviance has both negative and positive features. In positive contexts, the child's closeness to nature is a sign of true humanity; it refers to sincerity, superior wisdom, harmlessness, and peacefulness. Additionally, childhood is often seen as an allegory of carelessness and is correlated with the "Golden Age," a kind of "childhood of mankind." At the same time, children also represent the future; their images are associated with the hope of renewal, and in this sense, they symbolize the continuation of life, both collective and individual.
The value of young members of society for the future and the child's defenselessness determine the special status of children in the discourse of war and peace and the special duties of others toward them. Thus, the social role of the mother implies her unconditional care for her child; motherhood is associated with the social expectation of readiness to protect the child at any cost. The role of the man implies his function as a protector of those who need his help, which includes children. The most important component of the symbolic politics of military conflict is the image of the enemy, and children's symbols contribute to the construction of this image - above all, in representing the rivals as fighting against the weak, women and children, which makes it possible to portray the enemy as lacking not only nobility and mercy but also strength and courage (see [17; 24, p. 15]).
The paper examines the representations of childhood in the "cultural Cold War" using popular songs as a case study. Theodor W. Adorno, in his essay on popular music, contrasted it with "serious musical art," emphasizing two distinctive features: 1) standardization, which makes music more accessible for perception and thus less innovative
and aesthetically valuable; and 2) mass production, which turns popular music into a commercial product [1]. As well as sharing common features with other forms of mass culture, the song also has specific characteristics. First, it is interactivity: people not only listened to songs but also performed them and sometimes composed them. Then, it is a special emotionality. Next is the relative rapidity of creation and the speed of dissemination in society. Additionally, the song (or at least some of its subgenres) was less controlled by the authorities than, say, cinema. Finally, it is the synthetic nature of image creation in songs, the combination of poetic text and music (and with the emergence of music videos, they also combine footage), that makes songs a particularly effective tool of persuasion. At the same time, one should take into account the limitations associated with this: when creating ideological messages, the authors' choice of words is influenced both by the genre of music and the regularities of poetic creativity (rhymes, verse size, etc.) [18]. All these features of popular music are used in symbolic politics [19].
The array of information to be analyzed is the lyrics of Soviet and American songs (19461991), in which images of childhood are present in one form or another. The sampling was continuous. The material was collected on the specialized sites "Soviet Music," "Atomic Platters: Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security," "Songs of Cold Friendship," and others. In total, more than 400 songs by the USSR and the USA related to Cold War issues were found; about 70 of them use the symbol of childhood.
Qualitative content analysis was chosen as the research method. The semantic units in the study were the characteristics of children, childhood, and parenthood (counting units: peacefulness, sincerity, vulnerability, infantilization, activity, protection, and others).
The symbol of childhood in the Soviet song. It is difficult to overestimate the role that the mass song played in the life of a Soviet person. It was part of Soviet everyday life and at the same time served as a powerful weapon of propaganda (e.g., [9; 18]). The song affirmed the main Soviet values: the building of communism; love for the Soviet Motherland; loyalty to Lenin's precepts; the struggle for peace; collectivism; internationalism;
irreconcilability with exploiters; social optimism; equality; and justice.
Among the most famous pieces of music from the Cold War song culture are such compositions as We Are for Peace! (My za Mir, 1947, S. Tulikov; A. Zharov)2; The Migratory Birds Are Flying (Letiat Pereletnye Ptitsy, 1948, M. Blanter; M. Isakovsky); If the Guys of All the Earth! (Esli by Parni Vsei Zemli, 1957, V. Solovyov-Sedoi; Ye. Dolmatovsky); Do the Russians Want War (Khotiat li Russkie Voiny, 1962, E. Kolmanovsky; Ye. Yevtushenko); Hiroshima (1971, M. Magomayev; R. Rozhdestvensky); and Before It's Too Late (Poka ne Pozdno, 1983, A. Pakhmutova; N. Dobronravov); the songs that attracted the symbol of childhood can be divided into two groups. One group did not directly address the Cold War issues, but these compositions were important for the "struggle for hearts and minds." Being addressed primarily to children, they contributed to the political socialization of young citizens, introduced them to the Soviet system of values, and established ideological guidelines for them. Another group consisted ofthose musical pieces that dealt with the issues in the Soviet-American confrontation, such as the struggle for peace and the threat posed to children around the world by "enemy number one."
