The Russian Army in the Great War: Project Military Educational Institutions. Main Engineering School

In St. Petersburg, one facade was on the Fontanka, the other - on Inzhenernaya street, the old building of the Mikhailovsky (or Engineer) castle looked out. This castle housed a military educational institution that gave Russia many big names - the Nikolaev Engineering School. Founded in 1804 as a special school for the training of engineering conductors, in 1819 it was renamed the Main Engineering School, which in 1855 was renamed Nikolayevskoe. In 1863, the school merged with the Engineering Academy, formed on August 30, 1855 from the officer classes. From 1855 the course of study at the school was established for three years, and the staff consisted of 126 cadets; the senior course was considered compulsory. The cadets of the Nikolaev Engineering School were, in large part, pupils of civil educational institutions. So, in 1868, from among those who entered the junior class from military gymnasiums, 18 were determined, and from the outside - 35. In 1874 - from military schools and gymnasiums - 22, from outside - 35. In 1875 - from military schools and gymnasiums - 28, from the outside - 22. Admission was also made to the senior class of persons who graduated from military schools.

The school was a preparatory institution for admission to the engineering academy for cadets who were successful in the sciences, and also prepared officers for service in the combat unit of the engineering department; in sapper, railway and pontoon battalions; or in mine, telegraph and fortress sapper companies. There, young people served for two years with the preservation of the right to enter the Nikolaev Engineering Academy.

The full contingent of the school on the eve of the First World War was 450 cadets (150 in each course).

From the very foundation of the engineering school, the cadets were respectful of the sciences. As part of the Engineering Department, which has always been considered a scientist, they highly valued knowledge.

The Nikolaev Engineering School was considered "the most liberal". The relationship between the cadets and their educators — officers and teachers — was almost perfect. The relations of the cadets among themselves were friendly and simple. As a result, smart officers came out of the school, who knew their specialty well and kept in their relations with the soldiers the most just and humane treatment that they had learned at the school. The educational part was excellent: the best composition of the capital's professors, especially the teachers appreciated the mind, the ability to think analytically, encouraged the scientific and creative activity of young people.

The Nikolaev Engineering School gave Russia many outstanding military leaders. Suffice it to recall General E.I. Totleben - the hero of the defense of Sevastopol and Plevna, General K.P. Kaufman, who led the military operations during the annexation of Central Asia to Russia, General F.F. Radetsky - the hero of the battles at Shipka and in the Caucasus, G.A. Leer - an outstanding military writer and professor, whose works on strategy are known all over the world and, finally, General R.I. Kondratenko - the hero of Port Arthur.

The cadets of this school had scarlet shoulder straps without edging with the monogram of Emperor Nicholas I "HI".

Since the beginning of the First World War, the school switched to an accelerated eight-month course of study. Young people were graduated with the rank of ensign.

The school took active action against the Bolsheviks on October 29-30, 1917 in Petrograd. And it was disbanded on November 6, 1917. The 1st Soviet engineering command courses were opened in its building and at its expense in February 1918.

In 1855, the officers' department of the Main Engineering School was separated into an independent Nikolaev Engineering Academy, and the school, having received the name "Nikolaev Engineering School", began to train only junior officers of the engineering troops. The term of study at the school was set at three years. Graduates of the school received the title of an engineering warrant officer with a secondary general and military education (since 1884, when the title of warrant officer for peacetime was abolished - the title of engineer second lieutenant). Officers were admitted to the Engineering Academy after at least two years of service as an officer, passing entrance exams, and after two years of training, they received higher education. It should be noted that the same system was introduced for the gunners. Infantry and cavalry officers were trained in two-year cadet schools, where they received secondary education. An infantry or cavalry officer could get a higher education only at the Academy of the General Staff, where the recruitment was less than at the engineering academy. So, in general, the level of education of artillerymen and sappers was a cut higher than in the army as a whole. However, railwaymen, signalmen, topographers, and later aviators and aeronautics were also referred to the engineering troops at that time. In addition, the Minister of Finance, whose department included the border service, bargained for the right of border guard officers to study at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy.

The teaching staff of both educational institutions was common. Both at the academy and at the school lectures were given: chemistry by D.I. Mendeleev, fortification by N.V. Boldyrev, ways of communication by A.I. Kvist, tactics, strategy, military history of G.A. Leer.

