The V. I. Lenin Military-Political Academy ( (VPA)) was a higher military educational institution of the

Soviet Armed Forces The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and t ...

from 1919 to 1991 that provided advanced training to political workers.

History

The predecessor of the academy was the Teachers' Institute of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

, which was established on 5 November 1919 from the Courses for Agitators at the

Smolny Institute The Smolny Institute (russian: Смольный институт, ''Smol'niy institut'') is a Palladian edifice in Saint Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia. History The building was commissioned from Giacomo Qua ...

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. The institute was named after

Nikolay Tolmachyov Nikolai Gurevich Tolmachyov (russian: Никола́й Гу́рьевич Толмачёв) (November 12, 1895 – May 26, 1919) was a Russian Bolsheviks, Bolshevik revolutionary and participant of the February Revolution, February and October Revo ...

, a political worker who was killed at the front; the academy continued to carry the name of Tolmachev in subsequent renamings until 1938. The institute carried the mission of training teachers for Red Army schools and political workers for the army. It was renamed the Petrograd Red Army University on 14 April 1920 and was transferred to the Political Directorate (PUR), being renamed the Petrograd Instructors' Institute by orders of 10 and 12 March 1921. The institute was combined with the 16th Army Red Army University (formed by the

Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers * Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...

on 5 July 1920), which had absorbed the party schools of the 8th and 17th Rifle Divisions in August 1920, on 3 March 1922. The Higher Military-Political Course was created as a result of the merger. The course was soon renamed to the Military-Political Institute of the Red Army and Fleet on 14 February 1923 and made equivalent to a military academy. It became the N. G. Tolmachev Military-Political Academy on 14 May 1925 and was subordinated to the chief of higher educational institutions under the PUR. The VPA was tasked with providing higher education to political workers. Awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

on 31 October 1934, the academy was renamed in honor of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

on 11 January 1938, assuming its longtime name: V. I. Lenin Military-Political Academy. The academy was also relocated to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1938. The academy was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...

on 13 December 1944 and the

Order of the October Revolution The Order of the October Revolution (russian: Орден Октябрьской Революции, ''Orden Oktyabr'skoy Revolyutsii'') was instituted on October 31, 1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferr ...

in 1969. The academy was reorganized as the Humanitarian Academy on 7 December 1991 as a result of the elimination of political workers in the armed forces.

Structure of the Academy

Faculties

* Combined Arms * Naval * Air Force * Military pedagogical *

Military Law Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bodie ...

(operating from 1957–1974) * Faculty of distance learning * Faculty for the training of officers of the countries of popular democracy * Higher academic courses

Departments

* Department of History of the CPSU * Department of dialectical and historical materialism * Department of political economics * Department of Soviet History * Department of pedagogy * Department of the History of International Workers and National Liberation Movement * Department of party work * Department of political and military geography * Department of Journalism * Department of Theory and History of State and Law and State Law * Department of Criminal Law * Department of Judicial Law and Criminalistics * Department of military administration and administrative law * Department of Tactics * Department of Artillery * Department of the Air Force * Department of the Navy * Department of the history of wars and military art * Department of Communications and Radar * Department of atomic and chemical weapons * Department of Engineering Troops * Department of military topography * Department of physical fitness

Support and service units

* Club Academy * Guard Company *

Military Band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the ti ...

* Medical Service and Clinic * Automotive Department * Artillery Repair Shop * Independent Combined Battalion (Military Unit 21212)

Awards

(1934) *

(1944) *

(1969)

Notable graduates

* Pyotr Klimuk – A former Soviet

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

and the first Belarusian to perform space travel. *

Nikolai Vedeneyev Nikolai Denisovich Vedeneyev (; 28 March 1897 16 November 1964) was a Soviet Army lieutenant general and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Vedeneyev was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in World War I as a non-commissioned officer. He ...

– Former head of faculty at the Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization. *

Alexander Moiseyevsky Alexander Gavrilovich Moiseyevsky (; 18 October 1902 18 March 1971) was a Soviet Army major general and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Moiseyevsky joined the Red Army in 1919 and fought in the Russian Civil War. Later, he became an officer and p ...

–

Major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

and

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

. *

Semyon Rudniev Semyon Vasilyevich Rudniev (russian: Семён Васи́льевич Ру́днев; uk, Семе́н Васи́льович Ру́днєв) (February 27, 1899 – August 4, 1943) was one of the leaders of Soviet partisan movement during World ...

– A leader of Soviet partisan movement during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. * Alexey Sorokin – An Admiral of the Fleet and former member of the

Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union (russian: Съезд народных депутатов СССР, ''Sʺezd narodnykh deputatov SSSR'') was the highest body of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. Backg ...

. *

Victor Gaiciuc Victor Gaiciuc (born 12 March 1957) is a Moldovan military general, who served as Moldovan Minister of Defense until August 2021. He was also the National Security Advisor to former president Igor Dodon. He is currently the chairman of the Union ...

– National Security Advisor to Moldovan President

Igor Dodon Igor Dodon (; born 18 February 1975) is a Moldovan politician who previously served as the president of Moldova from 23 December 2016 to 24 December 2020. He currently serves as the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova. ...

. He was also the Secretary of the

Supreme Security Council The Supreme Security Council (SSC) ( ro, Consiliul Suprem de Securitate, CSS) is an advisory body to the President of Moldova (concurrently the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Moldovan Armed Forces) which aides and assists the President in the ...

and was a two time

Moldovan Minister of Defense The Ministry of Defence of Moldova is one of the thirteen ministries of the Government of Moldova. It is the main executive body responsible for the managing of the Armed Forces of Moldova. History Pre-history During the era of the Moldavian De ...

. * Igor Alekseyev – A

People's Deputy of Ukraine People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. Gallen-Alten ...

* Xue Zizheng – Former deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party organizations, the ...

of the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

. *

Levan Sharashenidze Levan Sharashenidze ( ka, ლევან შარაშენიძე; russian: Леван Леванович Шарашенидзе, ''Levan Levanovich Sharashenidze'') (born 24 March 1931) is a retired Soviet and Georgian military officer an ...

– A Soviet and Georgian general who formerly served as the Defense Minister of Georgia. *

João Lourenço João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço (born 5 March 1954) is an Angolan politician, who has served as the president of Angola since 26 September 2017. Previously, he was Minister of Defence from 2014 to 2017. In September 2018, he became the Cha ...

–

President of Angola The president of Angola () is both head of state and head of government in Angola. According to the constitution adopted in 2010, the post of prime minister is abolished; executive authority belongs to the president who has also a degree of leg ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{Cite book, url=http://guides.eastview.com/browse/guidebook.html?bid=121, title=Центральный государственный архив Советской армии: Путеводитель, publisher=Eastview Publications, year=1993, isbn=1879944030, editor-last=Dvoinykh, editor-first=L.V., volume=2, location=Minneapolis, language=ru, trans-title=A Guide to the Central State Archive of the Soviet Army, editor-last2=Karyaeva, editor-first2=T.F., editor-last3=Stegantsev, editor-first3=M.V. Military academies of the Soviet Union Political-Military Educational Institutions Educational institutions established in 1919 Educational institutions disestablished in 1991 Military units and formations disestablished in 1991 Military units and formations awarded the Order of the Red Banner 1919 establishments in Russia 1991 disestablishments in Russia