The image of the child was most actively used in the discourse of political mobilization, which was primarily associated with the struggle for peace. In the post-war USSR, the struggle for peace became a kind of calling card of its foreign policy and a cornerstone of its collective identity. The term "warmongers" served as one of the most important markers of the enemy; the images of children as the most defenseless and harmless inhabitants of the Earth were also used to expose them [15, p. 292; 16]. The securitization of the Cold War in Soviet propaganda was ensured in no small part by creating images of the danger that U.S. policy posed to children - first of all, the danger of unleashing a nuclear war. Already in the songs of the first postwar years, this theme becomes most prominent - for example: "The sun can't be obscured by a black cloud, / The bomb can't destroy the mighty world! / People of every country / Remember the fire of war. <...> We are led by the will of all ordinary people / And the struggle for the happy laughter of children" (Song of Peace and Friendship (Pesnia Mira i
Druzhby, 1950, V. Shainsky, M. Iordansky; M. Lisiansky)).
The legacy of the propaganda of World War II was widely used; the image of the enemy who was a child killer began to be used in representations of U.S. policy in various regions of the world from the very beginning of Cold War song history. Thus, the image of American soldiers committing crimes against children was common in Soviet media coverage of the war in Korea (see, e.g., [8]); it was also reflected in A Ballad of the Korean Soldier (Ballada o Koreiskom Soldate, 1951, V. Muradeli; G. Rublev).
The story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who died of radiation sickness at the age of 12 in Hiroshima, resonated with the hearts of Soviet schoolchildren. The song Japanese Crane (Yaponskii Zhuravlik, 1971, S. Tulikov, V. Lazarev), dedicated to the story of the young Japanese girl, does not mention Hiroshima. However, the story of Sadako, who became a symbol of opposition to nuclear warfare, was well known in the USSR, also thanks to Mark Donskoy's film Hello, Children! (Zdravstvuite, Deti!, 1962), which was dedicated to her and which includes the phrase "Hiroshima is the slap in the face that the Americans inflicted on the humankind".
Another song also has cinematic analogues, in which the theme of the threat to childhood is presented in a special aspect: the enemy threatens the identity of Soviet children and tries to impose an alien psychology on them. The movie They Have a Motherland (U Nikh est Rodina, directed by Aleksandr Faintsimmer and Vladimir Legoshin, 1949) is about how the American and British secret services try to prevent Soviet children who were taken to Germany during the war from returning to the USSR. At the same time, they try to cripple the souls of Soviet children, to turn them into people with no tribe, and to make them forget about their Motherland in order to use them as cannon fodder in imperialist wars. The pathos of the movie was to call for Soviet children to never know the horrors of war. The song Smolensk boy Ivan (Smolenskii Malchishka Ivan, 1961, A. Osnovikov; L. Derbenev) also tells about young citizens of the USSR who, against their will, found themselves in a foreign land after the war. It creates an expressive image of a boy who, "alienated from
Russia by the war", wanders around "cold New York", looks "at the unfriendly sky" and believes the learned, "alien" foreign words that he no longer has a homeland. The boy there is "intimidated", "he hunches in silence", and "for years of wandering, he is exhausted, worn out, and used / To greeting each other with his left hand, / And putting his right hand in his pocket...". The song, however, leaves the hope that Ivan will realize that "he has a homeland" and return home.
