Memories of the medical faculty

In August 1919, I came to Kazan from the wilderness of the Penza province (b. Chembarsky district, now Belinsky district of the Penza region, 50 km from the railway station), because in the spring of that year I applied to Kazan University with a request to enroll me in the mathematical department of physics. For admission to students, it was enough to submit documents on graduation from a secondary educational institution (gymnasium, real school). Not finding myself among those accepted for physical education, I began to look through other lists and to my surprise found myself among those who entered the medical faculty. Turning to the Secretary for Student Affairs (Muravtsev), he received in response: "Next time you will write more legibly." The secretary refused to include me in the list of those enrolled in physical education and said: "You will re-enroll next year." There were no funds for the return trip, nor did I see any sense in it. Having taken a job as a clerk-accountant in the mechanical sub-department of the Road Department of the Kazan Committee of State Structures (Komgosoor), I diligently began to attend lectures both at the physics department and at the medical faculty. In early December, he was mobilized and served as a Red Army soldier in the 5th reserve regiment in the October Barracks of Kazan (student battalion). In 1920, I was seconded to fight the epidemic of typhus, smallpox, cholera and other infections in Yelabuga, Krasnokokshaysky (now Mari El), Menze-liiskiy and other cantons of the Kazan province. At the same time I worked as an employee of the newspaper "Banner of the Revolution", where at that time the editor was V. Bakhmetyev. In the autumn of 1920, together with other students, on the basis of a resolution of the Council of Labor and Defense (SRT), I was reinstated in the 1st year of the medical faculty of KSU.