The first opened in Crimea cadet school- military school for teenagers. It took the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation less than five months to build and open the training center.

The Presidential Cadet School is located in the city of Sevastopol (1300 km south of Moscow), where the main naval base Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. On the shore of the bay, on an area of ​​16 hectares (about 40 acres), the main educational building, a parade ground, a canteen, three dormitories, an indoor sports complex, a stadium and sports grounds were erected. In the future, the school will expand, upon completion of construction it will have 840 cadets.

This year, 400 cadets aged 11 to 16 started classes on September 1st. They are mostly children from Sevastopol and the Crimea, but there are also cadets from other regions of Russia. The competition for admission was more than three people per place, since an educational institution of this type is considered prestigious.

Cadets receive general education under the program high school, but additionally pass military training and attend various clubs and sports sections. Children study and live permanently in an autonomous closed area, all expenses, including 5 meals a day, clothes and uniforms and a scholarship of up to 5,000 rubles per month (100 euros), are paid by the state.

(Total 31 photos)

Photo: Mikhail Mordasov; Text: Nadezhda Grebennikova

1. Cadets stand in line during the opening of the school year.

2. The dog looks at the parents and relatives who are waiting to be allowed to go to the school. They have not seen their children for 4 days.

3. The cordon around the school, which was built in less than six months.

4. Parents and relatives are waiting to be allowed to go to school.

5. Artists wait their turn to perform during the opening of the academic year.

6. Parents and relatives look at their children during the opening of the school year. They have not seen their children for 4 days.

7. Cadets are in the ranks during the opening of the school year.

9. Parents and relatives look at their children during the opening of the school year.

11. Catherine II and Peter I are waiting for their speech.

12. A boy brings flowers to his teacher.

13. Former officers watch the cadets launch balloons into the sky.

14. Cadets sing the Russian anthem during the opening of the school year.

15. The boy became ill during the opening of the school year, because. it was already hot outside.

16. The teacher of one of the classes is waiting for his cadets in the hall of the school.

17. Cadets in the hall meet students of the Nakhimov School.

18. Zhanna Ivanova, teacher of the 6th grade, monitors the behavior of her wards. She spends all her time with them except sleeping.

19. The cadet was tired at the first lesson after the opening of the school year.

20. The boy put the cap in front of him in the first lesson.

21. Parents take pictures of their children through the doors during the first lesson of the new school year.

22. Cadets sing the Russian anthem in the first lesson after the opening of the school year.

23. Parents take pictures of their children during the first lesson of the new school year.

From the magazine "Cadet roll call" No. 66-67 1999.

V. SLADKOVSKY

ABOUT THE CRIMEAN BODY

It was that terrible time of the civil war, when the Cadets fled from native family, from perishing buildings. They fled into complete obscurity, towards death and suffering, to an unequal struggle in the name of Russia, which they loved unconditionally. The White Army withdrew to the Crimea, and young people flocked there. The remnants of the Russian cadet corps that had broken through to the south also arrived there. Single cadets also made their way.
On the initiative of General Wrangel in October 1920, a young military school was born on the last span of Russian land in the days of a merciless struggle for it. It was the Crimean cadet corps. It included parts of the Vladikavkaz and Poltava corps. But, mainly, the corps was replenished by homeless kids and teenagers who arrived in the Crimea in small groups or singly. They were brought lousy, sick, shoeless and just recovered from their wounds. They were washed, cut, dressed in English jackets, in trousers that reached almost to the chin, but the boys became clean and dry ...

Many of those who arrived in the corps fled to the front at the first opportunity. There were also those who were returned to the corps by force several times in order to at least redeem and change clothes. Then they disappeared again to complete their short life in mass graves on the boundless plains of southern Russia. Eternal memory to these unknown heroes!

During the revolution, the Cadets of the first generation earned fame and honor as participants white movement and the creation of the first cadet corps in the Crimea. Corps motto: "One for all and all for one!" Close cadet mergers and helping each other helped to endure life's hardships more easily. There have never been informers in the Crimean Cadet Corps.

Corps epaulette, scarlet with a white edging and significant intertwining letters "KKK" can be read: "Crimean Cadet Corps" or "Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Cadet Corps". That is why this abbreviation is so dear to the Crimean Cadets and these shoulder straps are dear.
Crimean Corps left the borders of his homeland on November 1, 1920. Half-starved quarantine standing on the roadstead of Constantinople dragged on. Not a single country showed the slightest interest in the fate of Russian youths. And finally, the joyful news came that Prince Alexander would receive cadets on the territory of his Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later - Yugoslavia.
In 1922, the Crimean Cadet Corps settled in Slovenia, in the dilapidated premises of the former barracks, where Austrian prisoners of war were previously housed. It was a difficult time. The roof was leaking, the walls were rotten. Insects took over. Furniture was missing. There were no textbooks. Chalkboard Replaced a broken door.
They studied sitting on the beds, who had them, or right on the floor. If the weather was favorable, the lessons were held in a clearing or in a forest. The teachers had a hard time. Surveillance of the Cadets was unthinkable, life flowed freely, as in the Zaporizhzhya Sich. Despite this, work was in full swing, living conditions improved, classes went on as usual.

Director of the corps in those hard times 1920-24 was General Rimsky-Korsakov, who devoted his whole life to the Russian youth. He loved the cadets as his own children and believed that his task was not only to educate the morally healthy part of the youth entrusted to him, but also to return to society and the Motherland those whom fratricidal turmoil led out of the framework of social norms. It should not be forgotten that among the cadets there were Knights of St. George and those who had other military distinctions. General Rimsky-Korsakov not only opposed the expulsion of his cadets from the corps, but also accepted those who were considered undesirable in other corps. The cadets responded to the Director with love and tried not to upset their grandfather.

In 1924 the Crimean Corps moved to Belaya Tserkov. The Serbian Ministry of War provided the corps with two three-story stone buildings. The conditions of corps life began to improve rapidly and return to normal. Serious training sessions. Now it was possible to treat the Cadets more strictly and according to the rules. In the corps, officers and educators, and outside the corps, cadets and officers of the cadet school monitored the behavior of the cadets and their appearance.

The Crimean Cadet Corps lasted only 10 years. Ten years of life is a very short period for the development of an educational institution. Moreover, the corps had to exist and be formed in the inhumanly difficult years of Russian history.
Despite this, a generation was created that was able to fight for the spiritual values ​​of its people. The Crimean cadet corps raised from the ashes of the Russian turmoil an educated, cultured generation of young people who contributed to the creativity of the Russian cause abroad. Here are the results cultural heritage Crimean Corps: major engineers, technicians, architects, doctors, teachers, professors, writers, journalists and other figures in all areas of culture.

Speaking of the corps, one cannot pass over in silence the tradition of the Zveriada. Without traditions in the Russian army there was not a single unit, not a single military educational institution. Traditions are a complex unwritten code inner life and relationships, which prepared the cadets, and then the cadets, for responsible service in the army. They aroused self-sacrifice towards their comrades, taught to sacrifice personal interests, value the name of their corps, school and regiment, maintained discipline, developed quick wit, courage and courage.
The first "Zveriad", according to legend, was written by our great Russian poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.
The cadets considered the entire personnel of the cadet corps to be beasts. It does not mean at all that the Cadets did not respect and did not love all their educators and teachers.
It was a kind of sacred ritual of the internal cadet life, which was solemnly performed once a year at night. The authorities looked at it through their fingers, because they themselves went through the same school. The graduation general, elected by the cadets, presided over the entire ceremony. This concludes my story about the Crimean Cadet Corps.
Cadets! You to be the new builders of our Motherland! Russia needs the cadet corps very much. This is the salvation of Russia. The salvation of Russia depends on you!

From the magazine "Cadet Roll Call" No. 74, 2003.

Konstantin Sinkevich

CRIMEAN CADET CORPS
My stay in the fifth grade of the corps fell at a critical age, when the boy becomes a young man, a “young man,” according to the expression addressed to me by my failed mother-in-law Glafira Nikolaevna Dlusskaya, the wife of the institute doctor L. S. Dlussky. At this age, the boy, without realizing it, suffers injuries, begins to study poorly, is prone to daring acts, disobedience, etc.
This apparently happened to me as well. I have never been diligent, but here I began to study very badly. Of course, I was pulled up by tutors who were hired by a caring mother, spending money on a lazy son. If not for the tutors, then I would have stayed for the second year in mathematics. Alas, in the second year I still stayed, but not because of mathematics and in general not even because of poor progress.

In my class at that time there was a cadet Durnousov, a notorious hooligan. Well, not a street hooligan, but a local rake, so to speak, of significance. In the lessons he was restless, the lessons were deliberately answered at random and at random, with those teachers with whom he could afford liberties, he allowed those “to the fullest”. He smoked, drank secretly and fled to the city "in a squatter." In the cadet milieu, he was an exception during these years: the majority had already been “put in order”, hooligan acts were reduced to a minimum, discipline was restored by 90%.

It is possible that it was from him that I adopted the habit of smoking. Back in Kyiv, I remember, sitting in the shade of a chestnut tree, my friends and I rubbed dry chestnut leaves, rolled cigarettes and tried to smoke. None of this smoking worked, because the chestnut leaves turned out to be incredibly nasty, irritating the palate and lips, and even if you inhale even a little chestnut smoke ... Those who did this then lay on the ground for about ten minutes, coughing heart-rendingly.
But Serbian cigarettes, in particular the cheapest at that time "Sava", although bad, were much better than chestnut. I started my career as a smoker with it, which then clung to me so much that I managed to leave this disgusting habit only 44 years later, at the age of 57 years.

Both Durnousov brothers, Vladimir and Leonid, who studied in the junior class, were transferred to the Don Corps in 1929. and I heard nothing more about them, which, to tell the truth, I do not particularly regret. Personally, they did no harm to me, but through them, mainly the eldest, Vladimir, I stayed for the second year.

The goal of Volodya's whole life was to harass teachers. In this, he achieved such skill and perfection that he confused teachers, and his comrades, often against their own will, admired his resourcefulness and resourcefulness, which, of course, inspired him to new deeds.
Among the several teachers who were, so to speak, "exposed to water", in the first place was "Samovar". The teacher of physics, the former court adviser Nikolai Yakovlevich Pisarevsky, a man of about forty, with his very appearance called the students to tricks. He deserved his nickname "Samovar" one hundred percent. Full, with a red face, plump arms and a small belly, slow and calm, he was an almost comical figure. He would not teach physics, but create a brilliant career in films with Pat and Patachon, the famous French comedians of the “great dumb”. But he taught physics.

His wife, with whom he occasionally walked along the alley, was a match for him: as plump and slow as her husband, she usually led by the hand Kolenka, their son, who was then no more than five or six years old. There was a case when on the alley the family caught up with a group of cadets returning from a walk. At this moment, Kolya's son made a rather strong "obscene sound".
Papasha smiled and, turning to his son, said affectionately: "And Kolya is a fart!"
This brief exclamation was heard by the Cadets. Many of them still do not know where Pisarevsky, in addition to "Samovar", had a second nickname: "Kolya-bunch". Now the secret is out.

