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Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

ivolo.me

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Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#111

Post by vlisivka »

ivolo wrote: post #25
PRJIUS2 wrote: post #13

Posted last time[1] one of these stories came around, comment applicable here: As a preamble there most definitely existed anti-semitism in Soviet Union. I am a Russian living in the US with Jewish family in Russia. This is a throw away account. With that said, stories of anti-semitism told by Russian Jews in US should not be taken at face value. These folks are subject to a very strong selection bias. Most of them c…

Regarding immigration: I don't know if there was much selection bias as we were in the immigration queue for 10 years before being selected. The Anti-Defamation League told Bill Clinton that the situation in Russia was getting worse (1996), and he increased the annual quota of Russian Jews allowed to enter the US. Regarding the second point: we have no more relatives in Russia, so the narrative is not meant to help a…

These problems are not hard - they were typical at regional (and above) math competitions. I.e. thousands of applicants, which are winners of regional math competition, were able to solve them each year.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#112

Post by eli_gottlieb »

shn wrote: post #86

I wonder what is the root cause of anti-semitism? I always thought that anti-semitism is an illness that belonged exclusively to Europe, and they exported this "problem" to Middle East. Now I read that Soviet era, in multiple regions similar problem existed. But why? Do all other ethnics had their own fair share? If not why Jews? Or Jewish people are just more outspoken?

Root cause? What makes you think there is one?

The original root-cause was sheer politics: the pagan rulers of Egypt (not talking about Exodus, Egyptian Empire was heavily influential in the Levant) and the Roman Empire despised henotheists and monotheists, because their/our religious practices pretty well implied disloyalty to the conquering empire.

The sheer number of revolts we threw against them didn't help.

But after that? Well, by now it's just persisting because it persists. A virus needs no reason to exist.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#113

Post by eli_gottlieb »

CleanedStar wrote: post #64
moxie wrote: post #36

What's interesting is that according to several narratives from those close to the central committee under Stalin, anti-semitic policies in the Soviet Union started from geo-political maneuvering rather than any inherent personal sense of racism. Sudoplatov, an NKVD agent who worked for Beria, wrote in his memoirs that the original Soviet post-war plans were actually to establish a Jewish republic in the Crimea , wit…

The Crimea was one idea, so was a semi-autonomous state out near Birobidzhan. The problem with saying that it was paranoia that some people in the Jewish community were trying to undermine the Russian government, is that, especially after the fall of the USSR, right wing Jews have openly boasted about how they HAD been working to undermine the Russian government, and were using the Jewish community in the USSR to do…

Links please? I'm Jewish and have never heard of this. At all.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#114

Post by goldmab »

hakaaaaak wrote: post #101

Thanks to the OP for posting this. I want to read it to my kids, so they understand how lucky and spoiled we are. I think the persecution of the Jews in any culture is wrong. And so is the persecution of any religion. I think the freedom of religion, including the right to pray in schools, on T.V. and radio, in government, etc. is a freedom that the U.S. was not only founded on, but what people have died for, and I a…

Anti-semitism isn't always about religion. Sometimes it's just racism.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#115

Post by eli_gottlieb »

tatumizer wrote: post #98
ivolo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. As far as I understand, the Jewish quotas were not proportional to the population. The other significant difference is that all these policies were completely opaque, not like you can find out how much Jews the university can accept this year. Officially, no such policy existed, but everyone knew it did. In my dad's case, he was told he failed the health exam, which was a complete lie. There were many ot…

> Author here. As far as I understand, the Jewish quotas were not proportional to the population I was through similar experiences to your dad's roughly at the same time. Quotas, where they were in place, WERE proportional to the population (2%). There was a number of very good schools where we Jews were more than welcome (e.g. MIIT) - your dad was supposed to be aware of this. You have to thank God that he was not a…

People of Russia were (and still are, to large extent) victims of brainwashing. Beware of brainwashing, it's effective regardless of country.

And Americans aren't?

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#116

Post by Smirnoff »

As a person born in USSR Russia and currently living in Uzbekistan, I can confirm that college entrance system didn't change much in Uzbekistan: 1. You are allowed to apply to 1 state-sponsored university only. If you don't get in, you're SOL. 2. You need to pass medical examination before you submit your documents. This "Medical Form-86" can be bought for $10. 3. You can buy your way into a university, just like rich kids do for Ivy Leagues in USA.

The best change since then is the fact that the practice of administering oral and written exams by each university is GONE :)

IMHO this was THE MAIN way to deny admission during USSR times. This happened to both of my parents: a. My mom scored perfect on first 2 exams and scored 1 on the final essay. The university in Russia rejected her appeal. Oh, and did I say she was writing for her high school bulletin and won several state essay competitions? b. Same story with my Uzbek dad. Scored well on Math and Physics just to fail the final oral exam. Ended up serving in Army in Saint Petersburg for a few years.

Now concerning discrimination in USSR colleges: I have relatives who are Tatars and Uzbeks and I know plenty of Jewish Russians who had no problem getting into universities during USSR times. I also know a few Russians who thought they got perfect scores but ended up getting a ding. Based on my experience, I'd day everyone was against odds due to corruption and lack of connections.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#117

Post by bahman2000 »

My dad had pretty much the same experience. He was not Jewish. He was not Russian (slavic/blond/blue-eyed) either.

Russophilia, xenophobia, cronyism and nepotism were rampant in the former USSR. A "prominent" Muscovite Jew (but otherwise a lousy student) would have been treated better than the most talented Uzbek/Kazakh/Tajik.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#118

Post by gdy »

fusiongyro wrote: post #96
PeterisP wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now I'd say that being jewish is ok compared to some other nationalities, as there are quite a few reports of people murdered on the street in major cities for looking like immigrants from Caucasus or being black, but I haven't noticed such reports about jews.

If I visited Russia, do you supposed I'd experience more problems by being American or by being Jewish? Or would I even be likely to experience any problems at all?

IMO, none at all, at least in the city where I live which is not far from Moscow.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#119

Post by gdy »

geoka9 wrote: post #33
fusiongyro wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, how big a problem is antisemitism in Russia, in your opinion?

It's huge. It permeates all levels of the society. There are jokes, stereotypes and anecdotes that are essentially part of the culture. Most (if not all) of the people have at some point been subjected to them, and even if they are not antisemitic, they are certainly aware of the singling out of Jews. This dates back to the days of the USSR, but the prejudice is not limited to Jews anymore. Chechens, Georgians, Tajik…

Russia is huge and probably there are places that you comment describes accurately, but it is not so in my experience - most of the jokes about Jews I heard from a guy who is Jew and he don't seem to have any problems with his career.

Re: Soviet College Admission — My Dad's Story (1970)

#120

Post by petethepig »

Great story. I live in St-Petersburg and I have to correct you. The third picture is not St. Petersburg University of Telecommunications, it is Grand Hotel Europe — the fanciest hotel you can find here, basically you can tell that by looking at the cars parked in front of it. And this is the building of St. Petersburg University of Telecommunications — http://goo.gl/maps/YRw4Q
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