Gennady Zyuganov
Photo: Vladimir VELENGURIN
The Rabota.ru service conducted research and found that more than half of those who got a job for the first time in the last 10 years received up to 10 thousand rubles a month. Another third – from 10 to 30. And only 3% immediately began to earn more than 100 thousand rubles a month.
“Do you remember your first salary?” – we asked the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, head of the communist faction in the State Duma, Gennady Zyuganov.
… – Gennady Andreevich, do you remember your first salary?
– Certainly.
-Who did you work for then?
– I remember the first ruble I earned.
– What happened, when, where?
– I studied at the Mymrinskaya school, graduated with honors and was going to enroll…
– And where?
– There were different proposals, the medalists then had the right to go to university without competition…
-Are you a medalist?
– 100 percent and gold! In general they took us everywhere with great pleasure. No exams. The school director, Paramonov, a disabled war veteran, came to see my father, who also fought for his homeland near Sevastopol and lost a leg. My father and mother worked at the school.
– What school is this?
– Oryol region, Znamensky district, Mymrinskaya secondary school. I was born there, it was a magnificent town, there was a good school, a very strong teaching staff. This is on the outskirts of the Oryol region, next to it, on the right is the Kaluga region, and on the left is the Bryansk region.
In our town, a rooster sang songs for three regions.
So, Sash, when my parents were being naughty, they would send me and sometimes I would give lessons. And they were surprised that the guys listened to me with pleasure, a high school student.
And then the director says to his father: Andrei Mikhailovich, I would like to ask your son to work for me, there is no one to teach the cycle of mathematics, military affairs, and they introduced a new subject, which was called MPO. (local air defense).
– What year is this?
– 1961. (The situation in the world was difficult at that time).
“Let’s convince,” he says, “our son to stay with us, he’s the district champion in five sports, his kids will accept that.”
They came to me and began to persuade me, and I was already preparing to submit documents to the university, so they persuaded me. The plot, however, was good.
“If you follow the pedagogical path, and in my family I have nine teachers, a hereditary dynasty, then the teaching experience will begin from this year, and then the institute and the army will begin to teach.” And taking all this into account, I accepted.
– Let’s go back to the first salary…
– When I received my first salary, my mother was breathless. They gave me 76 rubles, my mother taught at primary school and her salary was less. I’ll tell you, at that time it was very decent money.
– And where did you spend your salary?
– It’s different here. In the family there was a rule: everything goes into a common container. In this sense, we have had communism for a long time. They doubled it, and if they needed to spend it on something, they took it, but they gave it back to the penny.
– Why return it?
– Wait… This is a very good tradition, I liked it too. On the one hand, there was complete trust. On the other hand, I ran to the store, they gave me change, I have to return it.
And if you need to go to the cinema, it costs 10-20 kopecks, you have to ask. As a rule, they were not prohibited. By the way, I submitted it to my union, there was such an order.
– Well, that’s the order… Didn’t you wash your first salary?
– As for washing, it was possible. But when I was a schoolboy I wore a sweatshirt and they decided to buy me a coat as a teacher. And then I put on a coat for the first time. Then, when I finished working at school and entered university, I tried to pass all the exams and tests for a scholarship.
My first scholarship was 22 rubles, then they increased it to 33 and when I passed everything with distinction, I received 45 rubles! It was a very big scholarship. There were always enough rubles for lunch. Breakfast 30-40 kopeks, dinner and 20 kopeks were still enough for a movie and ice cream.
In this sense, students in Soviet times who received scholarships, and the absolute majority did, were socially protected. Well, the boys and I also went to the station every Saturday to unload the cars and there we could earn another ten. In this sense, they did not suffer.
Of course, today newcomers who get a job after school and university should not be paid 10, 20 or 30 thousand, but much more. You raised a good topic in Komsomolskaya Pravda; For us it is not new. We are already implementing a number of legislative initiatives in this regard and we will be even more active.