Often at the lessons of physics, "Samovar" was asked all sorts of stupid questions, excelling in the complexity of the presentation, so that the "samovar" could not immediately make out whether this was a "scientific" question or a catch. Because, in an effort to avoid dirty tricks, he began to strictly demand that only “scientific” questions be asked in the lessons.
But as a true teacher, "Samovar" could not forbid the cadets to ask questions at all, but rather welcomed them as a manifestation of curiosity. The most hackneyed "scientific" question was this:
The pilot flies in an airplane (at that time they did not say “airplane” yet) at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour. Airplane model "Bleriot 18". The flight distance is 500 kilometers. name of the pilot?

In such cases, if it was immediately impossible to figure out that this was a catch, Pisarevsky said: "Sit down, I'll think". Sometimes, after thinking, he said: "Wit is a surrogate for intelligence." In a polite way, this meant that you, brother, are a fool.

I don't remember on what occasion, or rather without a chance, the class decided to arrange a "benefit performance" for Pisarevsky. The roles have already been assigned. Three or four pairs were supposed to portray riders on horseback, sitting on the backs of their comrades. Others line up as a guard of honor. Still others pretend to be an orchestra and play an oncoming march on scallops.
Pisarevsky enters the class. The “horse escort”, prancing, flies up to him, and the cadet on duty, who turned out to be Volodya Durnousov, with a rider on his back, who turned out to be me, reports:
"Mr teacher! In the fifth grade of the first division there are thirty-two cadets on the list. On vacation, vacation pay, in the infirmary, the sick, there are all the rest! And, turning to the class, he shouted: "Hooray!"
By this time, feeling that it was time to close the show, the “riders” jumped off their “horses” and disappeared behind their desks, but Durnousov continued to jump around the “Samovar”, saying: "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!" I struggled to get off his back, but he held my legs tightly.

“I noticed you, Durnousov!- said "Samovar". - And you, Sinkevich, I also noticed. And you, Yelchaninov ... "
It seems that they were everyone he "noticed". Finally freed from Durnousov and cursing his obstinacy, I sat down in my seat.

That year State Commission, "Derzhavka" in the cadet jargon, issued a message according to which all repeaters are required to pay a "schoolboy", that is, a fee for "legal teaching" - a term that was born in those years and accepted in everyday life. I got a re-examination in physics and, of course, I failed it. It is necessary to repeat the course, remaining for the second year. But physics in the fifth grade was canceled! It became clear that Pedagogical Council, wanting, on the one hand, to teach a lesson to a bully (that's me!), And on the other hand, to fill the "quota" for receiving payment from repeaters, he took the opportunity, especially since my mother was considered "rich" and let her, they say, pay for her undergrowth ...

That's why I stayed for the second year in the fifth grade. This time, unlike the repetition of the first class, which I almost did not notice, this event caused me a trauma that I could not forget all my life. And only in the very last years I realized that first of all, you have to blame yourself for all your troubles.
Before, I blamed Samovar, the Pedagogical Council, Durnousov, Derzhavka ... None of them, of course, had anything to do with it. Recalling more than once my mother’s words that it is “more beneficial” to blame yourself than others, because it’s easier to forgive yourself and harder to forgive others, although I remembered these words, I didn’t apply them to myself. Now applied. Better late than never.

But parting with classmates, with comrades, with friends was very difficult. For a long time I went to the sixth grade almost at every break to see my former friends, not to leave them, to let them feel that I was here, with them, even though in a different class, and even in a different company ...

Several months passed until I finally calmed down, stopped running to the first company, swallowed my shame and humiliation and turned my eyes to the classmates with whom fate had pushed me. All of them, for rare exception, turned out to be just as good, glorious as my “lost” classmates were.
Most of all, I experienced a break with my friend Shurka Sheremetev. I was more friendly with him than with other brothers, and he reciprocated my friendship. Now "evil fate" has divided us so that friendship, although it remained in the heart, has disappeared in practice. We rarely met, and when we met, it turned out that we had nothing to talk about.

Shura studied and behaved approximately and, having moved to the eighth grade, he became a vice non-commissioned officer. I was truly happy for him. A few months before graduation, he had an attack of purulent appendicitis. At that time, there was no express transport, and there was no surgeon or operating room in Belaya Tserkov. He was put on a train and sent to a Russian hospital in Panchevo. On the way, he died.

The whole corps buried a comrade. And I buried a friend of my youth. For me it was huge loss despite some estrangement in recent years.

Volodya Sobolevsky, who tragically died in Belgrade in 1995 under the wheels of a truck, did an enormous amount of work to put the cadet cemetery in Bila Tserkva in order. The remains had to be removed from some graves in order to be buried under a cadet monument erected by the joint efforts of the cadets, designed by the Crimean cadet engineer Karpov and Sobolevsky. Among the remains were the remains of Shuru Sheremetov. Sobolevsky removed from him a cadet belt with a badge, which was perfectly preserved, and handed it over to me for transfer to my brother Nikolai, and later to our museum in San Francisco. That was done.

"Farewell, Crimean Corps!"
In the fifth grade, I no longer had a tutor. I began to “get smart” and study better than before, although algebra continued to be some stumbling block.
The summer of 1929 began. Disturbing rumors spread around the city about the possible closure of the building. Nobody wanted to believe it, because the closure meant hardship for the students, and for the staff - terrible tragedy loss of space. But the rumors turned out to be true.

I spent the summer as usual: fishing, light flirting with familiar girls, swimming in the Nera, cinema ... When it came time to return to the corps, it was no longer my beloved Crimean, but another, the First Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. And the director was different, Lieutenant General Boris Viktorovich Adamovich.
Some educators and teachers also turned out to be new.
I had to get acquainted with Colonel Azaryev, the commander of the First Company, with the teacher of the regiment. Filimonov, Col. Pribylovich, Col. Andruzsky, who became an officer-educator of my 6th grade, 1st division, and many others.

There are other orders. The onset of a new era was felt in the corps. General Adamovich, apparently fully accepting the policy referred to in the report of prof. Dinich: not to keep cadets in the corps who are not willing or able to study and behave properly. Expulsions from the corps became a daily threat, although I don't remember exactly who was expelled or when. And in the senior companies, a strong mutual antagonism arose, similar to the one that appeared between Poltava and Vladikavkaz in the early years of the existence of the Crimean Corps. Here, hostility arose between the “newcomers” Sarayevites and Crimeans, who remained in their building, but ended up in a “foreign” building.

The attitude of the new director played a significant role. He clearly preferred his officers in educational positions to those Crimean ones, whom he simply did not know. It is difficult to reproach him for addiction, but it existed and played its negative role: all Crimeans, from junior cadets to elderly colonels, felt offended, bypassed, guilty without guilt ...
While quite serious clashes arose in the Crimean Corps, turning into fierce fights with the use of clubs and, at least occasionally, even knives, here our fights, which also arose twice, were not so severe and ended without mutilations or special injuries. I remember how, during the “first fight” in the spring of 1930, two strong men collided at the bedroom door: Kostya Yegupov of the Crimean Corps and “Vaska” Novikov, a “Sarajevo”. Novikov had a different name, which I don't remember, and his nickname was "Vaska". For some reason, I couldn't find his name in any memo.
Hitting each other cuffs, they suddenly hugged and kissed! This is where the fight ended. I personally, and other Crimeans, later became friends with the “Sarajevites”, and my best friend turned out to be “Sarajevo” Rostislav Savitsky, followed by Tolya Sokolov and others. With this Novikov, I “pressed the rack” on his outstretched arm, resting one hand on his shoulder and the other on his elbow. In the famous picture, where our eight gymnasts of the 11th and 12th editions are ranked in a rack on the uneven bars, he is visible First, Volodya Rusanov was the second, followed by Tishchenko Sasha 10th issue, Dzhurich, Zholtkevich and Leushin 11th issue. And our foursome 12 issue. Novikov and Rusanov are ahead, Sinkevich (penultimate) and Lychev (last).

Next to my bed, which stood by the window, was the bed of "Sarajevo" Tolya Sokolov, with whom we quickly became friends.
I still remember Tolya with good feeling. I don't know what happened to him. But then we were so friendly that when preparations began for the first clash between the two sides, Tolya and I agreed not to beat each other if it came to a general brawl, and we decided to hold the clubs that we prepared together and hid under the mattresses, but "in business" not to let.

Despite everything, the drama of losing his beloved corps, most of his educators, teachers and the director of the corps turned out to be extremely traumatic. All Crimeans felt the loss of their comrades who were transferred to the Don Corps, and those who remained felt the heavy hand of director Adamovich on themselves. It is not clear where Adamovich got such a dislike for the Crimean Corps? It is possible that he had some experience in life, some incident that influenced his views. We don't know. Hostility shone through in every case, in every collision or misunderstanding.
Completely disregarding the cadets present, the general "bashed" the officers of both "his" corps, and especially the Krymsky, as delinquent rascals. There is nothing to say about the Cadets. Feeling such an unfair attitude, the Crimean cadets went to the director's office more than once, trying to explain themselves, to prove their "loyalty", demanding in return an even, unbiased attitude.
It was strange to observe these "visits" to Adamovich, reminiscent of some kind of "democracy in action", and not a military educational institution. Adamovich, of course, was in no way inferior, but the mere existence of such "bargaining" greatly diminished his authority in the eyes of the Crimeans. At the same time, it was impossible not to notice the presence of "favorites", to which he especially favored and singled out from the general mass. They were exclusively "their own", "Sarajevites".

Adamovich also approved the badge of the corps, adopted even during the first time the corps was in Sarajevo, where in the center of the badge were placed shoulder straps of those corps from which it was composed in 1920. These are the Odessa, Kyiv and Polotsk corps with the addition of individual cadets from other corps. Thus, three shoulder straps of these corps flaunted on the token. After the merger of Russian and Crimean, no one thought about creating a new token for the new corps. Instead, the old token was adopted, which had nothing to do with the Crimeans, as well as all the traditions and the number of issues. Thus, even the memory of the Crimean Corps was erased, ceased to exist. Some Crimeans were crying.

At the same time, General Adamovich was an imposing figure - always with a saber with a St. George lanyard, impeccably dressed in his protective uniform with orders, with the same spurs on his boots with boots, or gaiters, he walked everywhere, radiating authority and inspiring respect.
I never went to the city on foot, but ordered a cab. Usually he took one of the cadets with him as an "adjutant". These were visits to the head of the Institute, NV Dukhonin, or to the mayor. We could not fail to notice with what reverence Adamovich was greeted in the institutions and how the same cabbies "broke their hats" in front of him.

After a couple of years, when the most zealous Crimeans, having completed the course, left the corps, the atmosphere was discharged, and everyone breathed more freely: no one liked this tense situation. Even Adamovich himself seems to have become more friendly and approachable.
At the same time, a magnificent gramophone of the His Masters Voice brand was purchased, with records by Chaliapin, Sobinov, the Zharov Choir and other celebrities of Russian opera, theater and singing. The gramophone was in charge of two cadets, my classmate Vishnevsky and someone else. In the evenings, we quite often gathered in the large hall and listened to concerts. At the same time, choral competitions between classes began.

