Breaking Stalin's Nose Chapter 22 Summary

  • Nina Petrovna tells the class that everyone should have known Four-Eyes did it, considering his parents were such rotten enemies of the State and all.
  • She crosses out Four-Eyes's picture on the classroom photo hanging on the wall. This is apparently standard practice when someone is identified as an enemy of the people. They're classy like that.
  • The students then return to rehearsing for the Pioneers' rally.
  • But before they get too far into this, Nina Petrovna tells them that she has a confession to make: she knows someone else who is the child of an enemy.
  • Of course Sasha immediately thinks she's talking about him, and he drops the Young Soviet Pioneers banner. Whoops.
  • Oh, wait. Actually, it's Vovka. Nina Petrovna tells the class that Vovka's father is a "wrecker."
  • And—yep, it gets worse—she reveals that Vovka's father was recently executed for this.
  • Ah so that explain the grades dropping and behavior issues that Vovka has been having. Bigtime.
  • To add insult to injury, she accuses him of conspiring with Four-Eyes.
  • This is too much for Vovka to bear. He lunges at the teacher and starts to strangle her. Sasha tries to separate the two, and then all three are dragged off to the principal's office.