Breaking Stalin’s Nose

 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yelchin, Eugene. 2011. Breaking Stalin’s nose. Ill. by Eugene Yelchin.  New York, NY:  Henry Holt and Company, LLC. ISBN 9780805092165

 

2. PLOT SUMMARY

Sasha is a young boy growing up in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s control. His father works for State Security and is “one of the best” according to “Comrade Stalin”. His mother died under mysterious circumstances. During this era, citizens are bombarded with messages of Stalin’s greatness and enemies everywhere. If you can’t say with absolute certainty that someone isn’t an enemy they could be. “The ones who you’re not sure are reliable are the suspicious ones”. This creates fear and uncertainty that leads people (children included) to accuse others and confess to crimes they didn’t commit.

Sasha and his father are faithful and passionate communists that look forward to the day communism finally rules the country. He lives with 48 other people and his father in a communal living space until his father is arrested by State Security the night before the Pioneer rally when he finally becomes a Pioneer.

When Sasha goes to school the next day he accidentally knocks off the nose of a Stalin statue and this begins a search for the guilty party. Another student confesses and a teacher is accused. Sasha is shamed for his dad’s arrest and is invited to spy on the people that surround him to be invited into the Young Pioneers something Sasha realizes that he doesn’t want anymore. The novel ends with Sasha in a long line at Lubyakna prison waiting to see his dad.

 

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

 Sasha is an innocent little boy. You can tell that what he wants more than anything in the world is to make his father proud. That is a sentiment we can all relate to. Trusting the people you love, and wanting to make them happy. His unwavering commitment to communism is all that he’s ever known and doesn’t question it until his world begins to fall apart. Sasha trusts his father more than he trusts the system he grew up with. He defended him until the very end. Sasha’s father seems to be a devoted communist up until he’s taken to prison. He never gave Sasha any reason to think otherwise. His status as a State Security provided him no protection and gave the reader an idea of the things he must have done before he was arrested. He seems to trust the system to the point that his character is questioned in the end. Was he more faithful to a system than to his own wife? The conversations with his sister and State Security make the reader question who Sasha’s dad really is.

The fear that everyone felt is presented skillfully throughout the story. People are constantly being declared enemies and taken off to prison by State Security. The people are used to living in crowded community housing where everything is shared and can be heard. The schools also make it clear that no one is safe from suspicion. The blind acceptance of authority is unraveled and the dangers of it are revealed. The story moves quickly and the repeated propaganda throughout gives a little taste of what it must have been like to live in the USSR during that time.

The author shares a personal story/experience he had growing up in the Soviet Union. An experience that adds to the authenticity of the story. The author grew up around the time (closer to after the time) the story is being told and he shares the number of lives that were taken or upheaved by Stalin during his reign.

The black and white images used throughout the novel bring no comfort to the reader. They are filled with people that look like they are out to get you. Their eyes and their expressions are reason enough to suspect the worst. They add an extra element of fear to the story.

 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

ALA Notable Children's Books

Reviewed in Booklist: “In his first novel, he uses the child’s innocent viewpoint to dramatize the heartbreaking secrets and lies, and graphite illustrations show the terrifying arrests of enemies of the people, even children, like Sasha’s classmate.”

Starred review in Horn Book Magazine: “Appropriately menacing illustrations by first-time novelist Yelchin add a sinister tone. Although the story takes place over just two days, it is well paced, peeling off the layers of Sasha's naiveté to show him -- and young readers -- the cynicism of the system he trusted.”

Reviewed in Kirkus Reviews: “Yelchin's graphite illustrations are an effective complement to his prose, which unfurls in Sasha's steady, first-person voice, and together they tell an important tale. A story just as relevant in our world, "where innocent people face persecution and death for making a choice about what they believe to be right," as that of Yelchin's childhood.”

Reviewed in Library Media Connection: “There are few books written for young readers about the Stalinist era, but Yelchin's debut book does an excellent job showing how Stalin employed fear and terror. The children are encouraged to single out one or more of their fellow students for the crime, afraid that they themselves might become suspect. It is easy for the reader to identify with Sasha and his predicament.”

Reviewed in Publishers Weekly: “Readers will quickly pick up on the dichotomy between Sasha's ardent beliefs and the reality of life under Stalinism, and be glad for his ultimate disillusion, even as they worry for his future.”

Reviewed in School Library Journal: “This is an absorbing, quick, multilayered read in which predictable and surprising events intertwine. Velchin clearly dramatizes the dangers of blindly believing in anything.”

 

5. CONNECTIONS

*Invite students to write letters to Alice Roosevelt asking her any questions they still have about her life.

*Invite students to find information about Alice online and compare that information with what they found in the book.

*Other books written by Eugene Yelchin:

Yelchin, Eugene. The genius under the table: growing up behind the Iron Curtain. ISBN 9781536215526

Yelchin, Eugene. Arcady's goal. ISBN 9781250068149

Yelchin, Eugene. Spy runner. ISBN 9781250120816

Yelchin, Eugene. The haunting of Falcon House. ISBN 9781501931703