Gymnastics was taught by Colonel P. Baryshev instead of the dismissed teacher of the Crimean Corps, Colonel Kolosovsky. Baryshev's son Boris was a vice sergeant major and studied in my class. We sincerely felt sorry for him, since it was not easy for him to listen to our "reviews" about his father, which were rarely favorable.
Papa was a man strict rules. To all requests, he had a standard answer: "Cadets - no!". For this quality we called him "oak". It also cost him his life. According to stories, when the White Church was occupied by Titov bandits, he was shot, refusing to give the keys to the cadet museum, which he was in charge of. Then many officers and teachers of the corps suffered, who evaded the evacuation, probably relying on the prudence and indulgence of the new authorities. The horrors that many had to endure before being shot or imprisoned in a camp are described in the "Seventh Cadet Memo" p. 428, issued in New York in 1997.

“Life is for the Motherland, honor is for no one”

It was one of the many mottos written on the walls of the building. From the earliest years, the educators explained to the Cadets that we are all here temporarily, that the people will drive away the godless bloody government that has raised its hand against the very anointed of God, and we will return to Russia. Teachers such as P. Savchenko, Colonel Tsaregradsky, director General Rimsky-Korsakov, followed by General Promtov and many others, used every opportunity to remind the cadets of the motto bequeathed by General Wrangel to the cadets who arrived from the Crimea to friendly Serbia:
"Here, in a foreign land, each of us must remember that he represents our Motherland, and hold Russian honor high."
They read reports, not missing a single important day, in order to once again emphasize the responsibility that we bear, and our devotion and love for the lost Motherland.

It was especially touching New Year when the entire Crimean Corps lined up with the orchestra on the eve of the holiday in the corridor of the first company. Exactly at midnight, the director of the corps came out to the ranks, congratulated the cadets on the new year and offered to remember Russia.
In response, the orchestra played the Russian anthem "God save the king." It was the only time in the year when the Russian national anthem was played in the building. Many cadets, frozen in line, had tears running down their cheeks...

No less than the education of patriotic feelings and love for the Motherland, attention was paid to spiritual education. Although the Cadets did not always behave piously in the lessons of the Law of God, nevertheless, standing in church or serving at the altar, they were accustomed to self-contemplation, deepening in themselves, reflection. This was felt especially clearly during the days of Great Lent, when the Cadets were fasting, each company on the days allotted for it.
Fasting consisted of fasting food, the absence of any frivolous entertainment, not to mention music, dancing, and the like, and preparation for confession. The corps priest explained to the class the meaning and meaning of confession and the great sacrament of communion. The vast majority of cadets of all ages treated the ritual with devotion and respect. We all believed simply, without asking questions, without questioning or criticizing certain moments of the church service.
Later, already being the father of a family, I had to read Lev Tolstoy’s criticism of church rites (“Christianity and the Church.” Selected thoughts of L. N. Tolstoy on issues of faith, religion, God, Christianity, the Church. A. I. Chernov, New York , 1960).
I was amazed at his naive reasoning and stupid conclusions. Apparently, every sage has enough simplicity. In other words, even very smart people sometimes do or say stupid things. Describing the ritual of the Eucharist, or the preparation by the priest of the body and blood of Christ for acceptance by the faithful, the writer is indignant:
“The priest, waving a handkerchief over a bowl of wine and pieces of prosphora, says that this is the body and blood of God”, (“... if you cut pieces of bread in a known way and when pronouncing certain words and put them in wine, then God enters into these pieces . . ."), and elsewhere: ". . .turn into the body and blood of God.” Never and nowhere does the Church use the word "transforms", but says "transforms", which is not the same thing. Consecrating the prosphora and wine with the help of the “ritual”, the priest prays that the Lord would, as it were, enter into them, invisibly turning the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.
Ritual, procedure were created by the fathers of the Church gradually, as the need arose. Every ritual has its deep meaning, and it is needed because not every person is able to bring himself into a prayerful mood, to renounce earthly worries without the mediation of a ritual. Every gesture of the priest has some meaning, conveys the symbolism this action and therefore has some meaning.
Here the church comes to the aid of believers. I still do not forget those wonderful, bright moments when, after confession, we walked along the corridor like “angels”, trying not to sin “in word or deed” until the next day, when the Holy Secrets will be removed. Tolstoy probably never experienced these wonderful moments, which leave a bright memory in his soul for that time ...
As for the “luxurious robes,” which Tolstoy also condemns, they also appeared in the church gradually, when the persecution of Christians ceased, and the laity and clergy came to the conclusion that it was necessary to stand before the face of God in the best clothes, putting them away with expensive jewelry, believing , what " You have to give your best to God."

That is why icons and utensils in our churches were made of either gold, that is why holy icons were adorned with precious stones, as well as the vestments of the clergy on holidays. Did Tolstoy not understand this? Did he consider it unnecessary tinsel? Why were even the statues of the ancients adorned with jewels? After all, this is the most precious desire to the deity. But while the pagans were hoping to get some benefit from the idol, the majority of Christians brought gifts to the temple for the salvation of the soul, not counting on a momentary good deed, although others, of course, resorted to faith in deliverance from earthly hardships.

In addition to the sublime feeling of inner purity that a sincere confessor experiences, the whole atmosphere of the church, objects, icons, clergy robes and, especially, the incomparable Russian Orthodox church singing contribute to the creation of a feeling of closeness to the Great Unknown, which owns your soul and the whole world. Tolstoy probably never experienced this feeling, otherwise he could not talk about the uselessness of everything that meets us at the entrance to the temple and what happens in it. If we follow Tolstoy's logic, we must consider the creators of unsurpassed Russian church music as blockheads or deceivers who spent their talent and time on unnecessary creation of sounds in order to fool the heads of gullible people.
This should include not only Charles Gounod and Franz Schubert, who each wrote their own brilliant AVE Maria, but also our church composers, starting with Alexander Grechaninov, Alexander Kastalsky, Pavel Chesnokov, Archpriest Turchaninov and ending with Sergei Rachmaninoff with his All-Night Vigil. And the "Madonna" of Raphael, and " The Last Supper"Da Vinci, and "Pieta" by Michelangelo...
By the way, speaking of the "Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, it should be noted that there are many errors in his transmission of this event. First, he seated all those present at the table, but at that time people had not yet learned to sit at the table, they "reclined." It is possible that Da Vinci was forced to seat them at the table, otherwise he would not have been able to accommodate all the paintings. Another error is the arrangement of the apostles seated "facing the audience", leaving the entire front of the table unoccupied. One gets the impression that they posed for the artist, because otherwise he would have to depict only their backs or turn their necks unnaturally to show at least part of the face. But this is so, a remark for the purposes of historical truth. I mean, a masterpiece remains a masterpiece.

Deceivers, according to Tolstoy, and all the clergy, beginning with our ancient saints and martyrs for Christ and ending with such rolls of Orthodoxy as St. about. John of Kronstadt, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, Theophan the Recluse and many others. The Bolsheviks, in their madness, enthusiastically accepted Tolstoy's ideas, putting them into practice in their own way, betraying many members of the clergy to death and torment. Of course, one can argue and argue about the advantages and disadvantages church art, architecture and church rituals up to a sweat. However, since ancient times, people have striven for the knowledge of higher powers, and with the advent of Buddhism, Confucianism, and later Christianity, Mohammedanism and other great religions, these aspirations have acquired certain form. Why smartest people of all ages they believed in the need for ritual, put deep meaning, talents, work into it, but Tolstoy decided that all this was nonsense and deceit! Unfathomable!
Each person is closest to his family, his parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives. Expanding the concept - you come to your school, your organization, club, institution; in a military family - to their regiment, and the cadets - to their corps. It was precisely this feeling of love for the corps, for the Russian army, for Russia, for its glorious warriors, writers, poets, artists and composers that was brought up in us.
And in the first place - to the Russian sovereigns, who were collecting the Russian land into one great and mighty state. All the walls of our premises were decorated with patriotic slogans and mottos. All day long, barely opening our eyes in the morning and only closing them at night, we were under the influence of these calls, which were remembered forever.
The famous poem by K. R. "Our Regiment" all the cadets without memorizing knew by heart as "Our Father", and his other poem, "To the Cadet" Although you are a boy, but knowing with your heart ... "), they wrote down on the page of their albums or diaries. Each one, reciting it for the hundredth time, felt that it applied to him and that it was written for everyone, but also for each individual.
So gradually, but steadily, love for the Motherland was developed in the Cadet souls, for some of them it was already becoming distant and intangible, but for this very reason it was infinitely close to the heart and dear, cherished dream. Each of our glorious educator officers contributed his share of labor, love and paternal affection to the education of the cadets. Not for money and not for profit, they gave us all their time both in the service and outside it. They did this, being connected with us by one fate, by one grief of deprivation of the Motherland, in the hope of instilling in us the same devotion to the Fatherland, the same love for mother Russia, which made them not leave us to the mercy of fate, but go into exile with us, into an unknown future, into the hard lot of a refugee.
And in this they succeeded! All the Cadets carry in their hearts a feeling of deepest gratitude, love and respect to these best representatives of the Russian army, who passed on to all of us those ideals that they themselves lived and for which they were ready to give their lives, if necessary. The Cadets accepted these ideals and proved their loyalty to them, each to the extent of his strength and capabilities. Some died on the battlefields, others raised their children in love for Russia, but all were members of the Association for mutual communication, to help comrades in need, and recently - at the first opportunity - to pass on the same ideals to the younger generation in Russia.

In the entire history of the existence of cadet corps abroad, and later during the existence of cadet associations, not a single cadet has sullied his name with any dishonorable act.
Three of the most prominent bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia came out of the cadet ranks, as well as priests, regents of church and secular choirs, church elders and public figures. Indeed, we can be proud of our heritage!

The Cadets showed themselves no less worthily in the secular field. It is difficult even to start listing by name the cadets who have become not only engineers, professors and even scientists, or who have simply achieved life success and become valuable members of their communities, associations, unions and church parishes.
Among the deceased now cadets, I would still like to mention the writer Mikhail Karateev, the artist Sergei Latyshev-Baikalov, the choreographers and dancers Mikhail Panaev and Anatoly Zhukovsky, the architect Valentin Glinin, the engineer Nikolai Kozyakin, the doctor of engineering Vladimir Bodisko, Professor Pavel Paganuzzi and others.

After reviewing what I have written, I come to the conclusion that the work is turning into the classic Russian "Childhood, Adolescence, Youth", although I did not set myself such a goal. The whole idea of ​​my work is to tell my children and grandchildren about that part of my life that is completely unknown to them, and at the same time, by sharing my thoughts, to tell about those events interesting people and amazing incidents that happened on my life path. If the story takes the form of an adventure novel, so much the better. This will make it attractive for reading, especially since the life of every person is a kind of adventure, you just need to sensibly state what you have experienced so that it becomes interesting not only for the writer, but also for the reader. If I succeed, I will be happy and enthusiastically start translating into English. Hope I can...

From the magazine "Cadet Roll Call" No. 76 2005.

K.F. Sinkevich

WALKS, SONGS, HIKES
Chapter from the book "Outside the Motherland", ed. "Sunday", Moscow - Rybinsk, 2004.

I began to enter the age when the boy's voice changes, the first sexual signs appear, such as a fluff above the upper lip and endless boils, or boils, which were smeared with ointment and covered with a piece of gauze in the outpatient clinic, forcing us to then take "furunculin", a remedy composed based on yeast, extremely tasteless.

