The student body at all times was a special "caste" of society, living according to its own unwritten laws of brotherhood and mutual assistance, differing from other people by amazing optimism, cheerful carelessness and an ineradicable faith in miracles. These qualities are fully reflected in student folklore, an integral part of which is the so-called fairy tales - legends, legends, tales and beliefs that exist among the students of domestic universities.
Invisible patrons
Traditionally, the patroness of all student brethren is considered the holy martyr Tatiana, the heavenly intercessor, who helps even the most careless students in difficult times. In Leningrad, in the second half of the 20th century, students came to the chapel over the grave of the famous prophetess - Blessed Xenia of Petersburg - at the Smolensk cemetery and pasted notebooks on the building fence surrounding the burial, asking for help in passing tests and exams. The students of Tomsk State University - one of the oldest universities in Siberia - back in the 80s and 90s of the last century, sacredly believed in the saving power of the earth taken from an unmarked grave in the old city cemetery. Before the very beginning of the exam, it was customary to sprinkle this earth on the record book. According to legend. at the beginning of the 20th century, the daughter of a local merchant, Anna, was buried in that grave. The young girl passionately wanted to study and was going to go to university, but the strict father forbade her to do this, and so that the rebellious daughter did not run away, he immured her in one of the rooms of his large mansion, where she soon died. After her death, Anna allegedly appeared to several young people, promising that she would help all the students of the city …
Kind grandfather historian
Igor Savinov, a student at the Saratov Pedagogical Institute in the mid-1980s, and now a teacher at one of the universities in Yekaterinburg, loves to tell his students the story of his classmate and friend Andrey P. Born in Saratov, Andrey did well in all subjects, for with the exception of the "History of the CPSU", which is notorious for all students of the Soviet period. The issue with this discipline was so acute that Andrei was already going to be expelled from the institute. On the day before re-passing the exam, a desperate young man put in front of him a portrait of his late grandfather, a renowned historian, in whose footsteps Andrei was going to follow, and, almost crying, began to complain about his fate. Having poured out his grief into a silent photograph, the unfortunate man went to bed, feeling that tomorrow would be his last day at the institute.
The next morning Andrei appeared before a high and strict commission. Pulling out his ticket, he sat down at his desk and began to prepare for the answer, feverishly remembering everything. what he knew on the subject of questions. Unexpectedly for himself, he suddenly felt on the back of his head someone's light breath, and then distinctly heard a voice that he had known from childhood. Andrey understood. that behind him, not visible to anyone. there was his late grandfather. who dictated to his desperate grandson exhaustive answers to the ticket's questions. Andrey's brilliant performance that followed amazed the commission, whose members unanimously gave the student an “excellent” grade.
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Ghosts alma mater
In the student environment, there are many rumors about ghosts and ghosts that live within the walls of universities or university dormitories. So, in the 70s of the XX century, among the students living in the hostel of the Irkutsk Pedagogical Institute, a tale was passed from mouth to mouth about the ghost of an old professor, who from time to time appeared in the common kitchens of the hostel. According to legend, once a respected university teacher found out about his daughter's affair with a poor fellow student who did not shine with special knowledge. One evening, the professor came to the hostel, where his daughter went to her lover. In one of the sections in the kitchen, to his horror, he saw her indulging in a violent passion with a stupid student. The professor's heart could not stand such an obscene scene, and he fell dead on the tiled floor. Since then, students sneaking into the kitchen late at nightin order to feast on cooled potatoes from a smoked frying pan before going to bed or to drink tea with a stale crouton, no, no, yes, and it was possible to see a transparent stooped silhouette dissolving in the wall when young tenants appeared. In order to appease the ghost of the strict professor, students even left an open textbook and an unfinished glass of tea on the kitchen table overnight.
The Barnaul Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots in the 70-90s of the last century was located on the territory of an old military town in pre-revolutionary buildings. Its graduates love to tell stories about how in the evenings in the deserted echoing corridors and auditoriums one could hear unfamiliar voices suddenly appearing in the air, the tapping of spurs, and in the rooms that served as stables a century ago, the neigh of invisible horses and the clatter of hooves. Particularly famous among the cadets was the ghost of the old mustachioed corporal, which for some reason everyone called "San Sanych". With him - emerging from the darkness - more than once encountered during a round of the territory at night, officers on duty and cadets, who served in a daily dress. Some jokers even saluted the ghost, after which he,apparently satisfied with such a respectful attitude towards himself, he immediately disappeared …
Beliefs and not only …
Almost all student beliefs and superstitions are related to successful passing of tests and exams. For example, some of the students are sure that a record book, placed under the pillow at night, guarantees a positive grade in all subjects. The same effect can be achieved if you sit down on the record book just before passing the exam. The undoubted benefit during the session is the method of putting on underwear inside out in the morning.
Some of the fair sex consider it a bad omen to wash their hair before the exam or flaunt in some new thing. At the same time, “excellent” will be in your pocket, if the day before you hit your shoes with an even number of nails and show up in these shoes to the court of a high commission. During the session, invariable success accompanies those who pin an old pin under the collar of a shirt or blouse.
However, in addition to these superstitions, from ancient times, students had a number of complex magical rituals, which were resorted to by "advanced" young people. For example, back in the 19th century, students of some educational institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan, who wished to successfully pass the exams, sat in front of the mirror on the night before the test, putting on a dress in which the next day they were to appear before the professors, and on top of it - turned inside out. inside out fur coat. After that, having lit seven wax candles, the girls began to call the "silent mirror", who, according to legend, told in a dream what lot would fall for them on the exam, and at the test itself, locked the lips of the professors so that they would not ask unnecessary questions.
In the last century, some students dared to gain special favor from examiners through magic slander in photographs of professors. It was considered the height of luck to get the lucky ticket. To do this, you had to write questions with your own hand on a blank sheet of paper, the answers to which you know well. Then take the sheet to the cemetery and bury it in one of the graves for three days. After that, it was necessary to remove the paper with questions and, while reading certain spells, burn it, and pour the remaining ashes into a glass of vodka and drink it in one gulp. Now the probability that the examinee will come across "easy" questions began to equal the cherished one hundred percent …
And in our century - the century of high information technologies - students, sometimes not as zealously as in former times, gnawing at the "granite of science", continue to believe in miracles that, contrary to all the laws of our complex materialistic world, still occur in their difficult, but such happy life.
Sergey Kozhushko. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 4 2011