Dec 22 2008
Russkiy Yazik — pardon me, Russian Language in Pictures
These Books Without ISBN have me very excited. They actually were published smack in the middle of the era of the ISBNs (1980), but originated in a regime that kept itself firmly disconnected from most of the conventions of the Western world.
Russkiy Yazik b Kartinkakh, or in English, Russian Language in Pictures is exactly what it sounds like. These were books that one of my professors of Russian, in university, ordered directly from Moscow (or Moskva) for our second-year Russian language course. They contain no English whatsoever, and the introduction of Russian words increases only gradually. This would correspond with how a young Russian school child was slowly learning the alphabet, and learning to read.
We used the books exactly as those school children were doing at that very moment in the Soviet Union: we’d see the objects and learn the words in class, one by one. My books are full of my own hand-written words (in Russian) for those objects. On the “Kitchen” page, I see “nozhi” (knives), “stakani” (glasses), “lozhki” (spoons), etc.
As I was positioning the books to take a picture, Volume 1 fell open to the pages shown in the top photo. All those regimented little kids! Look how straight and proper they are, in their patriotic uniforms. Those kids were in the very beginning phases of the Young Pioneers, the youth groups all over the USSR that helped promote literacy and encouraged patriotism to the state. The kids in the picture are just being initiated into the movement; it was something that kids theoretically had the option not to participate in, but…well, one really wouldn’t be wise to exercise that option.
I didn’t realize until I read that Wikipedia article that the Young Pioneers were a reorganization of the Scouts - yes, those Scouts. In fact, some Scouts took the side of the Bolsheviks in the Revolution, and this led to the government retaining and repurposing the organization. Even the motto was retained: Be Prepared.
In the bottom photo, from Volume 2, you can see that the complexity of the pictures and the stories had grown. The section that starts there is called “V.I. Lenin and Children.” So the pictures show him interacting with children, especially the one on the right side, where he’s bent over talking to them.
What strikes me first, as I look at those pictures, is that they look exactly like the sorts of pictures we used to see in Sunday school, of Jesus with children. My goodness.
Anyway. I love these books. Straight from the Soviet Union, and full of all the things that Soviet educators felt were important for young children to know. And no ISBN!
