Communist Neverland: New Research on a Russian International Children's Home, 1933-1991

Activity Type: 
Lecture
Presenter: 
Elizabeth McGuire, California State East Bay
Date: 
Thursday, September 27, 2018 - 12:00
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Location: 
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Contact Phone: 
412-648-7407
Contact Email: 
crees@pitt.edu

From 1933 to 1991, Communist Party leaders from all over the world -- including Mao Zedong, Eugene Dennis, Josip Broz Tito, and many more from Latin America to Africa to the Middle East to the Far East -- sent their children to be educated in a single boarding school in Ivanovo, Russia. They were raised linguistically and culturally as Russians, often forgetting their native tongue. Many continue to feel enormous affection and nostalgia for the place they consider their true home, and travel across continents to attend reunions every five years. Based on archival documents, the school's own private archive, and dozens of interviews with alumni across the world, Communist Neverland is the tale of this remarkable school, which tells a new story about the people who dedicated their lives to world revolution.

UCIS Unit: 
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies
Global Studies Center
Other Pitt Sponsors: 
World History Center
Children’s Literature Program
Cultural Studies Program
World Regions: 
Europe and Russia