Nikolaev Engineering School lists of graduates. Nikolaev Engineering School

Nikolaev Engineering School

In 1855, the officer 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. School graduates 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 engineering lieutenant). Officers were admitted to the engineering academy after at least two years of officer experience, passing entrance exams, and after two years of study they received higher education. It should be noted that the same system was introduced for gunners. Infantry and cavalry officers were trained in two-year cadet schools, where they received a secondary education. An infantry or cavalry officer could receive a higher education only at the General Staff Academy, where the enrollment was less than at the engineering academy. So, in general, the level of education of artillerymen and sappers was head and shoulders above that in the army as a whole. However, the engineering troops at that time also included railway workers, signalmen, topographers, and later aviators and aeronauts. In addition, the Minister of Finance, whose department included the border service, negotiated the right of border guard officers to study at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy.

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

In 1857, the journal Engineering Notes was renamed into Engineering Journal and became a joint publication. Joint scientific work continues. A.R. Shulyachenko conducts extensive research on the properties of explosives and compiles their classification. in the winter of dynamite, and switched to a chemically more resistant pyroxylin explosive. Under his leadership, mining is being revived. In 1894, he invents a non-removable anti-personnel mine. Academician B.S. Jacobi, General KA Schilder School teacher PN Yablochkov invents his famous arc electric lamp and arc spotlight.

During 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 do not want to exaggerate his role in organizing and conducting the defense of the fortress, but after his death on December 15, 1904, the fortress held out for only a month at Fort No. 2.

Large losses in the officer corps 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 graduate infantry officers. The training of engineering specialists was practically curtailed. With the beginning of the creation of aviation in the Russian army, many engineering officers were retrained as 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 the beginning of the war. After the first few weeks of the war, when the front line had not yet taken shape, the army in the field urgently requested an increase in the number of sapper units and units. There was no one to restore bridges, roads, or destroy them during the retreat. The absence of fortification specialists did not allow to properly organize the defense of the fortresses of Warsaw and Ivan-Gorod, and they fell after a short resistance. With the transition to positional warfare, engineering specialists became even more scarce. 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 generally disrupted. From the engineering school, all the cadets were urgently awarded officer ranks, and they were sent to the front. Following the same fate befell the non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the units providing the educational process of the school. In the ranks of warrant officers, 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 ensigns.

By the autumn of 1917, there were about a hundred cadets in the school, who had just been recruited at the school. Partly they were wounded who had recovered, partly young people of military age. The weariness of three years of war, the corrupting revolutionary propaganda, the general dissatisfaction with the failure of the war, the unwillingness 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, impassively watched the approach of the Red Guards to the palace and offered no resistance. So there was no storming of the Winter Palace, so well known from the films. Historical sources documented the death that day and night in the area of the palace of seven people. At night, having handed over their rifles to the Red Guards, most of the junkers went home, a smaller part returned to the school. After that, it was pointless to continue the educational process, and all the efforts of several officers of the school and junkers were reduced to preventing the looting of property, the fight against hunger and cold. The history of the Nikolaev Engineering School is over.

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

With the advent of the Bolsheviks to power, they began to implement the thesis of Karl Marx about replacing the professional army with the general armament of the people. The first law of the new government was the "Decree on Peace". 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 dwindling every day.

The Russian Army, under the influence of the anarchy that had set in 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 opponents of Soviet power was rapidly growing. These circumstances prompted the new Russian government to move to the creation of 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 in the command staff of the old army, the new military leadership of the country set the task of recreating 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 importance of the engineer troops in the war. Already on March 1, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper publishes an announcement about the start of admission to the Soviet engineering Petrograd training courses for the command staff of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

Extraordinary measures were taken to restore the activity of the engineering school. It was ordered to all officers, non-commissioned officers, cadets of the school, including those who were 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 placed in prison with the threat of being shot.

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

The courses trained technicians-instructors in sapper, pontoon business, railway workers, road builders, telegraph operators, radiotelegraph operators, projector operators, and motorists.

The courses had entrenching tools, radiotelegraph and telegraph equipment, pontoon crossing 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 oatmeal bread, tea with saccharin, a bowl of vobla or herring soup, and a bowl of millet porridge per day. .