In 1857 the journal "Inzhenernye zapiski" was renamed into "Engineering Journal" and became a joint publication. Joint scientific work continues. AR Shulyachenko conducts extensive studies of the properties of explosives and compiles their classification. At his insistence, the Russian army refused to use dangerous in the winter of dynamite, and switched to chemically more resistant pyroxylin explosives. Under his leadership, mines are revived. In 1894, he invents an unrecoverable antipersonnel mine. Great work on the creation and improvement of the electric method of blasting and the creation of marine galvanic impact mines is carried out by Academician B.S. Jacobi, General KA Schilder School teacher PN Yablochkov invents his famous electric arc lamp and arc searchlight.

SHVANEBAKH Emmanuil Fedorovich (1866 - 1904) graduated from the Nikolaev engineering school in 1883 in the uniform of a second lieutenant in the engineering troops (painted).

Notable alumni and professors

Abramov, Fedor Fedorovich - Lieutenant General, in exile, assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, head of all units and departments of the Russian Army
Baltz, Friedrich Karlovich - Major General
Bryanchaninov, Dmitry Alexandrovich - Bishop Ignatius
Buinitsky, Nestor Aloizievich - Lieutenant General
Burman, Georgy Vladimirovich - Major General, creator of the air defense of Petrograd, head of the Officer Electrotechnical School
Wegener, Alexander Nikolaevich -
Russian military aeronaut, military pilot and engineer,
aircraft designer, head of the Main airfield, first head of the VVIA them.
N.E. Zhukovsky.
Gershelman, Vladimir Konstantinovich - head of the mobilization department of the headquarters of the UVO
Grigorovich, Dmitry Vasilievich - writer
Dostoevsky, Fyodor Mikhailovich - writer
Dutov, Alexander Ilyich - lieutenant general, chieftain of the Orenburg Cossack army
Karbyshev, Dmitry Mikhailovich - Lieutenant General of Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union
Kaufman, Konstantin Petrovich - engineer-general, adjutant general, governor-general of Turkestan
Kaufman, Mikhail Petrovich - Lieutenant General, Adjutant General, Member of the State Council
Kvist, Alexander Ilyich - Russian engineer and fortifier
Kondratenko, Roman Isidorovich - Lieutenant General, Hero of the Defense of Port Arthur
Korguzalov, Vladimir Leonidovich - Guards Major, Head of the Engineering Service of the 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps of the 47th Army of the Voronezh Front, Hero of the Soviet Union
Kraevich, Konstantin Dmitrievich - Russian physicist, mathematician and teacher
Cui, Caesar Antonovich - composer and music critic, professor of fortification, engineer-general
Leman, Anatoly Ivanovich - Russian writer, violin maker
Lishin, Nikolay Stepanovich - the inventor of the shock hand grenade
Lukomsky, Alexander Sergeevich - Lieutenant General, Head of Government under the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Yugoslavia, General Denikin
May-Mayevsky, Vladimir Zenonovich - Lieutenant General, Commander of the Volunteer Army
Modzalevsky, Vadim Lvovich - Russian historian, heraldist and geneologist.
Miller, Anatoly Ivanovich - Lieutenant General (pr. 24.10.1917). Commander of the 25th Black Sea Border Brigade.
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger
Pauker, German Egorovich - Lieutenant General
Petin, Nikolai Nikolaevich - Corps Commander, Chief of Engineers of the Red Army
Polovtsov, Viktor Andreevich - writer-philologist and teacher
Rochefort, Nikolai Ivanovich (1846-1905) - Russian engineer and architect
Sennitsky, Vikenty Vikentievich - General of Infantry
Sechenov, Ivan Mikhailovich - physiologist
Sterligov, Dmitry Vladimirovich (1874-1919) - architect, restorer and teacher.
Telyakovsky, Arkady Zakharovich - engineer-lieutenant general
Totleben, Eduard Ivanovich - Adjutant General, outstanding Russian engineer and fortifier
Trutovsky, Konstantin Alexandrovich - artist
Unterberger, Pavel Fedorovich - Lieutenant General, Governor General of the Amur Territory and Commander of the Military District, Chief Ataman of the Amur and Ussuri Cossack Troops
Uslar, Petr Karlovich - Major General, linguist and ethnographer
Schwartz Alexey Vladimirovich - Lieutenant General, Governor General of Odessa

Breastplate of a graduate of the Nikolaev Engineering School.
(Approved 1.04.1910)

After the transformation of the Artillery and Engineering Corps into the 2nd Cadet Corps, the corps continued to train engineering officers, but already in 1804 an Engineering School for cadets-conductors for 25 people was opened in St. Petersburg, which in 1810 was transformed into an Engineering School with a staff of 50 people (since 1816 it was called the Main College of Engineers).

