Breaking Stalin's Nose

Sasha’s father, referred to only as Zaichik, remains without a given name or rank throughout the novel. In the illustrations, only his uniformed back is depicted. Zaichik was married to an unnamed American woman who worked in a Soviet Ford factory before Zaichik himself turned her into the State Police as a spy, after which she was executed. To protect his son, Zaichik hid his betrayal, and his wife’s execution, from Sasha. Although he encounters enough evidence to understand what his father did to his mother, Sasha protects himself with denial and believes until the end that his father is a good man and his mother died of illness.

Zaichik was a well-respected member of the State Security, the secret police. “Comrade Stalin personally pinned the order of the Red Banner on his chest and called him ‘an iron broom purging the vermin from our midst,’” (10). With Zaichik’s arrest, the novel shows that nobody was safe from the Great Terror.

Zaichik’s position inspires fear in his neighbors, who are silent and respectful when he enters the overcrowded apartment. Initially, Sasha considers this an example of respect. Later, when State Security interrogates him, Sasha understands that fear causes people to agree to State Security’s demands. Zaichik’s duality, that of loving father and tool for violence against humanity, is difficult for Sasha to reconcile. In the end, his choice to continue to love his father indicates his need to cling to some things, despite their duplicity, to gain a sliver of stability. Though Zaichik is not a complex character, the function his character represents provides a nuanced understanding of the precarity of life and the impossibility of idealism under Stalin.

When State Security arrests Zaichik, Vasya Stukachov, an envious neighbor, announces that it was he who made a report condemning Zaichik to the Secret Police. Stukachov is less an antagonist than a symbol for antagonism. He provides a character-to-character conflict, but the larger conflict is between Sasha’s character and the society Stukachov represents. Stukachov’s wife, mother, and three children all live in a tiny room in the communal apartment. Nearby, a single father and his only son (The Zaichiks) share the largest room. Although the Zaichiks give their stove burner to the Stukachovs after recognizing their greater need for it, the Stukachovs remain bitter. When they sense an opportunity to take the largest unit in the communal apartment, Mr. Stukachov betrays his neighbor without hesitation or guilt.

Zaichik understands that Stukachov covets their space: “I’m so embarrassed we live in luxury that I don’t look at Stukachov, but I know he’s there, stretching his neck and looking into our room…” (14). When the police take Zaichik away, the neighbor appears: “It’s me, Stukachov. I made the report” he announces (27). Before Zaichik is out of sight, Stukachov’s wife sweeps out Zaichik’s room and deposits all of their belongings in the hall. They move the mother and three children into the larger room and shut the door on a confused young Sasha, whom they have now orphaned.

The character of Stukachov exemplifies how some citizens used the Secret Police for personal gain. Stukachov understood that the removal of Zaichik would result in a better life for himself, and although he knew Zaichik to be innocent, circumstance so stripped him of his humanity that he willingly orphaned his neighbor’s son to get a larger space to sleep. The system so completely transforms and corrupts people, that they are forced into circumstances that dehumanize themselves and others.

Despite this portrayal of the corrosive effects of communism, Yelchin provides a foil in the destitute and homeless neighbor Marfa Ivanovna. “Marfa Ivanovna doesn’t have a room. She lives in a cubbyhole next to the toilet” (33) Zaichik says. That day the woman, though deprived of everything including her dignity, gifted Sasha a carrot as a treat. She represents those struggling to keep their humanity despite an oppressive, dehumanizing system.

Vovka Sobakin is a subtle deuteragonist. Because most of the relationships in the novel are at least mildly antagonistic, it is at first difficult to see how Vovka’s actions set in motion Sasha’s character growth. Vovka was once a star pupil, a leader in the classroom and the school, and Sasha’s best friend. Sasha sees Vovka suddenly change. His friend bullies him and other students and allows his grades to drop. By the novel’s end, Sasha knows that his father’s Secret Police arrested Vovka’s kindly father and executed him. Angry and hurt, Vovka lashes out at other students, loses focus on school, and abandons Sasha’s friendship.

Despite his pain, Vovka is the one who saves Sasha from punishment for the breaking of the statue. Vovka hides the statue’s nose in teacher Petrovna’s desk, implicating her in the crime. She is arrested and taken away, saving Sasha and freeing Vovka of her constant torment.

The arrest of Vovka’s father is one of the most pivotal moments of breakthrough for Sasha, who knew Vovka’s father to be a kind, humble Communist. He cannot reconcile his belief in the righteousness of the Secret Police with the evidence as he sees it. Either Vovka’s father is a criminal, and he was mistaken. Or the Secret Police are corrupt. He begins to seriously question the arrests happening around him only after Vovka’s father is revealed to have been executed.

