Suvorov School

(Suvorov Military School), one of a number of specialized military schools in the USSR that offer, in addition to general secondary education, military and military-technical education to prepare students for study at higher educational institutions of the armed forces of the USSR and for subsequent service as officers. The schools were set up in accordance with the resolution of Aug. 21, 1943, by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the ACP(B) for the purposes of the boarding, instruction, and upbringing of children of Red Army servicemen and partisans of the Patriotic War of 1941–45, as well as of Soviet and party officials, workers, and kolkhoz members who died in the struggle against the fascist invaders. The schools were named in honor of the Russian military commander A. V. Suvorov.

Eleven Suvorov schools were opened in 1943; the Krasnodar, Novocherkassk, Stalingrad, Voronezh, Kharkov, Kursk, Kalinin, Orel, Stavropol’, Tashkent, and Leningrad schools (the last two for children of border troops). In 1944 schools were opened in Kazan, Kuibyshev, Gorky, Saratov, Tambov, and Tula; in 1953 in Minsk; and in 1955 in Leningrad. The Suvorov schools admitted ten-year-old boys; the course of instruction was for seven years.

In the 1960’s some Suvorov schools were inactivated and the enrollment system was changed. Since 1964 the Suvorov schools have admitted boys aged 15–16 who have completed eight grades of general education school and who are physically fit for military service; the course of instruction is two years, corresponding to the ninth and tenth grades.

There were eight Suvorov schools operating in 1975: the Kazan, Kalinin, Kiev (former Kharkov), Leningrad, Minsk, Moscow (former Gorky), Sverdlovsk, and Ussuri (former Kursk) schools.