Doublethink

Between powder blue covers and printed on cheap newsprint rests one of the most interesting, amusing, and frightening books to come out of Russia in recent years. A textbook for students at the high school level in Georgia, English contains many "lessons" that reveal Russia's attitude toward the West and that point out many unfortunate weaknesses in our own society.

The students in Georgia are most interested in American children their own age, so the Ministry of Culture tells them, "Not all children in capitalist countries can go to school. . . .in some countries teachers still beat the children. Sometimes teachers hate their work and hate the children. . . .The children feel this, of course, and do not try to learn. . . .They like holidays better than school-days."

It is undoubtedly true that American school children do prefer holidays and that some teachers are unhappy with their jobs. But the tone of the lesson is not quite objective.

"'Clever' American Boy"

Other segments of American student life emerge from the translation exercises. "American football is a very rough game." The sentence for translation which cuts most deeply into America's way of life reads, "Music is of no use to me, said the 'clever' American boy; "it won't help me to get money."

The pictures of life in America and England as a whole make the most effective anti-western propaganda mainly because they use excerpts from classic novels of western literature. Russia's favorite books in English are Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Grapes of Wrath, Vanity Fair, Dickens' books portraying working class life, and the works of Howard Fast, among others.

Several pages in English are devoted to Eliza's escape in Uncle Tom's Cabin. ("Oh, missis, dear missis. I know what master is going to do tonight. I am going to try to save my boy.")

The problem of the Negro in this nation is given further attention in a short story called "White and Black." The narrative takes place in a Southern textile town and tells how two Negro and two white children try to become friends.

The scene is set quickly: "The mill owners in the United States exploit the workers and especially the Negro workers. They teach the white people to hate the coloured workers."

The town's mill owners give the motivation, "The white workers and the coloured workers must not unite against us." Against this backdrop, the four children begin their friendship. One of the group, Billy, asks his teacher," "Miss Houghton, are white and black people brothers. . ?"

"'Of course not. . . .'"

Racial Hatred

After this first installment, questions are asked. For example, "Which workers do the mill owners of the United States especially exploit?"

The story ends with friendship broken. Two conclusions are drawn in the exercises after the installments. "In the United States today race hatred is very strong." The second conclusion, is formulated in the last line of the story: "People of different races can live and work happily together in our country, because our country is a Socialist country."

There is, unfortunately, much truth in "White and Black." But the story is not only presented as a good insight into America, but as the entire panorama of life in these United States.

England is depicted in English as the country which Dickens describes in The Cricket on the Hearth. The conclusion drawn from this picture of England (in the nineteenth century) is that "Dickens gives many pictures of the hard and ugly life of the working people in capitalist England."

Stalin Will Rise

If the book's commentary (however subtle) on the West is upsetting, Russian life and thought emerge with a bitter humor. Russian religion, for example, is well described in a passage entitled "The Last Words of a Young Soviet Heroine: "I am not afraid to die. It is a great happiness to die for one's people. . . .Farewell, comrades. . . .Stalin will come."

If Russians are taught to believe in Stalin and Communists, they are not urged to trust anyone else. "The most dangerous enemies are those who pretend to be friends."

World War II ("The Great Patriotic War") apparently was won without false friends. English describes the triumph as "a great victory for our Soviet Army and the whole Soviet people." In none of the war stories are the Allies mentioned.

The most disturbing aspect of the book from an American point of view is the effectiveness of English's build-up of the Soviets and destruction of the West--particularly disturbing since the book is still in use.

The Russian opinion of the book comes in grammar lesson thirteen among sentences to be translated into the interrogative: "This book is loved by all the Soviet children." It probably is.