Postgraduate studies are a direct road to science. The publication of this series of materials, as it turned out, aroused the most genuine interest of the VO reading audience, where there are many people who have followed the same path as the author. Of course, there were comments like “And someone was doing business then!”, That is, a hint that “this whole history of the CPSU and the party leadership” is nothing more than “bullshit”. But now this can be said without consequences, but say this out loud at a lecture at the plant some worker … the lecturer would immediately pass it to the KGB, and he would not say this anymore. They would not have been exiled to Siberia, but they would have had a conversation … So let's remember that every time has its own songs, flags, symbols and idols, and it is customary to honor them severely and with reverence. By the way, those who ask what relation this topic has to "VO" are also wrong. Yes, the most direct. A great state collapsed, built of many bricks. One of them was university science and the party leadership of this science … And here you have defense, missiles, and all that stuff. Explained easily or how? But it had to be like that, "by the way", but the story itself will go about … the last third year of graduate school in Kuibyshev.
As elsewhere at that time, graduate students and teachers of the department were supposed to participate in Lenin's subbotnik with shovels in their hands. This tradition has been preserved today, but only the teachers themselves have already stopped working. Just watch what the students are doing. The author, together with "senior comrades" with shovels in their hands!
Finish on time
The rules were as follows: in the last year you are convicted at the department and receive a recommendation-presentation for defense to the University Council. They put you in line and you wait. If you enrolled on November 1, then on the 1st you will be expelled and you will have to go to work at your own university. But if you received a recommendation before the 1st, then it was considered that you finished on time with the presentation for the defense and was given one more grace month for it. Of course, I didn't even want to wait an extra month, so I had to try to finish the work by June in order to defend myself already in September-October and … sooner home.
Department of the history of the CPSU KSU. As you can see, there is still no computer on the table at the head office … Now the position of a woman wearing a hat is called “document expert” and it is simply impossible to imagine her without a computer.
Historians of the CPSU against scientific communists
Having almost finished work in my hands (already rewritten twice in accordance with how everything has changed!), I began to devote more time not to frantic searches for material, but to what we call self-education. For example, read other people's dissertations, both on the history of the CPSU and on scientific communism. I didn't like the latter at all. First, they consisted of two chapters, while ours consisted of … three. And in ours every word, every number should have a link to the archive. And in these dissertations it was like this: in the first chapter, the task of implementing some principle of Marxism-Leninism is posed, and it itself is described. The second describes a sociological study carried out at some enterprise and concerning how things are with this principle or situation in the USSR, and if not very well, then how to improve it. Then it tells how at some plant something of the described was implemented and what results it gave. And that's it! The degree is guaranteed. We called it the search for a black cat in a completely dark room, despite the fact that everyone knew in advance that the cat was not there at all. That is, we believed that at least we were recording the events that were and were, but they … invent them, and there is usually no benefit from this. Therefore, in the relationship between us there was a certain chill and even some mutual neglect. It was then that I read the book "The Volga and the Volga Shipping" by Shubin, 1927, and on its basis I wrote a bunch of articles about the Volga steamers Zevek, the steamers "Vera", Nadezhda "," Love ", Penza surrogate workers and many other things.
What events were taking place in the country at that time? Here, for example, is a photograph of the Ovechkin family ensemble. Who are they? What have you done? And here's what: on March 8, 1988, with weapons in their hands, they seized a Tu-154 plane, flying from Irkutsk to Leningrad. The whole family wanted to flee abroad …
Practical suggestions
By the way, at the same time I also decided on purely practical proposals for my work. In addition to the hackneyed "expand", "deepen" and "attract", I proposed to actively introduce the study of TRIZ in technical universities, and to involve students not only in scientific research work, as such, but also in the leadership of children's technical creativity, that is, in circles in schools and on SUITE. That is, to ensure an increase in the interest of schoolchildren in technology, so that they enter universities more consciously, and in fact it was about continuous technical education through the school-university line. But it is clear that all this was a whim painted with beautiful words. Of course, no one would seriously implement this, of course, as all this was the lot of enthusiasts, it would remain so, even if such an undertaking were put on the agenda for university party meetings. There was no money for this, there was no. That's all, why it was impossible to do it!
On March 13, Sovetskaya Rossiya published a letter from Nina Andreeva “I cannot compromise my principles”.
Small bipod
Meanwhile, the country was seething. On March 13, 1988, the newspaper "Sovetskaya Rossiya" published a letter from Nina Andreeva under the catchy title "I cannot compromise my principles." And many perceived this as a course to curtail "reforms", but … the line did not swing for long. And people argued, shouted … but everything was quiet in our graduate student block. Somehow everything that happened passed us by. We had a lot of work of our own. And here one involuntarily recalls the accusatory statements of some of our colleagues in "VO" - they say, people like you have ruined everything. But excuse me, how? My colleagues and I strictly followed the instructions “from above”. What we were told, we, like "organchiks", and repeated. And no one cuts the goose that lays the golden eggs, or saws the branch on which it sits. Ahead we had a very decent salary, additional income in the form of lectures and round tables, a respected job, the prospect of scientific growth. And no one was interested in our personal opinion about what was happening there, above, the main thing was that we were quite sincerely bringing the ideas of the party to the masses. We were too small fry.
