Russian Schoolroom depicts a group of seated and attentive Soviet schoolchildren looking towards the viewer's left, presumably at a teacher outside the visual frame.

[1][3] It has been suggested that in changing this detail, Rockwell slightly subverted the image to make a subtle political point in favor of non-conformity.

Steven Spielberg bought the painting from Judy Goffman Cutler, a noted art dealer who specialized in American illustrators, in 1989 for $200,000.

A member of his staff spotted the painting on an FBI web listing of stolen works of art and the authorities were immediately notified.

[8] The court decided in 2010 that the 1973 owner had been appropriately reimbursed and that the painting belonged to Cutler, who had by then traded it with Spielberg for another work; she subsequently added it to the collection on display at the National Museum of American Illustration, which she co-founded.