What Soviet Children Are Taught About America
Widmayer, Ruth
What Soviet Children Are Taught About America by RUTH WIDMAYER To many Russians, the people of America are to be pitied, not scorned or envied. When I visited the Soviet Union last summer with a...
...And what of it...
...The group with which I toured the Soviet Union included a Negro woman professor of sociology...
...The pain left me and my head felt very clear...
...Don't you think you could begin to work, Lena...
...My brain began to burn, my heart beat like a hammer...
...It's best not to play with those white children...
...If everybody in your position is going to bother me, I'll have to close up my office...
...Will he see me so early...
...All Soviet students today must study English, French, or German from the fifth through the tenth grades...
...Yet the average American is not a representative of the hated cold-war enemy to them...
...Shall I read it to you...
...No," said my Aunt Lena in alarm...
...A look of sympathy flashed in her eyes...
...After reading these prototypes of Soviet anti-Americanism, it is easy to see why the Russians are friendly and hospitable to ordinary Americans while they have only contempt and hate for the so-called ruling circles in the United States...
...They think we are helpless victims of an unjust system...
...In a few minutes she returned...
...I could hear the professor breathing hard behind me...
...Many Russians had never seen a Negro before and had only the officially-inspired image of all American Negroes as cringing, fear-ridden objects of discrimination...
...Many people could not pay their rent and the landlords made them leave their homes...
...And what about my job...
...I thought...
...So my Aunt Lena went to work in a clothing factory...
...The themes of fear, grinding poverty, and job insecurity are reiterated in story after story...
...Texts in modern history, geography, and foreign literature all tend to portray America as the sinister citadel of world imperialism...
...A good professor...
...I am so young to work...
...He is a detective, and his work is to fight the gangsters...
...After that we seldom went to see the boats on the river...
...You know that yourself...
...From time to time articles appear in American newspapers and magazines against comics, but these articles do almost no good...
...Yes, Katie...
...Everywhere we went—except in Moscow where the people are more accustomed to foreigners and more sophisticated—we found ourselves the objects of curious and friendly crowds, eager to hear about life in the United States...
...The children feel this, of course, and do not try to learn...
...One of the most potent sources is the educational system...
...thesis on "The Communist Party and the Soviet Schools...
...If I pay this doctor $1, I'll have $10 left for the professor...
...I did not stir...
...If I do one of you a favor, I'll have a dozen, a hundred of you crowding into my office tomorrow...
...It is much like our attitude toward them—we don't believe the Russian people are to blame for the cruelty, lack of freedom, and disregard of human rights which prevail in the Soviet Union...
...Occasionally we felt we were able to modify some of the misconceptions about the United States among the Russians we met...
...You must hurry," he continued as he adjusted the bandage, "or you won't be alive by tomorrow...
...Nothing about her suggested a cowed victim of Jim Crow...
...Almost all white people hate us because we're black...
...According to the Wall Street Imperialists, American children must be taught that banditry is a normal thing and that modern technique will help them to rob, kill and commit crimes...
...Talking with Americans is often likely to produce skepticism about the accuracy of what the Soviet people have been told about things American...
...Cultural and moral decay in the United States is another oft-repeated theme in Soviet text books...
...Americans who expect to be met in Russia with suspicion and treated as though they have the plague are astonished at the amiability of "the inscrutable Russian enemy...
...She loved America, she loved the common things that we knew so well...
...The publishers of comics make very much money out of these magazines...
...It'll be all right by morning...
...you will ask...
...We can't pay the rent again...
...Myrtle and Charlie looked for their little friends every day...
...Didn't I hang about the gate for three months before I got my job...
...One of the most illuminating of the selections in this volume is "A Common Patient," divided into two separate lessons...
...I'll sign a promise to pay you . . ." His sharp, unpleasant voice cut me short...
...I moved the bandage up from my eye...
...By the time the Soviet youth becomes an adult the stereotype of America is already so well imbedded that what he hears about America on his radio, RUTH WIDMAYER, the first woman associated with the Russian Research Center at Harvard to receive a doctorate, wrote her Ph.D...
...Any doctor can perform the operation...
...This is not a charity institution," he said, irritably...
...He charges a dollar a visit...
...I don't want common people like you about, do you hear...
...But there are progressive, peace-loving people all over the world, and in America, too, who are fighting for democracy...
...Thus, the English language textbook published in 1956 and used in all the seventh grade classes throughout the Soviet Union, informs Russian youngsters about race prejudice in the United States...
...It'll be taken off your pay...
...So that is how Charlie and Myrtle, like Sam and Billy, had their first lesson in race hatred...
...The boys' mother opened it...