For most, the change was almost painless.
We watched in amazement as our amazing trebles left the choir, like Boris Gridin, who had an amazingly clear voice. He began to wheeze and was unable to sing in the choir at all.

By the way, about the choir. In the early 1920s, the singing teacher was Captain Komarevsky, who brought a violin with him to class and lightly hit us on the head with a bow for inattention or noisy behavior. A year later, he left us, and singing began to teach "Sack" - Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Nikolaevich Pogranichny. He did have a somewhat baggy figure - the cadets often gave unmistakable nicknames both to the "beasts" of Gtak and to their own comrades.

We have established the most cordial relations with the Pogranichny family. The lieutenant colonel's wife Lyubov Yakovlevna was a friend of my mother. Both studied at the same gymnasium in Kyiv and, having met unexpectedly in Belaya Tserkov after long years of separation and refugee life, rushed into each other's arms.
The Borderlands had four children. The eldest daughter Galina, followed by Alexander - a classmate of our Shura, the second son Dmitry, a year younger, and the younger Anatoly. There was also Pogranichny Yuri, who graduated from the corps in 1928, and was the cousin of the three elders.

In the great lower hall, which had only just begun to be brought into its great view, he built a class and, calling the cadets in turn, took "A" on the piano and forced the cadet to stretch out this note. This was his method of determining who was deaf and who was deaf.
I ended up on the list of “hearingless”, and Pogranichny wondered for a long time: why did Father Theodore, who has such a good ear, have a son who was deaf?
Apparently, because, dear Alexander Nikolayevich, talents sometimes appear late, and also because you did not know how to “discover” abilities. Later, listening to me play the chromatic scale of chords on the guitar in the Old Waltz, he only gasped and groaned: “And how did I not notice such talent ?!”

I am grateful to Colonel P. for accustoming me and all of us to singing wonderful Ukrainian songs. Having spent his entire life in Ukraine, he fell in love with Little Russian songs and tried to convey to us everything he knew. We sang in chorus “The Sun is Nyzenko”, “The High Mountain Costs”, “Oh, ne moves, Gritsya”, “Three Verbochki”, wonderful Ukrainian Christmas carols, etc.

A. N. Pogranichny, who had many other qualities, was an avid fisherman, although not very lucky. Coming home dirty and tired from another trip to the Danube or Yaruga, he would hand over a couple of fish to his wife, and then she would say: “But my bvdny didn’t catch anything again.” This was his household nickname, which is no longer known. a wide range persons.
As a student, I met him a couple of times on the Yaruga. He still went there on foot, and I was already completely "motorized", riding around on a bicycle.

With the Border Guards, their acquaintance, pretty Efimya Fedorovna, then known among friends as Fimochka, left Russia, who became the mother of a member of the Association, a teacher of Russian in military school languages ​​in Monterey, Svyatoslav Miokovich. His father, the glorious cadet of the third graduation of the Crimean Cadet Corps Sergei Miokovich, died in Yugoslavia in the 90s.

During these years I was 13 or 14 years old and was in the 3rd or 4th grade.
In warm autumn days, on Saturday or Sunday, we were sent on marching order to the Danube with an overnight stay. These were unforgettable walks! Some of the educators were engaged in the economic part, they hired a cart with a driver, laid a hundred blankets, a hundred bowlers, provisions - potatoes, bacon, bread and garlic with onions, and left the building early to get to the river bank before dark. The walk was only about two hours - 12 kilometers - but our hike took at least three hours.
The delay was explained by the need to make halts, when those who managed to rub their legs were bandaged, all those who were “dying of thirst” were given iced tea, and those babies who could not walk were seated on a cart.
In this order, we reached the bank of the Danube near the village of Palanka already in the afternoon. Near the shore stood a small "guy" - a forest with shady trees - where we settled down for the night. In the evening, fires were laid out, while avid fishermen sat with fishing rods on a steep bank, or prepared night, “bottom” devices.

Firewood was collected from the evening by the whole camp. And dry firewood, brought by the waves of a mighty river and thrown far onto the sandy shore, was plentiful not only in the woods, but also on the banks of the Danube.
Fast jets flowed ahead of us, becoming especially turbulent in this place, since an island lay in their path. Good swimmers who swam across it during the day roamed it like natives in a tropical jungle. The islet remained uninhabited and not visited by anyone except them, because it was too small to farm on it, and inaccessible enough to get to it only for a walk. Being located a hundred meters from the shore, it played the role of a funnel, where water rushed, and the current in the narrowed passage increased greatly.
Therefore, in order to reach the island, it was necessary to climb half a kilometer upstream and only then rush into the water, otherwise the swimmer would be carried by the current past the island. For the cadets, the island was an irresistible bait precisely because of its impregnability.

Of course, being able to swim perfectly by this time, I swam to the island, but almost lost my life. The island was covered dense forest. At the other end, downstream, there was a rather long spit of sand washed over by the current and small pebbles.
Barefoot, in just shorts, I went for a walk along the spit. The sand under my feet was quite hard, and I boldly walked on it, but when I reached the edge of the water, I felt that my feet quickly went deeper. I had the presence of mind not to tempt fate and not wait until my feet touched solid ground, but to rush with all my strength from the sand that was pulling me back to solid ground; throwing myself prone to this, I grabbed the harder edges of the loose pit with my hands and climbed out.
Perhaps there was only a shallow layer of sand under me, but I did not fully find out. I was saved by the fact that the danger zone, covered with water, was located near the water itself and did not tighten as much as a forest swamp or loose sand of the desert tightens. In a word, I managed to get out, but I confess that I suffered a lot of fear.
I told my comrades about my adventure, and they thanked me for it.
No one dared to check the veracity of my story.

Another trip I remember was an overnight excursion with our entire company to the Yaruga River. "Yaruga" in Serbian means moat, or ravine. And indeed, it was not a river, but rather a long winding beam filled with water and leaving a shallow wide mouth to the Danube.
The length of the ravine probably did not exceed three quarters of a kilometer. The whole ravine was overgrown on both sides with trees and shrubs, and at its beginning it became smaller and smaller, turning into a swamp and ending in a meadow. Probably, the ravine was formed in a natural way after the collapse of the loose layer of the earth, like any ravine, and spring floods and floods finished the job.

There were a lot of fish in the Yaruga. Once we came here in late autumn, when there was very little water left in the ravine, and the fish were sitting in numerous depressions with clean, unpolluted water.
All these places at that distant time were virgin in the literal sense of the word. No cans, no bottles, no cartons, no other signs of "civilization" could be seen anywhere. Visits to the Yaruga by a hundred cadets, of course, "corrected" this abnormal situation, but we littered it with "clean" garbage, that is, leftover food, scraps of paper and other completely innocent material, which in a year was completely absorbed by nature.

This time there were no other fish in the pits, except for pikes.
The picture is clear: the pikes that got here while hunting for prey were locked up in reservoirs in the summer and, having eaten all the other fish, sat hungry and, probably, angry. Such fishing none of us have ever seen it in our lives, before or since. Hungry pikes instantly rushed to any bait, and the most successful anglers pulled them out by the dozens. It seems to me that we have completely devastated all reservoirs. It was some kind of massacre: on kukans, in nets, in bags - everywhere there were pikes of all sizes, ranging from large ones, up to two kilograms in weight, and ending with small ones, perhaps weighing an eighth of a pound.
For the kids, it was a catch. It was the year 1925.

(Editor's note: Konstantin Sinkevich - cadet of the Crimean Cadet Corps and the First Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of the Cadet Corps.
He graduated from the 12th issue of this last Corps. He was the editor of the Bulletin of the San Francisco Cadet Association).

Colonel N. A. Chudinov

CRIMEAN CADET CORPS

The Crimean Cadet Corps, formed in Oreanda (in Yalta - Crimea) in the summer of 1920 from fragments of the Vladikavkaz and Petrovsko-Poltava Cadet Corps, both during their stay in the Crimea, and then during the evacuation, opened its doors wide not only to all the cadets of the former Russian corps, but also of all Russian student youth who joined the White Army.
As a result, upon arrival on the territory of the Kingdom of the Union of Artists, in the Sternishchensky camp, the Crimean corps, which turned out to be extremely cumbersome in number (at times the number of cadets exceeded 600), turned out to be extremely motley in composition. Next to children who had just reached school age, who had just fallen out of their parental nest, there were young men who had taken shape under the direct influence of the nightmarish conditions of modern reality, there were young people who plunged headlong into that mud of the rear, which eventually swept over the entire white movement.
Surgical recovery of the corps was out of the question, because. it proved impossible to attach those removed from the corps, while filling the Serbian prisons with Russian youths-losers was, of course, highly undesirable. The teaching staff of the corps faced work of exceptional difficulty, aggravated by the very situation of life in the Sternishchensky camp, where, thanks to local conditions, constant supervision of the cadets was almost unthinkable, just as it was unthinkable and somehow correct setting educational business.
The most characteristic and typical offenses of this period of the life of the corps, in addition to general licentiousness and rudeness, was an extremely unscrupulous attitude towards someone else's, and especially government property. Cases of the so-called corralling of government things were the most ordinary phenomenon, and misdeeds of this kind in the minds of the Cadet masses were interpreted not as shameful phenomena, but rather as dashing and youthfulness.

In this state of affairs, with the extreme poverty of educational influence (thanks to the quartering conditions, it was not even possible to carry out punishments), the fight against the ever-increasing evil could only be carried out on a completely different plane, and the teaching staff had to think not so much about prevention and the suppression of misdeeds, how much about the development in the Cadet mass of noble feelings of a higher order, which could remove from the Cadet soul the scum with which it had grown over during the period of hard times.
Feelings of this order, in the opinion of the teaching staff, were those foundations on which the Russian land was held and strengthened, those foundations that had previously formed the basis of all cadet education, and which were formulated in three words: God, Tsar and Motherland.

Of course, it is difficult to be a judge in own business, but nevertheless, looking back at the past thorny path, the pedagogical staff of the Crimean Corps can state with a sense of moral satisfaction that the direction they chose was quite the right direction, that the skillfully supported idealism of the Cadet soul helped it cleanse itself of "many filth", and that, of course, among all the Russian refugees one cannot find young people so selflessly and deeply patriotic, like the Crimean Cadets...

This mood of the Cadets has rallied their mass into one monolithic whole, this mood has created true camaraderie among them, this mood, which has made them, it is true, somewhat intolerant, completely eliminates the development in their midst of that politicking and partisanship from which our Russian refugee suffers so much.

Over time, the behavior of the cadets in the Sternishchensk camp began to noticeably improve, their educational work capacity increased, but the main achievement of pedagogical activity was the fact that the misconduct of the cadets, previously considered dashing and youthfulness, began to receive due appreciation in the cadet environment itself.

In 1922, the corps was installed in the city of Belaya Tserkov. Initially, his quartering in the new place was extremely unsatisfactory, and the Cadets, who endured all sorts of material hardships and hardships in the Sternishchensky camp, had to suffer a lot in the White Church.

Extreme crowding, lack of the most primitive furniture, floors and walls infested with bugs, cold and the inability to heat the room without winter frames, the lack of premises for the church and the dining room, all this made the life of the Cadet extremely unsightly and difficult ...

