1
The top quarter of the image forms a map with Leningrad at its center.
2
3
"Neva"
4
5
6
The image of a multitude of pioneers, with one nominal pionerka (girl pioneer) in a headscarf, parade in mass with banners and flags flying above.
7
Kustodiev’s drawing of Tom’s dream, which adumbrates his fortunate destiny, shows various boys waving welcomingly, huge banners with the Soviet star and the hammer and sickle, a speeding steamboat in the Finnish Gulf, and crowds of young people brandishing pennants, projected against a partial map of Leningrad. This vision of celebrative hospitality and energetic activity causes Tom to smile in his sleep and subsequently to flee from the benighted United States.
8
Only at night when falling asleep
Did Tom see the map, and there
All was shimmering with a circle blinking,
Calling to the shores of the Baltic Sea.
Tom dreamed of steam ships
The smell of the sea and the fishing gear
Amongst happy people
And the crowd of rosy children
Who had not suffered from the whip
And were not bored in school.
Meanwhile up in the heavens
A golden scythe
Hung above Tom.
(Translation by Myles Landry, Dalhousie University)