The political leadership of the courses strictly monitored the growth in the number of members of the Communist Party. If in March 1918 there were 6 of them, then by the fall 80. The courses became a loyal stronghold of the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. As early as July 7, 1918, the cadets took an active part in the suppression of the Left SR rebellion.

Petrograd Military Engineering College

In the spring of the same year, due to the inability of the courses to provide the Red Army with engineering specialists in sufficient numbers, the 2nd engineering course was launched in Petrograd. However, the teaching staff, the educational and material base were not enough, and on July 29, 1918, by order of the Chief Commissar of the military educational institutions of Petrograd, the courses were combined into a single educational institution called the Petrograd Military Engineering College. Organizationally, the technical school began to be a military unit, consisting of four companies - sapper, road and bridge, electrical, mine-blasting. In addition, the preparatory department was preserved. The term of training at the preparatory stage is 8 months, in companies - 6 months. Such an 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 taken up by field studies in the Ust-Izhora camp near Petrograd. The Engineering Castle remained the main location of the technical school. 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, 111 people were released in 1918, 174 people in 1919, 245 people in 1920, 189 people in 1921, and 1922-59 people. In addition, the technical school with its companies takes a direct part in the battles in October 1918 near Borisoglebsk, Tambov province, against the rebellious peasants, in April 1919 in the Verro region against Estonian armed formations, May-August 1919 near the city of Yamburg against the troops of Yudenich, October-November 1919 in the defense of Petrograd from the troops of Yudenich, May-September 1919 near the city of Olonets against the Finnish troops, June-November 1920 near the city of Orekhov against the troops of General Wrangel, March 1921 near the fortress of Kronstadt against the rebels, December 1912-January 1922 in Karelia against the Finnish troops.

The last issue after a short training was made on March 22, 1920. The primary task of providing the Red Army with engineering specialists with a wartime training level was completed. It was possible to proceed to the training of 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 term of study. The school was supposed to graduate engineering platoon commanders (in modern terms, 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. The former tsarist officer, military engineer K.F., is appointed head of the school. 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 cadets were not divided into specialties. 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 complication 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 battle near the city 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 an accelerated release.

In March 1921, a mutiny of sailors broke out in the fortress of Kronstadt. On the night of March 3, a company of school cadets is sent to reinforce units to eliminate the rebellion. On March 7, she attacks the rebels at Fort No. 7 and occupies it. The actions of the demolition cadets on the night of March 18 predetermined success in the attack on Fort Totleben. For these battles, thirteen cadets were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner. For differences 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 editions. By this time, since the beginning of its activities in March 1918, the school had graduated 727 wartime engineering commanders.

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

since January 1922, specialization has been canceled, and all cadets receive universal engineering knowledge. On September 1, 1922, the tenth graduation of cadets took place. It was the first graduation of cadets who completed the normal two-year training period (from among those who did not require prior training). 59 people were released. Of these, 19 in engineering specialty, 21 in road and bridge and 19 in electrical engineering.

On October 15, 1922, the academic year begins according to the four-year education plan. Gradually, a full-fledged educational process is being established. In winter, there were theoretical classes, from June 1 to September 15, field classes in the camp.

In 1923, the head of the school, K.F. Druzhinin, was replaced by a red commander, a former sailor of the Baltic fleet, a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Tikhomandritsky G.I. In addition to the Petrograd engineering commanders, similar Moscow, Kyiv and Kazan schools were preparing at that time. In 1923-24, the school began to be equipped with workshops and laboratories. However, during the civil war, the main part of the educational and material base was partially lost due to 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 low quality of education led to the replacement of Tikhomandritsky by the former colonel of the General Staff T.T.Malashensky. By 1927 he equips 17 laboratories and 4 workshops. His active resistance to the plans of the school commissar Karpov N.A. reduce the hours allotted for physics, cancel the study of the internal combustion engine, automobile business and expand the study of the history of the 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 going on in the Red Army. By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR No. 831 dated August 5, 1925, the Courses for the Improvement of Command Staff (KUKS) were transferred from Moscow to the school, and the school, in addition to training medium-level engineering commanders, was 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". November 30, 1925 introduced the "Regulations on the military schools of the Red Army." This Regulation leaves three schools - Leningrad, Kyiv and Moscow - for the training of commanders of engineering troops.

