Tag #153762 - Interview #102451 (Solomon Manevich)

I was raised in the international and communist spirit. My mother spoke Russian to me and demanded that her brother and his wife did the same. They sometimes exchanged words in Yiddish and I could understand few words. My mother wanted me to study in Russian school. She believed that it would make it easier for me to enter an institute after finishing Russian secondary school. In 1920s the national policy required every child to go to school of his nationality. Since I was a Jew I was supposed to go to a Jewish school. Before my mother and I went to an interview at the Russian school, my mother told me to pretend I didn’t know a word in Yiddish even if interviewers asked me questions in Yiddish.I did as my mother told me and was admitted to a Russian lower 7 year-secondary school. I had many Jewish class and school mates. Many Jewish children wished to study Russian since it was the only way to continue education.