Universal Military Training

(Russian, vsevobuch), a form of training of citizens of the USSR. At the start of the Great October Revolution, squads for the defense of the proletarian revolution were formed at factories and plants and in towns and villages on the initiative of workers and peasants. The squads completed a short course of military training, after which they were merged with the Red Army. Universal military training was structured organizationally by a decree issued by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on Apr. 22, 1918. An administration was established under the All-Russian Main Staff, and divisions and departments were established under the military commissariats and charged with conducting military training according to a single pro-gram. Universal military training was abandoned in 1923 and was restored in September 1941. The Main Administration for Universal Military Training was organized in the People’s Commissariat for Defense to take charge of universal military training. Universal military training divisions were established in military districts and in oblast (krai and republic) military commissariats, and instructors (two or three) were added to the staffs of raion military commissariats. Since the war universal military training functions have been performed by various military institutions.