Breaking Stalin's Nose

For the first time, Sasha realizes that his dream of being a Young Pioneer might not be possible and feels the sharp sting of the system he once idolized turning against him. Though Sasha knows he accidentally did something wrong, he understands that he is not an enemy of the people. Sasha’s perception of communism begins to shatter, and he sees that the fault is with the system rather than the victims. This is a turning point in the development of Cognitive Dissonance and the Existential Crisis of Facing the Truth.

Nevertheless, Sasha’s denial continues to an extent, and he chooses to believe that the system will correct its error by releasing his father in time for the ceremony and that he will still be awarded the red scarf. Not until the lieutenant who arrested his father appears in the school hall does Sasha lose hope that his father will be there and honor his word. This sudden realization makes the loss of his father all the more painful.

The teacher embodies many of the contradictions inherent between Soviet rhetoric and practice in these chapters. She calls the communist classroom a democracy and asks the children to vote on whether to punish Borka, but she chastises the dissenting vote and threatens to punish the opposing voice. She claims voting against the majority is anticommunist. Sasha is unable to critically assess the contradictions in Petrovna’s statements, and out of fear, simply votes with the majority. Later, when Petrovna asks the class to all write down the name of the child who broke Stalin’s nose, she indicates that they should all write Vovka’s name. These twin situations highlight the way fear forces people to abandon logic, as well as moral principles.

Nina Petrovna’s verbal abuse of Vovka demonstrates the totality of the control the party had over everyone in the system. A teacher is meant to care about their students, yet Petrovna abuses her students, bullying them to the point of physical violence. She threatens, belittles, and attacks her students, demonstrating the total corrupting ability of communism under Stalin. Petrovna, “Is a combined portrait of many such teachers I had in grade school. I still get shivers thinking of them” (166). Though he went to grade school in the 1960s, the sting of Stalinism persisted in the classroom and tormented Soviet children for decades.

Children learn from their mistakes. In the Soviet school system depicted in Breaking Stalin’s Nose, however, children are not permitted the opportunity to fail or to break the rules, lest they be labeled enemies of the state. This inability to fail and learn makes the children rigid, unable, or unwilling to think for themselves. This is most evident in the young girl who continues to ask Petrovna what to do if she doesn’t know who broke the nose. She must not fail, yet there is no way to succeed. As such, she and all of her classmates are stuck in a hopeless situation where the stakes are life and death. They welcome Petrovna’s instructions for what they should write and think because they no longer trust their own opinions.

As in prior chapters, Sasha’s first-person limited perspective creates dramatic irony. Sasha’s narration reveals unvoiced motivation and beliefs. Readers see Sasha’s faults (which he tries to hide out of shame) and his strengths (which he isn’t yet able to see for himself). With the limited nature of his narration, readers understand Sasha in a way that is more evolved than the character’s view of himself. For example, Sasha understands only that Vovka is no longer his friend while the reader understands that a traumatic incident sparked a behavioral and academic change in Vovka. Sasha is not yet equipped with the skills necessary to understand his peers beyond a 10-year-old’s grasp of social status.