The subtle outline of a church in Moscow might situate the children’s book in the heart of the nation. Yet the fact that it is only a blackened small outline in the corner undermines its religious significance and downplays the centering of Moscow - the story could as easily be in the city of the book's publication, Leningrad

The differentiation of colors of the sidewalk and the road, as well as the multiple-storied buildings on the left of the picture, show that we are in an urban, industrialized setting, which is an important component of the vision of the context of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. It is also interesting to note that despite the mention of trains, buses, and omnibuses in the text of the page, none of these vehicles are depicted on the page. They are left to the imagination, perhaps in order to not overcrowd the page with images as the printing company was dealing with a limited number of available colors.

The brown figures, representing the “gasping people” before which the Primus stove is “accelerating,” are significant in that they are all portrayed in one color (both internally, as in the entire face, clothing, and body of each person is brown, but also among each other as they are all brown), which is important in that it reflects the theme of the collective. These workers are not individualized, but as the text aptly called them “Mishka, Grishka, and Epishka,” (three very common names, equivalent to the American “average Joe”), are rather lumped together in a way that makes them devoid of unique traits.