Osip Hotinskiy in a summer camp

My fellow student took this photo in a summer camp when we were students of the Military Academy.

This photo was taken in Moscow region in 1948.

In 1945 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.

In 1948 trials against cosmopolitans, scientists and people in the arts, began. All or almost all of them were Jews. However, I never associated any of these incidents with myself.

The others in the academy also associated these processes with people in literature, artists. They had nothing to do with engineers though, and we didn't even discuss this subject.

In 1950 I finished the Academy in the rank of captain. I got a job assignment to a company manufacturing plane shells. I worked as junior military representative.