The article discusses the creative destinies of students of the Yekaterinburg SGHM-Ural Art College (UKHT). On the basis of a few testimonies, the views of young people on the educational process, their attitude to the reforms of art education and specific teachers are described. Despite the difficult situation of constant reorganizations in the first half of the 1920s, the change of teachers and programs, pedagogical approaches and creative attitudes, bright artists who retained the attitude to creative experiments emerged from among the students of the ESGHM - UKHT.