As you could already figure out, there was no ACT or SAT in the Soviet Union. Your GPA was counted as one of the grades at the entrance exam, as I’ve described here (along with the rest of the admission process). Also, everything was decided after you actually graduated. For me, I graduated in June 1980, and the whole month of June was dedicated to the finals, both oral and written. I hope I remember it correctly: we had an essay exam, math (in writing), and a whole bunch of oral exams: physics, chemistry, the history of the USSR (aka the history of the Communist Party), which was combined with the “social science” material. I believe we also had English, and we should have had oral Russian and oral math, but I can’t remember for the life of mine.

Anyway, when exams were over, we had our diplomas distributed at the lavish graduation ceremony followed immediately by the graduation prom. In Leningrad, which is situated pretty far North, the nights in June are very short; actually, it hardly gets dark for an hour. That season is called “The White Nights.” It’s supposed to be very romantic to wander the city streets at night time during this season, especially the Neva River embankments. Lots of young people are outside the whole night; you are expected to meet the love of your life one of these nights :), and you won’t go for less.

It was raining really heavily on my graduation night, but a tradition is something you can’t break. So my boyfriend (you are supposed to have a girlfriend/boyfriend that night, even if you didn’t have them before) and I were both walking in the rain. Our mutual friend, who was unfortunate not to have a girlfriend at the moment, was wandering in the rain with us. My graduation dress was red because I wanted to be different from others, and also because that was the only long dress, I found in the store which looked good on me. I didn’t have money for a tailored dress, besides making your dress to order was considered bourgeois at that time. So I was wearing a long red gown with a white belt, a white neckless and white high heels. We walked all the way from our school which was situated in Gavan, the far side of Vasilevsky Island, up to my house on the other side of the river. There I’ve changed to the warmer clothes, flats, and handed the boys some dry socks, and we continued our wandering in the rain – it was a tradition!

Literally the next morning we brought our papers to the Admission Commission of the University, and then all the events which I’ve already described have happened. On July 10th, I became the first college student in my class.

Continue reading “My First Semester in the University: Higher Education in the Soviet Union” →

Back to my story. You might wonder, what was such a big deal about this specific University, and what was a drama. First, there were not that many higher educational institutions in the Soviet Union and the majority of them were located in Moscow and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Many cities either had no higher education establishments, or they were ranked extremely low. For the High School grads in Leningrad, there was almost no option to get a degree outside the city. Some brave souls might try to challenge their luck in Moscow, but they would have way fewer chances there. Going to a smaller city would be getting into a way lower-ranked college. Plus, the student dorms never had enough capacity to accommodate everybody who would need it, and renting was virtually non-existent. Most of the college students lived in their parent’s homes, so going to another city incurred additional expenses. There were some students outside Leningrad, for sure, and I will tell in a duly order who they were and how their lives looked like.

Leningrad State University was the University, the only University in the city. Another thing I should mention is the fact that higher education in the USSR and later in Russia was not compliant with the rest of the world. We did not have BS and MS, we didn’t formally have “liberal arts,” although we didn’t have them informally as well. I guess for the fact of them being “liberal.” We had “institutes” and “the university.” You had to go to school for five years to earn a degree. To be precise, you had to cover the courses which were offered during these five years and not to have a failing grade in any of them. Higher education was free in the Soviet Union. Completely free, plus most of the students were given a small monthly stipend, which could be revoked if you fail one of the finals, and could me moderately increased if you got “excellent” on all of your finals.

However, do not assume it would be the same as to get into the US college for free regardless of your income. First, people just didn’t have extra money on average, and there was no option to borrow, period. There was no concept of “credit,” except for one very conditioned option to improve your living conditions. This one was called “cooperative flats”, but you had you be eligible to join. So it would be safe to say that credit did not exist. Second, the number of “institutes” even in the big city, like Leningrad, was minimal. I promise to find the exact stats :).

The Leningrad State University had a dozen or so of departments, and when you were applying, you were applying to a very specific department,. All the “liberal arts” were out of reach for us, because there was too much of the competition, so for somebody who was math-inclined, you could only apply to the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics. Which would accept only 350 students. 25 for the astronomy (yes, you had co claim your track when applying, and changing later was almost impossible). 50 for mechanics and the rest evenly divided between mathematics and applied mathematics; the latter has become computer science at some point. The level at which all math courses were tought was indeed much more advanced at the University. Why did it matter so much, I can’t tell you at the moment, but when we were seventeen and math geeks, it made a ton of difference.

One more thing worth mentioning here. There was and still is a mandatory draft into the Army, which boys were trying to avoid at all costs. Most “institutes” had a so-called “military chair.” Starting from th second to the fifth year of studying, there was one day a week when the girls were free, and the boys were taking military classes. This way the boys were graduating with some army rank, and most of the time it was counted as they have completed their years of service.

All of the above is very different from the American concept of “there is a college for everybody.” You had to get in right after school. If you are a male and you didn’t get in, you will be drafted when you turn 18. You could only apply to one institute, as I’ve mentioned earlier, the University was the only exception.

Hopefully, now you can understand better why the situation with the Jews was so severe.

My historical posts are being published in random order. Please refer to the page Hettie’s timeline to find where exactly each post belongs and what was before and after.