A new factor in the life of the corps was the immediate proximity of the Nikolaev Cavalry School. This neighborhood, without affecting the ideology of the cadets (both educational institutions were completely identical in their mood), nevertheless, had some, and moreover negative, influence on cadet morals, the influence that always has the proximity of almost adult young people to green youth.

"Zuk", the consumption of alcoholic beverages, visits to dens and similar misconduct observed in the life of the corps during its stay in the White Church, if not in origin, then, in any case, owes its development to the neighborhood with the Cavalry School. However, along with this negative influence, the proximity of the school gave the corps certain advantages, developing in the cadets a certain smartness, military dashing and dapperness. The joint life of the corps with the school did not last long, however, because, a few months after the arrival of the corps in Belaya Tserkov, the Nikolaev School was disbanded.

With the passage of time and with the improvement of Cadet life, the general behavior of the Cadet mass began to improve noticeably. Cases of corralling became sporadic, and the shameless attitude towards state property that was dominant in the Sternishchensky camp was out of the question in Belaya Tserkov.
The main and most repeated offense of the cadets in Belaya Tserkov is their unauthorized absences, the fight against which seems somewhat difficult due to the conditions of quartering (lack of a separate place for walking, the possibility of running away through the windows of the 1st floor), although these offenses are becoming more rare.
The efficiency of the cadets also began to noticeably increase, interest in the educational business arose, and the very first two maturas gave excellent results and caused salutary reviews from the Serbian professors who were present at the matura tests.

The Crimean Cadets are presently presenting themselves in their total mass young people are very responsive, sensitive and cordial, they love their native nest very much and value its good reputation, they are imbued with a military spirit and, entering the universities of the Kingdom after graduation, however, they only dream of the moment when, by order of the Commander-in-Chief, they will become build and devote all their strength and their young life to the holy cause of the liberation of the Motherland from the red evil spirits.

1925, Kingdom of the Union of Artists, Belaya Tserkov

(From the Editor: Colonel Nikolai Aleksandrovich Chudinov was born in Sukhum on March 1, 1871.
For a number of years he was an educator in the Tiflis, then in the Vladikavkaz cadet corps:
In exile - an educator in the Crimean Cadet Corps, in the First Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Cadet Corps.
He died on October 27, 1942 in Yugoslavia.
Excerpts from the memoirs of N. A. Chudinov are reproduced according to the author's manuscript.). The stories of the Crimean cadets are scattered over many pages of the site. First of all, these are the Memoirs of Alexander Grigorievich Lermontov, from which my entire site began, then - the memoirs of Andrei Alexandrovich Bertels-Leshnoy, the story of A.I. Fedyushkin about the evacuation of the corps from the Crimea, and finally, pages dedicated to the director of the KKK, General Vladimir Valeryanovich Rimsky-Korsakov.
Interspersed on many other pages are stories about the life of the Crimean Corps in the Crimea and Belaya Tserkov, which, even if desired, would not be easy to put together.

CRIMEAN CADET CORPS (1920-1929)

“Holy honors the Russian covenant,
This glorious Crimean corps.

Cadet "Crane"

Creation of the Crimean Corps and exodus from Russia

The path of the Russian cadet corps to emigration actually began on October 19, 1919, when the Petrovsky-Poltava cadet corps, due to the circumstances of the Civil War, left Poltava and moved to Vladikavkaz, where they were hospitably received by the Vladikavkaz cadet corps. In total, up to 900 cadets gathered in Vladikavkaz.

In the spring of 1920, a decision was made to evacuate the cadet corps from Vladikavkaz to the Crimea. It was decided to carry out the evacuation through the ports of Georgia. The transition along the Georgian Military Highway was mainly done on foot, there were very few supplies, and they were mainly intended for provisions. On the day the column passed 20-25 km. It should be taken into account that there were 9-10 year old cadets. Refugees took shelter from bad weather with cloaks, which were issued to all participants in the campaign. Burkas sheltered from wind and rain.

Only on March 23, 1920 did the corps arrive in Kutaisi. The Georgian authorities did not provide any assistance to the Cadets. The corps were placed in some kind of camp, behind a wire, they ate the products that they managed to take out with them. June 9, 1920 on the ship "Kizil Arvat" cadet corps were delivered to the Crimea. Upon arrival in the Crimea, it was possible to quickly unify the corps and single cadets of other corps into one. The corps was located in Oreanda (Yalta). In early July, on the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in the South of Russia, Lieutenant General Baron P.N. Wrangel, the former director of the 1st Moscow Empress Catherine II of the Cadet Corps, Lieutenant General Vladimir Valeryanovich Rimsky-Korsakov, headed the corps.

By this time, General P.N. Wrangel had already issued an order to expel all cadets, minors and children who had not graduated from secondary educational institutions from the ranks of the White Army, and send them to the disposal of Lieutenant General V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov. Cadets from various corps and young people who interrupted their studies and ended up in the ranks of the White Army began to arrive in the corps. In the newly created cadet corps, practically all cadet corps were represented except for the Siberian, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Donskoy.

From October 22, 1920, in accordance with the order of P.N. Wrangel, the corps became known as the "Crimean Cadet Corps". The corps was assigned a scarlet epaulette with a white edging and two separate letters "KK" yellow color. By this time strength The corps was approximately 500 people, and it was decided to place some of the pupils in premises adapted for the barracks in Massandra.

By the same order, he was included in the Crimean Cadet Corps Feodosia boarding school at the Kiev Konstantinovsky Infantry School, located in Feodosia. It was founded by General A.I. Denikin in January 1920 for underage children who were sent from the front to the head of the Kyiv Konstantinovsky Infantry School. The Feodosia boarding school was assigned a crimson epaulette with a white edging and the letters "F.I." on the run. The boarding school was located in the dilapidated barracks of the Simferopol Infantry Regiment, in the same place as the Kiev Konstantinovsky military school.

The purpose of the founding of the boarding school was the desire to gather into it the cadets scattered throughout the south of Russia, and to create for them more or less acceptable conditions for living and learning. The core of the boarding school was the cadets of the four junior classes of the Sumy Cadet Corps, who arrived in Feodosia with the company commander of the corps, Colonel Prince P.P. Shakhovsky.

Soon, cadets from other imperial cadet corps, who ended up in the Crimea, began to join them. There were also orphans admitted to the boarding school directly on the spot under the influence of the prevailing circumstances. large group homeless children arrived from Sevastopol. They were all children of sailors. The attitude of the cadets to the "spaks" (in cadet jargon - civilian bus) was friendly, they were immediately accepted into the cadet environment without any checks that took place in the cadet corps. Colonel P.P. Shakhovskoy was appointed director of the boarding school. Colonels N.N. Danner, P.M. Nekrashevich, captains P.A. Shevtsov and B.V. Shestakov were his assistants.

Colonel P.P. Shakhovskoy proved himself from the very better side in the Sumy Cadet Corps. Despite the desire to seem strict and, in case of any disobedience of the cadet, threatening to “tear off the head” of the violator, he was a gentle and kind person. In the Sumy Corps, the cadets sincerely loved P.P. Shakhovsky. Not a single recruit cadet of the Sumy Corps shed tears on the knees of Colonel P.P. Shakhovsky. The cadets of the Feodosia boarding school also fell in love with him, whom he delivered safe and sound to the Kingdom of S.Kh.S., where he was appointed commander of the 3rd company of the Crimean Cadet Corps.

The boys who appeared were placed in the boarding school by force. They arrived lousy, shoeless, dirty, in torn clothes. By the care of P.P. Shakhovsky, the officers-educators and the captain, the boys were brought into a Christian appearance. All the clothes were taken away from the boys and soldiers' clothes were given out in the warehouses. Cadets could part with everything, but not with shoulder straps. The cadets who arrived from the front did not hand over their shoulder straps. In addition to the cadet epaulettes, there were black and red Kornilov, crimson Drozdov, black Markov. Among the arrivals were also St. George Knights. Many of those placed in the boarding school tried not to linger in it for a long time and ran away to the front at the first opportunity, but they were caught and placed in the boarding school. No one knew the number of pupils in the boarding school.

The boarding school had at its disposal iron soldier beds, mattresses stuffed with straw, and gray soldier blankets. Attempts by educator officers and teachers to organize classes ran into strong opposition from cadets who were practically out of control. In addition, there was no normal room where classes could be organized. Of the teachers there were only three people N.N. Danner, N.Ya. Pisarevsky and V.A. Kazansky. At the lessons, the cadets were practically not asked and no points were given. Often the teachers did not come to the lessons, and then the pupils were left to themselves, which they were very happy about, arranging a “solid farce” in the classes. Sometimes forays into the surrounding orchards were made, fights were arranged with local high school students.

Colonel P.P. Shakhovskoy tried to organize classes at the local gymnasium, where the cadets were taken in formation, but nothing came of it either. The Cadets were starving, their food was poorly organized. The most common and unloved dishes were all kinds of barley porridge, in the form of "shrapnel" or "smear". Everything that could be sold was taken to the flea market. Having bought food with the proceeds, the Cadets in the corps arranged a feast. By the cold weather, the cadets were dressed in English uniforms. In conditions of complete lack of control, the cadets could leave the location of the boarding school at any time, which they did, taking an active part in the robbery of warehouses and storehouses.

In the Feodosia boarding school, the cadets developed their own code of honor. To cheat, to lie to an officer-educator, not even to fulfill his order, was considered heroism. But not following the orders of an outside officer was considered reprehensible and unworthy of a cadet. “Stealing” a pear, an apple, a bunch of grapes from a market vendor was not considered a crime. It was "skill". It was considered unacceptable theft to take a treat secretly from your comrade. It was also here that the square abuse took root in the cadets, which was brought to the boarding school by the “front-line soldiers”.

Nevertheless, on the occasion of the victory of the Volunteer Army on one of the sectors of the Civil War front, the Cadets even had a chance to take part in the parade of the troops of the Feodosia garrison. The appearance of cadets in baggy, oversized uniforms, in heavy English boots, called "tanks", caused delight and applause from the public.

Those who had already been at the front enjoyed special prestige among the cadets. "Front-line soldiers" enjoyed unquestioned authority and, accordingly, respect and envy. These "strategists" had their own opinion on everything and with great aplomb assessed all the events taking place. In any dispute the last word was for the "front-line soldiers". The cadets' favorite pastime was singing. They sang combat volunteer songs, songs by A. Vertinsky, cadet "Crane", "Zveriada".

Thus, the Crimean Cadet Corps before the evacuation from the Crimea consisted not only of cadets of the Petrovsky-Poltava and Vladikavkaz Cadet Corps, but also pupils of other corps, which created great difficulties in matters of discipline and internal regulations. All this manifested itself with particular force when the corps was outside of Russia.

The teacher of the Crimean Cadet Corps, G.D. Sofronov, noted in this regard: pre-revolutionary time. It included more than 50% of children and young men who either had no family at all, or were cut off from it. All these young people were strongly touched by the corrupting spirit of the revolution and the civil war, and many of them took a direct part in the latter.

