Tag #147015 - Interview #92478 (Rebecca Levina)

I remember only one case of anti-Semitism, while being at university. I sat in a small room in the department of Russian language in the old building of the Philology Faculty [the building of the Philology Faculty is one of the oldest in the whole city, it is situated on Vassilievsky Island], and there was some other room nearby, and I heard that one of our students shouted, ‘They don’t admit Jews to postgraduate studies courses’ [24]. Obviously, I don’t think that she shouted this, because she was an anti-Semite. However, it was great for many people: for example, for some Ninel Geltova, today she is a pro-rector of the Regional Agriculture Institute. She studied well, but she didn’t have any special talents. But she entered the postgraduate studies because they didn’t take Mark Teplinsky or other Jews, who were much more talented. She liked it, it was comfortable. I was friends with her – I think, she knew that I was Jewish – lived in one room with her on the campus, and never had any problems or troubles. And later I heard from somebody that she asked her Professor Maximov, who was teaching the history of Russian literature: ‘What are you admitting this one for? He is a Jew, and you take him to the post graduate studies.’ When I heard that story, I broke off all relations with her.