On May 15, 1988, the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan began.
The game is not by the rules
By mid-June, my work was completely finished. It was necessary to discuss it at the department and get a referral for defense. Only two defenses could take place in a month. The deadline expired on November 1 … At the meeting, I reported on everything and expected that everyone would vote “for” in unison. These were the rules of the game. The boss gives the go-ahead, which means the department must give it. But suddenly everything went differently for some reason. Remarks appeared from somewhere. Statements that "the work is raw". And besides: “it is not yet known what they will say at the XIX Conference of the CPSU,” which was supposed to open in Moscow on June 28.
On May 29, 1988, Ronald Reagan arrived in the USSR.
I remember that I was so tired of all this that I, again in violation of the rules, did not blame and say that I would follow the advice of the “senior comrades”, but stood up and said: “At least shoot, but I will not change anything!” Oh, what started here! My boss was the first to get up and declare that “we have been shooting since 37 and all of them are not the right people,”and that my words are offensive, that they wish me well. "Well, wish further!" - I said and left the meeting. Most of all, of course, I was indignant at my boss. Why didn't he warn me about this in advance?
I went to the city, ate dessert with nuts in a cafe near the fountain, called home, received support from my wife, and then, I see, my fellow graduate students are running down the street, as if looking for someone. "Here it is!" - and to me. "The boss demands you to come to him," they said to me, "he sent you out to look for … Angry!"
Well, I'll go to him. "Have you called me, Alexey Ivanovich?" "What do you allow yourself?" "What, couldn't you tell me in advance?" "No, I couldn't!" “The son of the rector of a neighboring university needs to defend himself in September, his deadline is October 1, and yours is November 1. You can wait. He's not! " “But you could have told me …” “No, I couldn't! What if you went to the party committee and started pumping your license? Can you imagine what could have happened? " "And what … did you send me to look for?" “You never know what happens,” he remarked philosophically. “It happens that some people’s nerves can’t stand it…” “Not with me!” "Then go to the store manager, ask for forgiveness and say that you will fix everything by September 1!"
So I did, he scolded me fatherly, and that was the end of the “backstage games”. I thought, if this happens "below", then … what are the people up there? But there is no information, no special thoughts!
The celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus took place: on June 11 there was an all-night vigil.
Terrible news
And then my boss left for Moscow. Either he was a delegate to this very fateful conference, or he went to his friends. I don't know … But he arrived very agitated and immediately summoned me to his place. And then he said that he had been in Moscow, where he "remained in touch" and talked "with knowledgeable people." And that further confrontation with the United States is no longer possible, that there is no alternative: either total nuclear annihilation and general destruction, or … rejection of our economic and political system. "And we," he said very clearly and harshly, "will do it for the sake of preserving human civilization!"
On October 16, Soviet television began showing the Latin American series "Slave Izaura". Oh-oh, that was amazing! We, graduate students, had no television in our rooms, but when I came home for the weekend, I was immediately initiated into all the intricacies of her unfortunate fate …
To hear this from a man who lost his hand in the battles for our Soviet Motherland was so … scary that I had the feeling that he had poured a tub of ice water over me. Therefore, I did not say anything in response, but only stood and blinked my eyes. “But you don’t say anything to anyone, do you understand ?!” "Understood!" "Do you understand how this concerns you?" "No!" “Defend yourself soon - that's how! Therefore, on the first of September, you will be in the department with a reworked work. Go! " So, back in 1988, I learned the "secret behind seven seals", learned that socialism will be abolished in our country and that the society we are used to will soon disappear like smoke. However, then, on reflection, I decided that “there”, of course, they know better what is what, that we are small people, and that everything will work out somehow!
November 16, 1988 - the proclamation of the sovereignty of the Estonian SSR by the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR - the supremacy of the laws of the republic over the laws of the USSR was affirmed. It was a direct challenge to the allied leadership, and it was from this event that the collapse of the USSR began, and not at all with the Belovezhskaya Agreements!
Playing by the rules
In the summer, the whole family rested in Pyatigorsk, received medical treatment, and on the first of September I was "like a bayonet" with a bound dissertation under my arm at the department. Everything that was ordered, I corrected, instead of three chapters I did four. Well, everything in the same way and with regard to everything else: plus inserted quotes from the materials of the XIX Party Conference. The manager was late, just flew in and called us from the airport that he would be late. And when he arrived, he immediately began the meeting. He saw me, nodded and said that I had corrected the work, that now everything is fine there and that the department recommends it for defense in … November. That is, during the grace period, which was given to those who finished their work before graduating from graduate school. His deputy sat next to me and, looking at the burgundy volume in my hands, asked, when did he manage to look through it? But I just put my finger to my lips. Still, the rules of the game in those years had to be strictly observed! The graduate student had to make the changes that were demanded of him, after which the department was obliged to recommend him!
