Frunze Military Academy

The M. V. Frunze Military Academy (russian: Военная академия имени М. В. Фрунзе), or in full the Military Order of Lenin and the October Revolution, Red Banner, Order of Suvorov Academy in the name of M. V. Frunze (russian: Военная орденов Ленина и Октябрьской Революции, Краснознамённая, ордена Суворова академия имени М. В. Фрунзе), was a military academy of the Soviet and later the Russian Armed Forces.

Established in 1918 to train officers for the newly-formed Red Army, the academy was one of the most prestigious military educational institutions in the Soviet Union. At first titled the General Staff Academy of the Red Army, taking on a similar role to its pre-revolutionary predecessor, the Imperial Nicholas Military Academy, it was renamed the Military Academy in 1921 and then the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in 1925, honouring Mikhail Frunze, who had been a commandant of the academy.

It became a higher staff college with the addition of courses for senior command officers in the 1930s, before these were transferred in 1936 to the newly formed Military Academy of the General Staff. By this time many of the Red Army's most senior commanders were graduates of the academy. During the Second World War, large numbers of staff and students were called up to fight. Many won decorations and awards, including 244 Heroes of the Soviet Union, and 18 twice Heroes of the Soviet Union. Training and research at the academy continued throughout the war.

The academy continued to train senior officers for the Soviet Armed Forces after the war, acting as a stepping stone for those tipped for high command before they attended the Military Academy of the General Staff. It was ranked as the most prestigious of all the Soviet military academies, taking officers ranked captain or above for a three-year course of study to prepare them for higher commands. The academy also offered research and postgraduate degrees in various aspects of military studies. Between 1934 and 1988, 722 graduates of the academy were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, while the academy received the Order of Lenin, the Order of Suvorov First Class, and the Order of the October Revolution.

The academy continued to operate after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1998 it was merged with the Malinovsky Military Armoured Forces Academy and the Vystrel officer training courses to form the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

History

Establishing an academy for the training of command and staff officers was an Imperial-era innovation, carried out at the Imperial Nicholas Military Academy. With the outbreak of the First World War, classes at the academy ceased. Special wartime courses for staff officers were briefly instituted from 30 October 1916 on the initiative of General Mikhail Alekseyev, but closed in late April 1917.

The early battles of the Red Army during the first stages of the Russian Civil War demonstrated that battlefield commands could not be given to former workers and soldiers who had little experience with tactics or with leading men. On 7 October 1918 the Revolutionary Military Council ordered the foundation of the General Staff Academy of the Red Army, based in Moscow and taking on the functions of the Imperial-era General Staff Academy. The first intake of students, who joined on 25 November that year, numbered 183, with the official opening of the academy taking place on 8 December 1918.

It was renamed the Military Academy of the Red Army on 5 August 1921. Several years later on 5 November 1925, it was renamed as the M. V. Frunze Military Academy honouring Mikhail Frunze. He had commanded the academy between 19 April 1924 and his death on 31 October 1925.

Higher courses were added in 1921 and expanded in 1925 to become the courses known as KUVNAS to provide advanced training in military science for earlier graduates. These courses became the basis for the Military Academy of the General Staff, which was split from the Frunze Military Academy in 1936. On 18 January 1934 the academy was awarded the Order of Lenin, and became known as the Red Banner Order of Lenin Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze.

From 1922 the academy had occupied a location on , in the expropriated . A new building was designed by Lev Rudnev, with the academy moving into it in August 1937. Training for that semester began on 1 September. The academy, in common with many other Soviet institutions of military education, suffered during the Great Purges of the late 1930s. The commandant and many of the senior department heads and professors were arrested and executed with little justice. By 1941 more than 7,500 personnel had graduated from the academy.

Wartime

Following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, many of the academy's students and teachers were posted to active roles. Between June and July 1941, 43 generals and 167 senior officers were dispatched to the front from the academy, many of them taking up high positions in the Soviet defence effort. Four were appointed regimental commanders, eleven as infantry brigade commanders and chiefs of staff, forty-two as divisional chiefs of staff, twenty-one as division commanders, six as corps commanders and chiefs of staff, twenty-two to army headquarters, and forty-four to front headquarters. Those who remained at the academy were soon occupied in preparing defensive lines and fortifications around Moscow, and in training militia units.

Training efforts continued during the war, with a shortened programme for command officers to link the regiment and division levels, and from 1944 onwards, for division and corps levels. To meet shortages in personnel, those who had a secondary education and qualified as junior lieutenants were also enrolled. As the war progressed, by 1944 training was also provided for combined-arms officers in division and corps units.

Scientific research work continued throughout the war, taking in experience gathered during combat operations and producing summaries of frontline combat activity, manuals on tactics, military geography, and the history of military art. On 21 February 1945 the academy was awarded the Order of Suvorov First Class by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

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