Between nostalgia and trauma: Representation of Soviet childhood in the museums of Latvia

To analyse and reveal the representation of Soviet childhood in museums of Latvia, we formulated three research questions: (1) Which museum materialities in the post-Soviet space can be considered symbols of the Soviet era, i.e, representations of childhood under the Soviet dictatorship? (2) Who and how constructs and tells the stories of museum exhibits? (3) How do historians of education put into perspective the stories told by materialities exhibited in the public space? In 2019, an electronic survey was conducted in 100 Latvian museums and, based on the list of material objects compiled and commented by 46 respondents, we constructed and interpreted three Soviet-era childhood narratives, namely: (1) the ordinary childhood represented by traditional childhood attributes; (2) the ideologized childhood represented by the symbolism of communist youth organizations; and (3) the hidden childhood, represented by museum exhibits, where a meaning that in Soviet times was understood only by the inner circle or "insiders" is encoded. The stories of Soviet childhood in today's public space are mediated, firstly, through biographies of things and, secondly, through memories, feelings and attitudes that things provoke and awaken. The museums of Latvia are impartial in their story of Soviet childhood, and tell it emphasizing its educational function, leaving the search for different identities, assessment and discovery of contradictions to the visitors themselves.