AT recent months stay in the Crimea, many children and youths joined the corps, who arrived directly from the front, partly by order of the authorities, partly of their own free will. During the evacuation, the Feodosia boarding school joined the corps, and many other abandoned and homeless children were picked up. Thus, the corps arrived at the Strnische camp consisting of about 600 people. 1/

On the night of November 1, 1920, the evacuation of the corps from the Crimea began. The junior company was loaded onto the steamer "Konstantin", and the main part - on the steam barge "Chrisi". This old flat-bottomed barge was generally not wanted to be used to transport evacuees. But when there were no ships left in the Yalta port for loading the Crimean Cadet Corps, an order was given to evacuate the corps on this ship. The ship's mechanics, not wanting to work for the whites, said the machine was out of order. When they were threatened with execution, the car was "quickly repaired", and the barge went to sea. V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov, not trusting the ship's crew, ordered two cadets who had experience in the Navy to look after the helmsman so that he would not change course.

It soon became clear that the ship was not going to Constantinople, but to Odessa. The captain and helmsman were immediately arrested, cadet M. Karateev took the helm, having sailed for eight months before entering the cadet corps as a signalman on a destroyer. Together with another cadet, they sent the ship to the right direction, but found that the compass readings were not correct. Next to the steering wheel were iron gymnastic apparatus. FROM with great difficulty Cadets managed to bring the ship to Constantinople.

On the fifth day, the barge and the steamer arrived at the Constantinople roadstead. Soon all the cadets were transferred to the steamer "Vladimir".

There, pupils of the Feodosia boarding school with Colonel P.P. Shakhovsky, who were evacuated from the Crimea on the ship Kornilov, joined the corps. On the last day of their stay in Feodosia, Colonel P.P. Shakhovskoy lined up the pupils in front of the arsenal and ordered everyone to take what he needed. At that moment, the cadets suddenly matured by several years, realizing the significance of the current event. Without any shouts, jokes or prompting, the cadets calmly approached the scattered things, took what they considered necessary, and retreated. By evening, the entire boarding school was put on the Kornilov.

The entire mournful path of the Vladikavkaz Cadet Corps along the Georgian Military Highway from Vladikavkaz to the town of Strnishche in the Kingdom of S.Kh.S. was captured in the drawings by the drawing teacher of the Vladikavkaz Cadet Corps, Colonel Ivan Pavlovich Trofimov. During short days, he made dozens of watercolor drawings of the Georgian Military Highway, the Seven Brothers mountain, mountain rivers, steep passes.

Later, he reflected in his drawings the stay of the corps in the Crimea, and, finally, after arriving in the Kingdom of S.Kh.S. he made numerous sketches of the cities of Strnische and Bila Tserkva and their environs. Everything, the drawings made by I.P. Trofimov, are perfectly preserved in the family of the descendants of the cadets Vladimir Nikolaevich and Valentina Nikolaevna Kastelyanov, who currently live in Belaya Tserkov. I.P. Trofimov - grandfather of Valentina Nikolaevna. Her father, Nikolai Evgenievich Filimonov, a graduate of the First Cadet Corps, was an educator officer of the First Russian Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of the Cadet Corps (PRVKKKKK).

Vladimir Nikolaevich Kastelanov was born on April 10, 1938 in the Russian Hospital in Panchevo. His Father Nikolai Vladimirovich was originally from Vladikavkaz, graduated from the Vladikavkaz Cadet Corps, and after leaving Russia, together with the cadets, teachers and employees of the Cadet Corps, ended up in the Kingdom of S.Kh.S. in Pančevo, where he got a job as an engineer for a French company involved in the construction of the Bihac-Knin road. The mother of Vladimir Nikolaevich, originally from Poltava, ended up in Yugoslavia with her aunt and uncle, Colonel Nikolai Venediktovich Zialkovsky, an officer-educator of the cadet corps. She worked as a nurse at the Russian Hospital in Pancevo.

At the beginning of the Second World War, my father was arrested and, together with the French, was imprisoned. After being released from prison, the Castellanov family first moved to the sea to Crikvenica, and then to Belovar (Croatia), where they lived until the end of the war. My father got a job repairing a railway that had been blown up by the Germans.

During the years of aggravation of Soviet-Yugoslav relations, his father lost his job, and the family was subjected to strong psychological pressure.

Vladimir Nikolayevich graduated from the gymnasium in Belovar, and then studied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb and Belgrade. After graduation, he worked CEO in the company "Standard-Beton" in Bila Tserkva and "Panproekt" in Pancevo. Currently retired, but continues to work, while actively involved in music.

Father of Valentina Nikolaevna Nikolai Evgenievich Filimonov was bornOn May 14, 1886 in St. Petersburg, I graduated from His Imperial Majesty's First Cadet Corps, in 1920 I was evacuated to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Sarajevo, where I was appointed an educator officer of the Consolidated Russian Cadet Corps.

Mother of Valentina Evgenievna, Elena Ivanovna Kozyreva, taught French in the First Russian Cadet Corps and the Don Mariinsky Institute.

Valentina Nikolaevna was born in 1941 in Belaya Tserkov. Graduated from high school Faculty of Philology Belgrade University. She worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature at the gymnasium, led the drama club at the gymnasium. The Castellanovs have two children.

Through all the years life together Vladimir Nikolaevich and Valentina Nikolaevna collected and cherished materials related to the fate of the cadet corps in Yugoslavia, and, first of all, those relics that they inherited from their grandfathers and fathers. As a result, they have amassed a large collection of documents and photographs reflecting the history of the cadet corps in Yugoslavia. Vladimir Nikolaevich drew on modern maps the route of the Russian cadet corps from their places of deployment in Russia to Yugoslavia.

Vladimir Nikolaevich and Valentina Nikolaevna Kastelyanova October 22, 2006 in the presence of a representative delegation from Russia, which included the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Serbia A.N. Alekseev, representatives of the Foundation for Assistance to Cadet Corps named after Alexei Jordan, International Association The Cadet Brotherhood, members of the All-Cadet Association of Russian Cadet Corps Abroad at the Russian House in Belgrade, opened a museum in their apartment - the Cadet Room. It presents numerous exhibits that testify to the life in Yugoslavia not only of the Vladikavkaz, but also of the First Russian and Don Cadet Corps. The exposition of the museum presents all watercolors by I.P. Trofimov.

Arrival in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Stay in Strnische.

On the roadstead of Constantinople, the Crimean cadets managed to show themselves worthy in a situation that required them not only endurance and patience, but also a certain courage. Russian ships were met in Constantinople by ships from many countries. On the ship "Chrisi", where the Crimean Cadet Corps was located, at the initiative of vice non-commissioned officer Mikhail Karateev, signals were raised on the yards: "tolerate hunger" and "tolerate thirst."

These signals had an effect. After some time, an English ship approached the barge "Chrisi", where the cadets were. A film camera was installed on its upper deck, next to it was a table on which a pile of sliced ​​\u200b\u200bwhite bread rose. Here they were elegantly dressed women and men, among them one Russian. When asked if the Cadets were hungry, they answered in the affirmative.

The cadets expected to be photographed and then fed. It turned out that the British wanted to capture the moment when the cadets would be thrown bread and the hungry cadets would rush to pick it up from the deck. When the women began to throw slices of bread into the crowd of cadets, some of them already rushed to pick it up. The authorities were confused, and at that moment the voice of the "general" of the release of L. Lazarevich was heard, who, having assessed the situation, shouted: “Do not touch this bread. Don't you see that this bastard wants to shoot to show "Russian savages" who are fighting over food. 2/

Pieces of bread fell on the heads of the cadets, but they stood motionless, as if not noticing it. L. Lazarevich asked the British to leave them alone. Insulted by this behavior of the Russian youth, the English ship soon departed from the Chrissi.

Quarantine standing on the roadstead of Constantinople dragged on, as it turned out that by that time not a single country had shown interest in Russian youths. Finally, word was received that the cadet was ready to take over the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. On December 8, 1920, the corps arrived in Bakar Bay of the Kingdom of S.H.S. and from there to railway transported to Strnische. The Crimean Cadet Corps was located in the barracks built by the Austrians for prisoners of war.

At this time, the corps consisted of 5 companies, 20 class departments. There were 650 cadets in the corps (including 108 pupils of the Feodosia boarding school) aged from 11-12 to 21 years old, 29 people of pedagogical and 8 people of administrative and economic personnel. Some of the pupils missed one or two school years. Among the cadets there were 229 combatants on the fronts of the Civil War, of which 59 were wounded and shell-shocked, 40 were awarded military awards.

Cadet Nikolai Vovchenko was awarded the badge St. George Order 2nd, 3rd and 4th degrees. Cadets Vladimir Bunin, Vyacheslav Verzhbitsky, Nikolay Severyanov, Aleksey Skvortsov - badge of the St. George Order of the 3rd and 4th degrees. 3/

The Cavaliers of St. George remained the idols of the cadets during the entire time they were in the cadet corps. Every year on the day of St. George on December 9, the cadets rocked the Knights of St. George in their arms and carried them along the corridors of the corps. When the Cavalier of St. George, Lieutenant General M.N. Promtov, was appointed director of the corps, the cadets of the senior company came to his office on the morning of December 9, lifted the general in an armchair and carried him along the entire long corridor in this position.

The barracks in Strnische, placed at the disposal of the corps, were poorly adapted for housing and even more so for study. The wooden barracks covered with roofing paper, which during the First World War served as a place to accommodate Russian prisoners of war, did not help lift the spirits of the youth who went through the horrors of the evacuation. The class inspector, Colonel G.K. Maslov, in one of the first reports addressed to the Russian military attache, reported that “the conditions for housing the corps are terrible and enormous efforts will be required to create a normal environment for living and studying.” 4/

Officer-educator Captain K.Yu.Zhoravovich about the first years of his stay in the Kingdom of S.Kh.S. said: “For two years in Strnische, the cadet corps was in the most ugly quartering conditions, where it was practically impossible to have cadets under continuous supervision ... Children who went through the crucible of the revolution and were familiar with the slogans of various parties and organizations demanded the necessary supervision and regime, which was not in Strnische.” 5/

Since the beginning of 1920, the Crimean Cadet Corps has experienced three evacuations: to Kutaisi, to the Crimea, to Serbia. Each evacuation destroyed almost to the ground the entire previous one. educational work, and after each evacuation, the officer and teaching staff had to re-establish the life of the cadet corps with more and more difficulty. “For the cadets, the period of evacuation and the Civil War produced the most corrupting effect,” said the company commander, Lieutenant Colonel E.A. Khudykovsky. - They had a complete reassessment of values: everything that was previously considered immoral became normal, everything unacceptable became quite possible. The view of the attitude towards other people's property changed especially sharply, and on this basis there was a largest number misdeeds." 6/

Emergencies in the Crimean Corps began literally from the first days of their stay in a foreign land. On December 4, 1920, cadet II class Konstantin Kozlovsky, playing with a found revolver with a cadet of his own class Vasilevich, killed the latter on the spot. 7/

According to Sergei Oldenberger, a graduate of the Crimean Cadet Corps, there were two cases of suicide in Strnische and one attempt, in which the revolver misfired and the cadet was disarmed. The first suicide was Cavalier of St. George, 7th grade cadet Evgeny Belyakov (Poltavets). The second - the 6th grade cadet Andrey Ilyashevich. Sergei Oldenberger knew Ilyashevich personally and noted that he was always gloomy.

