Russian children learn to calculate with the abacus , counting board of the ancients . The abacuss , the same system of calculating that was in use in Ancient Greece , can still be in the collective farm schools of the USSR , where the children , on boards even bigger than themselves , learn to count by means of the vari coloured beads . The abecus is still used , especially by the merchants , in many Eastern countries . Photo shows , a little Uzbek girl learning to count on the abacus at a collective farm school in Uzbekistan , USSR . 6 December 1935