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THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943
logic. Her degree was granted by the interdisciplinary Department of
Social Pedagogy. 13
Alisa was skeptical of the education she received at the university, and
it appears to have infl uenced her primarily in its form rather than its
content. Her time at the University of Leningrad taught her that all ideas
had an ultimate political valence. Communist authorities scrutinized
every professor and course for counterrevolutionary ideas. The most
innocuous statement could be traced back to its roots and identifi ed as
being either for or against the Soviet system. Even history, a subject Alisa
chose because it was relatively free of Marxism, could be twisted and
framed to refl ect the glories of Bolshevism. Years later she considered
herself an authority on propaganda, based on her university experience.
“I was trained in it by experts,” she explained to a friend. 14
The university also shaped Alisa’s understanding of intellectual life,
primarily by exposing her to formal philosophy. Russian philosophy was
synoptic and systemic, an approach that may have stimulated her later
interest in creating an integrated philosophical system. 15 In her classes
she heard about Plato and Herbert Spencer and studied the works of
Aristotle for the fi rst time. There was also a strong Russian tradition of
pursuing philosophical inquiry outside university settings, and that was
how she encountered Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher who quickly
became her favorite. A cousin taunted her with a book by Nietzsche,
“who beat you to all your ideas.” 16 Reading outside of her classes she
devoured his works.
Alisa’s fi rst love when she left university was not philosophy, however,
but the silver screen. The Russian movie industry, long dormant during
the chaos of war and revolution, began to revive in the early 1920s.
Under the New Economic Plan Soviet authorities allowed the import
of foreign fi lms and the Commissariat of Education began supporting
Russian fi lm production. Hoping to become a screenwriter, Alisa
enrolled in the new State Institute for Cinematography after receiving
her undergraduate degree. Movies became her obsession. In 1924 she
viewed forty-seven movies; the next year she watched 117. In a movie
diary she ranked each fi lm she saw on a scale of one to fi ve, noted its
major stars, and started a list of her favorite artists. The movies even
inspired her fi rst published works, a pamphlet about the actress Pola
Negri and a booklet titled Hollywood: American Movie City. In these
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