Soviet military academies provided higher education to higher officers and officers of specialized kinds of armed force (engineering, medical, etc.). All able-bodied male students of civilian
universities and many other institutions of higher education were subject to mandatory training at the
military departments (
Russian: военная кафедра) within these institutions to become
reserve officers (although not all civilian institutions had military departments). Training at military departments of civilian institutions of higher education was mandatory also for all able-bodied female medical students. Soviet professional military education was also available for persons from the
Soviet satellite states and from the perceived
Soviet sphere of influence among the
Third World countries.[1]
Soviet military education was aimed at training of officer-specialists in narrowly-defined military occupational specialties, and it differed greatly from
American military education system in which newly-qualified second lieutenants receive particular specialties in the framework of their "career branch" only after graduation from
military academy or
ROTC.[2] Students of Soviet civilian universities having military departments could not choose military occupational specialty because each civilian specialty taught by university was attached to particular military occupational specialty taught by military department of the same university by the
rector's order, and it also differed from
American military education system in which student can choose between available types of
ROTC.
In addition, there were 2 other ways to receive officer rank in
USSR: junior officers courses and special assessment at the conclusion of
conscript service. Junior officers courses were open to persons completed secondary school and finished their military service as conscripts. Persons graduated from civilian institutions of higher education without military departments and drafted into military service as soldier/sailor could pass special exams at the end of their
conscript service; such persons were demobbed with officer's rank. Unlike graduates of military schools and military departments within civilian universities, persons who used these ways were promoted to
junior lieutenant as first officer's rank, but not
lieutenant.[3]
After several years service, officer could get into military academy of
branch of service to deepen his military occupational specialty knowledges. Graduates of such academies could be promoted to
colonel/
captain 1st rank and to appointed to a position of the commander of
regiment/first-rate warship.
Teaching staff of military academies was prepared in adjunctura established in 1938.[4] Adjunctura was a military analogue of
graduate school. Officers enrolled in adjunctura were called adjuncts. They wrote theses in the military field and got academic degree of
candidate of military sciences after successful defense. Officer with such degree could be appointed to a teaching position in military academy but also he could continue to serve in military units.
Warrant officers training
Warrant officers schools were established by the
Minister of defense Order of 20 December 1980 №365.[5] Only enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers, finished their military service as conscripts, could be accepted to enter warrant officers schools. The period of training was ten and half months.
Enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officers training
All able-bodied males obtained basic and specialized military training during
obligatory 2-3 year male draft. There also existed schools for non-commissioned officers, often part of the draft service for distinguished soldiers, as a step towards the professional military career. Reservists were subject to periodic training exercises of duration 2–6 weeks once in several years.
Military secondary schools and pre-conscription preparatory courses
Suvorov Military Schools for boys of 14-17 (established in 1943) delivered education in military subjects.
Nakhimov Naval Schools were similar to the Suvorov ones, specializing in
Navy subjects. Civilians could receive military-related training in military-support organizations
DOSAAF (initial name was OSOAVIAKHIM).
"The Educating of Armies", by Michael Dawson Stephens (1989)
ISBN0-333-43447-1 (about philosophy and practice of the training of soldiers in Britain, America, Cuba, the USSR, China, Indonesia, Israel and Sweden.)