Figure 1.--.

The Soviet Union had a military program for school children. Unlike the cadet programs in England and America, it was not optional. The Soviet program did not have mandatory uniforms. It was discontinued upon the disolution of the Soviet Union, but Acting-President Putin's Governent in 2000 is reinstituting it.

Military Training in Russian Schools

Soviet System

The Soviets had a system of Primary Military Training (NVP). In a typical lesson schoolchildren would be shown how hand grenades and mines worked, and taught to strip and reassemble Kalashnikov rifles. There were also outings to shooting ranges and local army bases. But the lessons were also fiercely ideological, with teachers, usually retired army officers, warning of the ever-present threat to Soviet security posed by the country's capitalist enemies. The subject was taught from 1968, the year the Soviet army crushed the Prague Spring, to 1991, when the Soviet Union was disolved.

A Soviet girls tells of her experience of attending Soviet schools from 1st to 4th grade. "My name is Jonnie. I live in Oakland, California, but I was born in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) Russia (formerly USSR) where I lived until I was ten years old.In fourth grade we were separated by gender for one of the periods. The girls got home ec. The boys got to assemble and disassemble machine guns. We used to joke in the girls section that the boys smell the cooking from our class and are envious, but as a tomboy kid who had always hung with the boys I felt very snubbed. Somehow this move doesn't necessarily alarm me. The relationship between the citizenry and the military has always been quite different in Russia than in the U.S. There are some alarming aspects to it, and some rather nice ones. I was raised with a real sense of pride in the armed forces as a symbol that the country could stand up and take care of itself when the time came, but I also felt keenly aware that as a girl I was left out of this very prestigious institution. In fact, it's only now that women are starting to get a toe hold in the peacetime military. You don't see any female soldiers on the street. The boys, on the other hand were (and still are) drafted for three years after high school, and of course when the time came many did their best to get around the draft, but to me it was always a mark of failure, somehow, that I wouldn't be required to join. So, for my part, I would prefer to see equal treatment of men and women by the Russian military, to the blatant discrimination that exists there today." [Jonnie Pekelny ]

Demilitarized Course

NVP was replaced in 1991 by a demilitarised course encompassing lessons in first aid and hygiene, a basic fire drill and the Russian equivalent of the Green Cross Code. Some educationists, hoever, criticized the decision to revive military training. "Ever since the end of the Komsomol [the Communist Youth League], children have lost their moral compass, some even vandalise military cemeteries," said Olga Maksimovich, editor of the Teacher's Gazette. The church has also joined forces with the defence ministry in organising summer camps for Russian children. Metropolitan Pitirim, a senior figure in the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, was recently quoted as saying that children should be taught to love the smell of barracks and soldiers' boots.

Changes in 2000

Military training for Russian schoolboys, including lessons in patriotism, has been ordered by the country's acting president, Vladimir Putin, in a move which analysts see as a worrying return to the Cold War era. Some military experts view the step as a signal that Mr Putin, the favourite to win next month's presidential election, is less interested in democratic reforms than in restoring the prestige of the Russian army and security services. Earlier this month Mr Putin called up 20,000 reservists and announced a 50 per cent increase on arms spending. "This is more proof of the militarisation of Russian society under Putin," said Pavel Felgengauer, a defence analyst. "They want to train kids to be Russian patriots and prepare them for war - just like the Nazis did with the Hitler Youth." Mr Putin, a former KGB spy and head of Russia's domestic intelligence agency, signed the decree on military training on December 31, the day Boris Yeltsin resigned and appointed him acting president.

The Russian decree calls for boys from the age of 15 to be taught "the basics of military service" and "civil defence", and receive "a military-patriotic education". An official at the Education Ministry said they would spend five days training at their local army base where they would be taught how to shoot and march in formation, and learn the essentials of army life. This would be complemented by weekly "professional orientation" lessons in school on the legal and technical aspects of national service. "They'll also learn about the heroism of our great military commanders, both Russian and Soviet, and be taught to love the Fatherland," said Boris Mishin, the Ministry's specialist on secondary education. "Some things are still sacred in this country, and our military past is one of them." Girls will also be given combat training and firing practice as well as lessons in first aid and self-defence.

A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said that the Army has long wanted to reintroduce the subject, which will be included in the curriculum from September 2000. He said the final syllabus will be worked out jointly by the Defence and Education Ministries. "The point is to give boys a clear idea of what to expect from their national service," he said.

School Uniforms

Soviet children wore school uniforms. The boys had a kid of army styled uniform. The girls wore blue dresses, pinafores, and big hair bows. I am not sure how the uniform changed over time or how it differed by age level or regionally within the Soviet Union. The children also joined the Young Pioneers, but again I have few details about the uniform and when it was worn. I do not have any information about a special cadet program, but there were military schools for children in the Soviet Union

Uniforms for school children were discontinued when the Soviet Union was disolved. I do not know of any unifom currently worn by Russian school children. The Pioneer movement was abandoned once state subsidies were ended.

Personal Experiences

Soviet Polish orphanage

I am, in a sense, a graduate of Soviet coeducational "military training" for schoolchildren. In 1943-46, while in the Polish Children's Home in Zagorsk, 70 km to the north-east of Moscow, I attended a Polish school. The only courses in Russian were 4 hours weekly of Russian literature and of Soviet military training, which was identical for boys and girls and didn't amount to much: mostly drill and a lot of theory. The instructor was a 23-year-old who received a severe wound to his head and was no longer on active service. I remember getting away with disobeying his drill commands on purpose. Our sergeant was quite talkative and told us that Soviet officers had very little control over their subordinates when it came to wartime looting, rape, etc. I do not remember being fed any significant Soviet propaganda, to which all of us--Polish children--were completely immune. However, the sergeant proved most useful in protecting us against vicious, knife wielding hooligans who roamed Zagorsk streets in the evening. (The older children, including myself, attended school in the afternoon, in the second shift, and in winter returned home from school in the dark.) [Kazimiera J. (Jean) Cottam, PhD]

Created: February 14, 2000
Last updated: February 16, 2000