In addition to the enemy image, the songs dedicated to the threat to childhood also created another image that was so necessary in the "struggle for hearts and minds" - the image of the Soviet soldier who was the defender of childhood. In the song, performed by the Alexandrov Ensemble, it is said: "When soldiers sing / Children sleep peacefully" (When Soldiers Sing (Kogda Poiut Soldaty, 1963, Yu. Milyutin, M. Lisyansky)). It is noteworthy that the Soviet soldier is the guardian of world peace; he protects not only Soviet children but also all young inhabitants of the Earth. The martial labor of Soviet soldiers is aimed at ensuring that there will never be a war. This idea runs through the entire history of the Soviet Cold War song [18]. The Song about the Mother-Planet (Pesnia o Materi-Planete, 1986, A. Pakhmutova, N. Dobronravov) begins with the words: "An immortal symbol of a formidable battle, / As a memory of the past in the centuries / The soldier-savior in Treptower Park / Stands with a child in his arms". Indeed, a girl saved by the soldier presented on the Soviet War Memorial (1949, Yevgeny Vuchetich) is supposed to symbolize that the Soviet Army is not a conqueror but a liberator of all the peoples of Europe, including the Germans. The song refers to the Soviet Army as a "good force". The use of the symbol under study in this song is interesting in another aspect: there should be no war, because all people are children of one mother, the Earth.
However, the struggle for peace is not just the duty of soldiers. In the song May There Always Be Sunshine!, the words "against trouble, against war / let's stand up for our boys" are addressed to all "people of good will"3. Moreover, the struggle for peace is the duty of children themselves. They are not only the object but also the subject of politics; it is their efforts that determine whether the planet Earth will be preserved. This interpretation becomes possible
because the Soviet song attracts not only such a component of the semantics of childhood as the vulnerability of the child but also other characteristics, including peacefulness and vigor.
Children become active fighters for peace; this theme runs through the entire history of the Soviet Cold War song (e.g., in Our Appeal (Nash Prizyv, 1951, E. Zharkovskii, M. Ruderman), Peace Street (UlitsaMira, 1981, A. Pakhmutova, N. Dobronravov). The song Question (Vopros, 1981, A. Pakhmutova, R. Rozhdestvensky) is also notable for the fact that in it children initiate activities to preserve peace; they themselves address adults with a question about what they are doing to prevent war: "You answer us, / Adults! <...> Is it true / That we can't even grow up / Become adults in time? // Is it true / That on our planet / Up to the sky / Atomic wind will rise? <...> Make people friends! / Save the Earth, / Adults!".
A number of studies show that the specificity of the images of Soviet children in Soviet culture was that they were endowed with considerable independence and responsibility (e.g., [13]). It is noteworthy, however, that the song also attributes active participation in the struggle for peace to children from other countries. Thus, Gift to Stalin from a Girl from Vietnam (Podarok Stalinu ot Devochki iz Vyetnama, 1952, Z. Levina, G. Rublev) tells of a young Vietnamese girl who prepares a gift to the Soviet leader, embroidering his portrait on a banner.
Another major theme in the Soviet song was the protest against racial discrimination and the affirmation of the equality of all children. The ideas of internationalism and solidarity were embodied in the language of pioneers in the concept of friendship [5], which has a universal character, as for example in the Song About Pioneer Friendship (Pesnia o Pionerskoi Druzhbe, 1960, V. Loktev, O. Vysotskaia): "There are no barriers to this friendship, / The pioneer is a brother to all children. / White-skinned, swarthy-faced people should be firm friends / Everyone is glad to be friends".
It is remarkable that American children also contribute to the cause of peace; there is no hostility toward young Americans in the songs. In the song Under the Banner of Peace (Pod Znamenem Mira, 1951, M. Starokadomskii, O. Vysotskaia), addressed on behalf of Soviet
pioneers to children of other countries, along with children from China and India, Vietnam, and France, the authors also mention Americans and the British: "Children of New York, / Children of London, / Children of all nations living in the world - / Rows of friends are growing. / The peaceful banner is flying above us, / Everybody should strengthen and, / Defend / Peace and labor".
The most famous image of an American child in the Soviet song is that of Samantha Smith, a schoolgirl who came to the USSR in 1983 on a peace mission at the invitation of the Soviet government. Several songs were dedicated to her. The Big Children's Choir responded almost immediately with the composition Girl Samantha Writes (Pishet Devochka Samanta, 1983, Iu. Chichkov, M. Plyatskovsky). The children's show group "Samantha", created in 1986 in Leningrad, also dedicated a song to the young peace ambassador.
