Editor's Introduction
I would have preferred to get Russian-language readings, but have yet to come across a Russian-language textbook from the Stalin years. (I found this book in a Russian second-hand bookshop in Paris in 1978 or 1979.) Since these readings are in a foreign language, they are presumably simpler than what 7th graders would be expected to read in Russian.
Most of the textbook is non-political grammar and exercises, of no particular social or historical interest.
I was tempted to retitle the book, English: The Language of Imperialism. Note that every single reading about the English-speaking countries portrays them as hellholes. The readings from Soviet life, naturally, portray a happy and harmonious society.
I do not know how many Soviet 7th-graders were studying English when this book came out in the early 1950s. If anyone knows (especially if they have a link to suggest), I would appreciate hearing about it.
| (Actual Russian title info) Ob"yasnenie russkoj azbuki vospolzuemoj zdes'
|
(English translation) |
| English: Uchebnik Anglijskogo Yazyka dlya 7-go Klassa Semiletnej i Srednej Shkoly (izdanie tret'e) | English: A Textbook of the English Language for the 7th Grade in 7-year and Secondary Schools (third edition) |
| Utverzhdeno Ministerstvom prosveshcheniya RSFSR, | Confirmed by the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR |
| Gosudarstvennoe Uchebno-Pedagogichecheskoe Izdatel'stvo Ministerstvo Prosveshcheniya RSFSR Moskva, 1951. |
State Textbook and Pedagogical Publishers of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR Moscow, 1951. |
| page # | title | remark | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Study as Lenin studied! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Summer Holidays | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | Who Is Speaking? | School avoidance might be OK in capitalist countries, but not elsewhere. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 | The Sun and the Wind | non-political Aesop fable | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19 | The Sun, the Frost, and the Wind (Part 1) | non-political Russian fable | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 21 | Plans for Sunday | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25 | The Sun, the Frost, the Wind, (Part 2) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 26 | Autumn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 30 | Our Country, the USSR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 32 | With His Own Hands | Children discuss the Five-Year Plan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 34 | The Blind Toy-Maker (Part 1) | Crushing poverty in capitalist England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 37 | Tom, the Little Chimney Sweep | More poverty in capitalist England The somewhat backward author Charles Kingsley benefits from progressive editing. 39 |
The Blind Toy-Maker (Part 2) | 42 |
The Arrow and the Song |
non-political poem by H.W. Longfellow | 45 |
Alexander Matrosov |
a hero of the Great Patriotic War | 48 |
Winter | 53 |
White and Black (Part 1) |
Racist oppression in the US South | 56 |
Eliza Runs Away with Harry (Part 1) |
Slavery in the US South (from Uncle Tom's Cabin) | 58 |
White and Black (Part 2) |
Racist oppression in the US South | 60 |
Eliza Runs Away with Harry (Part 2) |
Slavery in the US South (from Uncle Tom's Cabin) | 63 |
Have You Been to Moscow | 67 |
Soviet National Anthem |
Aleksandrov-Mikhalkov "Hymn of the Soviet Union" | 69 |
A Visit (Part 1) |
By a Soviet child to a friend | 72 |
A Visit (Part 2) |
By a Soviet child to a friend | 76 |
About Books | 79 |
Spring | 82 |
My Aunt Lena |
Crushing poverty of immigrants in the USA | 85 |
Androcles and the Lion |
Non-political fable | 88 |
The Fisherman and the Little Fish |
Non-political fable | 90 |
The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing |
Be vigilant, Comrades! | 92 |
The Farmer and the Stork |
Be vigilant, Comrades! | 95 |
Exploring | 99 | Summer | 102 |
The Nightingale |
Fiction: A boy-hero in the Great Patriotic War | |