Rumors spread around the Russian community located in Strnische about the existence of a “suicide club” in the building. But there was no question of any fashion or desire to show one’s fearlessness, according to the same Sergei Oldenberger. Rather, these were actions based on the spiritual tragedies of the cadets, who had lost all hope for the future, and were explained by a mental breakdown. Any reader familiar with the life and fate of the Russian military emigration abroad is well aware that suicides due to mental breakdown and separation from the homeland were, unfortunately, a common occurrence in this environment and took place not only in the cadet corps, but also among combat officers.

It is not difficult to understand the background of this phenomenon. Having already been in the position of an adult, almost an officer, having already learned to take from life everything that it offers, to sit down at a desk again and feel like a young cadet, it was not possible for everyone.

“And if we add to this the consciousness of the finally lost homeland and the opportunities that it gave to its privileged sons, if we apply the expression to ourselves: “when there is darkness in the future, and in the past a row of graves and for your daily bread you give the rest of your strength, ”- it will seem to many that it’s not worth living, that there’s nothing to expect from life, - such an assessment of the events 50 years later was given by Vladimir Bodisko, who entered the Crimean Cadet Corps in 1923 and graduated from PRVKKKKK in 1930. - Hence the suicides are single, sometimes double, giving rise to various rumors, among them about the “suicide club”. There was de such a club, driven Soviet agent Khotsyanov, where the bet in the game against the banker is its own life. Win - get money, lose - shoot. 8/

The investigation showed that no club existed. The second lieutenant-artilleryman Khotsyanov, who was accused of organizing a "club", lived in the refugee colony of the Strnische camp, kept in touch with the Markovite Cadets and others, and in his room there was card game. The speculation started by someone attributed to this game tragic ending in the form of retribution of the loser with life.

The young men who interrupted their lives did so only because of the prevailing circumstances. V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov perceived these suicides not only as a general tragedy, but as his personal one. He conducted a personal investigation, tried to prevent similar cases in the future. The commission, investigating the reasons that prompted the cadets to commit suicide, came to the conclusion that the director of the cadet corps, the teaching staff were not guilty of what had happened.

The most characteristic and typical offenses of this period of the life of the corps, in addition to general licentiousness and rudeness, was an extremely dismissive attitude towards someone else's, especially government property. Cases of the so-called "corralling" of government things were the most ordinary phenomenon, and misdemeanors of this kind in the minds of the Cadet masses were interpreted not as shameful phenomena, but rather as a manifestation of dashing and youthfulness. There were cadets in the corps, who were approached even by teachers with a request to sell their personal belongings. According to the memoirs of S. Oldenberger, “in 1921-1922. Cadets Zagoskin and Zagaryansky were famous as good sellers. Teachers of all ranks often came to them and brought them for sale the things they had just given out: blankets, overcoats, boots, etc. 9/

Probably at this time, the lines appeared in the cadet "Crane":

“All Slovenia is dressed
At the expense of the Crimean cadet.

Strnische noted numerous cases disruption of lessons, rebellion of cadets, scandals, theft. On April 28, 1922, a mass demonstration of cadets took place against the director, Lieutenant General V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov. On June 7 of the same year, cadet Zagoskin persuaded cadets of the 2nd company to arrange a benefit performance for one of the educator officers. Around the same time, the cadets of the 1st company arranged a benefit performance for the duty officer-educator. 10/

During their stay in Strnische, they got it from cadets and local residents.

Sergei Oldenberger recalls: “1921... There is a system cadets under the command of a vice-non-commissioned officer, with knapsacks or the like behind their backs, walk and sing songs. The local peasants, accustomed to the Cadets, pay no attention to them. After passing the village, the command is given to "disperse". It turns out that this is a region of apple orchards and chestnut groves. The knapsacks fill up quickly, and the cadets return in formation again. When the Slovenes guessed what kind of walks they were, they, armed with sticks, left the village with the firm intention of protecting their property, but were put to flight by hurricane fire from slings ...

A celebrity of those times was Nikolai Vovchenko, St. George Cavalier IV, III and II degree. Once he fired at a passenger train, smashed the car window and, for the company of some respectable gentleman, the head. There was even a police investigation about this case, which, of course, did not give anything, but the “grandfather” was very unpleasant.

Five cadets of the fifth grade lay down on the rails and forced the driver to stop the train, as lovers of strong sensations did not react to the horns. When the train stopped, and the driver and the stoker rushed towards them, they got up from the rails and disappeared at lightning speed into a dense spruce forest.

I think that such cases are enough to make sure that in those days we were not so far from the image of "half-Tarzan". 11/

In the Cadet "Crane" in this regard, it was said about the Crimean Cadet Corps:

"Many summers will be remembered,
Serbs of the Crimean Cadet.
Close all buffets
Crimean cadets are coming.

At one of the meetings of the Pedagogical Committee, the officer-educator Lieutenant Colonel K.F. Kossart noted: “Upon the arrival of the corps in Serbia, it was not cadets, but a disorganized, completely undisciplined crowd that absorbed everything negative qualities rear, front, evacuation and deprived in the majority, thanks to this, of any moral principles. Colossal work was required to bring this crowd into the mainstream. normal life military educational institution. Through constant communication with the Cadets, conversations, instructions and humane treatment gradually, calmly and persistently, their warped souls, alien to maternal caress, were remade. 12/

Here is how Konstantin Sinkevich, who entered the Crimean corps at the end of 1922 and graduated in 1931 from the PRVKKKKK, recalled the first days of his stay in the corps: , barter, petty swindle and trips to the nearest village. With regard to "cheating" it should be said that among the Cadets it was completely ruled out. If anyone ever dared to steal something from a comrade, a cruel punishment of the entire company awaited him. But a clever deception of a local merchant or peasant was considered a heroic deed. 13/

1921-1922 academic year began in barracks converted to classrooms. study guides and textbooks and notebooks were not enough. The cadets had to memorize a lot during the lessons themselves. The cadets, accustomed to freedom over the summer, were again drawn into the air, more and more often absentees began to appear in the classes. At first, they did not come to classes individually, then in groups, and there were cases when the whole department returned to the building only for dinner.

The most radical measure to restore order in the corps was considered to be the exclusion from its ranks of the most malicious violators of discipline, instigators to organize collective actions. It should not be forgotten that in the senior company there were completely adult young people who were burdened by the orders established in the corps.

The commander of the 1st company, Colonel N.A. Chudinov, noted in this regard: “The Revolution and the Civil War did their job. Three-quarters of the first company at one time dangled between heaven and earth, when the corps were closed, and then were at the front, got to know everyone negative sides this chatter and the front, which deeply and deeply sunk into them ... In pre-revolutionary times, there were young men no older than 17-18 years old in the corps, parental home and educational institution. Now, it is not uncommon for pupils to be 20, 21-24 years old and get acquainted with something that never even occurred to anyone. 14/

However, it was not so easy to get rid of the most odious figures. The question was more or less simply resolved if the cadet had living parents, and he could be sent to their care. Another thing is when a cadet had no one, then the cadet corps, the State Commission, to a certain extent, bore moral responsibility for the arrangement of the cadet expelled from the corps in life.

Before the cadet was expelled from the officer corps and Teaching Staff the corps did a great job to keep him in the corps, since the State Commission gave the go-ahead for exclusion only after it was finally clear that the candidate for expulsion was doing great harm to the educational process, continuing to remain within the walls of the educational institution.

Some of the desperate pupils of the Crimean corps, having tasted a free life and found themselves on the verge of poverty and physical death, regardless of their pride, asked to be returned to the cadet corps. However, this was not at all easy to do. Now the State Commission had to decide whether to allocate funds for the cadets returning to the corps or refuse to accept them. As proof of how this issue was resolved between the "new applicants", the cadet corps and the State Commission, the following document is given below.

In early August 1923, General V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov sent a letter to the director of the Don Cadet Corps, Lieutenant General E.V. Perret, which was previously agreed with the State Commission and received by the Don Corps on its letterhead:

"Dear Evgeny Vasilyevich,

The conditions of life of the cadet corps known to you, starting from 1917, caused a number of abnormal phenomena and in many cases affected the psyche of young people, who, having tasted the sensations of a falsely understood freedom, do not always realize the need for subordination school discipline and rushes to freedom instead of studying and preparing for life's struggle With more preparation.

This phenomenon had a particularly sharp effect on the pupils of the Crimean Cadet Corps, which resulted in the departure of a fairly significant number of them from the corps in the form of so-called "voluntary" memorandums of unwillingness to study. Some of these departures followed as early as 1922 and at the beginning of 1923, due to insufficient opposition on the part of the teaching and educational staff of the corps to the harmful influences of the previous period of the corps' life.

Some of these young men who “voluntarily” went to the side, faced with difficult conditions independent living for which, of course, they turned out to be completely unprepared, and now they realize all the difficulty and hopelessness of their situation, and the need to complete the study in order to reach the real road and ask for this opportunity.

Not finding, under certain circumstances, convenient to allow these young men to take exams at the Crimean Cadet Corps and considering it necessary to help them continue their education, provided that they are tested first, not only in the sense of testing their knowledge, but also in relation to testing their will to learning, I decided to turn to your assistance in this matter and only after receiving an answer from you about your consent to send these 4 young men to you in Bilech.

At the same time, I think that

1. These youths are to be placed outside the hull for the duration of the trial, under someone else's supervision of your choice.
2. Classes must be organized with them according to the tutoring system in a group way, with payment for these classes in the amount of 100 din. per month for each.
3. For food, they will be released by the State Commission at 300 din. a month at the disposal of the corps, but they should have been satisfied separately from the cadets, until their qualities are clarified.
4. They could be admitted to verification tests after Christmas.

I am enclosing a list of these 4 young men with brief data so far. Detailed characteristics of them will be delivered later. 15/

Here I would like to draw attention to the seriousness of the approach of the director of the Crimean Corps, the State Commission to every young man who finds himself in a difficult situation in a foreign land. The letter was sent on August 4, 1923, and the tests are scheduled only for Christmas, at the end of December 1923. And it is not yet known whether these four will withstand the corresponding tests, and the money will be spent by the State Commission.

Until 1925, there was a punishment cell in the Crimean Cadet Corps in Strnische and in Bila Tserkva. Kids were not put in a punishment cell. Senior cadets were put in the punishment cell for any major disobedience to the authorities, deliberate damage and sale of state property, "self-righteous" (unauthorized absence from the location of the corps - auth.), escape from the cell.

Due to the circumstances in Strnische, the punishment cell practically did not fulfill its function, which was aimed at making the cadet feel the punishment received and henceforth avoid being arrested. The punishment cell was located on the first floor of a wooden barrack, occupying a small part of it, the rest was occupied by Slovenes. Due to a lack of funds, the punishment cell was poorly equipped, the windows were without bars and covered with a thin mesh that could be easily torn off. It was also easy to tear off a light board, half rotten, from the wall of the barracks, and then restore it back to its place.

The cadets quite calmly communicated with their appearance, received food, cigarettes and cigarettes from their comrades. The most desperate left the punishment cell without permission, since the one who watched the punishment cell several times a day had to go to the kitchen to get food for the arrested cadets. Cadet Abashkin, which will be discussed below, managed to sell his overcoat while in the punishment cell.

In Bila Tserkva, the punishment cell occupied three or four cells on the first floor of the building. The rooms were sheathed with thick boards, had massive doors, barred windows, and an electric light bulb right up to the ceiling. The light was on around the clock. In the cell there was a trestle bed with a blanket, a stool that replaced a bedside table and a mug of water, since the arrested were sometimes put "on bread and water."

