The article is devoted to the analysis of the specifi city of the Soviet model of children’s culture at the early stage of its formation. Based on the ideas of V. Volkov regarding the key features of culture, approved in the 1930s - and S. Fitzpatrick regarding the levels of cultural exploitation by the Soviet people, the authors pay special attention to the culture of appearance as one of the main components of culture. On the basis of the publications’ analysis in the newspaper “Pionerskaya Pravda” (1934–1939) the main markers of culture, which include primarily accuracy and a sense of proportion, are revealed. A key requirements to the culture of appearance during that period was related to hygienic and ideological criteria, rather than to aesthetic component, which in fact was being interpreted as “ideologically unreliable”. It is concluded that the model of children’s culture of the 1930s to a large extent repeated the one adopted by the adults, but was limited to the basic level of culture development, involving adherence to the norms of basic hygiene, and therefore is more stable and rigorous.