On March 22, 1927, White General Nikolai Nikolaevich Golovin founded and headed the Foreign Higher Military Scientific Courses in Paris, which were a kind of successor to the Imperial Academy of the General Staff. In subsequent years, departments of the Courses were opened in a number of other centers of the White emigration. These courses formally ceased to exist only after the outbreak of World War II. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the history of these courses. The text is taken from the collection "The Russian Army in Exile".
As the remnants of the White Army went abroad, its command began to think about a possible future. Everyone was convinced that the Soviet government would not be able to stay in Russia for long. Sooner or even later, it will be overthrown. And, as at the end of 1917, anarchy will reign. It was then that the Russian Army, returning to its homeland, will be engaged not only in establishing order, but also in restoring the military power of the Russian state. This restoration of military power and a complete reorganization of the Red Army would require a large number of officers sufficiently knowledgeable about both the experience of the First World War and the impact it had on military science. In addition, the officers should have influenced the education of the new corps of officers, since the command staff of the Red Army, under the conditions of its recruitment and training, could be on the whole not suitable for this.
After the army went abroad, General Wrangel had few officers with a higher military education at his disposal. And he was fully aware that in the absence of a trained officer cadre, it would be impossible to establish order in Russia, much less restore its military power. Therefore, already in 1921, when he began to transfer parts of his army from Gallipoli and from Lemnos to the Slavic countries, General Wrangel planned to open in Serbia, in Belgrade, the Russian Academy of the General Staff. Then he turned to General N. N. Golovin with a proposal to organize such an academy and take over its leadership.
General Golovin presented to General Wrangel the inconsistency of such an undertaking, pointing out that the experience of the past world war has not yet been studied, no conclusions have been drawn from it, no manuals are available to study this experience. In addition, there are not enough trained leaders to be entrusted with teaching. General Wrangel agreed with these arguments and instructed General Golovin to prepare everything necessary for the opening of the academy.
Having received an offer to prepare the opening of the Higher Russian Military School abroad, he took up this matter with all his heart. This preparation went in two directions. First of all, it was necessary to compose the main scientific work, which would set out in detail the combat experience gained by each type of weapon during the First World War, as well as all the changes caused by this experience, both in the organization of the armed forces of the state and in its internal politics in peacetime. This scientific work entitled "Thoughts on the structure of the future Russian armed force" was compiled by General Golovin with the direct participation of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. General Golovin, having studied each issue, presented to the Grand Duke the draft of each chapter, and the text was read by them twice. At the first reading, the Grand Duke made changes of a fundamental nature, and at the second, the final edition was established. The Grand Duke wanted this work to be a guiding tool for improving the military knowledge of the officers of the Russian Army who are abroad, as well as for training young people who have received secondary education abroad and who want to join the ranks of the officers of the future Russian Army.
Simultaneously with this work, General Golovin took up the second task - preparation for the opening of the Higher Military School. He sought out and trained persons who could become both professors and adjutants. Both were supposed to ensure the correct scientific life and progress of such a school. Obviously, for this purpose, General Golovin, with the help of General Wrangel, founds military self-education circles in the centers of the Russian military emigration, to whom individual prints of the chapters of his main work were sent as they were printed. Soon these circles were merged into the "Courses of Higher Military Self-Education". In 1925, the number of such circles reached 52, with over 550 participants.
In 1925, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich became the head of the Russian emigration. He increased material support for correspondence military scientific circles and took an active part in preparing the opening of the Higher military scientific courses in Paris.
About five years of active scientific work of General Golovin was required to prepare the main manual - the book "Thoughts on the structure of the future Russian armed force." In this work, the entire influence of the experience of the First World War on military science and on the related experience of reorganization of military units of all types of weapons was clearly presented. Only when General Golovin finished this work, did the top of the Russian military emigration create confidence that the scientific data for studying all changes in military science, and in the organization of various types of weapons, are sufficiently developed and are a good foundation for studying the provisions of the latest military science. As for the number of officers who may wish to complete a full course of military sciences, the wide participation of officers in the circles of higher military self-education made it possible to think that the number of those wishing to enroll in the Higher military scientific courses would be more than sufficient. The Grand Duke, having received confidence in both sufficient theoretical preparation for the opening of the courses, and that there will be enough listeners, gave his consent to this.
