Review: Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin

She walks up to me, puts her hands on my shoulders, and looks me straight in the eye.  “I have submitted a request to select you as a banner-bearer at today’s Pioneers rally, Zaichik.  Imagine how proud your father will be, seeing you carrying our red banner into the main hall.”  Then she makes a sad face and sighs.  “Of course, I may have to withdraw my request.  We don’t allow those who vote against the majority to handle the sacred banner.  You’re smart boy, Zaichik; you understand.”

Hands still raised, everyone stares at me.

“What will it be, Sasha?” she says quietly.  “For or against?”

I raise my hand.

(from Breaking Stalin’s Nose, page 60)

Sasha Zaichik is a 10-year-old boy living in Moscow.  His father works for the Soviet secret police and is a communist.  Sasha believes everything he has been told about communism; he treats state property as sacred, he shuns personal property, he loves Comrade Stalin, and he cannot wait to become a Young Pioneer.  He and his father live in a room in a komunalka, a communal apartment, with 46 other people, who keep their distance from Sasha’s father at a time when people are informing on one another and living in fear of being arrested.

On the night before he is to become a Young Pioneer and pledge his support for communism and Comrade Stalin, his father is arrested.  Of course, he thinks it’s a mistake, that once Stalin finds out his father is in jail, he will take steps to have him immediately released.  Poor Sasha knows so little about the world he lives in, but in the coming day, he will learn so much — the truth about his American mother’s death, for one thing — and be forced to make a choice.

Breaking Stalin’s Nose is a short but powerful book that introduces middle-grade readers to the communist Soviet Union through the eyes of a young boy who has been taught that communism is the right way and that the capitalistic society of the United States is wrong.  Eating a carrot is a luxury to Sasha, but he thinks he is lucky, believing that American children probably have never had something as wonderful as a carrot.  It is heartbreaking to watch his world come crumbling down, for it is never easy to come to terms with the truth.

Much of the book takes place in Sasha’s school on the day of the Young Pioneers rally.  Sasha’s father is supposed to be the guest of honor, putting on the students’ red scarves.  Sasha still believes his father will arrive.  Meanwhile, the teacher is very manipulative in her treatment of the students, separating the good communists from the “bad” students whose parents have been arrested and likely executed.  Students who have left the school because they or their parents were arrested have their faces blackened out in the class photo. When Stalin’s nose is broken, chaos erupts, and young readers will soon understand why the people lived in fear.

Eugene Yelchin knows what it was like to live in the Soviet Union, having had to make the decision to leave the country as a young man.  Breaking Stalin’s Nose, though fictional, is personal for him, and it shows in the passion of the narrative and his illustrations.  He does a good job providing a basic understanding of communism and enabling readers to feel the fear weighing upon the students and to understand Sasha’s confusion as he questions everything he was taught and truly believed.  It is an eye-opening book that shows the impact of propaganda, and though I felt there were several unanswered questions, I can see why it ended the way it did, as there were no answers for many people who lived under Stalin.  Breaking Stalin’s Nose is a 2012 Newbery Honor Book and should not be missed.

Book 11 for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Disclosure: I borrowed Breaking Stalin’s Nose from my local library. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.