My path to higher education was long and thorny. Better to say, the path to education. It began in the Moscow Hydrometeorological College, which is located in the suburban village of Kuchino, now it is part of the city of Balashikha. Kuchino is known for the fact that Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky lived and worked here, a famous industrialist and scientist. Here, on the banks of the Pehorka River, was his estate, on the territory of which he built a complex of buildings for his Aerodynamic Institute. The Revolution of 1917 stopped all his scientific activity and he immigrated to France. And he dreamed of space. Someone said about them - in Russia they would have gone to the sky, and in immigration they conquered the sky - Sikorsky and many, many other Russian aviators and engineers.

Recently in the center of the city Railway Ryabushinsky erected a monument. And what little remains of his estate is destroyed - a staircase, a fountain, an ancient building. 

In the early 1930s, the Hydrometeorological College was opened in the building of the main estate of Ryabushinsky. In this technical school, I entered training in the specialty "Radio Engineering Hydrometeorological Devices" in 1970 after graduating from the 8th grades of Reutov School No. 2.

The school was interesting. At that time, the college was a truly professional educational institution. They went to college well. For failure was expelled, but the greatest dropout occurred in the 1st year. Our group did not count a few people that year. By the way, I continued this good tradition, the expulsion for failure, when, after 15 years, I began to work as a teacher in the same technical school.

In the first year, we studied mainly general education subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, German, social studies, Russian language and literature, NVP - initial military training. The teachers really carried the knowledge and tried to hammer it into our heads. Best of all I remember the teacher of mathematics Yakov Abramovich Kletsel. The exam lasted until 10 p.m. You pick up a ticket, you answer, you don't know something, you go to the hall to teach, and then back to the classroom. Physics was taught to us by Galina Mikhailovna Rumyantseva, and the class leader was Alla Valierevna Ponamoreva, an English teacher.

In the second year there are already special subjects; Electronic devices with the teacher Patokin, Electrical Engineering with the teacher Lyudmila Ivanovna Egarmina, who had a favorite expression: "face about the Table".

At the end of the second year of practice in electrical work. In this practice, we were taught to solder. It was simple: The teacher showed how to clean the wire, prepare the soldering iron, clean the stinger, irrigate. And training. Wires, canifoli, solder was in abundance. Then the test. It is necessary to weld a cube measuring 100 by 100 mm from copper wire with a diameter of 1 mm. And each side of the cube is a 10 mm increments lattice made of the same wire. Imagine how many rations had to be made. After weeping, you go to the teacher - we taught this science Ships, as I do not remember the name. I remember one day I smoked a cigarette and I got so sick that I ran to the bathroom. I enter the building of the technical school - and meet me the Shipmen with the words "You walk, Bolgov", and in my stomach with your finger.

(Korabelnikov)Shipmen took a soldered cube and crushed it with their hands. If, in his opinion, a lot of delays fell off, you go to your workplace and solder again. Great school. In radio engineering and electronics, a good soldering is the key to the reliable operation of the device.

In the third year, we were taught radio receiving devices by teacher Devin, radio transmitting devices by teacher Alifanov, the basics of radio engineering and antennas by teacher Verle. Yuri Sergeevich Verle loved to preach to us and in general went into demagogy sometimes. He was particularly good at it on the subject of "Antennas." There was no exam on this subject, only a test, which was put automatically. Here he spent hours preaching to us. I wanted him to talk about antennas. And he felt my displeasure. And it was expressed in the fact that he gave me 2 points (bad score) on the exam in radio engineering. I didn't know one "Jet Lamp" question, and I just got one. Although I knew the radios and all the circuits well, he gave me a 2. I don’t know what he meant by that, but when I was a teacher at the same college, I never allowed myself to have any extraneous conversations during lessons on abstract topics. The example of the teacher Werle gave me an antidote against this method of work in the technical school. My main task was to keep the students in mind. And the students wanted to listen to stories that were abstracted from the themes of teaching. But I used different methods: compositions, dictations, presentations. This is the subject of "radar stations", popularly called simply "Stations".

After the 3rd year I went on an expedition to the Latvian city of Liepaja. My grandmother called this city Libava. Libava, in the German manner, was called Liepaja during the Russian Empire.

My school friend Volodya Kalenov after 10th grade got a job at the Institute of Earth Physics, named after Otto Yulyevich Schmidt. He's got a job. The Institute of Earth Physics was a remarkable institution in those distant years. How many people worked in it! The main building was located on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street in Moscow, and many laboratories were located in the basements of buildings near the metro station. There was an area of two-storey buildings built by German prisoners of war after the World War II.

During the summer, expeditions traveled throughout the Soviet Union. Volodya went to Garm, to the Pamir, where the seismological test site was located. In the department where I settled, there were two polygons - one in the mountains, in Garma on the Pamirs, and the second at the naval base in Liepaja, on the basis of vessels of the hydrographic service. I got a job at a marine gravimetry laboratory, whose squad was traveling to Liepaja at the end of June. By the way, working on expeditions while studying at a technical school or institute is a very good school in education, and in human relationships. Francis Bacon says this very well in his essay “On Travel.” I recommend everyone read it.

My duties in the expedition were simple – to do what the head of the expedition Stanislav Kutkin and other engineers would say. Basically, this is the assembly of printed circuit boards, soldering wires, locksmithing, taking readings from gravimeters, accelerometers, etc. The main purpose of the expedition is to search for oil on the shelf of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by seismological methods. In summer, information was accumulated in the field, and then in winter it was processed in Moscow.