Structurally, the school was now a battalion of three companies, and educationally it was divided into four classes (courses) - preparatory, junior, middle and senior. Since 1927, a shooting range, a physical and sapper camp, a concrete plant, a pontoon crossing point have been operating in the Luga camp of the school. By the summer of 1928, the school received a set of pontoon park. During practical training, in 1924-28, cadets actually built bridges across the Izhora, Yascherka, Luzhenka, Kureya and Oredezh rivers for the needs of the local population with a total length of 180m. By 1929, the school received sets of A-3 boats, sets of TZI, swimming suits, MP-200 chain saws, road machines, MK-1 excavators, PM-1 and PM-2 demolition machines, vehicles for transporting prefabricated bridge structures, power plants and others. engineering tools. 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 Kyiv school, the Children's Rural United Military School and transfer their cadets to the Leningrad (order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR of 11/25/30), and by order of the NPO of the USSR of 19/9/1932 to transfer the Moscow school to Leningrad. Both schools are united under the name "Joint Red Banner Military Engineering School named after the Comintern".

United Red Banner Military Engineering School named after the Comintern

Thus, the Leningrad school turned into the only educational institution in the country for the training of middle commanders of engineering troops. The school now consisted of eleven companies (6 companies for the training of sapper commanders, 3 companies for the training of commanders of electrical engineers, 2 park companies). In addition, the school had the task of retraining the commanders of the engineering troops (KUKS). The unification process, numerous organizational restructurings, and overloading of the teaching staff have sharply reduced both military discipline and the quality of cadet training. The absence now of engineering educational institutions of various styles and orientations led to the fact that the shortcomings in the training of specialists became comprehensive, depriving the educational process of competition. The closer attention of the higher 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 reduced only to the study of engineering technology. Great harm was done to the pedagogical process by the line on the training of 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 joint engineering school to the infantry and cavalry, where the quality of education 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. From April 1931, the infantry commander brigade commander B.R. Terpilovsky 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 among military educational institutions in shooting training (not infantry, not machine gun, not artillery, but engineering (!))

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

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

In 1936, a military engineer of the 1st rank MP Vorobyov was appointed head of the school. He managed to prove the inadmissibility of turning an engineering school into a proper combined arms school and resume the process of training purely engineering lieutenants. Later, during the Patriotic War, he became the head of the engineering troops of the Red Army and the first marshal of the engineering troops. During the period of command of the school until the summer of 1940, he will achieve a radical restructuring of the training of cadets, the saturation of the school with modern engineering equipment. On its basis and its specialists, all the main guiding documents of the engineering service (Manuals, Guides, Instructions) were developed. This is where they were being tested. In March 1937, the scale was transformed into the Leningrad Military Engineering School.

Sources

1. P.I. Biryukov and others. 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 Red Banner School. A.A. Zhdanova. Military publishing house of the USSR Ministry of Defense. 1969

1892-1895

In 1892, in the month of June, I came to enter the Nikolaev Engineering School in St. Petersburg, which struck me with its royal grandeur.

The prospects, wide and straight as an arrow, bordered by tall, artistic buildings and crowded with a dense, ever-moving crowd of people and an endless line of carriages, made a strong impression on me, a provincial youth.

Kazan and St. Isaac's Cathedrals amazed with their grandeur, size and beauty. The Winter Palace, the General Staff Building and a number of other artistic buildings on Nevsky Prospekt and Embankment fascinated me.

Waking up the next day early in the morning, I decided to immediately go to the Engineering Castle, where the Engineering School was located.

It was a majestic building of extraordinary shape. Its outer shape was a quadrangle, while the inner courtyard had the shape of a hexagon. It was three stories high with a fourth basement.

There was a square in front of the castle, which overlooked the main facade of the castle. In the middle of the lower floor of this façade was the main entrance to the courtyard, while most of the upper floor was adorned with a portico of 12 Doric marble columns. Above its large window in the middle was an architrave, and below it, the entire length of the dark marble frieze, was the inscription:

“Holiness to the Lord is fitting for your house in the length of days” in large gold letters.

Along the cornice at the top, this whole facade was decorated with marble statues.

