Tag #156068 - Interview #94776 (Grigoriy Stelmakh)

When in the army, I began my ‘writings’ that were published in the regional newspaper ‘Leninskoye znamia’ (The Lenin’s banner’). They gave me recommendations for a college. I submitted my documents to the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow University. There was big competition. During our Russian exam – it was a composition – I saw a pretty Jewish girl nearby who was writing assiduously. The teacher approached her and told her to stand up. He opened her desk and took a textbook from there. It was closed and was near her bag, but she was ordered to leave the classroom disgracefully. I and few other Jewish applicants felt some bodily hatred toward us, anti-Semitism on the biological level. Of course, none of us was admitted. We failed at the competition. I had good marks and went to see the rector. He said: ‘We shall admit you when you enter the party’. I understood that I had to give up my journalistic career and decoded to go to work.