The Observer (UK) 24 November 2002 Barbie is banned from Russia, without love The doll's outrageous curves are corrupting the minds of children, says President Putin who wants to promote 'wholesome' values instead, reports Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
An unfeasably busty plastic doll, known for her lavish tastes and docile boyfriend, is an unlikely enemy of the Russian state. But Barbie, along with a host of Western toys, faces the wrath of the Kremlin for contaminating the young minds of Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Education has included Barbie along with a list of other toys and games, such as Pokémon, that face a ban because of the supposedly harmful effects they have on the minds of young children. Barbie, in particular, is under fire because the doll is thought to awaken sexual impulses in the minds of the very young, and encourage consumerism among Russian infants.
The move will be seen as part of the Kremlin's attempts to control the sense of identity of young Russians. Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to foster ideals of family and patriotism alongside the belief that Russia was, and can be again, a great imperial power.
The Ministry sent a request to the Russian Government this month to create a special commission to examine the psychological effects of toys and games which provoke aggression, fear and 'premature sexual manifestations'.
An Education Ministry document says: 'The Russian market is overwhelmed with different toys of foreign production, part of which is damaging for children and is not destined for use of small children.'
One of the principal causes for concern, government sources have said, is Barbie, a runaway success for Western-orientated children growing up amid a blossoming Russian retail trade.
Under a plan reminiscent of the harsh controls imposed on children's toys during Soviet times, a number of criterion have been pinpointed, asking whether the toy 'provokes aggression, or cruelty towards other players,' if it contains 'themes of immorality and violence, or provokes unhealthy interest in sexual problems,' or if it inspires 'disdain or negativity to the racial peculiarities and physical inadequacies' of other people.
A council of experts was created in December, whose first results decreed that Pokémon cards, which have gained the same cult status in Russian playgrounds as in those of Britain, must be altered, removing orders on the cards bidding children, or Pokémon characters, to poison or kill other Pokémon characters. The decree also demanded the cards be translated into Russian, the latter move seen as an attempt to protect the mother tongue from Western infection.
Yet Russian psychologists have rounded on the moves against Barbie, saying the accusations are unfounded. Sociologist and children's psychologist Natalia Grishayeva said: 'People are writing that Barbie stimulates early sexual interest, but no scientific tests have been done. TV, films, Russian magazines for teenagers and porn on the Internet are truly responsible for this. This is where state regulation must be.'
But she acknowledges that Barbie dominates the Russian toy market. 'Barbie has removed all other kinds of doll. It is being bought for two- to four-year-old children when it is meant for seven- to eight-year-old girls.'
Grishayeva said Barbie could spoil early development in a child and may be foisting Western paranoia about slim figures on Russian females at an early age. 'The doll creates a particular idea about body image,' she added. 'Young children try to correspond and dreaming of growing up to be two metres tall, with slim hips, and huge breasts. My advice to Barbie producers would be to offer lots of different body types.'
The government answer to Barbie, Ken, and their assorted paraphernalia, has been Natasha and Dima. Boris Bukharov, Deputy Director of Science at the Moscow Institute of Toys, said: 'They were recently put into production, along with a daughter, a friend and a complete set of furniture.' He admitted: 'Our dolls still suffer from a lack of glamour and diversity.'
Natasha and Dima are the latest in a long series of Russian replacements for their popular Western counterparts. After a three-year ousting from television by the Teletubbies, the beloved Fila the dog, Khrusha the pig, and Stepashka the hare returned to Russian televisions last year, due to popular demand. Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Santa Claus, reigned large in Russia, until Russian authorities produced Dyed Moros, Grandfather Frost, who usurped the man from Lapland with his own legend in which a figure based on the Russian Saint Nicholas lives in Veliki Ustiuk, in northern Russia.
The Kremlin has recently tried to extend its control over other fields of Russian entertainment, the Ministry of Culture announcing that vital state funding would be given in preference to films of a patriotic nature. The state film industry has suggested limiting the number of Hollywood films aired in Russia. Putin is also considered close to creating a post for a high-profile Minister of Youth, to steer Russia's youth towards his set of 'wholesome' ideals.