"In Soviet times, a lot of unnecessary knowledge was pushed into children"
Well, yes, of course. "In Soviet times, a lot of unnecessary knowledge was pushed into children" Yeah. Therefore, my mother, who has a purely technical education, can write a clear and competent essay on literature today (and harshly criticized the fact that in my school years in the mid-80s it was no longer possible for me, because the teaching was still of high quality, but otherwise).