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This is me as a student of the Odessa Construction Institute.
I demobilized from the army on 26th August 1946. I returned to Odessa and went to see the rector of the Construction Institute - he was also a war veteran. He ordered his subordinate to enroll me on the lists of students. There were 11 veterans of war at my institute. We had wonderful lecturers. Many of them were Jews: professor Zeiliger, director of the Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Zametchik - correspondent member of the Academy of Science, and Gotlib, graduate of the Academy of Architecture in Paris. When we were 3rd year students the campaign of the struggle against cosmopolitism began. I remember a meeting of our faculty attended by second secretary of the town committee of the Communist Party. Galia Golota that was at the front near Sevastopol took the floor and said: 'Bortnik has just told me to vote for the resolution of the Party or I would be expelled from the Institute.' We, veterans of the war did speak our mind regardless of the party politics. At the meeting we argued and talked a lot, but, alas, professors Zeiliger and Zametchik were fired from the Institute. I graduated from the Institute in 1951.
