Part One – There
(Eastern Hemisphere)
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO – ENTERING THE UNIVERSITY
I must say that the exams never scared me. Even admission exams to a university. However, my choice was very limited. There was no talk of any other cities. What did I lose there in a rough, almost hostile atmosphere? And how to leave my family without help? I was the only “man” in the family. My grandmother, mother and sister needed help around the house and financial support.
By the time I graduated from high school, I had already heard a lot about anti-Semitism, especially official anti-Semitism, which creates heavy obstacles in the way of talented Jewish candidates. However, in my hometown, I did not see this, and the city university of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor named after Stalin was no worse than dozens of other universities with the same Banner, but a different Planner. Of course, the universities of Moscow and Leningrad beckoned me, but I realized that I shouldn’t even go there. I remembered my father’s unsuccessful attempt to enroll in the Military Medical Academy. I also remembered the parting words of school teachers, “New aspects of life will open before you now, and they will not always be as greenhouse-like and benevolent to you as in your own high school.”
Our city’s State University would suited me very well. The ancient building of the former noble gymnasium was made in the classical style of white stone, with high arched windows and oak parquet floors, rubbed to a shine with turpentine and wax. Polytechnic institutes (not only of our city, but of the whole country) fell away for a natural reason – I was not attracted to mechanisms. A medical school would be very desirable, but there were rumors that all places in all medical schools were sold, and I did not seriously consider such a choice. I also did not think about humanitarian specialties (literature, history, law) and I considered art, pedagogy and foreign languages as a hobby, and not as my profession.
At the university, two faculties suited me well – Mechanics and Mathematics (Mechmat) and Physics (PhysFac). I liked mathematics more than physics, but at Mechmat they taught only in Georgian, and I was good enough with physics to quickly determine my final choice. Eli and Kolya applied there with me. Tall Vovka set his sights on the Physico-Technical Institute in Moscow, and my friend Sasha went to the Moscow University for a Mechanics and Mathematics.
I had no doubts about my admission, but my mother nevertheless decided to take me for a test to one talented physicist, Fred Gelman. I came to him several times, listened to his interesting mini-lectures and solved problems. In general he had satisfied with my knowledge of physics.
“Everything should be in order,” Fred delivered his verdict, “If he doesn’t do stupid things, he won’t get less than a four (B). And since the strength of the applicant is mathematics, in which there are two exams – written and oral, then I predict him a successful admission.”
I listened to this prediction with polite approval, I had no doubts. I even reproached my mother for wasting money on these few visits. However, to my surprise, I really enjoyed Fred’s classes. I had an excellent physics teacher at school, but it turned out that the beautiful is diverse and multifaceted.
July flew by quickly. It was a month of exams in the capital, and he taught me a lot. Borya Bichikashvili, as a national candidate of the Republic, was accepted to the Institute of Film Engineers in Leningrad. Vovka-tall entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, albeit with a low score of 14 out of 20. Oleg from the mathematical boarding school, a diplomat of the All-Union Olympiad in Physics, was denied admission with two fives (A) and two fours (B). Of course, his Jewish surname did not appear. Instead of it, there was presented an argument, “18 points out of 20 is too little score for a graduate of a mathematical boarding school.” The most annoying thing was that Oleg pretended to believe in this explanation. Felix from the mathematical school, who once chopped off hen’s beak, changed his surname, signed up as Russian, and… was accepted into the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. As a result, some of his high school classmates stopped greeting him, although his apostasy was clear to many – what is the State, such are the mores.
A story happened to Sasha at Moscow State University. Sasha graduated from school with a gold medal (Cum Laude), which allowed him to take only one exam in a major subject. In this case – a written exam in mathematics. If an applicant got five (A), then he would be enrolled. Otherwise, he had to take the rest of the exams on a general basis. But in the Department of Mathematics, random events happen only when playing a dice. Naturally, Sasha was given a B… for a “non-optimal method of solving the problem”. He immediately went to appeal and, in front of the commission, solved the problem by several different methods. However, this did not change the decision of the selection committee.
“All your methods (read “Jewish tricks”) do not cancel the fact that during the exam you did not solve the problem in the most beautiful way.”
“But I’ve solved it anyway!”
“We explain: that is why your assessment is “good” (4 or B), and not “bad” (2 or D). We wish you good luck in your further exams on a general basis.”
The next exam was oral mathematics. Whatever questions they asked Sasha, they could not catch him. We knew the school program by heart. Then he was sent to the chairman of the commission, academician Gnedenko, who gave to Sasha tricky and difficult problems, but all in vain. Mathematician apparently was a decent person, so after a couple of hours he sighed and took Sasha to the office of the rector of Moscow State University. In those years, the rector was Academician Petrovsky, also a mathematician. Gnedenko led Sasha into Petrovsky’s office and burst into a tirade:
“This candidate for admission unfortunately, is a Jew from Georgia. I myself had tested him for a long time and I am convinced that we’ll make a big mistake by not accepting him to our university.”
“Well,” said the rector, “Perhaps you are right as a citizen. And I’m right as the rector. And it – well, you know what it is – as the organizer and inspirer of all our victories! Thank you for visiting.”
Gnedenko was forced to issue a grade of “good” (4 or B) without any explanation.
And the next exam was physics. I do not know the details, but the assessment was “satisfactory” (3). Eleven points in total was not enough for enrollment. And Sasha returned to his hometown. Here he easily entered, having passed only one exam in mathematics with excellent marks.
But adventure awaited me.
The first exam was oral physics. The devil knows how, but I agreed not to go to the Chairman of the commission for an excellent mark. Maybe I was afraid that I would blurt out something wrong, and he would not raise, but lower my rating. But mark four (B) was fine with me. My bet was on math.
