Tag #152982 - Interview #78408 (Lidia Korotina)

My nationality at that time already imposed borders that I was not supposed to cross. There were limitations, but I didn’t realize it at that time. After the war, I felt what it meant to be a Jew. Nobody called me “zhydovka” but I felt some discrimination. I think it was in 1952 that they were sending two or three people from Ukraine to the All-Union meeting in Moscow, and I was among them.  I was the only aesthetics lecturer, so I was invited. And then when the Chief of Department saw my nationality in my passport he said, “Why a Jew? Couldn’t you find a Russian?” And then in 1953 I took entrance exams to the post-graduate course at the Pedagogical Institute. I passed the exams in German and Marxism-Leninism with the highest of grades, but they spoke to me in a very rude manner and told me that I had not been admitted. You know, it is always hard to pinpoint just why one is rejected in the artistic mileux - whether it is because of jealousy or because of nationality. Now I understand why I was never awarded the title of Honored Employee of Culture or some other title.