x The classroom’s teacher Nina Petrovna has strict rules as to who sits where in Sasha’s class. Friends are not allowed to sit together. The boys and girls are placed in a “checker” order. The best pupils sit up front, the bad ones in the back. The very last row of desks is called “Kamchatka” or “Kolyma,” which are the names of faraway regions in the USSR where Comrade Stalin sends those who don’t deserve to live and work among honest people.

x Every pupil has a report book called dnevnik. Dnevnik is a weekly calendar that lists all academic subjects. Next to the subjects Nina Petrovna enters the pupils’ grades. The pupils’ parents must sign dnevnik at the end of each week. Many pupils tear off the pages with bad grades and some forge their parents’ signatures. Nina Petrovna always catches them of course. Sasha’s dnevnik is perfect. He even made a special cover with a picture of Comrade Stalin.

x Sasha’s desk is placed front and center, right next to the desk of the classroom’s teacher Nina Petrovna. Sasha sits with his back straight, hands folded on top of the desk, not missing a word Nina Petrovna says. Sasha is a model student and the son of a hero, but when his dad is arrested, everything changes.

x In Sasha’s class, the pupil on duty must clean the blackboard before each lesson. Once when on duty, Sasha hoped to please Nina Petrovna by chalking a picture of comrade Stalin. Upon seeing the blackboard, Nina Petrovna turned pale and dismissed the class. Sasha didn’t understand that Nina Petrovna needed a clean blackboard to begin her lesson. She was afraid to erase the picture of Stalin in front of the pupils. Any one of them might denounce her to the secret police for destroying an image of their great leader.

x Even though Comrade Stalin declares that life in the USSR has become joyful, he warns Soviet citizens against turning complacent. Many meetings are held where citizens discuss how to stay vigilant. In Sasha’s school such meetings take place in this cafeteria.

x On the second floor of Sasha’s school, at the end of the main hall, a plaster statue of Comrade Stalin is set between two windows. Not a full statue, just chest and head, a bust. But to Sasha it looks real. He feels that sometimes Stalin himself is looking at him in the hall. After the “nose incident” the statue disappears.

x The broken nose of Comrade Stalin is held as evidence in the case against Sasha’s teacher Nina Petrovna. For defacing a sacred statue of Stalin, Nina Petrovna is accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and wrecking. The fate of Nina Petrovna is unknown, but the plaster nose is kept in a cardboard box in the Lubyanka archives.

x Sasha has excellent penmanship. He keeps his pen in good order, and the inkwell full. The very same pens are used to blacken the faces of the enemies of the people on photographs. The tip of the pen is so sharp that often the faces are not only blackened but scratched away.

x Matveich, the janitor is responsible for keeping the school’s schedule. This is the bell that Matveich rings in the corridors to announce the beginning and end of each class. Once a pupil pulled a prank on Matveich and hid the bell someplace. The secret police was called in to find the bell. After locating the bell, they left with the pupil who pulled the prank. He was never heard from again.