On the basis of this school in September 1819, the Main Engineering School was created, which consisted of conductor and officer classes (for 96 and 48 people) with a 4-year course of study. Graduates of the 1st grade, according to their academic performance, were transferred to officer classes with the production of warrant officers, the 2nd grade were left for another year, and the 3rd were sent as cadets to the army, where they served at least two years before being promoted to officers (by exam and by submission bosses).

The conductor's department studied arithmetic, algebra, geometry, Russian and French, history, geography, drawing, analytical geometry, differential calculus, as well as field fortification and artillery; in engineering fortification, analytical geometry, differential and integral calculus, physics, chemistry, civil architecture, practical trigonometry, descriptive geometry, mechanics and the art of construction. From 1819 to 1855, the school graduated 1,036 officers. From February 21, 1855 it was called the Nikolaev Engineering School.

In 1865, the school was transformed on the model of the artillery school into a three-year one with the same admission and release rules as in the Mikhailovsky artillery school. But his staff was less than 126 cadets (company). Its structure and the procedure for transferring students to the academy were also identical with the artillery school. However, unlike the latter, the engineering school was recruited to a greater extent at the expense of persons enrolled with certificates of civilian educational institutions. Of those adopted in 1871-1879. 423 people graduated from military gymnasiums were 187 (44%), transferred from other military schools 55 (13%) and graduates of civilian educational institutions 181 (43%). Out of 451 people who left the school in the same period, 373 people (83%) were released with officer and civilian ranks, 1 was transferred to another school, 63 (14%) were dismissed before the end of the course, 11 (2 %) and 3 died (1%); those. the picture is about the same as in the artillery school. Graduated from school in 1862-1879. ranged from 22 to 53 people a year.

The engineering school to a greater extent satisfied the needs of the army in officers of their specialty than the artillery school, but at the end of the 19th century. and its staff was increased from 140 to 250 people. The social composition of the school, due to the large number of applicants "from outside" (not from military schools and cadet corps), was less noble than the artillery school: up to 30% of the applicants were persons of non-noble origin.

Photo of the cadets of the Nikolaev Engineering School with a teacher and a priest. The cadets are depicted with belt buckles assigned to the grenadier sapper battalions.

Nikolaev engineering school in 1866-1880 trained 791 officers, in 1881-1895. 847, in 1896-1900. 540, and in just the second half of the 19th century. 2338 (172).

A company of cadets of the Nikolaev Engineering School on the steps of the stairs of the Engineering (Mikhailovsky) castle - in the photo, Colonel V.V. Yakovlev (later Lieutenant General of the Soviet Army), Major General Zubarev, Lieutenant Colonel Muffel, Captain Daripatsky.

In 1901-1914. 1360 officers were released (see Table 41). Consequently, over the entire period of its existence, the school produced approximately 4.4 thousand officers.

Mikhailovsky Castle, the Engineer Castle, the former Imperial Palace in the center of St. Petersburg at Sadovaya Street, No. 2, built by order of Emperor Paul I at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries and which became the place of his death. This building is the largest architectural monument, completing the history of St. Petersburg architecture of the 18th century. The Mikhailovsky Castle owes its name to the temple of the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of the Romanovs' house, located in it, and to the whim of Paul I, who took the title of Grand Master of the Order of Malta, to call all his palaces "castles"; the second name "Engineering" comes from the Main (Nikolaevsky) Engineering School, which was located there since 1823, now VITU.

