Tired of her work and not happy in her role as the "First Lady", Alliluyeva looked for something else to do with herself. Interested in education and wanting to be more involved with the Party, in 1929 she enrolled in the Industrial Academy to study engineering and synthetic fibres, which was a new technology at the time, and became more active in local Party meetings. As per the custom of the time, Alliluyeva registered using her maiden name, which also allowed her to keep a low profile; it is unclear if her associates knew who she was, though it is likely that at least the local Party boss, Nikita Khrushchev, knew of her. Alliluyeva frequently took the tram from the Kremlin to the Academy, joined by Dora Khazan (), the wife of Andrey Andreyev, a leading Bolshevik and associate of Stalin. At the Academy, Alliluyeva interacted with students from across the Soviet Union, and learned of the issues the collectivization of agriculture, in particular in Ukraine, which was seeing widespread famine, and was causing on them. She reportedly argued with Stalin about this on one occasion, only to have him ban her from classes for two months. Despite that, she continued to take in the views of her classmates, and she sympathized with their plight.