Acknowledgements
I wish to extend my thanks to Brill’s editorial team, and especially to Ivo Romein and Marti Huetink, for initiating this project and seeing it to completion. A newcomer to the field, I am indebted to Larissa Rudova and Marina Balina, two outstanding scholars of Soviet children’s culture, who welcomed this volume with enthusiasm, served as my guides and mentors, and helped bring our dynamic group of scholars together. My gratitude also goes to the volume’s authors for their talented contributions, incredibly scrupulous and patient revisions, and valuable criticism, and to Oleg Minin, for his thorough edits. The book would not have been possible without a Research Grant from the American Association of Children’s Literature, which helped to offset translation costs and editorial expenses, as well as research funds generously supplied by Bard College, my academic home and also an intellectual and artistic haven that constantly inspires scholarly projects like this one. Having spent many hours at the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, I cannot but express my admiration for its preservation of rare books and manuscripts, periodicals and graphic art pertaining to the pre-Soviet, Soviet, and Post-Soviet children’s literature and film, and the librarians’ eagerness to help with difficult research questions. Throughout these years of team-building, essay-writing, editorial regrouping, and endless improvements, my family has been understanding, supportive, provocative, and fun. Mom, dad, and Martin, this book is dedicated to you, with love.