Almost in the middle of the first façade there was a significant ledge crowned with a bell tower, which had the shape of a spike of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The ledge also had three floors: on its upper floor there was a parish church in the name of the Archangel Michael, and on the other side of the ledge there was a gate to the second courtyard, much smaller than the main courtyard.

In the left facade of the castle, overlooking the Fontanka, there was also a ledge formed by one oval-shaped room of the upper and lower floors protruding forward, and from its windows this entire facade could be flanked in both directions.

The third façade (rear), parallel to the first, overlooked the Moika and the Summer Garden. It had a wide staircase in the middle leading from the courtyard to the first floor and the so-called St. George's Hall. The middle part of this façade looked like a bastion front.

The entire castle, from its side and rear facades, was surrounded by an iron lattice, forming a parade ground for the Junkers to walk.

In the corner between the back and left facades there was another entrance to the third courtyard, also small in size. A hundred steps in front of the main facade, on the square, there was a monument to Peter the Great, erected by Emperor Paul, with the inscription "Great-grandfather - great-grandson."

Through the main entrance to the courtyard of the castle, the entrance to the gateway. It is all decorated with columns, and to the right and left there were two wide, full-length staircases leading to the first floor, to the left - to the apartments of the head of the school and the Academy, and to the right - to the apartment of the junker company commander.

There are three entrances in the main courtyard. The first to the left is the main, main entrance to the castle, along the wide staircase to the lobby of the first floor. From it, a beautiful marble staircase rises to half the floor and then, dividing into two wings, rises to the second floor. Another entrance, directly opposite the gate, goes to the cadets' quarters of the school on the ground floor. The third, right on the second floor, in the classrooms of the school and the Academy, was already built in my presence.

In general, the entire castle gave premises: the Nikolaev Engineering School, the Nikolaev Engineering Academy and the Main Engineering Directorate.

On the ground floor were located: the junkers' bedrooms, a hall for drill exercises, workshops, an infirmary and a warehouse for weapons and clothing. - all to the left of the entrance, and to the right - more bedrooms, a washstand, a duty officer's room.

On the second floor were the junkers' classrooms, the library and the junkers' church, located in the bedroom of Emperor Paul, where he was killed.

On the other side of the entrance there are more classrooms, a conference hall, a large front hall, on the walls of which marble plaques with the names of the Knights of St. George, former students of the school and the Academy, were installed, and their portraits hung on the opposite wall, between the windows. Behind the hall is a large oval room and two or three more classrooms. Behind them began the premises of the Main Engineering Directorate, up to the main entrance.

In many rooms, traces of the former luxury are still preserved, such as the plafond in the library and in the main hall. There are legends about the construction of the castle. They assure that when Paul was still the Grand Duke, an angel appeared to him in a dream, commanding him to build a new palace on the site of the old palace of Elizabeth, with a church for visitors, which Paul did. It was also said that the number of letters in the inscription on the pediment: “Holiness of the Lord befits your house in the length of days” corresponds to the number of years of the Emperor’s life.

They assured that the castle was connected by an underground passage with the Pavlovsky barracks, and among the junkers there were lovers to look for this passage. They said that the entrance to it was in the thick wall that separated the Emperor's bedroom from the library.

On the other side of the bedroom was a small round office. There was a deep niche in the wall adjoining the bedroom. A shroud was placed in it, and a church was built in the bedroom. On the wall, above the shroud, by order of Emperor Alexander II, a marble plaque was nailed with the inscription: “Lord, let them go: they don’t know what they are doing!”

At the Engineer's Castle, I applied at the office and received the exam program. She showed me that my knowledge was sufficient to pass the exam, but in the office they told me that in order to be sure of success, I need to enter the Meretsky preparatory boarding school.

It was the topography teacher, Colonel. He kept a boarding school in which he prepared young people for entrance exams to the Nikolaev Engineering School and to the Institute of Railway Engineers.

The boarding house was located on Stremennaya Street in the city and at the Udelnaya station, outside the city. I went to Meretsky. He categorically told me that only after passing through his boarding school could I hope to get into the school. I really didn't want it, but I didn't know how to get rid of it. However, when he told me that it would cost five hundred rubles, I was delighted and told him that I did not have such a sum, but only two hundred and fifty rubles.

All right," he replied, to my surprise, "I'll only charge you two hundred and fifty, but don't tell anyone about it.