The symbol of childhood in the American song. The Soviet-American confrontation also left a deep mark on American song culture. Throughout the period under study, songs dedicated to Cold War issues were written in the USA [19]. Artists working in a variety of styles, including country, soul, jazz, rock and roll, heavy metal, and disco, produced them. As for the political orientation of the songs, they were first and foremost part of the Cold War discourse [23]. The songs were aimed at legitimizing the Cold War by assigning certain meanings to its events and evoking certain emotional attitudes toward them, with political issues being explained in a form accessible to a mass audience.
The songs promoted the values of the American way of life; praised the power of the U.S. Armed Forces, the determination of the country's leaders, and the leadership of the USA in the "free world"; exposed the danger of communism and the threat of the "Reds" seizing power in America; and demonstrated the suffering of the "peoples enslaved by communism". In McCarthyist America, the songs were the object of intense scrutiny by the authorities and right-wing social organizations (such as the American Legion). For example, the Red Channels report (1950), devoted to exposing communist influence among cultural figures in the USA, included information on figures not only in
film but also in music culture (e.g., Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson [2]). The 1960s saw the rise of protest songs that criticized the U.S. administration's reckless international policies that could lead to a nuclear apocalypse, racial discrimination, the Vietnam War, and social inequality. As noted by Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, especially in the 1960s, the best popular songs identified social problems, offered explanations, and provided a sense of belongingness by "making use of more emotive language and rhythms" [7, p. 138].
Returning to the problem of the use of the symbol of childhood, we note first of all that in the USA, as in the USSR, the leading theme was the protection of the child, appealing to such an element of the semantics of childhood as vulnerability. This made it possible to explicate the threat to the US A and the entire human civilization posed by "enemy number one". Thus, the band "The Charades" in their song Hammers and Sickles (Make Very Poor Toys) (1966, H. Jackson Brown) warned listeners that their "country's in danger" and expressed readiness to fight for it, explaining that communism seeks to destroy freedom and thus deprive the future of its children: "Hammers and sickles on banners of red / Hammers and sickles would see freedom dead / Our children's tomorrow they'd like to destroy / Yes, hammers and sickles make very poor toys!".
The danger of communism to the USA is shown through images of the horrors of childhood in the USSR. Such images not only signaled the superiority of the American way of life in general but also helped to legitimize the Cold War by showing that it was being fought to prevent this from happening to American children. The "Reds" were accused of seeking to abolish the family; it was argued that the state was actually taking children away from their parents and turning them into little robots, loyal to the authorities [15, pp. 51-60].
A song with the remarkable title The Fiery Bear (1950, S. Thompson, J. Ozark, performed by Tex Ritter) castigates the immorality and godlessness of the Soviet regime ("They know not the terms or the Bible's words / They laugh at the Golden Rule") and emphasizes that Soviet schools do not teach this to children.
Another song released during these years was They Locked God Outside the Iron Curtain (1952, B. Crandall, E. Ellis, performed by country
singer Little Jimmie Dickens). It also exploits the negative image of childhood in the USSR. It begins with the words, "There's a land where little children cannot play / And the people have forgotten how to pray". The Soviet nation itself is characterized as "full of hate and full of fear / Where a man must whisper so no one can hear".
The attitude toward "enemy number one" propagated by these works can be seen in the song Kennedy and Khrushchev by Mighty Sparrow (1963): "World wide communism they want to spread / But me mother said she rather dead / Than live in a world of communism".
At the same time, not all Americans were ready to follow the "better dead than red" rule. The fear of a nuclear apocalypse was used in the internal political struggle [10], and it also involved the symbol of childhood. Thus, the famous Daisy commercial, released during the 1964 presidential election by Lyndon B. Johnson's team against his rival, the "hawk" Barry Goldwater, was based on the contrast of images of a little girl in a flowering meadow and the mushroom of a nuclear explosion. Protecting children from nuclear war is also a prominent theme in the protest songs. "You've thrown the worst fear / That can ever be hurled / Fear to bring children / Into the world / For threatening my baby / Unborn and unnamed / You ain't worth the blood / That runs in your veins" -such accusations are contained in one of the most famous anti-war songs, Masters of War (1963) by Bob Dylan.
