Page 12 - The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1. Born in the USSR

their hearts to me and sought my support in difficult moments. I also discussed problems

of physics and astronomy with our foreman and almost always won our debates.

Probably, this is difficult to believe, but it did happen, and I did not consider it as
something special. I simply was sure that I could convince them of the appropriateness
of this or that action— no more. At that time I was very naive in thinking that it was
possible to help get rid of harmful habits just by explaining the essence of a problem. I
had only my own experience to rely on and seriously assumed that the likes of this
happens with everyone.

In mid-May of 1979 I was discharged from the plant and began to prepare for
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applying to Kharkov University’s school of radio physics . The latter was considered to
be the best in the Soviet Union.

This time I went to Kharkov. I passed the oral exams in physics and mathematics
with “excellent” grades, plus two written exams, graded as “satisfactory”, and thus
became a student. These “satisfactories” were the first and the last low grades I got
during my study at the university.

It is of interest, that the written exam in mathematics included some calculations in
higher mathematics which were not taught in the lower schools. Before entering the
university I reviewed their entire school program of mathematics as well as a lot of

additional material. However, some tasks on the written exams were simply unknown to
me. Such a system allowed the authorities to control who may or may not become a
student. Thus “desirable” university applicants could pass a “specially” prepared
program prior to the preliminary admission exams and thereby enter the university
without any problems.

Those people who prepared the “desirable” university applicants often wrote the
tasks for the written exam in mathematics. Similar tactics were used almost everywhere
and not limited to mathematics. So quitstudents from these “desirable” university
applicants got “excellent” and “good” on their preliminary exams; however, on their first
and subsequent sessions as enrolled students, they hardly made “satisfactories” and some
actually flunked out.

I do not mention this to show off how “clever” I was, but to show how the Soviet
educational system manipulated their admissions to higher education, by favoring the
entrance of representatives from minority groups, especially of one particular
nationality.

At the time, everything seemed legal to me, including the manuals that contained
all the examples from previous entrance exams in math, physics, etc. that were printed
for the use of university applicants. By the way, I used them also to prepare for my

exams. The fact is that if an applicant did not know what to expect on the written exams
for any particular year, the possibility of be-coming a student was very meager. Even
the presence of talent did not guarantee success, while a “correctly” prepared dullard
could easily become a student.

It was a mean, hypocritical system to control higher education this way, although,
everything looked just fine from the outside. Certainly I, as a student, did not understand
it, when everything seemed to me honest and straightforward. And only now, do I grasp

7 Radio physics is a subspecialty of physics dealing with the propagation of electromagnetic radiation.
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