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Teachers were also different. Some of them were from local ‘kulak mugs.’ They were knowledgeable, bona fide, otherwise they couldn’t have stayed at work. They treated us fairly. Other children were party members and knew nothing. They considered us to be the offspring of enemies and treated us accordingly, even without concealing anything.
The most colorful was the principal of our school. His name was Volkov Irinarch Fedorovich. He was Chuvash and spoke broken Russian. He was absolute uneducated, unkempt with a big paunch, often muzzy. He taught physics and astronomy in senior grades and math in some classes. Poor children! He never explained anything because he didn’t know a thing and couldn’t explain anything.
He came to a class, sat at the table, called someone to the blackboard, put his hands on his head and fell asleep. The student could do anything he wanted, he could rewrite the formulas from the textbook, talked to the class and waited for Volkov to wake up. At last he was awake and said, ‘good.’ He never gave excellent marks. If someone asked him to explain something, he got angry and said, ‘you empty-headed cabinets, all you can do is to have tea with cucumbers.’
We had a thirst for knowledge and tried to get it no matter what. We read those few books that were in the library. There were such books as manuals for agricultural adjustments. We made use of our parents’ knowledge to get to know at least something, though we were aware that we wouldn’t be able to enter the institute and would have to be involved in timbering.
The most colorful was the principal of our school. His name was Volkov Irinarch Fedorovich. He was Chuvash and spoke broken Russian. He was absolute uneducated, unkempt with a big paunch, often muzzy. He taught physics and astronomy in senior grades and math in some classes. Poor children! He never explained anything because he didn’t know a thing and couldn’t explain anything.
He came to a class, sat at the table, called someone to the blackboard, put his hands on his head and fell asleep. The student could do anything he wanted, he could rewrite the formulas from the textbook, talked to the class and waited for Volkov to wake up. At last he was awake and said, ‘good.’ He never gave excellent marks. If someone asked him to explain something, he got angry and said, ‘you empty-headed cabinets, all you can do is to have tea with cucumbers.’
We had a thirst for knowledge and tried to get it no matter what. We read those few books that were in the library. There were such books as manuals for agricultural adjustments. We made use of our parents’ knowledge to get to know at least something, though we were aware that we wouldn’t be able to enter the institute and would have to be involved in timbering.
Location
Russia
Interview
Ronny Sheyn-Kuznetsova