The Vietnam War provided a strong impetus for protest songs. Well-known songs such as IAin't Marching Any More by Phil Ochs (1965), Eve of Destruction (1965, Ph.G. Sloan, performed by Barry McGuire), and I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag (1967, rock band Country Joe and the Fish) reflected the outrage of Americans, whose children were sent to Vietnam to die for the sake of unknown goals, while the children of the political and financial elite were not sent to war (Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)).
In the 1960s, music videos with songs began to be released; video images that carried additional meanings became part of musical compositions. In the context of our study, the composition Unknown Soldier by The Doors (1968) is of particular interest: it would be wonderful if the war were over - this idea is illustrated, among
other things, by the image of happily laughing children - their future is saved.
The immorality of the war was also demonstrated through images of the suffering of Vietnamese children, an issue that could not leave people around the world indifferent. One of the most famous visual documents of the Vietnam War was a 1972 photograph by Nick Ut, The Terror of War, which shows a little Vietnamese girl burned by napalm (see more details: [4]). In 1972, the song Napalm Sticks to Kids by the Covered Wagon Musicians was released. It satirizes the worldview of those U.S. soldiers who commit crimes against Vietnamese children: "We shoot the sick, the young and lame / We do our best to kill and maim / Because the kills all count the same / Napalm sticks to kids. <...> But what we really like is the children fried <...> / Try killin' one that's pregnant, son / You'll get two for the price of one / Napalm sticks to kids".
Among the most famous compositions protesting against the killing of children by Americans in Vietnam are The Side of a Hill by P. Simon (1965), Alice's Restaurant Massacree by A. Guthrie (1967) (for more details about this song see: [11, p. 362]), and Hey, Hey LBJ(1967) by B. Fredericks. The latter song is notable not only because it contains a phrase popular during anti-war rallies addressed to L.B. Johnson ("Hey, hey LBJ! / How many kids did you kill today?"), but also for another form of using the symbol of childhood in politics - the symbolic infantilization of the opponent, presenting the U.S. politicians themselves as children who play war. However, their infantilism is too costly for humanity: "We're gonna take your toys away and bring our soldiers home now".
The escalation of the situation in international relations in the early 1980s was accompanied by a new round of anti-war movements, which were reflected in many songs. They use the symbol of childhood in rather traditional meanings for antiwar songs, as in the composition When the Children Cry (1987) by White Lion. The arms race itself also provokes protest: billions are spent on war, while in many countries of the world, children do not have enough to eat (for example, So Afraid of the Russians (1983) by J. Cale).
What is new is the emergence of anti-war songs that are written specifically for children. The song One Crane by S. Stotts (1989) is about
the story of Sadako, a Japanese girl; it echoes the Soviet songs in many ways. Take Me with You! by P. Alsop (1986) is also based on the idea that children in all countries are equally peace-loving, which gives hope for a better world without wars: "People come in diff'rent sizes / Colors, shapes and names / Tho' we're diff'rent on the outside/ Inside I think we're the same! <...> We can be strong without our bombs / It's time that all the bombs were banned. / Kids like us live everywhere / Around the world, in ev'ry land / The words we speak are not the same / But Peace on Earth we understand".
The same desire to use the symbol of childhood to show that, despite their differences, people from different countries share the same basic values also characterizes Sting's song Russians (1985); the conviction that "the Russians love their children too" gives the author reason to hope that nuclear warfare can be avoided.
The second half of the 1980s, during the Soviet Perestroika period, saw the appearance of several songs that also emphasized the similarities between children in the USSR and the USA. The most famous of these, the autobiographical song Leningrad (1989) by Billy Joel, written after the singer's concerts in the USSR, highlights the similarity of the experience of being a child of the Cold War, whether in the USSR or in the USA. The song is about two children. One of them is Joel himself, "A Cold War kid born in McCarthy time", hid in a shelter during the Cuban Missile Crisis and watched his friends go off to war that was fought in the name of unclear goals ("And I watched my friends go off to war What do they keep on fighting for?"). Another is a Soviet boy, Viktor, a "child of sacrifice", a "child of war". He was born in Leningrad in 1944, never saw his father, and his life in the USSR was very sad. Billy and Viktor managed to become friends, and the song ends with the words, "We never knew what friends we had / Until we came to Leningrad".
