Fathers-Heroes and Disciplined Sons: Cultural and Historical Contexts of Soviet Military Boarding Schools (1943–1950)

Вестник Пермского университета. Серия: История. 2019. No. 4. P. 85–94.

Maiofis M.

The article explores the history and ideological implications behind the creation of the Suvorov and Nakhimov military boarding schools. The author argues that these educational institutions had several important functions within the Soviet society of the 1940s. The institutions promoted the model of educating new cadres of military elite, while employing, as their main pedagogical approach, a tricky combination of harsh discipline and demands of limited inventiveness and initiative. Another important task the schools were charged with was the provision of secure space (which included clothing and nutrition) for those boys whose fathers were either killed or still at the battle grounds of WWII. The formation of symbolically meaningful skills, such as ball dancing or horse-back riding, was essential for this new military elite generation, since such abilities meant to create self-identification and, most importantly, external perception in connecting these Soviet era cadets with the traditions of pre-revolutionary nobility upbringing. The young generation of future warriors was perceived as happy, well-trained, and loyal symbolic substitutes for their predecessors who perished during the Great Terror and the WWII. The author argues that all mentioned features have persisted till nowadays, and contemporary parents eagerly send children to study at military schools (and, correspondingly, to leave the family) in order to increase their ―competitiveness‖ for the future life.

Keywords: history of education, elitism, Soviet culture of the 1940s, Suvorov and Nakhimov military schools