So I ended up in a boarding school. It was called preparatory, but in reality the preparation was very weak. Mathematics teacher Andryushchenko came, chatted with the students for an hour or two and left. That's all! They lived on Udelnaya, often visited Ozerki ...

I soon saw that I could not get very far in such an environment, and I set to work myself. I passed the exam second and was accepted at public expense.

So I became a military man, and the three years spent at the Engineering School passed quickly, but monotonously. They are not rich in any extraordinary events, but they undoubtedly reflected on my cultural development and contributed to the firm strengthening in me of conscious discipline and a conscientious attitude to duties in the service and in relations with others.

The engineering school of that time was considered the “most liberal” among all military schools, and indeed the relationship between the cadets and their educators, school officers, left nothing to be desired: there were no petty nitpicks, no rudeness in treatment, no unfair punishments. Relations between the junkers of the senior and junior classes were friendly and simple.

The head of the school was Major General Nikolai Aleksandrovich Schilder, a military engineer by education, but wholly devoted to history and at that time already a well-known historian - “biographer of the kings”, author of biographies of the Emperors Paul, Alexander and Nicholas and a contender for the Arakcheev Prize. With regard to the school, he only “gave the tone”, which was followed by the commander of the junker company, Colonel Baron Nolken, professors and course officers, observing complete harmony, without any dissonance.

As a result, smart sapper officers came out of the school, who knew their specialty well and, after graduating from the school, preserved in their relations with the soldiers in the battalions the same fair and humane treatment that they had learned at school.

The educational part was excellent at the school, the composition of the professors was the best. So, Budaev and Fitzum von Eksted read mathematics (the figure and face of a real Roman), mechanics Colonel Kirpichev, bridges - his brother, General Kirpichev, chemistry - generals Shulyachenko and Gorbov, construction art - captain Statsenko, electrical engineering - captain Sventorzhetsky, fortification - lieutenant colonel Velichko and captains Engman and Buynitsky. Attack and defense of fortresses - Lieutenant General Yoher, mine art - Lieutenant Colonel Kryukov, tactics - Colonel Mikhnevich and topography - Lieutenant General Baron Korf. All these were professors, well known at that time in St. Petersburg.

In combat terms, the school was a company, the commander of which was the colonel of the Guards Engineer Battalion Baron Nolken, and the junior officers were Captain Tsitovich, Staff Captains Sorokin, Prince Baratov, Ogishev, Veselovsky, Pogossky and Volkov. They were also course officers.

Classes occupied all the time until lunch, that is, until 12 o'clock. Then rest was given, followed by horseback riding, work in workshops, gymnastics, fencing, singing, dancing. By six o'clock it was all over, and there was still time until the evening dawn for preparing lessons and reading. During this period I read a lot, but unsystematically.

The academic year began in September and lasted until mid-May, when the school went to the Ust-Izhora sapper camp, 24 miles up the Neva. There, shooting training and tactical exercises were replaced by practical exercises in fortification, military communications and building art. The summer passed in this useful and healthy work. In early August, they moved to Krasnoye Selo, where there was a production of graduation junkers for officers.

Since my arrival in Petersburg, I have not ceased to maintain friendly relations with my comrades at the real school, post

drinking in other institutions of higher learning Not a week went by that we didn't meet first at one, then at another. I also often visited my aunt Alexandra Mikhailovna Kalmykova, who lived with her son Andryusha and was then raising P. B. Struve. Andryusha was a student at the Faculty of Oriental Languages, and Struve was in political and economic studies, where he was already considered a figure in these matters.

I remember with pleasure all the course officers of the school. For us young men, they served as a model of correctness and justice in relation to subordinates.

As I have already said, the educational part was excellent at the school. Fortification was the main subject. It was taught in all three classes, gradually developing and replenishing. Composing one common department, it was divided into nine independent departments or departments, and each was read by a separate professor.

These individual departments were:

Field fortification, that is, fortifications built during the war on the battlefields. This course was taught by Lieutenant Colonel Velichko, Captain Buynitsky and Staff Captain Ipatovich-Goryansky.

The application of field fortifications to the terrain was read by Captain Kononov.

Mine art - staff captain Ipatovich-Goryansky and later captain D.V. Yakovlev.

