Dictatorial tactics in history, Anthem, and today
There are many examples of governments seperating children from families in books, history, or even the modern day. Lenin employed this tactic in Soviet Russia, as did the councils in Ayn Rand’s Anthem, it even occurs in the modern day United States. In many dictatorial societies, leaders will separate children from their families. The government does this for a number of reasons. In Soviet Russia, government leaders would separate children from their parents at young ages to train them to be agents of the government, in Ayn Rand’s Anthem, the government would do this so that the children would feel more connected to the government than any one person, and in the modern day United States, ICE will separate children from families as a deterrent to prevent future border crossings.
In Cold War-era Russia, Vladimir Lenin, and later his successor Joseph Stalin, would take young children for government positions or roles in the KGB, a Russian spy organization. The Russian government created these groups to groom children for life in the Communist Party from a young age. There were three main groups that did this: KOMSOMOL (ages 14-28), the Pioneers (ages 9-14), and the Little Octobrists (ages 8 and below). By convincing these children to support the Communist party from a young age, Lenin never had to worry about a revolution, in fact, to join one of these groups, the children would have to recite the following pledge: “I, (last name, first name), joining the ranks of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization, in the presence of my comrades solemnly promise: to love and cherish my Motherland passionately, to live as the great Lenin bade us, as the Communist Party teaches us, and as required by the laws of the Young Pioneers of the Soviet Union.” (Dmitriev, Oleg. “Of Russian Origin: Pioneers.” Russia after the Soviet Union – Russiapedia Russian History, RT, https://russiapedia.rt.com/of-russian-origin/pioneers). At ages as young as six and seven, these children would have to take a pledge to Lenin and the Communist Party.
Another reason why governments will separate children from parents at birth is so that leaders can teach children to be loyal to the government from a young age. The government of the society in Anthem, as well as in many dictatorial societies, teaches children from a young age that the government is always right. In fact, in Anthem, the government essentially raises every child. By separating children from their parents it stops parents from passing down revolutionary thoughts to children and delays any build up of support for a revolution. In the society of Anthem, children start in the Home of the Infants, and then at the age of five they are “sent to the H...
