Symbolism In Breaking Stalin's Nose

Breaking Stalin’s Nose is a children’s novel written by Eugene Yelchin. The story takes place in Soviet Russia during the Stalin era. The main character, Sasha Zaichik, is a loyal communist, faithful to Stalin and eager to soon serve as a young pioneer. Sasha’s father, an informant for Stalin, is abducted in the middle of the night. Sasha at first believes a mistake has been made but he learns that his father’s seizure was no accident. The disappearance of his father makes Sasha question everything he’s known. The setting and characters Yelchin creates make Breaking Stalin’s Nose a memorable work of literature. Eugene Yelchin was born and raised in the Soviet Union before moving to the United States as an adult, and his father survived the Great Terror—a period of great censorship and arbitrary executions in the 1930s. Yelchin pays great attention to detail when describing the setting for the book as the 1930s Soviet Union almost

He has been trained to believe that the Soviet government works to nurture and empower its people, and that Comrade Stalin is a benevolent patriarch. He blindly believes anything told to him by the state and its workers and trusts that all prisoners are dishonorable enemies of the people. Sasha is certainly an original character for it is rare to find a story told through the eyes of a communist. Other memorable characters are Vovka Sobakin and Borka Finkelstein. Sobakin is now a troublemaker and playground bully after being a star student. It is discovered later in the story that Vovka’s father had been executed, giving an explanation for his sudden change of behavior. Both of Finkelstein’s parents were executed and he is victimized by his classmates and his instructor, Nina Petrovna. Sobakin and Finkelstein handle their persecution in vastly different ways, Sobakin fights back, framing Nina Petrovna; and Finkelstein quietly takes the abuse of the