The long-term fortification was read by Captain E. K. Engman.

Attack and defense of fortresses - Lieutenant General Yoher and Captain Peresvet-Soltan.

History of sieges - General Maslov, whom I replaced many years later.

Designing fortifications - Captain Buinitsky.

After the fortification, great importance was attached to the art of building, which was taught by Captain Stetsenko.

This was followed by building mechanics, read by Colonel Kirpichev.

Mathematics (differential and integral calculus and analysis) was taught by university professor Budaev, who was already considered a celebrity.

Electrical Engineering - Captain Sventorzhetsky.

Military communications - Colonel Kryukov and Captain Kononov.

Artillery, military history, chemistry, physics, topography, tactics, administration and drafting completed the program of the school.

At the end of the school, the cadets were promoted to second lieutenants of the engineering troops with the release of sapper, railway and pontoon battalions or in mine, telegraph and fortress sapper companies. They did military service there for two years (in the east - three) with the right to enter Nikola-

risking the Academy of Engineering on a competitive exam.

Although the cadets studied all the subjects that were required for higher technical education, they, however, did not receive the title of engineer. To do this, it was necessary to go through the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, which served as a necessary addition to the school. There the main subject was also fortification and, as in a school, it was divided into departments taught by different professors. When I entered the Academy a few years later, I realized that everything read in it on fortification expanded and supplemented what had already been learned in this subject at the school.

The Academy read:

The current state of long-term fortification (Colonel Buinitsky), the construction of long-term structures (Colonel Arena), armored installations (Captain Goleikin), the history of sieges (General Maslov), the construction of fortifications in the mountains (Captain Kokhanov), the defense of the state and the use of long-term fortification in the defense of the country ( Colonel Velichko), coastal defense (captain 2nd rank Beklemishev). The fortress war was waged by several professors of fortification with the participation of an officer of the General Staff and an artilleryman. Finally, the main department was the drafting of fortresses and forts under the direction of all the senior professors.

There were nine departments in total.

After fortification, great importance was attached to mechanics, then to building art, concrete work, earthworks. Both in mechanics and in the art of building, in bridges, hydraulics and electrical engineering, there were, in addition to theoretical courses, practical work on drafting projects.

Thus, there is no doubt that those who went through the school and the Academy had a very extensive technical education, supplemented by general military and general education courses.

Even in my junior year at the Engineering School, I became more interested in fortification than in other subjects. I was attracted by the noble role of the fortifications, which served to save the lives of the defenders and to help them defend. The first concepts about the construction of fortifications in a field war on the battlefields were taught to us by Lieutenant Colonel K. I. Velichko. He gave us a course on "field fortification" and already then began to become famous in the engineering circles of St. Petersburg.

He read his lectures, drawing on the blackboard with chalk, and ordered, in addition, to have large notebooks made of checkered paper and asked us problems that we had to solve and then draw in these notebooks. In my middle school year, fortification fascinated me even more thanks to the excellent lectures of the late Colonel E. K. Engman. He was not only a talented professor and an excellent lecturer, but it was felt that he loves what he teaches us, and in this way he influenced his students.

I sincerely devoted myself to the study of fortification. This was noticed by Colonel Engman, and he involved me in compiling an album of drawings for his first textbook. In terms of completeness of content and clarity, and at the same time, brevity of presentation, this textbook had no equal, and even to this day it surpasses everything and all countries. Subsequently, in my textbooks, I imitated him, but did not surpass him. Indeed, the student cannot be higher than the teacher.

When I was at the school, it was 75 years since its foundation. This event was marked by a solemn act, at which the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant General Zabotkin, delivered a speech dedicated to the event, and in the evening a big ball was held, which gathered all of St. Petersburg at the school. On this occasion, I wrote a "Historical essay" dedicated to the school. It was my first literary work to see the light of day.

In 1895, not long before I finished my course and graduated as an officer, several incidents happened to me, which, although insignificant in themselves, had a great influence on my service.

Every cadet graduating from a military school always dreams that, upon graduation, he would get the best possible vacancy. For the cadets of the Engineering School, the Guards Sapper Battalion and the first Zheleznodorozhny Battalion were considered the best, because both of them were in St. Petersburg, and the second, in addition, was the royal guard during the Highest trips.

