A twenty-volume almanac about the history and traditions of Russian cadetship has been published
In April, the unique exhibition "Cadet Roll Call", dedicated to the 290th anniversary of primary military education in Russia, which has been working for six months, is coming to an end. Against the background of the exhibition in the Moscow Museum of Military Uniforms, a presentation of the book series of the same name took place. The multi-volume almanac was published as part of the literary and historical project "Cadet Heritage".
It should also be said that all this "in the kit" is like a warm–up before the round anniversary of next year: the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Suvorov (IED) and Nakhimov Naval (NVMU) military schools, which will be celebrated in August.
CHRONICLE OF TRADITIONS
The publication was carried out during two difficult "pandemic" years. Covid, who drove publishers into self-isolation, even helped to speed up work.
The publication of the last 21st volume, released at the expense of patrons in the Gryphon publishing house, was timed to coincide with the half-century anniversary of the first issue of the magazine "Cadet Roll Call", which was published by the Association of Russian Foreign Cadets in New York.
Russian foreign cadets (and there are no former cadets!) – those who did not finish their studies in Russia because of the revolution of 1917 and continued to study military science abroad in the cadet corps of the emigrated White Guard army of Baron Pyotr Wrangel. They started this publication in 1971, already at the turn of their old age. And with small interruptions, they continued the work until 2009 – almost 40 years.
In the Soviet Union, and then in Russia, alas, there was nothing like this and has not yet been observed. Except for scattered, non-permanent publications and folios, which each group dedicates to its native school. Therefore, the 21 volume of the Cadet Roll Call, repeated in a reprint way and colorfully decorated externally, is an unprecedented publication of its kind.
All eight dozen numbers released by our fellow cadets far across the ocean are reproduced here. These modest, low-key, but very informative magazines have long become legendary in the circles of IED and NVMU students of different generations and modern young future officers.
In fact, the "Cadet Roll Call" is a chronicle of the Russian Cadet corps (CC) in exile. The story of how, far from the Motherland, boys with shoulder straps on their shoulders did not stop loving her and keeping the memory of her in their hearts.
But it is necessary to look, of course, wider. After all, they, these young men, carefully, even reverently preserved the best traditions laid down since the formation of cadet corps in Russia. As well as priceless cadet relics that they inherited from older comrades who took them out of Bolshevik Russia.
But many of these people were already born in a foreign land and have never been to Russia. Or they have already been very old – this became possible only after the collapse of the USSR, when the veteran Suvorov-Nakhimov organizations, newly created in the late 1980s, began to seek contacts with them. The long-awaited "fraternization" took place in the mid-1990s and was well developed. Many cadet relics have returned to Russia and continue to return.
Volume 21 of the almanac contains documentary evidence of historical events and fascinating stories of their eyewitnesses. Descriptions of Cadet congresses that were regularly held abroad. A detailed chronicle of the initially difficult process of rapprochement and unification of Russian foreign cadets with Suvorov, Nakhimov and cadets of modern Russia.
The works of boys and boys are also presented in books – and not only prose, poetry, humorous, but also, say, philosophical essays. For researchers, such a publication is simply a storehouse of incomparable materials. For teachers – a great help in the education of the current Suvorov, Nakhimov and cadets. For the pupils of these institutions themselves, there is a gallery of role models and a textbook of patriotism.
"In the process of working on the publication, we were lucky not only to get acquainted with talented people – writers, artists, leaders of the modern cadet movement, but also with the latest Russian foreign cadets," said one of the initiators of the project, translator and writer who served in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR and the Russian Federation, retired Colonel Yevgeny Lozovik. – And it was very important to get their blessing for the implementation of this project. Alas, the cadets of that distant past are inexorably leaving. But still we managed to get their high appreciation of our work and gratitude for the work done."
