This article explores the role preschools played in state politics aimed at the family in Soviet Russia. The study is inspired by Foucault’s theory on governmentality and is based on an analysis of Doshkolnoe vospitanie, the largest Soviet magazine on preschool education. This article shows that Soviet children were analyzed scientifically and that parents in Soviet Russia were not freed from the responsibilities of bringing up and educating their children. The central function of preschools was to remind the parents of their responsibilities and to control their performance of them.