KuAI (now Samara University) graduate Oleg Sysuev worked in commercial aviation for 18 years, but continues to consider himself more of a humanities scholar than a techie. He went down in Samara history as one of the most open mayors. At the time fateful for the country, he worked in the Russian government. He is not afraid of change and currently occupies one of the key positions at Alfa-Bank. In an interview to Volga News, Oleg Sysuev spoke about the bar set by KuAI and why a successful person should be broadly educated.
“Studying at KuAI was very difficult”
- Who did you dream of becoming? Why did you decide to study at Kuibyshev Aviation Institute? And what was the reason for choosing the faculty of Technical Operation of Aircraft and Engines?
- Initially, I dreamed of becoming a man in uniform, like my father. He was an Air Force officer. But since my father was against my military career, I chose a civilian specialty, which also required me to wear a uniform. It was commercial aviation. Therefore, the choice fell on the aviation institute.
- What did you do during your studies, besides studying? Which lecturers influenced you? What of their instructions were useful in life, what phrases did you remember? Can we talk about a certain elitism of the University of those years?
- As a student, I was involved in sports and music. At first, I devoted almost all my time to this. The dormitory was two steps away from my house, and I, having a Samara residence permit, actually lived on campus, as they would say now. “On the potato field” I met some guys and started playing in the institute's instrumental band.
My second passion (or maybe my first one) was basketball. I played in the university team and was so carried away by it that I came to my senses only in my second year, when I had to pass the strength of materials exam. I remember, the strength of materials lecturer returned my term paper to me, on which he wrote that I could crack nuts with my head. The term paper was not mine, but I really did have problems with strength of materials. The risk of being kicked out of the university was high. Alexander Petrovich Napadov, our dean, reasoned with me then. I came to my senses in time and did not neglect my studies anymore.
I remember that the third building of the institute had just been completed, and it was necessary to build a gym. So after classes we ran to the construction site: carried concrete, made formwork... On Fridays we still managed to earn extra money at weddings and parties with our band. And we spent all the money we earned on buying new equipment.
KuAI was my life. The feeling that you study at one of the most prestigious universities in the country counts for a lot! Here are the relationships in the institute community itself, and the perception of others... Our University is named after Korolev, this alone already distinguished us from others. And what lecturers taught us! They were legends – both in their attitude to work, and in their professional qualities, and in their exactingness. It was not for nothing that it was considered very difficult to study here. Descriptive geometry was taught by Mikhail Ivanovich Kochnev, strength of materials by Evdokim Stepanovich Bogdanov, strength was taught by the outstanding professor Anatoly Solomonovich Mostovoy, chemistry by Yulia Grigoryevna Rudberg, by the way, I met her later, she showed herself as an outstanding organizer – she became the leader of the community in Israel. I rubbed shoulders for six years in the basketball team under the leadership of our coach Boris Ivanovich Oskin.
“To get ahead, you have to withstand competition”
- During their studies at KuAI, some students built light aircraft and even mastered them. What programs and projects did you participate in? How did you feel as a young specialist who ended up in an air squadron after graduating, and what was your first job title?
- Starting from our second year, we visited the aerodrome in Smyshlyayevka. It seems that it was in our second year, that we were entrusted with starting the engines on the An-2 super-aircraft. The capabilities of the training aerodrome were great back then. Absolutely all the aircraft of that time were there, right up to Tu-144, and you could touch everything with your hands. Therefore, we came to work well prepared. I spent about eight months doing mechanical repairs of aircraft equipment. And later, about a year later, I repaired special equipment. And after graduating, I worked in the Kuibyshev United Air Squadron – first as a foreman, and then as the head of the technical department.
There was no shortage of maintenance engineers in the city back then. In order to get ahead, you had to withstand the competition. We even had some technicians with higher education, and you had to prove that you really can do it. Four of us joined the aviation squadron from the same batch. Two of them are still working in commercial aviation: one is the chief engineer of the commercial aviation department, the other is a leading specialist.
- What did the University give you, a federal-scale politician, what qualities did it form? Has it survived to this day?
- I once spoke at one of the University's anniversaries and said: the most valuable thing our University gave us was the right way of thinking. It always stood at the absolutely advanced positions – both technical and cultural, despite the fact that Kuibyshev was a closed city. KuAI gave us a sense of leadership, not exclusivity, but leadership. Over time, it was no longer possible to lower the bar. Today, if we keep in mind the formal things associated with the entry of Samara University into a new status, which I also, in fact, helped to deal with, the sense of leadership, I think, has not diminished. On the contrary, the University became a research university, one of the leaders of higher education in the Russian Federation, not to mention the Volga region.
