The article is a comparative analysis of three films focusing on anti-religious
and religious propaganda (targeting both Orthodoxy and sectarianism) and
featuring children among the main characters: The Miracle Worker (1960), Armageddon
(1962) and Serafima’s Extraordinary Journey (2015). The three films
feature a similar set of characters and artifacts which serve as the springboard for the
unfolding of the individual plots. However, the techniques used in the characters’
portrayal are very different in each of the films, leading to contrasting outcomes. This
article explores the way the characters are portrayed, including the use of discursive
strategies and intertextual mechanisms, with special emphasis given to the propaganda
characteristic of the different periods in the country’s history. It highlights the reversal
of values between Soviet and post-Soviet societies, resulting in a drastic change in the
didactic messages conveyed by cinema over these 50? years.

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• Let the Little Children Come to Me’’: (Anti-)Religious Films for Young Spectators of the Soviet and PostSoviet Period