I really wanted to get into this particular battalion, but I understood that for this you need to have solid patronage, but I didn’t have it.

Once, during a class break, I was called to the professor's room to see Colonel Engman, and my surprise was great when Engman asked me exactly where I would like to leave the school.

I confessed my dreams.

Well, - said the colonel, - next Sunday, at 9 o'clock in the morning, go to the battalion commander, Colonel Yakovlev, and introduce yourself to him on my behalf.

Surprised and more than delighted, I did everything exactly, was received by the battalion commander and heard from him that I was recommended by Colonel Engman so well that he had already signed me up for the first vacancy.

I was extremely happy and thanked you very much.

There were only three or four months left before graduation, and I believed that my further career was secured.

However, a series of events followed one after the other, and everything changed.

I must say that as early as 1891 in the Far East, the construction of a railway from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, known as the Ussuri Railway, began. By 1895, she had already reached half the distance, where the final station Muravyov - Amursky was. Evil tongues said then that the captain, the head of the gendarmerie team at this station, very much wanted to have the Order of St. Vladimir with swords and a bow, but you could only get it for fighting. Then he allegedly simulated an attack on the station by Chinese hunghuz, that is, robbers, which he and his team successfully repelled.

The report of this to St. Petersburg caused some alarm in government circles. It was decided that it was impossible to continue construction without the help of military force, and by agreement between the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Communications, it was decided to immediately form a railway battalion, calling it the First Ussuri Railway Battalion.

In the summer of 1895, the cadets of the Engineering School were in the Ust-Izhora sapper camp when the news about this appeared in the newspapers. My Serbian graduate Rodoslav Georgievich and I read this message together, and we were terribly drawn to the journey to the Far East. How many countries you will visit and oceans you will swim across, what you will not see and learn! How to miss such an opportunity? We talked and decided to try to get into this battalion.

We went to the General Headquarters, from there to the Railway Department, but no matter how hard we tried to achieve anything, we could not and would not have been in the Ussuri battalion if the following had not happened:

Communication between the camp and the city was carried out by the steamships of the Schlusselburg Society "Truvor", "Sineus" and "Vera". Returning to the camp one day on the Truvor, I had a photographic camera with me and snapped the views of the coast all the time. An artillery officer who was right there on deck suddenly called me and started a conversation with me on the subject of photography. After talking, we moved on to other topics and touched on the upcoming issue. Hearing from me about my fruitless visits to the General Staff, the officer laughed and said that he would try to help me. He gave me his business card, on which I read: Captain of the Guards Artillery Ilya Petrovich Gribunin. He was a student of the Officer Artillery School, which at that time was serving practical shooting in the same Ust-Izhora camp.

From that day on, my acquaintance with I.P. Gribunin began, which later turned into a close and sincere friendship. The closer I got to know this noble, sensitive and kind person, the more I appreciated him. Several times he gave me great moral support, driven only by a sense of his boundless kindness.

When I came to him a few days later, he told me that His Highness Duke G. M. Mecklenburg-Strelitzky was among the students of the School, that he had already spoken to him about me and Georgievich, and that the Duke had given his should introduce themselves to a general such and such.

So we did: we introduced ourselves and a little later something happened that was impossible until then - we were sent a message from the headquarters that we were both enrolled in the First Ussuri Railway Battalion.

Soon followed by graduation and promotion to officers - the beginning of a new life ... All the young officers received leave, and I immediately left for the south ...

At the beginning of October 1895, I returned to St. Petersburg in order to go to Vladivostok on the steamer of the Volunteer Fleet.

The ship was called "Tambov". If I am not mistaken, on October 11 or 21, the Tambov set off on a long journey from Kronstadt, and I remember well that just before leaving, Father John of Kronstadt arrived on the ship at the request of the passengers and served a prayer on deck for a safe journey.

The sun was already setting when several tugboats hooked the Tambov and dragged it to the exit, where they left it to its own forces.

Thus began the journey, which ended in Vladivostok on January 5, 1896, that is, after 75 days.

SHWANEBAKH Emmanuil Fedorovich (1866 - 1904) graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering School in 1883 in the form of a second lieutenant of the engineering troops (colorized).