In the plan, the castle is a square with rounded corners, inside which is inscribed a central octagonal front courtyard. The main entrance to the castle is from the south. Three angled bridges connected the building to the plaza in front of it. A wooden drawbridge was thrown across the moat that surrounded Connetable Square with the monument to Peter I in the center, with cannons on both sides. Behind the monument there is a moat and three bridges, and the middle bridge was intended only for the imperial family and foreign ambassadors and led to the main entrance. “The Russian emperor, conceiving its construction, started from the scheme of building a rectangular castle with a rectangular courtyard and round corner towers widespread in European capitals”.

Album of the Nikolaev Engineering School.
(published in parts)

Nikolaev Engineering School

In 1855, the officers' department of the Main Engineering School was separated into an independent Nikolaev Engineering Academy, and the school, having received the name "Nikolaev Engineering School", began to train only junior officers of the engineering troops. The term of study at the school was set at three years. Graduates of the school received the title of an engineering warrant officer with a secondary general and military education (since 1884, when the title of warrant officer for peacetime was abolished - the title of engineer second lieutenant). Officers were admitted to the Engineering Academy after at least two years of service as an officer, passing entrance exams, and after two years of training, they received higher education. It should be noted that the same system was introduced for the gunners. Infantry and cavalry officers were trained in two-year cadet schools, where they received secondary education. An infantry or cavalry officer could get a higher education only at the Academy of the General Staff, where the recruitment was less than at the engineering academy. So, in general, the level of education of artillerymen and sappers was a cut higher than in the army as a whole. However, at that time, railway workers, signalmen, topographers, and later aviators and aeronautics were also referred to the engineering troops. In addition, the Minister of Finance, whose department included the border service, bargained for the right of border guard officers to study at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy.

In 1857, the journal "Inzhenernye zapiski was renamed into" Engineering Journal "and became a joint publication. Joint scientific work continues. AR Shulyachenko conducts extensive studies of the properties of explosives and compiles their classification. At his insistence, the Russian army refused to use dangerous in the winter of dynamite, and switched to chemically more resistant pyroxylin explosives. Under his leadership, mines are revived. In 1894, he invents an unrecoverable antipersonnel mine. Great work on the creation and improvement of the electric method of blasting and the creation of marine galvanic impact mines is carried out by Academician B.S. Jacobi, General KA Schilder School teacher PN Yablochkov invents his famous electric arc lamp and arc searchlight.

In the Russo-Japanese War, the whole world became aware of the name of the hero of the defense of Port Arthur, a graduate of the engineering school, General Kondratenko R.I. I don’t want to exaggerate his role in organizing and conducting the defense of the fortress, but after his death on December 15, 1904, the fortress lasted only a month at Fort No. 2.

Heavy losses in officers during the Russo-Japanese War forced the tsarist government to take extraordinary measures. Most of the engineering officers, especially those with higher education, were transferred to the infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The Nikolaev Engineering School began to issue infantry officers. The training of engineering specialists has practically been curtailed. With the beginning of the creation of aviation in the Russian army, many engineering officers were retrained to become pilots. By the beginning of the First World War, there were only 820 officers in the engineering troops. The result was not slow to affect with the beginning of the war. After the first few weeks of the war, when the front line had not yet been formed, the active army urgently demanded an increase in the number of sapper units and units. There was no one to restore bridges, roads, or destroy them when retreating. The lack of fortification specialists did not allow properly organizing the defense of the Warsaw and Ivan Gorod fortresses, and they fell after a short resistance. With the transition to trench warfare, engineering specialists became even more lacking. In convulsive attempts to belatedly correct the mistake made in peacetime, the command of the Russian army did not find a better solution than to send almost all the officers of the Engineering Academy to the front. As a result, the training of military engineers was disrupted altogether. From the engineering school, all the cadets were urgently assigned officer ranks, and they were sent to the front. Next, the same fate befell non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the educational process support units of the school. In the ranks of ensigns, they also went to the front. With great difficulty, the head of the school managed to retain part of the teaching staff. The school switched to a four-month short-term training of wartime warrant officers.

