State Religion

In The Painted Bird, the boy's time with the Soviet soldiers greatly changes him. The contact with people that finally treat him well allows him to trust them and they become his mentors. This is the first time such a relationship is seen in the book and they basically indoctrinate him with Communist ideals. The abandonment of conventional religion is ironic considering that the political ideology shown is equally based on faith. Stalin takes on a god-like position and Communism is shown to take the place of religion. That replacement is now political, not theological.

The boy's indoctrination is very important to his development as this is the first time he is treated as an equal. The ideology is no doubt void of an individual's free will or liberties but the boy has had no luck with that anyway so he takes no notice. There is the promise of power and this attracts the boy since he has been powerless for so long. His devotion to religion and magic in the past was rooted in the desire to advance himself or to hurt others that hurt him. It didn't stem from faith or sincerity at all.

This past newspaper article details the harsh indoctrination of children in the USSR. The boy was "educated" in a rather mild form compared to many children growing up in this era and subsequent decades.