Polite address term that replaced Mr./ Mrs. When a ?comrade? ended up before a court of justice, he/she became a ?citizen?. (51)

Basically she-?comrades? were regarded like some supreme authorities, take school mistresses for instance. They used to have full cohorts of fair-haired boys in their tow, such as the butcher?s son, the dairy assistant?s daughter, who got all the advantages in the world because daddy and mommy occupied strategic positions. The she-comrades also used their pupils for a whole series of errands ? to line up in queue for them, to have them do their shopping etc.

Just what was it that a she-comrade was good for? She taught us how to write, taught us calculus, showed us how to stitch loose buttons, in case we ended up like single unmarried men. She also used to check the hygiene of our handkerchiefs and finger nails. She also lectured us a lot about when and how we should wear out Pioneer, the local version of scout, uniform. So her involvement in our private lives was considerable really. She paid us monthly visits at home, it was her duty to do so, just to see the rooms where we did our homework and check on us doing some extra homework.

Beating at school was a rather usual practice. Punishment was either individual or collective. When the comrade was late for classes, and obviously the kids couldn?t help causing mayhem, all the male students had their own share of whacking, without exception.

In intermediary and high-school comrade power diminished considerably. We had some very patriotic comrades who were doing their best to fill our heads with communist nonsense. For instance the Comrade who taught Russian tried to also teach us to become young proud communists. I know he really did his best: he read to us all sorts of stuff about the Soviet Union, had us do our reading in school and at home of the famous ?Vitea Maleev?, went all the way to preaching us about the alienation of Western society. It was he again who taught us that the Soviet Union had 7 hundred million inhabitants and was the biggest country in the world.

There certainly were a couple of comrades who didn?t really want to be comrades above all, just regular teachers and never made any efforts to conceal the truth. (11)

And basically just any occasion was appropriate to give she-comrades any variety of presents and incentives. (111)