Borka is unaffectionately called Four-Eyes by his classmates. He is an avid reader, falling into the stereotype of someone with glasses, which causes even more taunting from the schoolchildren. He is the only Jewish student in the school. His parents were taken to Lubyanka prison, and Borka was sent to live with his aunt, who believes his parents have been executed.

Borka maintains that his parents are alive, and his only wish is to see them. He is a clever boy, determined and kind. He asks for Sasha’s help, through his well-connected father, in reaching his parents. When this fails he devises a plan to get into Lubyanka on his own. After Borka is taken away by State Security for admitting to a crime he didn’t commit, the principal confirms to Sasha that his parents have indeed been executed, making his act of bravery and belief futile.

Antisemitic rhetoric surrounds the character of Finkelstein as fellow students and the principal belittle his Jewish roots. In response, Borka does not react but rather continues to focus on his goal of reaching his parents. After Sasha breaks Borka’s glasses, Borka does not turn him in. Borka is treated unfairly, bullied, and belittled, and yet he retains his morality, kindness, and character.

Illustrations of Borka show a small, thin boy in a uniform jacket and slacks, shiny shoes, and a tie. He has large ears, and the sides of his head are shaved with a short outcrop of hair on the top of his head. He has a large nose and sagging eyes and is red-faced. (Images on pages 63, 91). Borka’s sad fate stands as a comparison for Sasha’s and a reminder that bad can easily get worse.

A cold, calculating, and manipulative woman, Nina Petrovna’s character is an antagonist of sorts, but as with other characters, her antagonism is more about her role in society than her direct relationship to the protagonist. She rules the classroom with discipline and cruelty. She bullies the children whose parents have been arrested or killed and praises those with well-connected parents. She exemplifies the antagonism inherent in blindly following a broken system. She willingly sacrifices children to the regime. Much of the torment the children experience in their lives comes directly from Petrovna.

Petrovna’s life comes to a turn when Vovka, whom she tormented relentlessly, plants Stalin’s nose in her desk, resulting in her arrest by State Security. “The guards twist Nina Petrovna’s arms and drag her to the door. She screams, kicks, and tries to hold onto nearby kids. They duck under her arms, laughing” (126). Her many cruelties and crimes in service to Stalinism are rewarded with the arrest she most fears.

She is depicted on page 83 as an older woman in a dress suit wearing round glasses over a large nose and thin lips. She has a sinister expression on her face.

The principal is a small man who sweats profusely. He is also a symbolic, satirical character representing the fascist dictator Adolf Hitler. While he is the dictator of the school, he also represents the common functionary.

In an illustration on page 107, he has the identical haircut and mustache of Adolf Hitler, his hunched shoulders and sinister grin completing the comparison to Germany’s Nazi dictator. He says to the boys, “Finally we got rid of that Jew, Finkelstein,” another connection to the Nazi leader’s crimes against humanity during WWII (108). In his capacity as principal, Ivanych is responsible for selecting children from the school to sacrifice to State Security. Several teachers, likewise, have been arrested and have not returned. He says he will now call the orphanage, sending Sasha and Vovka away for good, which he threatens without remorse or guilt.

Zaichik’s sister Aunt Larisa has a newborn baby and a grouchy husband whom Sasha calls a jerk, who has no interest in Sasha or his circumstances. She took Sasha in for two days while Zaichik took his mother to “the hospital,” which readers understand to mean her execution as a spy by Zaichik’s own office. When Zaichik returns to fetch Sasha, Aunt Larisa says, “You look guilty, not sad” (44). She understands that her brother turned in his wife to save himself and his son from suspicion and similar fates. Finally, she turns Sasha away with the words, “We just had a baby. We have to stay alive,” (42). Her character represents the “everyman” of the society in which she lives. She wants to show compassion, but her choices prioritize her survival and that of her child.

The Senior Lieutenant who arrests Zaichik is a soft-spoken, well-dressed man who briskly goes about his business as he arrests his coworker for crimes he knows are falsely leveled. Likewise, he is clear-eyed about what they do, yet committed to the cause. In the face of Zaichik’s betrayal of his wife, he says: “‘Frankly, Zaichik, I used to have great respect for your dad. Two years ago, when he submitted a report on the anti-Communist activities of a certain foreign national, who happened to be his wife—I’m talking about your mother here—he acted as a true Communist, willing to make personal sacrifice for the good of the common cause” (136).

In an illustration on page 135, the Senior Lieutenant is depicted as a man in uniform with a set jaw, sagging eyes, and a prominent jaw. He has one damaged ear and close-cropped hair, and he sits with his arm wrapped around Sasha in an act of confidence he hopes will sway the boy to spy for him. He sits casually, though he wears a pistol on his hip and has the power to arrest Sasha if he doesn’t comply. His character exemplifies the shifting foundations of society under Stalin. He enforces rules and exalts the ideals of Stalinism, but he also makes deals with children and arrests innocent people.