This 1962 black and white film about Soviet schools was distributed by McGraw-Hill Text-Films and produced and directed by Nicholas Webster. “Meet Comrade Student” studies the Soviet primary, secondary, and trade school educational systems; points out the purposes, the strengths, and the weaknesses of this type of training. Pictures teen-age boys and girls in school; examines their home life and the schooling of their parents and grandfathers.

Cars drive down a street in Moscow. A woman looks at mannequins in a window. A U.S. film crew carries a movie camera (:12-:33). Boys in white tank tops and shorts and girls in white blouses and shorts march around the gym to the commands of their teacher. They are split into two groups and compete against each other in a race (1:00-2:50). The outside of a multi-story apartment building is shown, followed by a family in one of the apartments. The mother prepares breakfast in a kitchen. Two brothers share a bathroom sink and get dressed for school. They eat breakfast (2:54-4:00). They walk to school, where they meet up with other children walking to school. The children, wearing uniforms, enter the building and line up to enter the classroom (4:01-5:12). In the classroom, children hold up numbers. They teacher walks around the classroom. Two students share a microscope (5:13-5:42). Students paint with watercolors and sketch buildings. Another illustrates stories (5:42-6:15). A sign above the teacher says “Study as Lenin Studied!” The students wear headphones to learn English. Students stand up and answer questions in English. They perform recitals in front of the class. They sing a song about unemployment in the United States (6:16-12:25). Recess involves walking around the halls as some children continue to study while doing so. A ninth-grader tells the subjects he is studying (12:26-13:40). The Physics teacher instructs the class. A student points at trigonometry figures on a blackboard and another uses a paper clock to explain trigonometry (13:41-14:50). A picture of Sophia Kovalevskaya, an 1800s Russian mathematician (14:51). Students write match equations on a blackboard (15:10). A 1957 seventh-grade English textbook talks about poor children in capitalist countries who are beat by teachers who hate teaching. A picture of Lenin hangs on the classroom wall (15:17-16:35). The principal is a female, who asks questions about American education (16:37-20:55). Girls look at photos of top athletic boys hung on the wall (20:57-21:10). A girl recites Shakespeare in front of a picture of him on the wall (20:57-22:15).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com