Social Issues in Ludmila Ulitskaia’s Children’s Book Series: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (3)
Andrei Usachev’s The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Retold for Children and Adults (2008) is a marvelous fairy tale about a Little Man who lives in a little house with a little garden. One day the Little Man discovers The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the public library, reads it, and from that moment on, realizes that there is nothing wrong with his being little. This discovery changes his life and gradually, he begins to change the lives of others by telling them about their universal rights regardless of their differences. They may be big, small, green, red, fat, illiterate, poor, men or women, but they are all equal, and once they realize that, they can become friends and change the world for the better.
Post-Soviet society has been described as “passive, atomized, and unprotected from its own state.” [i] It is a society in which the “basic trust” in oneself and others has been destroyed and solidarity is almost impossible. Who to accept? Who to reject? Which cultural, social, or political practices to follow? These and many other questions are unanswered still for the majority of Russian children and adults. In the atmosphere of a continuing cultural and social identity crisis, Ulitskaia’s series comes as a great facilitator for understanding the need for trust, cultural integration, diversity, solidarity, and other virtues of a socially progressive state. All the books in Ulitskaia’s series, regardless of their topic, send one message: “Although people are not alike, they should recognize their differences and learn not to fear them.”
Reviewed by Larissa Rudova
[i] “Sotsiologiia homo post-soveticu’s?” Conference paper. Ziegmund Freud University, Vienna. 19-22 March, 2009.