By the fall of 1917, there were about a hundred cadets at the school who had just been recruited into the school. Partly they were recovered wounded, partly young people of military age. The fatigue of three years of war, decomposing revolutionary propaganda, general dissatisfaction with the futility of the war, reluctance to go into the trenches led to the fact that when on October 24 (November 6), 1917, together with 400 cadets of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School, they were sent to defend the Winter Palace; they refused to fight, indifferently watched the approach to the palace of the Red Guards and did not offer any resistance. So there was no storming of the Winter Palace, so well-known from the films. Historical sources have documented the death of seven people that day and night in the area of the palace. At night, having given the rifles to the Red Guards, most of the cadets went home, a smaller part returned to the school. After that, the educational process was pointless to continue, and all the efforts of several officers of the school and cadets were reduced to preventing the looting of property, fighting hunger and cold. The history of the Nikolaev Engineering School is over.

1st Engineering Petrograd courses of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

With the coming of the Bolsheviks to power, they began to implement Karl Marx's thesis about replacing the professional army with the general arming of the people. The first law of the new government was the Peace Decree. It is believed that the Bolsheviks came to power with the capture of the Winter Palace on November 7, 1917. However, in reality, the Provisional Government ruled the country for about three more weeks, although its power was melting every day.

The Russian Army, under the influence of the anarchy that had come in the country and the activities of the Bolsheviks to destroy it, was rapidly disintegrating. However, by the beginning of February 1918, the Germans resumed their offensive. In addition, the armed resistance of the opponents of Soviet power grew rapidly. These circumstances prompted the new Russian government to move on to creating a new army. On January 15, 1918, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars issued a decree on the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

Feeling distrust of the command staff of the old army, the new military leadership of the country set the task of re-creating the system of training command personnel. The People's Commissariat for Military Affairs, by order No. 130 of February 14, 1918, organizes accelerated courses for the training of commanders in Moscow, Petrograd, and Tver. Oddly enough, but on the whole, very far from military science, Lenin, Sverdlov, and the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Trotsky correctly assessed the role and significance of the engineering troops in the war. Already on March 1, the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" published an announcement of the beginning of admission to the Soviet engineering Petrograd courses for the training of command personnel of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

Extraordinary measures were taken to restore the activities of the engineering school. It was ordered to all officers, non-commissioned officers, cadets of the school, including those at the front, to return to the school. In a number of cases, the families of officers who did not return were taken hostage and imprisoned with the threat of being shot.

By the measures taken, it was possible to complete preparations for the beginning of the educational process by March 20, 1918. In the evening of this day, by order No. 16, it was announced that three departments were opening at the courses - preparatory, engineering and construction and electrical engineering. The preparatory department accepted the illiterate and its task was to give the students a diploma in an amount sufficient for mastering the basics of engineering. The term of study at the preparatory department was initially set at 3 months, later - 6 months. On the main branches for 6 months.

The courses were prepared for technicians-instructors of sapper, pontoon business, railway workers, road workers, telegraph operators, radio telegraph operators, searchlights, motorists.

The courses had an entrenching tool, radiotelegraph and telegraph equipment, pontoon-ferry equipment, demolition equipment, and several electrical units for training. Only the kitchen and the infirmary were heated. The cadet's food ration consisted of half a pound of oat bread, tea with saccharin, a bowl of vobla or herring soup, a bowl of millet porridge a day. ...

The political leadership of the courses strictly monitored the increase in the number of members of the Communist Party. If in March 1918 there were 6 of them, then by autumn there were 80. The courses became a loyal stronghold of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. Already on July 7, 1918, cadets took an active part in suppressing the Left SR revolt.

Petrograd Military Engineering College

In the spring of the same year, due to the inability of the courses to provide the Red Army with sufficient engineering specialists, the 2nd engineering courses were launched in Petrograd. However, the teaching staff, educational and material base was not enough, and on July 29, 1918, by order of the Chief Commissar of the military educational institutions of Petrograd, the courses were united into a single educational institution called the Petrograd Military Engineering College. Organizationally, the technical school began to represent a military unit, consisting of four companies - a sapper, a road-bridge, an electrical engineering, a mine-blasting company. In addition, the preparatory department was preserved. The term of training in preparatory is 8 months, in companies - 6 months. This organization of the technical school turned it into a combat unit capable of going to the front if necessary. Most of the study time was occupied by field studies in the Ust-Izhora camp near Petrograd. The main location of the technical school remained the Engineering Castle. In the camp, in addition to classes, the cadets helped the peasants in agricultural work, for which they received food.