The first month of work was almost non-existent, and we spent most of our time on the city beach, bathing and drinking the great Senchu Alus beer. As I remember, the bottle cost 33 cents. On the ruble you take 3 bottles, after drinking, go hand over 3 bottles, they then cost 12 kopecks, and the money you get another bottle and 3 kopecks of change.

The month flew quickly, the head of the laboratory Vladimir Town Hall arrived and we started working. Two weeks later, they assembled the installation and went to the Liepaja fish factory to install equipment on the base of the Liepaja lighthouse, which relied on a granite base. While the data was being recorded, the laboratory staff dispersed around the workshops of the fish factory to select products for tasting. The food was fresh and delicious. From tunnel smoke ovens, 20-30 meters long, carts with smoked cod left. What a smell! What a taste! Herring! There were barrels of herring in the saline shop. You roll your shirt sleeve up your shoulder, and you throw the biggest, fattest herring in the barrel. Then everyone gathered in the room of the lighthouse at the devices, laid out on the table who brought what, got bread and began the meal. It was the freshest, excellent quality fishery products.. 

After checking and finalizing the scheme, the equipment was installed on the hydrographic vessel GS-275 of the hydrographic detachment of the Liepaja-military-naval base. And the ship started moving. My task was to map the ship's route in the Baltic Sea. I had to take readings of 3 coordinates of the Laurent navigation system and interpolate values, every few minutes to map the location of the ship, not forgetting to mark the time. At the same time, seismological data was recorded on punch tape.

On the expedition to Liepaja I went by car GAZ-69, an old such, expeditionary. We went in three: the driver, me and the brother of the driver, who made us a company to ride to Liepaja. We left Moscow at 6 a.m. I still remember the empty Minsk highway. Our way went through Minsk, Smorgon, Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Palanga and finally - Liepaja. The whole road took 2 days. After lunch we arrived in Liepaja, which was located in an old private house. After unloading the car and lunch went to greet the Baltic Sea. It was my first time in the Baltic. Some of us would go into the sea in scrubs and then pull them back so the sea wouldn't take them.

I really liked the sea. Beautiful beach. Pine trees.

Work went on as usual. The first of September has arrived. I had to go back to Moscow and continue my studies at the technical school. But the head of the expedition Stanislav Semenovich Kutkin asked to stay, and I stayed until September 20. I flew to Moscow by Yak-40 to Bykovo airport near Moscow. This was my second flight on a plane in my life. Back at college. It's nothing new. The main subject is radar stations, which was read by the deputy director of the technical school Belov N.P.

Literally, I read - dictated to us the description of the blocks of the radar station. It was possible to stay on the expedition for another month. I wouldn't lose anything..

And before November 7, I went to practice in the glorious city of Frunze, which was at that time the capital of the Kyrgyz SSR. The four of us went to Penza. We went to practice in Penza Kolya Byvshev and Petya Baryshevsky.

Kyrgyzstan is certainly not the Baltics. And I did the right thing that I took the direction to practice in Kyrgyzstan After Latvia - Kyrgyzstan is a strong contrast. The Soviet Union was a country that included completely different territories, completely different from each other, different in culture, religion, language. And it is probably natural that such a diverse country disintegrated.

In Frunze, we were assigned to work as trainees at the Frunze Air Station, setting a salary of 70 rubles. And plus from the technical school sent a scholarship of 45 rubles. You could live.

On the eve of the New Year, when receiving a salary, the head of the air station, a lover of alcohol, tells me that I withhold from you and Grachkov from your salary 10 rubles and can fly to Moscow for 10 days. I went to the Osh Bazaar, bought melon, apples of Alma-Ata, all sorts of Central Asian goodies, and on the IL-18 plane Slava Grachkov and I flew to Moscow for the New Year holidays. In those days, the IL-18 was probably the most reliable. Takeoff and landing in any weather.

Working during training is wonderful. You are not bound by very strict working conditions, you are viewed as a temporary person, and you have the opportunity to travel to the surrounding places. So in February, I got on a plane flying to Tashkent. There lived my father's front-line friend, Durnev. I wanted to see Tashkent, the city of bread. But he didn't get to Tashkent right away. The plane, due to the fact that the weather in Tashkent deteriorated, landed in Shymkent. All passengers were put on buses and taken to Tashkent. I really liked Tashkent.

After graduating from the technical school, I again went on an expedition to Liepaja. I liked Latvia. After working on the expedition in early September, I went to work at the Central High Altitude Hydrometeorological Observatory (TSVGMO) on the Ostankino TV Tower. Two weeks after starting work, I meet my classmate Misha Tolstoykh in Moscow. He immediately after graduating from the technical school went to work at the "Postbox" (the mailbox is a closed defense enterprise, a secret institute, a military plant, etc.). And Misha says, "Come to work with us." Let's think. The next day I went to Human Resources. They gave me a questionnaire. Filled in. A human resources officer looked at her and said, “Are you not a Komsomol?” I'm saying no, not Komsomol. The hu`man resources officer says it's a mess.

I was asked why I had not joined before. Well, you can’t say that even when I was in school in the third grade, when the teacher said that on the birthday of Lenin’s grandfather, April 22, everyone should come in white shirts, Vovochka came in dark. 

Result - accepted. But today to pay entrance fees 10 rubles and get a Komsomol ticket. Thus, the work experience is 2 weeks - and I am accepted into the Komsomol. The next day I'm going to Human Resources. Showing the Komsomol ticket. The human resources officer says, Well done! Now the next stage. Now I will prepare you a letter to the Dzerzhinsky district committee of the Komsomol so that they give you a recommendation for work.