Tag #145730 - Interview #78185 (Osip Hotinskiy)

I decided to enter the Moscow Artillery Academy. I submitted my application in 1946. There were two-stage entrance exams: at first applicants had to take exams in the military regiment, and then the winners had to take exams in the academy. There was a big competition: five to seven applicants per admission. I passed my exams successfully and was admitted to the first year of the Faculty of Ammunition. I faced no prejudiced attitudes. I think national identity didn't matter at the time. Knowledge was what mattered. There were two groups of 25 students in our faculty. Two were Jews. I was one and the second was another war veteran. His name was Abram, but I don't remember his surname. There were many Jewish applicants, but only two of us were admitted. However, I think they just failed at the entrance exams. I faced no anti-Semitism during my studies at the academy, though it emerged in everyday life after the war. On my way from Yaroslavl to Moscow, in an overcrowded carriage, I heard officers talking to one another: 'Those Jews, zhydy...' In Moscow I also happened to hear things like this, though never addressed to me. Anti-Semitism became a common thing in everyday life and wasn't punished. However, it occurred among common people, not among the intelligentsia at the academy.