...You don't want common people...
...Do, please...
...One of them was a Russian marine who had been in the United States during the war...
...The professor . . . the word was associated in my mind with the word "celebrity...
...The first thing he said was, "The United States wants war against the Soviet Union—not the common people of your country, but Eisenhower and Dulles...
...I don't want any of your promises...
...No," said my mother, "but we're poor, sister...
...The fact is that the Russians do not consider Americans responsible for the evils they associate with the United States...
...When I visited the Soviet Union last summer with a group of educators and students I was surprised to find that despite years of a hate-America campaign the Russian people are not hostile or resentful toward Americans...
...She disappeared into the office...
...Here everyone works, even the children...
...The words of a speaker at an election meeting came back to me: "Our country is the richest in the world, and if all the money in it were divided among the entire population, the share of every American would be twenty-five thousand dollars...
...If American after American reaffirms the fact that in the America of 1958 there are no bread lines, that equal rights for all persons regardless of color or class are being continually expanded, and that over 15 million of our citizens are now receiving social security benefits and millions more will become eligible every year—the Soviet citizen can hardly help developing some serious doubts about whether he has been given the whole truth about the United States and whether capitalism, in the form in which it has been modified and humanized in recent decades, is as brutal a system as he has been taught...
...She was afraid of nothing: she laughed and we laughed with her...
...Look here...
...There are many reasons for this, but certainly comics play their part...
...But all this meant nothing to my Aunt Lena...
...Hm . . . this is a very serious matter," he said...
...Brown saw the hesitation on my face...
...This is most likely to be true when, in conversations with Russians, our emphasis on the positive values of American life is accompanied by candor and humility in admitting our own shortcomings...
...They did us wrong...
...The chance to stand in a long line at the factory gate begging for a job, or the constant fear of losing my job when I am lucky enough to have one...
...One of the most concentrated doses comes in the textbooks on the English language...
...They like holidays better than schooldays...
...Get out...
...In the morning my eye was completely closed by a huge swelling...
...She was so happy at first, and that made us happy, too...
...But that's all you're allowed...
...she cried...
...But I can give him the rest on pay-day...
...Although the story was written in the 1930's, the text, published in 1956, indicates in no way that the story is a quarter of a century old and thus gives the impression that the conditions described portray present-day life in America...
...Get out of here...
...He performed the operation without an anaesthetic...
...One thought went through my mind...
...Little sister, we're poor...
...Two men began to talk to a friend and me and asked how we liked their country...
...She did not sing any more and became pale and thin...
...Saturday is my pay-day...
...I don't need his recommendations...
...Often children do not like school because in some countries teachers still beat the children...
...Sometimes she took me with her...
...The text on the English language used in all the colleges preparing future teachers of English begins the first lesson with a story of two Russian girls returning to college after their summer vacation...
...What am I losing...
...There's Professor Brick...
...In the old country I didn't work...
...Not only is discrimination against Negroes emphasized, but there are also stories about other minorities, including American Indians...
...The children get along fine with each other and are not at all concerned about the difference in their skin colors until the parents of the white children find out about the Negro playmates...
...To jump over a New York skyscraper is nothing for him...
...The number of crimes committed by children in the U.S.A...
...Suddenly, before I myself knew it, I burst into the professor's office...
...The very thought of it made me shiver...
...Professors are celebrities in the Soviet Union...
...Many parents are too poor to send their children there...
...But what am I to do...
...They simply do not like their lessons...
...What is there in these magazines...
...I straightened up, took a deep breath, and walked over to the chair...
...Everywhere we went she was a sensation...
...a third is a murderer...
...They were very unhappy...
...She was only 16 years old, and everything was new to her...
...They went to the boys' home and knocked at the back door...
...A long time ago they stole us and made us slaves...
...And I haven't even twenty-five for the professor's fee...
...they asked...
...exclaimed the young man who sat listening to the girls...
...When the Russians learned that our black companion teaches both whites and Negroes in the same college, that she was able to secure a higher education, is as well paid as her white colleagues, and has prestige and respect among many whites, they were dumbfounded...
...Try to get well in that time, or you'll lose your job...
...We told them that we found their country interesting in many ways and then we asked them what they thought of our country...
...The streets were covered with wet, dirty snow, and we all had bad colds...
...What do you want here...
...Only I must warn you...
...I think they are afraid of us and that's why they hate us...
...I should like to go and look for work, but I have to cook and sew and take care of the children...
...But why, Pappy," asked Charlie...
...Dr...
...Suddenly it was all over...
...It was torture such as I had never dreamed of, and I was on the point of losing consciousness...
...Look...