“Of course, the comrades delivered food to the arrested by all means,” Konstantin Sinkevich recalled, “so that they did not starve, and the punishment turned into a kind of game, who would outwit whom: the arrested boss, or his boss ...

There were such "eagles" who managed to unlock the door of their cell with a master key, remove the iron bars from the window - and ... it was like that! Some cadets sat in the punishment cell almost more often than at their desks in class. Textbooks were brought to their cell, and they had to prepare lessons on an equal basis with everyone else. The term of punishment rarely exceeded a day, but there were cases when some "hero" was hidden for a week.

The walls of the cells were full of initials, all kinds of inscriptions expressing “protests against violence”, creative impulses, usually in the form of poems: “Darling institutions, soft pillows”, “Oh, give me freedom!”, “I am sitting behind bars in a damp dungeon ... ". The inscription regarding "institutes, soft pillows" shocked me. How could the author of the rhyme know that they were soft pillows? Did he sleep on them, or what?! How can you speak like that about tender girls?!" 16/

Professor Lubodrag Dimich, who for many years studied the system of education and upbringing in Russian educational institutions, who were on the territory of the Kingdom of S.X.S., considered the disciplinary measures taken against pupils in the Russian cadet corps to be excessive: “Discipline has been restored in the schools. Already in 1923, it was noted that the discipline had become too strict and that a military, “barracks” spirit prevailed in it. The penalties imposed for minimal misconduct can be called draconian. So, for example, unauthorized exclusion or insignificant disobedience was punished by three to five days in a punishment cell in cramped little rooms without beds. The cells were closed with locks. It gave the impression that this was a correctional institution, and not an educational cadet corps.” 17/

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crimean Cadet Corps- a white educational institution that existed in 1920-1929, first in the Wrangel Crimea, and then in exile.

Hull Formation

On March 23, 1920, fleeing the advancing Red Army, two cadet corps (Petrovsky Poltava and Vladikavkaz) arrived in Kutaisi along the Georgian Military Highway from Vladikavkaz. On June 9, the same corps arrived in the Crimea, where Yalta became their place of stay. On October 22 of the same year, an order was issued that the new united educational institution was called the Crimean Cadet Corps. The director of the new building was appointed V. V. Rimsky-Korsakov back in July. The corps included cadets of the former corps who ended up in the Crimea (they were expelled from the Russian army by order), as well as pupils of the Feodosia boarding school founded in January 1920.

Evacuation from Russia

In November 1920, the corps was evacuated to Constantinople, almost immediately was sent to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where it arrived on December 9 of the same year.

Corps in exile

At the time of arrival in Yugoslavia, the Crimean Corps consisted of 5 companies and 20 class divisions. The institution had 650 cadets aged 10 to 21 (229 cadets were participants in the Civil War, 40 of them with military awards). The teaching staff consisted of 29 people, administrative staff of 8.

Initially, the corps was located in Strnische, where classes began in early January 1921. The first release of the corps (83 people) took place already in October 1921. The conditions were very difficult. Only in 1922 the library was opened. In 1922, 105 people graduated from the corps (according to the program of 7 classes), of which 49 entered the Nikolaev Cavalry School, and another 14 entered the universities of Belgium, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.

In October 1922, the corps was transferred to Bela Tskva, where it was provided with two three-story stone buildings. There were 579 cadets in the corps.

Gradually, the number of pupils decreased. As of September 1, 1929, 271 cadets remained in the corps, of which the vast majority (215) were “state-owned” . There were 24 teachers and 11 educators.

In August - September 1929, the Crimean Cadet Corps was liquidated by merging with the First Russian Cadet Corps, while some of the cadets were transferred to the Don Corps.

Corps directors

• Rimsky-Korsakov Vladimir Valerianovich (1920-1924)
• Promtov Mikhail Nikolaevich (1924-1929)

Training program

In exile training program in the body has undergone some changes. The Cadets already in 1922 studied Serbian language, history and geography of Serbia.

Life

Unlike Russian conditions, where special attendants cleaned the bedrooms of the cadet corps, in Serbia the cadets were forced to keep order themselves. They fed well in Serbia. The cadets were actively involved in sports, out-of-town trips.

A peculiar code of honor reigned in the corps. It was forbidden to steal from comrades, inform on them. Enjoyed great respect St. George Knights. However, stealing from peasants and deceiving teachers was considered valor. In addition, the cadets went AWOL and sometimes disrupted lessons. On April 28, 1922, there was even a mass demonstration by the cadets against the director of the Corps, Rimsky-Korsakov. The administration, for its part, struggled with this. In particular, some self-government was created: the positions of “general of graduation”, “uncles” (assistant officers-educators in undergraduate students recruited from among the best senior cadets).

Social activity

The Cadet Corps periodically arranged walks around the city with an orchestra. Often they gave concerts (including paid ones), due to which the students who distinguished themselves were paid prizes.

It should be noted that the Corps did not forget Russia. For example, in the summer of 1921, a collection was held in the Corps to help the starving people of the Volga region, the funds raised were sent to Russia through the Red Cross.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Crimean Cadet Corps

- Yes, yes, do it.
Pierre did not have that practical tenacity that would have given him the opportunity to directly get down to business, and therefore he did not like him and only tried to pretend to the manager that he was busy with business. The manager, however, tried to pretend to the count that he considered these activities very useful for the owner and embarrassing for himself.
In the big city there were acquaintances; strangers hurried to get acquainted and cordially welcomed the newly arrived rich man, the largest owner of the province. The temptations towards Pierre's main weakness, the one he confessed to during admission to the lodge, were also so strong that Pierre could not refrain from them. Again, whole days, weeks, months of Pierre's life passed just as preoccupied and busy between evenings, dinners, breakfasts, balls, not giving him time to come to his senses, as in Petersburg. Instead of the new life that Pierre hoped to lead, he lived the same former life, just in a different setting.
Of the three appointments of Freemasonry, Pierre was aware that he did not fulfill the one that prescribed each Freemason to be a model of moral life, and of the seven virtues he did not have two at all in himself: good morality and love of death. He consoled himself with the fact that in return he fulfilled a different purpose - the correction of the human race and had other virtues, love for one's neighbor, and especially generosity.
In the spring of 1807, Pierre decided to go back to Petersburg. On the way back, he intended to go around all his estates and personally ascertain what was done from what was prescribed for them and in what position is now the people who were entrusted to him by God, and whom he sought to benefit.
The chief manager, who considered all the undertakings of the young count almost madness, a disadvantage for himself, for him, for the peasants, made concessions. Continuing to make the work of liberation seem impossible, he ordered the construction of large buildings of schools, hospitals and shelters on all estates; for the arrival of the master, he prepared meetings everywhere, not magnificently solemn, which, he knew, Pierre would not like, but precisely such religious thanksgiving, with images and bread and salt, exactly such that, as he understood the master, should have affected the count and deceived him .
The southern spring, the calm, quick journey in a Viennese carriage and the solitude of the road had a joyful effect on Pierre. The estates that he had not yet visited were - one more picturesque than the other; the people everywhere seemed prosperous and touchingly grateful for the good deeds done to them. There were meetings everywhere, which, although they embarrassed Pierre, but in the depths of his soul evoked a joyful feeling. In one place, the peasants brought him bread, salt and the image of Peter and Paul, and asked permission in honor of his angel Peter and Paul, as a token of love and gratitude for the good deeds he had done, to erect a new chapel in the church at their own expense. Elsewhere, women with babies met him, thanking him for getting rid of hard work. In the third estate, he was met by a priest with a cross, surrounded by children, whom he, by the grace of the count, taught literacy and religion. In all the estates, Pierre saw with his own eyes, according to one plan, the stone buildings of hospitals, schools, almshouses, which were supposed to be opened soon, erected and erected already. Everywhere Pierre saw the reports of the administrators about corvée work, reduced against the previous one, and heard the touching thanksgiving of deputations of peasants in blue caftans for this.
Pierre just did not know that where they brought him bread and salt and built a chapel of Peter and Paul, there was a trading village and a fair on Peter's Day, that the chapel had already been built long ago by the rich peasants of the village, those who came to him, and that nine The peasants of this village were in the greatest ruin. He did not know that, due to the fact that, on his orders, they stopped sending women children with babies to corvee, these same children hardest work carried in their half. He did not know that the priest, who met him with a cross, weighed down the peasants with his requisitions, and that the disciples gathered to him with tears were given to him, and were paid off by their parents for a lot of money. He did not know that the stone buildings, according to the plan, were erected by their workers and increased the corvée of the peasants, reduced only on paper. He did not know that where the steward pointed out to him, according to the book, that the dues should be reduced by one third at his will, the corvée service was added by half. And therefore, Pierre was delighted with his journey through the estates, and completely returned to the philanthropic mood in which he left Petersburg, and wrote enthusiastic letters to his mentor, brother, as he called the great master.
“How easy, how little effort is needed to do so much good, thought Pierre, and how little we care about it!”
He was happy with the gratitude shown to him, but he was ashamed when he accepted it. This gratitude reminded him of how much more he would have been able to do for these simple, kind people.
The chief manager, a very stupid and cunning person, completely understanding the smart and naive count, and playing with him like a toy, seeing the effect produced on Pierre by prepared methods, more decisively turned to him with arguments about the impossibility and, most importantly, the uselessness of freeing the peasants, who, even without they were completely happy.
Pierre, in the secret of his soul, agreed with the manager that it was difficult to imagine people happier, and that God knows what awaited them in the wild; but Pierre, though reluctantly, insisted on what he thought was just. The manager promised to use all his strength to carry out the will of the count, clearly realizing that the count would never be able to believe him, not only whether all measures had been taken to sell forests and estates, to ransom him from the Council, but he would probably never ask and not learns how the buildings that have been built stand empty and the peasants continue to give with work and money everything that they give from others, i.e., everything that they can give.

Private educational institution

Crimean Cossack boarding school "Crimean Cossack Cadet Corps"

Private educational institution Crimean Cossack boarding school "Crimean Cossack Cadet Corps" (until 2015 - Crimean Cossack Cadet Corps) was established in 2004. The founder was the Yalta Cossack hut.

Corps banner

The main purpose of the creation of the Corps was to counter violent Ukrainization in educational institutions and to educate Cossack youth in the traditions of the Cossacks, devotion Orthodox Faith and life principles of the Russian people. For 10 years, in addition to the Ukrainian version of history, the cadets studied the history of the USSR, optionally studied the history of the Great Patriotic War, the cadets were provided with information alternative to the official one, many issues of politics and the background of world conflicts were explained.

The corps has been re-registered Russian legislation January 29, 2015, received the Certificate of state registration and permits for training and accreditation under Russian law.

Accommodation and training in the building - boarding school.

Cadets wear Cossack uniforms. Civilian clothing is not allowed.

Education is carried out in accordance with the program of the secondary school.

Additionally, a number of subjects are studied, among them military topography, the history of Orthodoxy, the Cossacks and the Crimea.

Of the applied and sports types - shooting, horseback riding, martial arts, mountaineering equipment, computers.

Training is paid.

The whole daily routine according to the Charter. Dismissals from 1-2 times a month in the absence of violations of discipline.