“Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary”

One of the first exhibits to grace the University of Chicago’s new Mansueto Library, "Adventures in the Soviet Imaginary" fills a glossy white cube with children’s books from 1930s Russia. The wall text tells us these were a primary propaganda tool for Stalin’s regime, which seems oddly idyllic when popping out from  minimalist, artful pages. To better understand this contradiction, we would like more translations of the books’ words (most interpretive text skews toward academic theorizing). But sans English words, the picture books do their job—sucking us in to Stalin’s five-year plan, bread factories and the boy hero–led collective good.