...On the Black Sea steamer going from Odessa to Yalta, on the streets of Leningrad, in a shoe repair shop in Tiflis, on the beach in Sochi, on train rides—Russians sought us out and wanted to make friends with us...
...he burst out...
...According to them, a small clique of mighty Wall Street millionaires is the real source of power here...
...Just a minute, I'll ask...
...It is a question of your life...
...Such a serious case...
...Nothing, my child...
...That's final...
...But I'll give him the rest the day after tomorrow," I added hurriedly...
...Of course he will...
...Hungry and miserable like a homeless dog...
...But I'm not asking for favors," I objected...
...You're an educated man, prof . . ." "Don't you lecture me on morals, young man...
...She got up early, sang as she made the breakfast and then went out to "discover" America...
...Here are some excerpts from the story: For a long time Billy and Sam did not go to the river to play...
...My landlady screamed with fright when she saw me...
...These are the heroes of stories for children...
...People of different races can live and work happily in our country, because our country is a Socialist country...
...When our students graduate our government offers them a wide choice of work all over the country...
...Children at youth camps in Kiev and Yalta came crowding up to us, asking us to sing American songs and begging us for our autographs...
...But why...
...But Doctor Brown said you were the only one . . ." "Your Doctor Brown is a fool...
...the assumption is that they are celebrities in the United States also.] [When the patient arrives at the doctor's office a few hours later he is informed by the receptionist that he will have to pay a fee of $25.] "I'm . . . I . . . I'm sorry," I said slowly, "I have only ten...
...The professor won't see you...
...Then you'll go to a doctor...
...No...
...Lena, what's to be done...
...Something must have fallen into it," I thought...
...The magazine United States News and World Report recently stated that the graduates had little hope of finding work in their special fields...
...And what if it isn't...
...It is quoted in detail here because of the many interest revelations it provides of Soviet concepts of life in the United States...
...These language texts are a revealing source of Soviet views regarding our economic and social institutions...
...All the achievements of science and technique are used by the bandits in children's comics...
...The young woman frowned and shook her head...
...The work changed her...
...My father had no work and my mother was tired and ill...
...The professor won't see you...
...For every American boy and girl, five different comics full of brightly colored pictures are published every week...
...Then everything came to an end...
...Unlike American language texts which offer innocuous, non-political material about the culture of the people whose grammar and sentence structure are being studied, the Soviet texts abound with editorialized stories and comments...
...The professor turned towards me sharply...
...Chukovsky writes: "As soon as one of these magazines appears on my table, it seems to me that I am in a den of thieves and bandits...
...In the 8th grade text, one finds a diatribe against comic books, which might not seem entirely unjustified until one reaches the end: Poison for the Minds of American Children A well-known writer of children's stories in our country is K. Chukovsky...
...How his voice got on my nerves...
...I whispered, leaning forward slightly...
...For God's sake, professor...
...Hurry...
...Today's children are tomorrow's army," says Wall Street...
...Many Russians have accepted without question the characterization of the United States as a decadent, imperialist, war-mongering, corrupt bulwark of the dying capitalist order...
...As far as the Russians are concerned, our government does not really give us—the people—the right to determine the policies that vitally affect our lives...
...Brown took the bandage off my eye and frowned...
...This is the end...
...MY AUNT LENA By Michael Gold My Aunt Lena came to America from Hungary in a dark hour, in a bad winter...
...Here we have no cows and chickens as in Hungary...
...The following direct quotations from several of these texts will illustrate how Russian textbook writers wish their readers to view America...
...reads in Pravda, or is taught in Red Army indoctrination courses merely reinforces the notions he acquired in school...
...Charlie and Myrtle told the story to their father...
...she shouted...
...And if I catch you little niggers here again, I'll beat the life out of you...
...That won't do," the young woman said coldly...
...Sometimes teachers hate their work and hate the children whom they must teach...
...Olga read: "This year many graduates from educational institutions, engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, as well as many other specialists have joined the ranks of the unemployed...
...Another destroys a railway and then robs the trains...
...The date of the U.S...
...This is but one of numerous stories in the English language texts on racial discrimination in the United States...
...The rich people want war...
...They make more than publishing-houses in America have ever made before...
...The most successful children's writer in America is the one who can write stories showing new or cleverer ways to rob, steal, and kill...
...One might indeed wonder, after association with the Russian people, if perhaps the Soviet leaders' attacks on the United States have fallen on deaf ears...
...Go to Dr...
...I stood staring at him fixedly with ray right eye...
...S . . . si . . . sit down," the professor stammered out, pointing to a large chair...
...The professor read all that in my face...
...There are a lot of unemployed at the factory gate just waiting for such a chance...