The situation on the fronts of the Civil War urgently required engineering specialists and the first graduation from the technical school took place on September 18, 1918, in the amount of 63 people. During the civil war, several such early releases were made. In total, over the years, it was graduated in 1918 -111 people, in 1919 - 174 people, in 1920 - 245, in 1921 - 189 people, in 1922 - 59 people. In addition, the technical school with its companies takes direct part in the battles in October 1918 near Borisoglebsk Tambov province against the insurgent peasants, in April 1919 in the area of Verro against the Estonian armed formations, May-August 1919 near Yamburg against the troops of Yudenich, October-November 1919 in the defense of Petrograd from the troops of Yudenich, May-September 1919 near the town of Olonets against the Finnish troops, June-November 1920 near the town of Orekhov against the troops of General Wrangel, March 1921 at the Kronstadt fortress against the rebels, December 1912-January 1922 in Karelia against the Finnish troops.

The last graduation after short training was done on March 22, 1920. The primary task of providing the Red Army with engineering specialists with the level of wartime training was completed. It was possible to move on to training full-fledged engineering commanders.

Petrograd Military Engineering School

By order of the RVSR No. 105 of June 17, 1920, the technical school was transformed into the Petrograd military engineering school with a three-year period of study. The school was supposed to graduate engineering platoon commanders (in modern parlance, junior officers) with a secondary general and full-fledged military education. After several years of service in the army, graduates received the right to enter the military engineering academy. A former tsarist officer, military engineer K.F. Druzhinin.

The school was divided into three special departments - sapper, road-bridge and electrical. The first year of study was considered preparatory (preparatory class) and the cadets did not share their specialties. In this year, general education disciplines and combined arms training were mainly studied. In the second and third years (junior and senior special class), cadets were trained in specialties.

However, in connection with the war with Poland that began in the spring of 1920 and the intensification of the actions of the troops of General Wrangel from the Crimea, and the aggravation of the military situation by the summer of 1920, the normal educational process was disrupted. At the end of July 1920, a significant part of the cadets was thrown into battles near the town of Orekhov. In October, two more cadet companies left for the front.

On January 1, 1921, the next seventh graduation of red commanders from the school took place. It was also a fast track release.

In March 1921, a mutiny of sailors broke out in the Kronstadt fortress. On the night of March 3, a company of school cadets was sent to reinforce the units to eliminate the mutiny. She attacks the rebels at Fort # 7 on March 7 and occupies it. The actions of the demolition cadets on the night of March 18 predetermined the success in the attack on Fort Totleben. For these battles, thirteen cadets were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner. For distinctions in battles, the school is awarded an honorary revolutionary banner from the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

In April 1921, the school produces the eighth and ninth accelerated graduates. By this time, from the beginning of its activities in March 1918, the school graduated 727 wartime engineering commanders.

Since that time, the normal educational process has been restored, disrupted by the participation of cadets in battles against the Finnish troops on the Kola Peninsula near Maselskaya station (December 1921-January 1922).

from January 1922, specialization was canceled, and all cadets received universal engineering knowledge. On September 1, 1922, the tenth graduation of cadets took place. It was the first graduate of cadets to complete the normal two-year training period (from among individuals who did not require prior training). 59 people were graduated. Of these, 19 in the sapper specialty, 21 in the road-bridge and 19 in the electrical engineering.

from October 15, 1922, the academic year begins according to the four-year training plan. A full-fledged educational process is gradually being established. In the winter, theoretical classes were held, from June 1 to September 15, field classes in the camp.

In 1923, the head of the school KF Druzhinin was replaced by a red commander, a former sailor of the Baltic fleet, a member of the CPSU (b) Tikhomandritsky GI. In addition to the Petrograd engineering commanders, similar Moscow, Kiev and Kazan schools were trained at that time. In 1923-24 the school began to be equipped with workshops and laboratories. However, during the years of the civil war, the main part of the training and material base was partially lost in connection with the removal of property by cadets to the front, partially stolen and sold in exchange for bread. Therefore, the main teaching method was an ineffective lecture method and demonstration on models and mock-ups. The poor quality of training led to the replacement of Tikhomandritsky by the former colonel of the General Staff T. T. Malashensky. By 1927, he was equipping 17 laboratories and 4 workshops. His active resistance to the plans of the school commissar Karpov N.A. to reduce the hours allotted to physics, to abolish the study of the internal combustion engine, automobile business and to expand the study of the history of class struggle, party political work led to his resignation in 1927.