THE PRINCE'S UNIFORM AND A NOTEBOOK WITH A SPIDER
Evgeny Lozovik himself expressed great gratitude to the director of the Museum of Military Uniforms Elena Sinitsina: "Your institution has become not just our partner, but, without exaggeration, a "second home" for us. Thanks to your civic position, it turned out to show an absolutely magnificent exhibition "Cadet Roll Call", perhaps the first of its kind so far."
The author of these lines had a chance to get acquainted with the exposition in detail. It's really annoying that all 230 of her objects are only guests in the museum: they came for a while from the largest military-historical collections of Russia (for example, from the Palace and Park museum-reserve "Tsarskoye Selo"), as well as from private collections. And they illustrate different epochs of the history of primary military education in Russia from the XVIII century to the present day.
One of the most remarkable items is a miniature uniform "Nikolaev" tailcoat of the first years of the second half of the XIX century. It was worn by a nine-year–old pupil of the 1st Cadet Corps, Nikolai Romanov, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander II.
Alas, this heir to the throne was not destined to accept the crown, scepter and orb. He lived a frustratingly short life – he, 21-year-old, was brought to the grave by meningitis. And the throne was inherited by his brother – Alexander III, strong-shouldered (when the tsar's train crashed in 1888, he held the heavy roof of the car!) and easily tying forks into knots in front of the ambassadors of European powers. The one for 13 years of whose rule the empire did not wage a single war. The one who once said: "Russia has only two allies – its army and navy" (these words are carved on the monument in Yalta, where he died prematurely, at just 49 years old). Of course, the tsar-strongman in his childhood and youth also took the course of the 1st Cadet in St. Petersburg.
The exhibition has uniform attributes of pupils of the Russian cadet corps during the Civil War and emigration. Most of all samples are the objects of pride of Suvorov and Nakhimov residents. Their form is represented, as they say, in full growth – from a cap to shoes. This is understandable: many of these things have been well preserved since the IEDs and NVMU were created in 1943.
And the "newest cadetship" is represented at the exhibition by four uniforms of the last decade of the last century. And modern – pets of the 1st Moscow CC. One of them is generously hung with medals ("an iconostasis like Zhukov's," they say about such). Which also reflects the dubious fashion of our days: a cadet is awarded medals almost for excellent bed dressing, shoes polished with wax and order in the bedside tables (but this is a separate topic).
The illustrative series of the exhibition consists of numerous historical photographs, postcards, reproductions, posters and modern paintings by masters of the Grekov Studio of Military Artists.
Anyone who has time before the exhibition closes in April will be able to see rare documents. For example, thematic correspondence with the relevant officials of the Minister of War, Adjutant General Count Chernyshev during the reign of Nicholas I. By the way, it was this tsar who made the greatest personal contribution to the creation and development of Russian cadet corps, opening them during the years of his reign as many as 17.
And next to it is something that will undoubtedly be interesting to children (and the exhibition "Cadet Roll Call" is clearly with a family bias). Personally, as a graduate of the Ussuri IED, it was very interesting for me to see a 1915 workbook with drawings on the natural history of a third-grader cadet Bocharov (the permanent place of exhibition is the State Historical Museum). The boy studied (it's a pity, nothing else is known about him, even his name) in the 2nd Cadet Corps of Emperor Peter the Great in St. Petersburg and meticulously "delved into the device" of a small burrowing spider-digger, diligently signed the names of parts of his body: "ganglia", "tentacle", "poisonous tooth"... Wow, how far from the military sciences the cadets studied things in previous eras! And even in the midst of the First World massacre.
In the Soviet IEDs, which appeared en masse shortly after the fierce Battle of Kursk, in the autumn of 1943, this tradition – to teach not only what would be useful in the war – was fully continued. Well, who doesn't remember the dialogue from everyone's favorite movie "Officers": "I am glad that Vanya will grow up not a soldier, but a person capable of appreciating the beautiful." – "Behemoth, for example." "Imagine a hippopotamus, too."
Igor Plugatarev
Columnist of the Independent Military Review
Igor Vitalievich Plugatarev is a military journalist, a retired colonel.