...And all I've got is $11," I thought...
...Brown...
...At that moment I felt capable of murder...
...One night at supper, my mother said: "Listen, Lena...
...In the end American children and all the children of the world will be saved from war and such fascist poison as American children's comics...
...I don't treat common people like you," he shouted...
...Don't you forget it...
...We were treated with courtesy, kindness, and sometimes genuine affection...
...A COMMON PATIENT On my way home from the factory, I felt there was something wrong with my left eye...
...People stopped her on the streets even more frequently than the rest of us to ask where she was from, what kind of work she did, and so forth...
...The lid was swollen, the eye was red, and by evening I could hardly see with it...
...He took a long time washing his hands in order to calm down...
...He charges $25 a visit...
...It will be gone by morning...
...But in the morning it was no better...
...Don't grudge the expense...
...You need an eye specialist, not an ordinary doctor...
...I tore off the bandage...
...They sold us for money like cows and sheep...
...He was a dried-up, clean-shaven old man, his narrow face had an irritated expression, and his watery green eyes had an ill-tempered look...
...Many Soviet citizens think that sordid conditions such as the following are still prevalent among large numbers of people...
...After the girls have exchanged a few casual remarks, one says to the other: "Look . . . here is an article about college graduates in America...
...There, there, my little ones," he said, "don't cry about it...
...Twenty-five thousand," I thought bitterly...
...I had no weapon, but I had the strength in my hands to crush the life out of that disgusting creature...
...But it is clear from these magazines that even a "superman" is not strong enough to fight crime in modern America...
...That's inhuman...
...What do you want of me...
...She was tired at night...
...Let's go and ask," said Charlie, "i know where they live...
...Our country, the first Socialist country in the world, is the leader in this great struggle...
...One of the many examples I encountered of this sharp dichotomy in the Russians' minds between "ordinary Americans" and our "ruling circles" was in a conversation on a beach in Odessa...
...She was an impeccably dressed, prosperous looking woman with an imperious, self-assured bearing...
...Where do these ideas come from...
...A curious conception of a doctor's fees in the United States.] Dr...
...Me, Katie," she said sadly...
...I'll be fired, won't I?" "One day won't matter," the foreman said...
...Did you do anything to them...
...Only," he said with a forced smile, "don't tell any one that I treated you...
...How can I stay away from work...
...Yes, I know," I thought bitterly...
...is growing fast...
...You have plenty of good friends in Black Row...
...Before the eyes of the young readers, one of the "heroes" robs ships and banks, steals pictures...
...In the classrooms of the country the Soviet mind-molders have available huge captive audiences of individuals in their most impressionable and receptive years...
...These magazines are called "Comics," and every week millions and millions of comics are published...
...Myrtle asked every day why Billy and Sam did not come...
...It tells a story of two white children who make friends with two Negro children in the South...
...The professor took my ten dollars just the same, but he was so glad to get rid of me that he told me not to come back with the rest of his fee...
...One such article ends, "It is useless to tell children not to read comics, and it is just as useless to try to waken even a spark of conscience in the publishing-houses or the writers of comics...
...I've got a job...
...This textbook was published in 1956.] "How different it is with our graduates...
...That's the rule with us...
...You don't want me to die, do you...
...He's famous for such delicate operations...
...Her articles on Soviet education have appeared in School and Society, The School Review, Harvard Educational Review, and The Education Digest...
...You must see a doctor at once...
...The present rulers of America do nothing to take this poison away from their children, because they want a new war...
...The sight was more convincing than words...
...The textbooks used in the high schools do much to give Russians their out-dated and grossly distorted ideas about American life...
...I know your sort...
...he asked with indignation...
...Please, are Billy and Sam sick or dead...
...I asked doubtfully...
...She was happy when she first came to New York...
...The picture of America portrayed in the textbooks is that of the grim depression era...
...Our turn is next," said my father...
...Wash your eye with boric acid and put a compress on it overnight," the foreman advised me...
...News and World Report is not given...
...But this is not so...
...Everything was wonderful to my Aunt Lena...
...In an article in a Soviet newspaper he wrote about the favorite magazines of American children...
...The Russians are more willing to listen to us if we do not deny or whitewash such things as our race problem or the existence of partial unemployment in some parts of the United States...
...In all the stories of the comics there is a "superman" who can do anything...
...The 7th graders are introduced to the subject in this way: Not all children in capitalist countries can go to school...
...Must I work...
...Recently she spent 40 days in the Soviet Union visiting a number of schools where she observed classes, talked to teachers and students, and obtained the textbooks on which this article is based...
Vol. 22 • March 1958 • No. 3