Notable alumni and faculty

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
Buynitsky, Nestor Aloizievich - Lieutenant General
Burman, Georgy Vladimirovich - Major General, creator of the air defense of Petrograd, head of the Officers' Electrotechnical School
Wegener, Alexander Nikolaevich
Russian military balloonist, military pilot and engineer,
aircraft designer, head of the Main Aerodrome, first head of 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, Ataman of the Orenburg Cossack Army
Karbyshev, Dmitry Mikhailovich - Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops, Hero of the Soviet Union
Kaufman, Konstantin Petrovich - engineer-general, adjutant general, Turkestan governor-general
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 - Guard 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, general engineer
Leman, Anatoly Ivanovich - Russian writer, violin maker
Lishin, Nikolai Stepanovich - inventor of a percussion hand grenade
Lukomsky, Alexander Sergeevich - Lieutenant General, Head of the Government under the Commander-in-Chief of the All-Union Socialist Republic, General Denikin
May-Maevsky, Vladimir Zenonovich - lieutenant general, commander of the Volunteer Army
Modzalevsky, Vadim Lvovich - Russian historian, heraldist and geneologist.
Miller, Anatoly Ivanovich - Lieutenant General (pr. 10/24/1917). Commander of the 25th Black Sea Border Brigade.
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Younger
Pauker, German Egorovich - Lieutenant General
Petin, Nikolai Nikolaevich - 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, an 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, Ataman of the Amur and Ussuri Cossack Troops
Uslar, Pyotr Karlovich - Major General, linguist and ethnographer
Shvarts Alexey Vladimirovich - Lieutenant General, Governor General of Odessa

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In 1804, at the suggestion of Lieutenant General P.K. Sukhtelen and General Engineer I.I. Knyazev, an engineering school was created in St. Petersburg (on the basis of the previously existing one moved to St. Petersburg) to train engineering non-commissioned officers (conductors) with a staff of 50 people and a training period of 2 years. It was located in the barracks of the Cavalier Guard Regiment. Until 1810, the school managed to produce 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.

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 department with a three-year course and a staff of 15 trained junior officers of the engineering troops, and the officer department 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 Educational Institution. The best graduates of the conductor department were admitted to the officer department. Also, there were retraining of previously graduated conductors, promoted to officers. Thus, in 1810, the Engineering School became 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 in the St. Petersburg Engineering School.

Engineering Castle. Now VITU is located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe historical foundation

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

The school became the center of military engineering thought. Baron P. L. Schilling proposed the use of a galvanic mine explosion method, adjunct professor K. P. Vlasov invented a chemical explosion method (the so-called “Vlasov tube”), and Colonel P. P. Tomilovsky - a metal pontoon park that stood on armament of different countries of the world until the middle of the 20th century.

In 1855, the school was named Nikolaevsky, and the officer department of the school was transformed into an independent Nikolaev Academy of Engineering. 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 lieutenant).

Among the teachers of the school were D. I. Mendeleev (chemistry), N. V. Boldyrev (fortification), A. Yoher (fortification), A. I. Kvist (means of communication), G. A. Leer (tactics, strategy, military history).

To restore the activities of the school, all officers, non-commissioned officers, cadets, including those who were at the front, were ordered to return to the school. The families of some officers who did not return were taken hostage. On the evening of March 20, by order No. 16, three departments were opened at the courses: preparatory, sapper-construction and electrical engineering. Semi-literate people were admitted to the preparatory department, they were taught to read and write in a volume sufficient to master the basics of engineering. The term of study at the preparatory department was first set for 3 months, and then increased to 6 months. The term of study at the main departments was 6 months.

The courses trained technicians-instructors of sapper, pontoon business, railway workers, road builders, telegraph operators, radiotelegraph operators, projector operators, and motorists. The courses were provided with entrenching tools, radiotelegraph and telegraph, pontoon crossing and demolition equipment, and several electrical units.

On July 7, 1918, students of the courses take an active part in the suppression of the Left SR rebellion.

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

Organizationally, the technical school consisted of four companies: sapper, road-bridge, electrical engineering, mine-blasting, 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 Olonets, with Wrangel in June-November 1920 near the city of Orekhov, with the rebel garrison of Kronstadt in March 1921, with Finnish troops in December 1921-January 1922 in Karelia.