Children in the Soviet Union suffered horribly during World War II. Conditions created by an invading enemy and policy decisions by state authorities contributed to traumatic experiences for the young, experiences that were captured in officially-sanctioned images and narratives during the war. This talk will describe typical childhood trauma in the wartime USSR, offer examples of Soviet images that depicted children in wartime, and explore ways in which state authorities used these representations of children’s suffering for audiences young and old, during and after the war.