Reply #35: I wasn't in her class, [View All]

[scisyhp1]

but even if her story has a grain of truth in it, which I doubt, the way it is presented
is still journalistically fraudulent. It is pictured as something very typical for USSR,
while in fact, if true, it is rare to the point of being unbelievable. There are few other
things in her recollections which raise a flag. First, Soviet birth certificate did not
say JEW in it, though it did list ethnicities of both parents, so I am assuming that's what
she meant. Second, not every child in Soviet school cafeteria was entitled to free lunch,
only those from "many-children families" which meant from families with three or more
children. I, being one of only two kids, had to buy my own lunch. Most of my classmates
entitled to this perk didn't take advantage of it though, as the quality of the cafeteria
food was indeed atrocious. I don't remember teachers serving us with food either, cafeteria
had staff for that. It sounds that she may be talking about kindergarden (3-6 y.o) where
indeed everybody was fed three meals a day by their teachers. Those were not free and
parents had to contribute a monthly fee to keep a child there. Maybe her mother was late
on a payment so they withheld the meals, I don't know but that's certainly possible. That
may also explain the memory lapse, as not too many adults have clear recollections of
that period. In any case I would be interested in hearing more details from her personally.