Results. To sum up, we can say that the ability of the symbol of childhood to evoke a strong emotional response causes a constant interest in it on the part of political actors, which manifests itself in various forms of symbolic politics. This symbol is a significant component of the "cultural Cold War"; in both the USSR and the USA, it was employed to represent such issues as peace,
war, security, nuclear weapons, freedom, justice, and the future of humanity. This is expressed in such a front of the "cultural Cold War" as the song, which has both common features with other types of mass culture and specific ones: interactivity, special emotionality, rapidity of creation, and speed of dissemination in society, to name just a few. By actively involving the symbol of childhood, songs helped to construct the image of the enemy as different from "us", inferior in every way, and yet deadly. The symbol had the highest demand in war and peace representations because it embodied traits such as vulnerability and peacefulness, commonly associated with children.
The above-mentioned features are characteristic of both Soviet and American songs. In terms of differences, the former was characterized by representations of children as subjects of politics and as active fighters for peace. This, on the one hand, reflected the normative image of Soviet children in the ideology as young builders of communism. On the other hand, this was due to the fact that a huge layer of Soviet song culture was made up of songs for children. In American songs, however, children are first and foremost the object of defense.
Further, negative images of childhood in the USSR can be found in American songs of the McCarthyism period, which contributed to the inclusion of Soviet children in the enemy image. In the Soviet songs, young Americans are, first and foremost, children, just like everyone else (while negative images of childhood in the USA can also be found in other forms of USSR mass culture, such as movies and cartoons [15; 16]).
Finally, another difference concerns the dynamics of images of childhood in relation to Cold War issues over the course of almost half a century of Soviet-American confrontation. In the Soviet song, where the ideological component was the determining factor, these images remained virtually unchanged. In the American song, which was more oriented toward entertainment and commercial success and therefore more reflective of mass sentiments in society, the variability was greater; in protest songs, the symbol under study is used to delegitimize the policies of the authorities.
To conclude the article, the symbol of childhood not only created the image of the enemy
but also deconstructed it. When it was necessary to emphasize the similarity of the two peoples, attention was drawn to the fact that they share basic values, including the attitude toward children.
NOTES
1 This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant No. 23-2801414, https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-01414/ (Herzen University, Saint-Petersburg).
Работа выполнена при поддержке Российского научного фонда по гранту № 23-28-01414, https:// rscf.ru/project/23-28-01414/ (РГПУ им. А.И. Герцена, г. Санкт-Петербург).
2 Hereinafter, when describing a song, the author of the music is first indicated, followed by the author of the lyrics.
3 Soon after releasing this famous composition, in 1963, a documentary of the same name was produced (dir. N. Solovyieva); it was devoted to the World Congress of Women that was held in Moscow in June 1963. A woman is a mother, first of all, and she is always for peace, the film stresses. The film likens the US crimes in Southeast Asia to crimes committed by Nazis in WWII; the reason for wars, however, is "greedy interests of monopolies"; mothers - not only Soviet but also American - are against war. One scene shows how in New York City, American mothers break up with their sons called to military service: "We will not let them go! You are playing in atomic war, fathers of capital!", "Is that why we raise our children?". It is significant that not only the mothers but also the recruits themselves, young boys, are shown in such a way as to arouse the Soviet viewer's sympathy and not hatred. The film ends with a scene of all the delegates singing May There Always Be Sunshine!
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Information About the Author
Tatiana B. Riabova, Doctor of Sciences (Sociology), Professor, Department of Political Science, Herzen University, reki Moiki Emb., 48, 191186 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0001 -5270-7911
Информация об авторе
Татьяна Борисовна Рябова, доктор социологических наук, профессор кафедры политологии, Российский государственный педагогический университет им. А.И. Герцена, наб. реки Мойки, 48, 191186 г. Санкт-Петербург, Российская Федерация, [email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5270-7911
