Page 11 - The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. The Mirror of My Soul. Vol. 1. Born in the USSR

My parents did not even entertain the idea of influencing my decision. They just

gave me what I needed and saw me off on the airplane, and thence to the glorious city
of Irkutsk nestled on the banks of the Angara River, next to the wondrous Lake Baikal.
I was staggered by the taiga. I had never seen the likes of it anywhere. The forestland
was right up to the city boundaries.

I had prepared for the entrance exams with a two-volume edition of biology by an
American scientist named Villee; that, as it turned out later, contained the equivalent of
two university courses in biology. I knew the material practically by heart so easily
passed the oral exam in biology with a grade of “excellent.” The same occurred with the
chemistry exam, but, on the written exam (the essay on Russian literature) I
undeservedly received the lowest grade.

As it turned out later, a quota chosen for Russians was already filled so that room

had to be made for the higher education of the “minority people” most of who were, for
some reason, Jewish children. I handed in my papers for the evening faculty and had
already passed one exam with an “excellent” grade, when I was asked to give up my
place in the student dorm. I tried to rent a flat with no success and was forced to withdraw
my papers.

The examining board tried to persuade me to stay, but I had no alternative. I
returned home and, after a while began working at the Civilian Aviation Factory № 411
in Mineralnye Vody, where I stayed until May of 1979. I was then sent to a radio
workshop assigned to working with precious metals. Our task was to remove gold,
platinum and silver from used radio parts.

The way we “removed” it was as follows: we tore these spent radio parts to pieces
and used hammers to break up the different types of relays, switches, etc. As is clear
from the description, the work was very “creative”. Nevertheless, I managed to make
the process creative for me. I simply decided to arrange a competition with myself; in
other words, I set myself a goal of breaking up a certain quantity of relays per hour,
possibly without hitting my fingers in the process. Thereafter, I set myself a goal of
breaking up five more relays per hour, etc., etc….

As a result, boring, senseless work gave me some sense of purpose as an exercise
in self disciple and I began to derive moral satisfaction when I succeeded in fulfilling a
task that I had planned. Several fellows, who had recently transferred to the reserve from
the Soviet Army, worked with me. A graduate student from a university physics
department was our foreman. He could not support his family on a teacher’s salary so
was forced to join the “working class”.

An accounting clerk was the only woman in the group. When I began to work, I
had to pass some “tests” just like everyone, everywhere, had to do. When it turned out,
that I did not drink, smoke or swear, etc., my coworkers told me that I would be “just
like them” in less than a month. There is no need to explain what they had in mind.
However, in less than a month, all of them promised me that they would give up

drinking, smoking and swearing. A fine of ten kopecks was imposed for every swear
word and the money was then used for cultural activities.

Oddly enough, this money box remained almost empty. And when a swear word
escaped somebody’s lips from force of habit, they apologized to me for it. They opened

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