The second exam was written mathematics. Four problems. Of course, I quickly solved them all. Kolya, who was sitting nearby, made a pained face – he could not solve two problems. It threatened him to fail. He had nothing to lose, and he threw me a note with problems. And I, as in school, solved two problems for a friend and, at the risk of being expelled, threw the note back. And what do you think? Kolya passed exam with excellent mark (5 or A), and I passed it with good mark (4 or B). As usual, I made a mistake in the arithmetic calculation! How many times at school Vera Aramovna gave me “demonstrative deuces” for mistakes like 50 x 2 = 200. But this distraction of mine could not be corrected. I remember my grandfather was like this: he always forgot his dentures at his friends’ evening parties. Knowing his own forgetfulness, he easily coped with the consequences, carrying duplicate dentures in his pockets.
At home, I was horrified noticing a miscalculation. I should to do something! I carefully analyzed all my problems and found that one of them, geometric, was made up incorrectly: the leg in it was larger than the hypotenuse. However, during the solving the problem, when it was necessary to find something else, this contradiction was not evident and did not play a significant role. Of course, I consulted Sasha. After Moscow, he gained experience in appeals and was pessimistic about success in this case. He only suggested that I demonstrate the calculation somehow more beautifully, for example, using the coordinate method, in fact, analytical geometry, which was not learned at school.
I listened to the voice of reason. How to fight when my mistake was obvious? It was necessary to earn more points in the last exam in oral mathematics. Here the sea was knee-deep for me! What could I not know? Pythagorean theorems?
And now the day has come. I was not called to the examination room for a long time. The hours dragged on endlessly. Everyone was already tired. Some have already eaten. But I didn’t feel like eating. Finally my name came up. I went in and pulled out a ticket. The battle has begun. Gradually I calmed down and “spread my wings”. Mathematics was my strongest subject. The failure was out of question. Soon, the examiner felt that before him was not just a good applicant.
“Participated in the Math Olympiad? District level? City level?”
He didn’t even mention Republican level. But I didn’t notice the trick.
“Even in the All-Union.”
It was a challenge on my part.
“Do you mind if we play a little? It is clear that the problems from the school curriculum are like seeds for you.”
I agreed, and he bombarded me with tricky problems. I fenced like a mathematical D’Artagnan, parrying all his attacks. One by one, the students left the premises. And we still fought. A second “guardsman of the cardinal” joined my examiner.
“ვინ არის?” (Vin aris – Who is he?) the newcomer asked in Georgian in a low voice, believing that I do not understand or do not hear.
“რა ვიწი. რაღაც ებრაელია. (Ra vitzi. Ragatz ebraelia. – How do I know? Some kind of Jew).
– ებრაელია? რატომ მაშ მათემატიკა? მათ შეასრულა უნდა. (Ebraelia? Ratom mash matematica? Mat sheasrula unda. – A Jew? Why then mathematics? Cunning is needed with them.)
“Well, I see you are very good at complex problems,” the newcomer said. But that doesn’t mean you know math. How about the simplest, the basics? Kindly give me the definition of a point.
“I think that for a participant in the All-Union Olympiad, this is not a question at all,” the first one picked up the game.
It was a low blow. And I’ve got caught. I began to mumble something about the absence of three dimensions for the point, and they, realizing that I had taken the bait, continued to reproach me,
“How can you not know such simple things? This is unforgivable for a level like yours. Or maybe there is no level, and you are skillfully disguised?”
“Well, you deserve a good mark, but, alas, this is not excellent!”
I was beside myself. I knew that they were laughing at me, but how could a sixteen-year-old boy have a cold legal calculation?
Sasha was waiting for me at the exit.
“What?” he asked anxiously, seeing my intense gaze.
“Four (B)! I failed to clearly articulate the definition of the point.”
“Are you crazy? No great mathematician has succeeded in it! There is no definition! They had no right to ask you such a question! Did you go to the chairman of the commission?”
“There was no one left in the room except for us.”
“Let’s run back!”
We tried to enter the building, but the guards did not let us back into it.
The next day I made my way to a meeting with the chairman of the commission, Professor of Mathematics Manjavidze.
He listened to my story and frowned.
“Why didn’t you come to me yesterday?” he asked.
“I was the last one, and you were no longer in the room.”
“That’s true, but I would have been called,” he shook his head, “I’m afraid that nothing can be corrected today, especially since it’s all in words – no witnesses, no documents.”
“There is a document!” I said, “I protest against the incorrectly formulated problem on the written exam. If at least one applicant did not solve it and received an underestimate mark for this, it is an injustice that needs to be corrected. For everyone!”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know anything.”
I took a blank sheet of paper and proved by the method of coordinates that the geometry of the problem is fictitious, impossible, like Escher’s paintings.
The professor looked at my calligraphy notes and his face impression had changed. The brewing scandal had to be nipped in the bud. He shook my hand.
“Thank you. I will write to the chairman of the Admissions Committee of the University about your deep mathematical knowledge, about how you really helped us, and ask you to add one point to your total score. I am sure that you have no problems with admission. Have my congratulations!”
What he said turned out to be the truth, and something even the absolute truth. The professor wrote a letter, they added one point to me, and in the list of candidates admitted in the University I had not 12 points, but 13.
I saw Manjavidze’s note written in red ink with my own eyes many years later, when I got access to my personal file at the university. And the absolute truth was that I didn’t have any problem with admission: I didn’t need this one extra score, since in the summer of 1969 the passing score at the Physics Department of Tbilisi State University was twelve.
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