Tag #146657 - Interview #78194 (Irina Khokhlova)

In the summer of 1958 I tried to enter two institutes at once: the North-West Polytechnical Institute, where I passed all examinations with good marks in July, and the Bonch-Bruevich Institute of Electrical Engineering. There I got excellent marks for all exams except Russian language. Some adventure was waiting for me there. I attended the preparatory course under my friend’s name. She was too lazy to study, and I wouldn’t be admitted because of my nationality. I did very well and they even wanted to admit me without examinations. But then I burst into tears and confessed that my family name was Volokh, rather than Gavrilkina. The professors said that had I confessed earlier, I would have been admitted without examinations. But I passed my exams to the evening department of radio communication and broadcasting. I studied in the Bonch-Bruevich Institute for two years. All of a sudden, during one examination session, my eyes failed due to acute astigmatism and I had to move to the external studies department. I graduated from the Institute in 1965, when I had a 9-month-old baby. Of 200 students admitted to the external studies department, only I graduated.