Book Review: Father Alexander Krylov’s ‘How I Became a Man’

Book Review: Father Alexander Krylov’s ‘How I Became a Man’
Alexander Kyrlov was taught at every level of grade school the so-called glories and benefits of collectivism. First-in a Kursk, USSR classroom, circa 1976. Oleg Golovnev/Shutterstock
Jeff Minick
Updated:

When Alexander Krylov was in elementary school, he and his classmates toured the Museum of the Revolution in Moscow. “The female museum guide told us that Communists are genuine heroes,” he recollected years later. She said that “we no longer need to invent gods for ourselves; we divinize the proletarians next door.”

The guide went on to explain that communists sacrifice themselves day and night for the people, undergoing privation and even death on their behalf. Here’s what happened next: “The museum tour made such an impression on me that I ventured to ask carefully a very human question. ‘Do Communists ever go to the bathroom, too?’ The surprised museum guide first took a deep breath and then said, ‘Yes, they have to go, too, but not as often.’”

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
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