Cadet Corps (Russia)

A Cadet corps (Russian: Кадетский корпус, romanized: Kadetskiy korpus), historically an admissions-based all-boys military cadets school, prepared boys to become commissioned officers in Imperial Russia. Boys entered a cadet corps between the ages of 8 and 15. Empress Anna Ivanovna founded the first cadet corps in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, in 1731. The term of education was seven years. All instructors had a military rank; they taught a full 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 and had prime candidacy for a military career.

During the October Revolution and the 1917-1923 Russian Civil War, cadets and junkers largely supported the anti-bolshevik White movement. (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. Subsequently, the Soviet Government executed or imprisoned all surviving cadets to Siberian GULAG slave-labor camps. Fifteen years later, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, none remained alive and free inside the USSR.

The "Cadet Roll Call", a White emigre cadet periodical from the 1950s.

Many cadets who escaped alive formed cadet corps in other countries, most notably at Bela Crkva in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where they received the patronage of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (reigned 1921-1934) - himself a former pupil in the Saint Petersburg Page Corps.

During World War II a number of White émigré 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 régime.

After World War II ended in 1945, with the emigration of cadets to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia, White émigré cadet corps ceased to function. A cadet union was formed to unite the graduates of the cadet corps.

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 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 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 (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. 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.[1] There are also Cossack cadet corps in existence as well.