Eugene Yelchin: Hi everyone. My name is Eugene Yelchin, and I'm the author of The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. To be perfectly honest, the idea to write this book was not mine. A ten-year-old boy suggested it to me during one of my school visits. I was speaking to the middle grade students about, well, exactly that, about growing up behind the Iron Curtain. And that boy, he pretty much demanded that I write a book about my childhood. He was fairly adamant on that point. I did not take his idea seriously at first, but with time I noticed certain signs which made me think that maybe the boy was onto something. No matter what part of the country I was visiting, most middle grade students had a similar reaction to my childhood stories.

I would mention, for example, that I grew up in a communal apartment where all five members of my family had to share a room so small that I had to sleep under the table. And I could see astonishment on my listeners' faces. I would tell them that one night I snuck my dad's pencil with me, and while everyone was asleep I began drawing on the underside of the table which most likely contributed to me becoming an artist. And again, the listeners seemed to be astonished. And it is exactly that feeling of astonishment, that sudden realization that there's a lot more to life than was earlier suspected, that is now at the heart of my book.

The Genius Under the Table is a story about my younger self waking up to the oppressive and secretive world of the communist Russia. Yet the book turned out to be funny. My childhood described in it is not much different than the childhood of any kid in any country, who gradually, one astonishment after another, is beginning to realize that there is more to life than they were permitted or capable of seeing. And this gradual realization is exactly what leads to the formation of who we are. It is exactly what gives shape to our subsequent lives. It is exactly what turns us into grownups. I hope that you might find a little time to read The Genius Under the Table. It won't take long, I promise. I drew a lot of pictures for this book.

I would like to read aloud a very brief introduction to Chapter Three for my memoir called The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain.

Russia was called the USSR at that time, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. If you think the name was long, take a look at an old Soviet map. One sixth of the world was painted red just to make the name fit.

Those old maps were made to trick our enemies. In case a foreign army invaded us, it would get lost. Lakes and forests on the map were drawn incorrectly on purpose. Rivers flowed in the wrong directions. Mountains were missing.

The Soviet borders ran for so many miles that when the sun rose at one end, it was already setting at the other. No matter how vast our borders were, they were so perfectly guarded that nobody could sneak in. Nobody could sneak out, either.