The first issue of Slingshot is a fictional student’s diary featuring a series of satirical poems and caricatures depicting a typical day at school.

The second bell rings and, as depicted in this caricature, the Russian lesson begins. Tired already, the students can’t stand the boredom of reading Gogol and Pushkin, so they read the newspaper instead. Meanwhile, the lecturer reads aloud from a textbook, proud of his students’ progress

According to the poem, the textbook is written by the famous 19th century Russian educator, Lev Ivanovich Polivanov. The teacher himself is called Mark Ivanov, presumably a made-up name (and not an actual person) chosen because it rhymes with Polivanov.

Image: The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia