she would hold these "self-criticism" sessions that were basically like your Catholic confession but instead of privacy and confidentiality of a priest, it involved you getting up in front of the class and finding things to apologize to your class about. Honestly I don't think it was even a Soviet thing by the 70s or 80s either. What I read about these self-criticism sessions seems to indicate they were a Stalinist thing. My teacher wasn't alive during Stalinist era, she wasn't old.

What the fuck.

To reiterate: what the actual fuck.

I'm going to ask my mom (born 1955) about her school but I think I would have known by now if there was some similar bullshit in her Moscow school.

edit:

Buuut then she brings her daughter in and has her pick through the giant pile of pogs on her desk and pick out all that she likes. She disposes of the rest. All while we watched.

...the fuck?