Leningrad Red Banner Military Engineering School

Since the middle of 1924, a serious reform of the entire structure of the army and military education has been under way in the Red Army. By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR No. 831 of August 5, 1925, the Command Staff Improvement Courses (KUKS) were transferred to the school from Moscow, and the school, in addition to training middle-level engineering commanders, is entrusted with the task of retraining commanders who had previously undergone accelerated training or did not have it at all. On September 7, 1925, the school was renamed into the "Leningrad Red Banner Military Engineering School". On November 30, 1925, the "Regulations on the Military Schools of the Red Army" were introduced. This Regulation leaves three schools for the training of commanders of engineering troops - Leningrad, Kiev and Moscow.

Structurally, the school was now a three-company battalion, and in terms of education it was divided into four classes (courses) - preparatory, junior, middle and senior. Since 1927, a shooting range, a physical and engineer township, a concrete plant, and a pontoon crossing point have been operating in the Luga camp of the school. By the summer of 1928, the school received a pontoon park kit. During practical training, cadets in 1924-28 actually built bridges over the rivers Izhora, Yashcherka, Luzhenka, Kureya and Oredezh for the needs of the local population with a total length of 180m. By 1929, the school received sets of boats A-3, sets of TZI, swimming suits, power saws MP-200, road cars, excavators MK-1, blasting machines PM-1 and PM-2, vehicles for transporting prefabricated bridge structures, power plants and others. engineering means. This made it possible to qualitatively improve the training of cadets.

A clearly noticeable difference in the level of training of cadets prompts the command of the Red Army to close the Kiev school, the Children's-Rural United Military School and transfer their cadets to the Leningrad one (order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR of 11/25/30), and by order of the NKO of the USSR dated 9/19/1932 to transfer the Moscow school to Leningrad. Both schools are united under the name "United Red Banner Military Engineering School named after Komintern."

United Red Banner Military Engineering School named after Komintern

Thus, the Leningrad school turned into the only educational institution in the country for the training of medium-sized commanders of engineering troops. The school now consisted of eleven companies (6 companies for training sapper commanders, 3 companies for training commanders of electrical engineers, 2 park companies). In addition, the school was tasked with retraining the commanders of the engineering troops (KUKS). The process of unification, numerous organizational restructuring, overloading of the teaching staff sharply reduced both military discipline and the quality of training for cadets. The absence of engineering educational institutions of various styles and orientations now led to the fact that the shortcomings in the training of specialists became all-encompassing, depriving the educational process of competition. The closer attention of the highest combined-arms commanders to the school led to a bias in the training of cadets towards general rather than specific engineering tactics. Special training was limited only to the study of engineering technology. Great harm to the pedagogical process was caused by the line on training cadets primarily as infantry commanders, the so-called universalization of command personnel. The events of those years clearly show an attempt by the then military leadership of the country to improve the situation with the training of infantry and cavalry commanders by sending graduates of the united engineering school to the infantry and cavalry, where the quality of training was still higher than in combined-arms schools. Among other things, summer camp gatherings were often disrupted and cadets were thrown into the construction of bridges for the Luga road department. Since April 1931, the infantry commander, brigade brigade Terpilovsky BR, was appointed head of the school, who did not know engineering at all and put drill and rifle training at the forefront. In 1932, the engineering school took first place in rifle training among military educational institutions (not infantry, not machine gun, nor artillery, but engineering (!))

On November 10, 1933, the next release of commanders took place. The overwhelming majority of them were sent to the troops by the commanders of infantry platoons.

On September 22, 1935, personal military ranks were introduced into the Red Army. In November 1935, the first graduation of engineering corps lieutenants took place.

In 1936, 1st rank military engineer M.P. Vorobiev was appointed head of the school. He managed to prove the inadmissibility of transforming the engineering school into a combined-arms school proper and to resume the process of training purely engineering lieutenants. Later, during the Patriotic War, he became the chief of the engineering troops of the Red Army and the first marshal of the engineering troops. During the period of commanding the school until the summer of 1940, he would achieve a radical restructuring of the training of cadets, saturation of the school with modern engineering equipment. On its basis and its specialists, all the main guiding documents of the engineering service (Manuals, Manuals, Instructions) were developed. Here they were run-in. In March 1937, the scale was transformed into the Leningrad Military Engineering School.