- You entered the Russian political and then financial elite of the country. What allowed you to feel comfortable in this niche? Did the system of knowledge obtained at KuAI help you out?
- If you look at the program that we studied at the University for five years, it included a lot of things of a humanitarian nature. This is exactly what you need to know if you are engaged in public work, and even more so if in politics. I am not a technical person, I am a humanities person, but back then the interest in the engineering specialty was huge. It really was the time of engineers. And the feeling that the University gave in terms of culture, music, sports, was amazing. We were taught by brilliant lecturers of philosophy, history, who transferred not only specialized knowledge, but also an attitude to life, to the processes that were happening in society.
“Any successful person should be broadly educated”
- Currently, Samara University is an amalgamation of humanities and engineering specialties. What advantages does such symbiosis give to today's graduates? What professions at the intersection of humanitarian and engineering education can be in demand by employers?
- I cannot speak about a very clear division of technical and humanitarian skills or their symbiosis. It seems to me that any successful person who aims to be not only successful, but also happy, should be broadly educated. If he has a narrow technical specialty, then with the wealth of knowledge that is now produced per unit of time, he/she simply will not be able to be happy.
- Yes. Now it is obvious that one education received once will not be enough for a lifetime. What do you think the first higher education should be like then? What would you orient today's applicants towards?
- This is a difficult question. The main thing is that people have an absolutely free choice and do not chase prestige, the immediate profitability of a specialty, because everything changes quickly. Until recently, the position of an investment banker was very popular. Now there are 10 times fewer investment bankers. It seems to me that if a person has not decided on a specific specialty, it is better for him to get a broad-based humanitarian specialty. This can be history or philology, and then decide on the profile later. As a rule, this is what Western universities are aimed at, they provide basic knowledge, and only then specialization. If a person sees himself/herself in a white doctor's coat, with a drawing board or with a brush in an art studio from childhood, then, of course, he/she should enter a specialized university. But if a person has not discovered such talents in himself/herself, it is better to get a general humanities education.
- If you were choosing a specialization today, what would you choose?
- I think it would be related to philosophy, history, art studies.
- You were called the most open politician in the history of Samara. How did it happen that a graduate of a closed university made the city open? How did you manage to do this, using what tools, considering that you opened Samara to the world in the 1990s, when the main task of the municipality was simply to survive?
- I think that this was due to the ability to change, to see and accept everything new, conditioned, perhaps, by genetics, or maybe, nurtured by the family. I have many examples among my friends who, at that fateful time, did not want to change, did not want to compromise the so-called principles. I had this ability to change. By the way, it was probably criticized many times. I think that this is great luck and happiness – to have the ability to change.
“We are interested in people with a Russian education”
- Alfa-Bank hires the best graduates. Which graduate is now competitive in the labor market – one who graduated from a Russian university or a foreign one?
- If you look from the bank's point of view, who is more interesting – a person with a Western or Russian education, then we are primarily interested in an educated person. And yet, I believe that he/she should have a Russian education and an understanding of what Russia is. Our experience has shown that people who come to us and do not understand what Russia is cannot compete. At the same time, they should also have a good idea of what the Western world is, and advanced technologies are, and try to implement them here, on this ground.
- Do you think that Russian universities can now form the country's elite? Are universities now centers where a certain foundation is laid – the ability to study, work in a team, acquire the necessary connections?
- It seems to me that this is exactly what is lacking now. What you have listed – psychological preparation, the ability to work in a team, developing leadership qualities – should be given much more attention in our higher education institutions, as is done in American universities. For some reason, we believe that we need to make a good engineer out of a person and stop there. But for some reason, we do not want to make a leader out of him. That’s not right. Not every young person can independently reveal his/her potential.
- You meet with coursemates every year. How often have you had to deal with graduates of your alma mater in your professional activities? Can you name the distinctive qualities that characterize specialists with a diploma from your native University?
- Specialists with a diploma from the faculty of Technical Operation of Aircraft and Engines are highly professional. They are very well versed in aviation technology and everything related to aviation. Another distinctive feature, which was certainly nurtured by the University, is a high degree of responsibility and the ability to make independent decisions.
Source: volga.news
