Life in the Soviet Block
Inspiration Book:
Breaking Stalin’s nose by Yelchin, Eugene - Henry Holt, p2011, c2011 --Fic--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 5.7. In the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, ten-year-old Sasha idolizes his father, a devoted Communist, but when police take his father away and leave Sasha homeless, he is forced to examine his own perceptions, values, and beliefs.
Rationale: Another tough title because students have so little background, much less understanding of the old Soviet Union, communism, the Cold War--that’s all very 50s and 60s, and our kids don’t study that in elementary or even middle school unless they happen to have a rogue teacher who is interested or passionate about the differences between life in the Soviet bloc and life in the West. The topic is so necessary for our kids to know about, however. Use it as a read aloud to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and the basis for discussion about freedoms, prosperity, and government. This book is so important to have students hear that I would simply insert the book among my read alouds, but if a curriculum connection must be made, include it in world history lessons about contemporary issues or within the language arts curriculum in a unit about propaganda and rhetorical devices.
Grades 6-8--Life Behind The Wall
Background: Author/ illustrators who escaped communism have used their life experiences to expose the way of life in the Red Bloc countries. The communists would have one believe that life was wonderful only in their countries, but...There are many resources for the teacher found under Teacher Resources. Here I sketch an outline for a simple class read aloud not a curriculum connection. It’s a short book, only 140 smallish pages. You should be able to read it in a week and include discussion and exploration of the book’s website.
Preparation: Computer with access to the Internet and projection capability
Optional classroom access to a computer lab for exploration of the book’s website although the website exploration could be a whole class presentation.
Make hotlink for the book’s website following procedures established for your school. Book website http://www.eugeneyelchinbooks.com/breakingstalinsnose/index.php
Divide the book into five portions, reading one portion per day.
To help you with the discussion, use the chapter-by-chapter questions available from Macmillan Lesson plan available via https://www.teachingbooks.net/media/pdf/macmillan/BreakingStalinsBG.pdf
Decide which questions you’d like to use. Decide whether you would like students to write answers to some of the mini essay questions dependent on the age of your students.
If you want to delve into the concepts of propaganda, use the ideas from the Lesson Plan at The Classroom Bookshelf http://www.theclassroombookshelf.com/2012/02/2012-newbery-honor-winner-breaking-stalins-nose/
Introduction: After World War II, the allies that defeated the Nazis became enemies instead of allies. The Soviet Union and their friends in eastern Europe became known as the Soviet Bloc and followed an economic system called communism and were often governed by dictators. The United States and its friends in western Europe were known as The West and followed an economic system called capitalism or else a form of socialism. They were governed by people elected in free and competitive elections. The result was a Cold War. The result was a lot of misinformation from both sides. The result was a tightly controlled population and a free population. Many people tried to escape from the Soviet Bloc because life was so difficult. I’m going to read two books to you, both by people who escaped the Soviet Bloc. While I read, we’ll talk about life in Soviet Russia and look at the website for Breaking Stalin’s Nose. Stalin was the harsh dictator of the Soviet Union during the time of the story.
Before I begin reading, I’d like to share a book trailer for another book about life in the Soviet or Eastern Bloc. It shows what life was like for the author/ illustrator Peter Sis who wrote the book, The Wall, which we will also read.l
View the 5:01 minute book trailer at
Try to remember the images of the “happy life” the Soviets and their friends tried to portray as I read the book. While I read think about any contradictions you see and hear.
Eugene Yelchin tells us a little about the backstory of the book. Let’s listen (only to the place he begins reading the 2nd chapter which is about half of the audio) http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=7287
(Read Chapter 1, then go back to audio clip above to hear the author Reading Chapter 2) http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=7287
At this point you may want to ask the first questions from the Macmillan Chapter-by-Chapter Guide. Each day you may also want to explore one segment of the book’s website. There are also ideas in the Macmillan Guide for exploring the website.
About half way through the reading, re-show the book trailer for The Wall. http://www.teachingbooks.net/booktrailer.cgi?id=1600 ) Have your ideas about the happy life stayed the same or changed?
(Continue reading and discussing Breaking Stalin’s Nose. When completed, read The Wall or save the reading for the extended lesson below.)
Follow-up: If you are doing any of the mini essays, assign as homework or allow an additional day for classroom writing. If you are writing in the classroom, tell the students the general writing topic so they can think about it prior to writing. Encourage students to follow the writing process: brainstorming, organizing, rough draft, revision, editing, and publishing. If you are doing the work with the classroom teacher, this segment could be completed in the classroom and computer lab during a second week.
Extension: If the classroom teacher follows-up with the writing project, take the next library time to book talk the titles in the bibliography which features books from many communist and Cold War perspectives. This could also be the time to read the The Wall if you didn’t read it earlier.
Teacher Resources:
Macmillan Lesson Plan PDF via https://www.teachingbooks.net/media/pdf/macmillan/BreakingStalinsBG.pdf
Lesson Plan from The Classroom Bookshelf (propaganda)
Author Reading Chapter 2 http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=7287
Eugene Yechin website http://www.eugeneyelchinbooks.com/index.html
NKVD.org – a site with information about the crimes and victims of the Soviet Union Secret Police
Soviet Propaganda Machine – online resources related to the PBS series “Red Files”
Propaganda Techniques in Literature and Online Political Ads – a ReadWriteThink lesson
Propaganda Critic – a collection of online resources about propaganda, inspired by the work of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis
Other Titles for Display, Book Talk, and/or Check-out:
Laika by Abadzis, Nick — Square Fish/First Second, 2014. Dewey: 741.5; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 2.8. A graphic novel account of the life of Laika, an abandoned Samoyed-Husky puppy that became a sacrifice to science when it was launched into space by the Russians in 1957 as the first sentient creature to leave Earth's orbit, with no plans for its return.
