"Unlike a number of his other marches, Prokofiev in this case did not go down the path of grotesque or stylization. There is no element of puppetry here (as, for example, in Tchaikovsky's "March of the Wooden Soldiers"), the piece quite realistically depicts children marching. The children's “March”, Op. 65 was widely disseminated and became a favorite piece of the Russian piano repertoire for children."
(V. Delson, “Prokofiev's Piano Works and Pianism”)