The 5 most popular"can't": what was forbidden to do in Soviet schools

Discipline was an integral part of Soviet education. Numerous "no's" left almost no space for personal choice and self-expression, and those who violated them were waiting for a difficult fate.

Those who grew up in In the Soviet Union, they know that the school was more than just an educational institution. The school strictly regulated what every Soviet child should wear, how he should look, what and how to write, and even which hand. Some children roughly followed these rules, while others hated them fiercely and went to war with the system. We tell you about some of the most remarkable "impossible".

Students in the classroom. 1959

Until a certain time, there were no left-handers in Soviet schools, or, officially, there should not have been. Left-handers were simply retrained for right-handers. It was believed that it would be difficult for left-handers to work and fight in the future, since both weapons and all kinds of equipment in the factories were created for right-handers, and there were no other options provided.

The lefties had only to obey, or enter into a long warpath with the teachers.

Another one says:

The vicious practice of retraining was abolished only in 1985-1986: the Ministry of Health recognized that it was harmful to the mental health of children, and the Ministry of Education adopted a directive in defense of left-handed writing.

Students in the classroom in the first grade of Moscow school No. 315. 1964

Yulia Karabintseva also remembers how even in the 80s all first-graders wrote with fountain pens before the teacher's permission:

Students of the secondary school No. 1 of the city of Comrat. 1985

Jeans, jumpers, floral dresses and even multi-colored hair bows are unacceptable. Standardization in the Soviet school was raised to the absolute. Everything was supposed to be the same.

May 1, 1990

For this, they could be kicked out of the class and even subjected to a public execution. For example, for having too long hair on guys (who were perceived as hippies by Soviet teachers). Today, this could be a reason for a trial, but in those years it was considered only an "educational" and funny episode from the life of the school.

For painted nails, they were also expelled from the class with a reprimand, but some people went on the principle:

Punks, Moscow, 1987

"In the year' 89, at the dawn of Perestroika, when the musical underground in the country was already popular and widespread, there were also schoolchildren who considered themselves metalheads or punks. And I had a punk in my class, too. At school, he looked quite ordinary, the only thing that gave him away was a small hair-just tousled medium-length hair, " Krasnov recalls.

— But one day he appeared with a cross earring in his ear. It was a history lesson, with an old-school communist historian. She saw the cross and began to stutter, and then slowly sank into a chair, losing consciousness. However, she came to herself quickly and immediately began to yell and demand to take off the earring. The guy refused in a calm voice. The teacher got drunk and kicked him out of the class."

Modern schools in Russia no longer has anything in common with the strong ideological attitude towards universal equality that existed during the Soviet era. But, nevertheless, some of these prohibitions exist to this day, just the situation varies from school to school. In some places, students are required to wear only school uniforms, and in some, mobile phones and long hair are banned.

At the same time, often the more elite the school, the stricter the rules (and more prohibitions):