Saving Zasha by Barrow, Randi G. - Scholastic, p2013, c2011 --Fic--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 4.0. In 1945 Russia, those who own German shepherds are considered traitors, but thirteen-year-old Mikhail and his family are determined to keep the dog a dying man brought them, while his classmate Katia strives to learn his secret.
T-minus : the race to the moon by Ottaviani, Jim - Aladdin, p2009, c2009 --741.5--Int Lvl: 3-6--Rd Lvl: 4.2. A graphic novel depiction of a fictional story about the space race, in which two global superpowers along with a number of pilots, engineers, and scientists work to send the first man to the moon.
Arcady's goal by Yelchin, Eugene — Henry Holt and Company, 2014. Dewey: -Fic-; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 4.4. When twelve-year-old Arcady is sent to a children's home after his parents are declared enemies of the state in Soviet Russia, soccer becomes a way to secure extra rations, respect, and protection but it may also be his way out if he can believe in and love another person--and himself. FREE Teaching Resources available for download from Follett.
An elephant in the garden by Morpurgo, Michael - Feiwel and Friends, p2011, c2011 --Fic--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 4.5. Lizzie and Karl's mother, Mutti, working at a local zoo in Dresden, Germany, during World War II while their father is away fighting in France, brings home Marlene, a baby elephant that is slated to be destroyed as the Allied bombing grows closer, and when they are forced to flee, Mutti feels they must take Marlene with them, adding even more danger to their journey.
90 miles to Havana by Flores-Galbis, Enrique - Roaring Brooks Press, p2010, c2010 --Fic--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 4.8. Julian's parents, hoping to protect him from the dangers of the turmoil in Cuba, send him to the United States in 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, not realizing that life in a Miami refugee camp holds its own perils.
The klipfish code by Casanova, Mary - Houghton Mifflin, p2012, c2007 --Fic--Int Lvl: 3-6--Rd Lvl: 5.0. Sent with her younger brother to Godoy Island to live with her aunt and grandfather after Germans bomb Norway in 1940, ten-year-old Merit longs to join her parents in the Resistance and when her aunt, a teacher, is taken away two years later, she resents even more the Nazis' presence and her grandfather's refusal to oppose them. Includes historical facts and glossary.
The wall : growing up behind the Iron Curtain by Sis, Peter - Frances Foster Books, p2007, c2007 --943.7--Int Lvl: 3-6--Rd Lvl: 5.2. Artist Sis Peter describes what it was like growing up in a Communist country and discusses how Western culture influenced his life.
Book Trailer from Teachingbooks.net &Farrar, Straus and Giroux (5:01 minutes) about life behind the wall (superior) http://www.teachingbooks.net/booktrailer.cgi?id=1600
The blue sky : a novel by Tschinag, Galsam - Milkweed Editions, p2006, c2006 --833--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 5.5. A young boy, one of the Tuvan sheepherding people of Mongolia, begins to doubt the traditional belief that the sky is a sheltering force when the communist regime begins to push a program of societal homogenization in the 1940s, while closer to home, his siblings go off to boarding school, he loses his beloved grandmother, and his dog is poisoned.
Suspect red by Elliott, Laura — Disney-Hyperion, 2017. Dewey: -Fic-; Int Lvl: 5-8; Rd Lvl: 5.8. In 1950s Washington, D.C., teenaged Richard, a bookworm whose father works for the FBI, experiences effects of McCarthyism, beginning with book banning and ending with a threat to his half-Czech friend.
Out of line : growing up Soviet by Grimberg, Tina - Tundra Books, Tundra Books of Northern New York, p2007, c2007 --947.7--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 6.1. The author, a Jewish woman who left the Soviet Union for the U.S. with her family in 1979, recalls her childhood in Kiev during the 1960s and 1970s and describes the lives of her parents and grandparents. Although the Iron Curtain is gone, the memory of the high drama, tragedy, and comedy that was life in the Soviet Union remains. It meant endless lineups in the cold — lineups enlivened by poetry and paranoia. It meant family life lived in two small rooms, but a family life that was rich in love and laughter. It meant trying to escape all-seeing eyes, especially those of the old ladies in their babushkas who guarded every courtyard.
Soldier X by Wulffson, Don L - Speak, p2003, c2001 --Fic--Int Ll: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 6.7. The 1940s In 1943 sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on the Russian front.
The Cold War by Grant, R.G - Arcturus, p2010, c2010 --909.82--Int Lvl: 3-6--Rd Lvl: 7.7
Explores the secrets of the Cold War, discussing mutually assured destruction, spying, propaganda, operations, and other related topics, with biographical sidebars, quotes, photographs, and maps.
Great moments in space exploration by Jedicke, Peter - Chelsea House, p2007, c2007 --629.4--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 8.6. Rockets and missiles -- Satellites -- The beginnings of human spaceflight -- The moon landings -- Robots to the inner solar system -- Robots to the outer solar system -- The faraway universe -- Habitats in space -- Private space. Explores the origins and continuing development of the space program in the United States and the former Soviet Union, and highlights the international developments in space technology during the early twenty-first century.
The Cold War by Bodden, Valerie - Creative Education, p2008, c2008 --909.52--Int Lvl: 5-8--Rd Lvl: 8.9. Chronicles the Cold War years between the superpowers of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union including the threat of nuclear war, the Berlin Wall, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the break up of the Soviet Union and Communism in 1989.
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