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.