In descriptions of wartime childhood, the predominant features of a heroic narrative took shape already during the war itself, and were consolidated in so-called “pioneer heroics”, in tales of the exploits of bold young scouts popular in the immediate postwar period. These narratives are commonly viewed as comprising the state-approved and ideologically charged canon adopted in literature for Soviet children. I would like to propose a somewhat different interpretation of how the “wartime childhood” canon came to be, an explanation that foregrounds the influence not so much of war prose or children’s exploits, but rather of wartime poetry for “grownups”, which in this period was conceptualizing a narrative model of wartime childhood that would be successfully adapted to children’s literature. My primary investigation deals with the “wartime childhood” discourse that developed synchronically with the conflict itself. As a working hypothesis, I would propose that three major pieces of wartime literature, aimed primarily at an adult audience, put forth three models of wartime childhood, or descriptions of three types of children: the young victim of the horrors of war; the full-fledged combat assistant or even participant; and, lastly, the child restored to his/her happy Soviet childhood, ipso facto perceived as a triumph of the political order. My considerations here are based on three particular literary works: Konstantin Simonov’s poem “Maior privez mal’chishku na lafete” (The Major Brought the Little Boy on a Gun-Carriage, 1941); Aleksandr Tvardovskii’s poem “Rasskaz tankista” (The Story of a Tank Crewman, 1942); and Valentin Kataev’s novella Syn polka (The Son of the Regiment, 1944). The theoretical model for my argument will be the concept, developed by Il’ia Kukulin, of the hidden (or “tectal”, from the Latin tectus, concealed) amalgam.