Sources of

1. PI Biryukov and other textbook. Engineering troops. Military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Moscow. 1982
2. I.P. Balatsky, F.A.Fominykh. Essay on the history of the Kaliningrad Higher Military Engineering Command Order of Lenin of the Red Banner School. A.A. Zhdanova. Military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense. 1969

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Military educational institution of the Russian Imperial Army.

History of the military educational institution

St. Petersburg School of Education for Engineering Conductors

In 1804, at the suggestion of Lieutenant General P.K.Sukhtelen and General Engineer I.I.Knyazev, an engineering school was created in St. staff of 50 people and a training period of 2 years. It was located in the barracks of the Cavalry Regiment. Until 1810, the school managed to graduate about 75 specialists. In fact, it was one of a very limited circle of unstable schools - the direct successors of the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School created by Peter the Great in 1713.

Saint Petersburg Engineering School

In 1810, at the suggestion of the engineer-general, Count K.I. Opperman, the school was transformed into an engineering school with two departments. The conductor section with a three-year course and a staff of 15 trained junior officers of the engineering troops, and the officer's section with a two-year course trained officers with the knowledge of engineers. In fact, this is an innovative transformation after which the educational institution becomes the First Higher Engineering School. The best graduates of the conductor department were admitted to the officers' department. Also, previously graduated conductors, promoted to officers, underwent retraining there. Thus, in 1810, the College of Engineering becomes a higher educational institution with a general five-year course of study. And this unique stage in the evolution of engineering education in Russia happened for the first time at the St. Petersburg Engineering School.

Main Engineering School

Engineering castle. Now, in the area of the historical foundation, VITU is located

On November 24, 1819, on the initiative of the Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, the St. Petersburg Engineering School was transformed into the Main Engineering School by the Imperial Order. One of the royal residences, the Mikhailovsky Castle, was allocated for the placement of the school, which was renamed the Engineering Castle by the same order. The school still had two departments: a three-year conductor's department trained warrant officers with a secondary education, and a two-year officer's department gave a higher education. The best graduates of the conductor department, as well as officers of the engineering troops and other branches of the military who wished to transfer to the engineering service, were admitted to the officers' department. The best teachers of that time were invited to teach: academician M.V. Ostrogradsky, physicist F.F. Evald, engineer F.F.Laskovsky.

The school became the center of military engineering thought. Baron P. L. Schilling suggested using the galvanic method of blasting mines, associate professor K. P. Vlasov invented a chemical method of blasting (the so-called "Vlasov tube"), and Colonel P. P. Tomilovsky - a metal pontoon park, which stood on weapons of different countries of the world until the middle of the XX century.

The school published the journal "Engineering Notes"

Nikolaev Engineering School

In 1855, the school was named Nikolaevsky, and the officers' department of the school was transformed into an independent Nikolaev engineering academy. The school began to train only junior officers of the engineering troops. At the end of the three-year course, graduates received the title of an engineering warrant officer with a secondary general and military education (since 1884, an engineering second lieutenant).

Among the teachers of the school were D.I. Mendeleev (chemistry), N.V. Boldyrev (fortification), A. Iokher (fortification), A.I. military history).

On July 29, 1918, due to the lack of teaching staff and educational material base, by order of the Chief Commissar of the military educational institutions of Petrograd, the 1st engineering courses were combined with 2 engineering courses called "Petrograd Military Engineering College".

Organizationally, the technical school consisted of four companies: a sapper, a road-bridge, an electrical engineering, a mine-blasting company, and a preparatory department. The term of study at the preparatory department was 8 months, at the main departments - 6 months. The technical school was stationed in the Engineering Castle, but most of the study time was occupied by field studies in the Ust-Izhora camp.

The first issue is September 18, 1918 (63 people). In total, 111 people were graduated in 1918, 174 people in 1919, 245 people in 1920, 189 people in 1921, and 59 people in 1922. The last release took place on March 22, 1920.

The companies took part in battles with the insurgent peasants in October 1918 near Borisoglebsk, Tambov province, with Estonian detachments in April 1919 in the area of St.