The First Cadet Corps was a military school in Saint Petersburg.

History of creation

The initiative to create cadet corps for noblemen in Russia belonged to Count Pavel Yaguzhinsky. By the decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna of July 29, 1731, the Senate was ordered to establish a cadet corps. Menshikov Palace on Vasilyevsky Island was transferred to the placement of the school.

The opening took place on February 28, 1732:^[3] on this day there were 56 cadets. When in June the number of cadets was already 352, they were divided into three companies. The first graduation took place on June 8, 1734: all 11 graduates were promoted to ensigns.^[4]

The first teachers were accepted without any test; since 1736, the best students began to be involved in teaching.^[5]

Education system

Initially, the corps was conceived for the training of the military, but due to the lack of educational institutions, it began to train civilian officials. This was due to a set of disciplines: simultaneously with the military sciences languages were taught: German, French, Latin, "oratorio" and others. Teachers at school rarely explained the material, reducing learning to memorizing sections. This system changed in 1766, when Ivan Betskoy, who headed the corps, compiled the "Charter of the Land gentry Cadet Corps for the upbringing and training of the noble Russian youth". Instead of dividing the cadets into companies, a division into five ages was introduced. Only children of 5-6 years of age were accepted, whose training was to last 15 years. The youngest age was under female supervision, and starting from the 4th age, pupils shared, "at will or by inclination", to prepare for military or civil services. Each age consisted of five sections. In these departments, both noble children and gymnasium students (children of commoners) studied together. High school students studied on an equal footing with the Cadets. In the corpus, theatrical art, dance, music were studied, while military disciplines were not among the priority ones. As a result, a situation emerged that Semyon Vorontsov estimated as follows:

The officers who left the old cadet corps were only good military men; those brought up by Betskoy, played comedies, wrote poems, they knew, in short, everything except what the officer should have known.^[6]

A fundamental change occurred in 1794, when the corps was headed by Mikhail Kutuzov, who reorganized according to the instructions of Emperor Paul I. Instead of five ages, companies were introduced – four musketeers and one grenadier. All civilian teachers were replaced by officers. Tactics and military history classes were introduced, which were conducted not only with pupils, but also with officers.

Names

• from 1732 to 1743 – Knight Academy;
• from 1743 to 1766 – Land cadet corps;
• from 1766 to 1800 – the Imperial land gentry cadet corps;
• from 1800 to 1863 – First Saint Petersburg Cadet Corps;
• from 1864 to 1882 – the First Saint Petersburg Military Gymnasium;^[7]
• from 1882 – First Saint Petersburg Cadet Corps;
• from February 1917 until its dissolution in January 1918 – the First High School of the military department.

Chief Directors (General Directors)

Famous graduates

18th century

19th century and 20th century

Features of the Cadet Corps

• Already in the 1740–1750s, the Saint Petersburg Society of Amateur Art and one of the first Russian amateur theaters, the Russian Theater, existed in the Saint Petersburg cadet corps, where the first director was a cadet Alexander Sumarokov.
• In 1757 a printing house was established here for printing textbooks.
• In the premises of the cadet corps in 1859–1861, meetings of the Drafting Commission for the Liberation of the Peasants, which drafted acts and documents on the Peasant Reform of 1861, were held.
• In 1900, Alexander Antonov, at the building, created a Museum of exhibits from the Recreational Halls. The second head of the museum was Alexander Krutetsky, who continued to perform duties under the Soviet regime. In 1927, in the emigration of Alexander Antonov, the history and inventory of the museum, including a large library and manuscripts, was compiled from memory. Among the exhibits there were 12 banners and one standard, the image of the Exaltation of the Cross (bone carving), Peter the Great's handwritten work, the model of the Borodino battle, portraits, forms from the time the base of the corps and other exhibits.^[8]
• Established back in Imperial Russia, the Society of Former Graduates of the First Cadet Corps continued to exist abroad, in emigration, mainly in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), France and the United States. The Sarajevo department published the magazine "Leisure cadet",^[9] which published the memories of the corps.