A Cadet corps (), historically an admissions-based all-boys military cadets school, prepared boys to become commissioned officers in

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

. Boys entered a cadet corps between the ages of 8 and 15.

History

Empress Anna Ivanovna founded the first cadet corps in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, in 1731. The term of education was seven years. All instructors had a military rank; they taught a program of military preparation. In 1766 Catherine the Great's educational reforms broadened the curriculum to include the sciences, philosophy, ethics, history, and international law. A graduate from the corps became a

junker Junker (, , , , , , ka, იუნკერი, ) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German , meaning 'young nobleman'Duden; Meaning of Junker, in German/ref> or otherwise 'young lord' (derivation of and ). The term is traditionally ...

and had prime candidacy for a military career. During the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

and the 1917-1923

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, cadets and junkers largely supported the anti-bolshevik

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

. (Distinguish the military cadets of this era from the members of the Constitutional Democratic Party, known from its initials (KD) as ''Kadets''. The Constitutional Democratic Party also opposed Bolshevism.) A small portion of cadets succeeded in evacuating with the White Army towards the end of Russian Civil War to western countries. Many cadets who escaped alive formed cadet corps in other countries, most notably at Bela Crkva in the

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, where they received the patronage of King

Alexander I of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karađorđević (, ; – 9 October 1934), also known as Alexander the Unifier ( / ), was King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 16 August 1921 to 3 October 1929 and King of Yugoslavia from 3 October 1929 until his assassinati ...

(reigned 1921–1934) - himself a former pupil in the Saint Petersburg Page Corps. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

a number of

White émigré White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik com ...

ex-cadets joined the Axis-sponsored Russian Corps (founded in 1941) in Yugoslavia and the Guard of the general A.A.Vlasow (ROA), seeing it as a means of continuing the battle against the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

régime. After World War II ended in 1945, with the emigration of cadets to the

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, and

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, White émigré cadet corps ceased to function.

Modern era

After the fall of the USSR in 1991, cadet corps were re-established in Russia by veterans of the armed forces and descendants of cadet corps graduates. These now educate both boys and girls, with several units named after Soviet

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

heroes as well as after Russian military heroes through the centuries. These Cadet Corps and Cadet Schools, found in various Russian cities, aim towards preparing children for service not just in the

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russi ...

but also in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Guard of Russia, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Investigative Committee of Russia and the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

(FSB). One cadet corps prepares teens for service in the Ministry of Justice; the Moscow Diplomatic Cadet Corps educates those inclined towards future careers in the diplomatic services of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. Traditionally, the Ground Forces-affiliated cadets use the regular army field uniform, but with the own sleeve insignias and the letters "KK" on the shoulder boards, but dress uniforms differ.

Cadets educational establishments in the USSR and Russia

Mainstream corps

* Suvorov Military School * Nakhimov Naval School * Ministry of Defense of Russia Girls Boarding School * Kronstadt Sea Cadet Corps * Moscow National Guard Presidential Cadets School * Moscow National Pensions School Cadet Corps *Moscow Cadet Corps of the Investigative Committee of Russia

Cossack corps

* Astrakhan Cossack Cadet Corps * Shakhty Cossack Cadet Corps * Aksanskiy Cossack Cadet Corps * Aksai Cossack Cadet Corps * , Novocherkassk * Novorossiysk Cossack cadet corps * Crimean Cossack Cadet Corps * Kuban Cossack Cadet Corps * Yeysk Cossack Cadet Corps * Starodub Cossack Cadet Corps

Other corps

* Saint Petersburg Rocket Artillery Cadet Corps * St. Petersburg Cadet Corps * Krasnoyarsk Cadet Corps *Governor's Cadet Boarding School of the Ministry of Emergencies, Kemerovo *Siberian Aviation Cadet Corps named after Alexander Pokryshkin

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

*Achinsk Cadet Corps, Krasnoyarsk Territory * Mountain Cadet Corps * Ulan-Ude Cadet Corps * First Moscow Cadet Corps * Military Space Peter the Great Cadet Corps, St. Petersburg * Military Technical Cadet Corps, Togliatti * Irkutsk Guards Cadet Corps of Strategic Missile Forces * Voronezh Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich Cadet Corps * Moscow Justice Cadet Corps * Moscow Cadet Corps named after Marshal Zhukov * Karelian Cadet Corps named after Alexander Nevsky * Ufa Airborne Cadet Corps named after Musa Gareev * Moscow Cadet Music Corps * St. Petersburg Cadet Course of the Federal Protective Service

References

{{Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Military schools in Russia Russian military youth groups