In But General Golovin decided to make sure of this in practice. In the early winter of 1926-27, General Golovin decided to give five public lectures at the Gallipoli meeting in Paris on the First World War. These lectures turned out to be an event in the life of the Russian military emigration. From the very first lecture, the hall of the Gallipoli meeting was overcrowded. Listeners stood not only in the aisles of the hall, but also filled the hallway in front of the hall. The same thing happened during the next lectures. It was evident that the listeners perceive the material offered to them with great Interest. This interest created confidence that there will be enough students when the Higher Military Scientific Courses are opened in Paris. After the corresponding “treasure of General Golovin, the Grand Duke gave his consent to the opening of these courses. Giving his consent, the Grand Duke, among the main orders, made the following three.
1) The regulations on the courses should be the regulations on the former Imperial Nicholas Military Academy, as amended in 1910, and those who graduated from the courses are given the right to be reckoned with the General Staff of the future Russian Army.
2) In order to emphasize how close to his heart was the creation of the Higher Military Scientific Courses, the Grand Duke decided to include the monogram of the Grand Duke with the Imperial crown in the academic badge awarded to those who successfully completed the courses. Name the courses: "Foreign Higher Military Scientific Courses of General Golovin."
The purpose of this émigré military school was to provide Russian officers abroad with the opportunity to obtain a higher military education; to support the work of training personnel in Russian military science at the level of modern requirements and to disseminate military knowledge among the Russian General Military Union. Already at the end of the third lecture, General Golovin announced his decision to open in the near future the Higher military-scientific courses in
Paris. All officers wishing to enroll in these courses had to submit a report on their enrollment in the number of students before a certain deadline. To this report it was necessary to attach information about the passage of service and the recommendation of the unit commander or a senior representative of his unit or formation.
At the opening of the courses, all officers who graduated from military schools during the war were enrolled as valid listeners. Since a fairly large number of reports were filed by officers, pro. excluded from the volunteers for distinction, General Golovin immediately established military school courses for them, the completion of which gave them the right to enroll in the Higher military scientific courses. Two students of military school courses who had a higher civilian education were simultaneously admitted to the course of the Higher military scientific courses as volunteers, so that with the end of the military school courses they automatically become real students of the Higher military scientific courses.
Subsequently, young people who received secondary education abroad and were members of Russian youth organizations entered the military school courses. Many of them, after graduating from military school courses, moved to the ranks of students of the Higher military scientific courses. By order of the chairman of the Russian General Military Union, General Miller, those who graduated from military school courses were awarded the rank of second lieutenant.
By the spring of 1927, the preparatory work for the organization of the Higher Military Scientific Courses was completed, and on March 22, 1927, General Golovin solemnly opened them with his introductory lecture.
The organization of the Higher Military Scientific Courses was based, as Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich pointed out, the organization of the Imperial Nikolaev Military Academy. The entire course was designed for four and a half to five years and was divided into three classes: junior, senior and additional. In the junior class, the theory of military operations is studied within the framework of the division. At the same time, the tactics of weapons and other military disciplines are studied, knowledge of which is necessary to understand and resolve many issues that arise in a detailed study of the division's combat operations. In the senior class, the use of divisions in corps and in the army is studied. Finally, in the additional class, disciplines of a higher order, on a national scale, are taught, in other words, strategy and related issues.
During the work of General Golovin on a book about the structure of the Russian armed force, all the scientific information, more precisely, those military scientific disciplines, the knowledge of which is necessary for every officer of the General Staff to solve all kinds of issues in a rapidly changing military situation, gradually became clear. How wide is the scope of different information that is useful to know for every officer of the General Staff, especially those holding a high position, is shown by the following list of military scientific disciplines and leaders who were assigned to teach them at different times:
1) Strategy - Professor General Golovin
2) Infantry tactics - Professor Colonel Zaitsov
3) Cavalry tactics - General Domanevsky160, General Shatilov, General Cheryachukin161
4) Artillery tactics - General Vinogradsky162, Colonel Andreev
5) Air Force Tactics - General Baranov
6) Combat chemistry - Colonel Ivanov163
7) Field military engineering and tactics of technical troops - General Stavitsky164, Captain Petrov165
8) General tactics - Professor Colonel Zaitsov
9) Higher tactics - Professor Colonel Zaitsov
10) Review of classic tactical exercises - General Alekseev166, Professor Colonel Zaitsov
11) Supply and Logistics Service - General Alekseev
12) General Staff Service - Professor General Golovin, Professor General Ryabikov167
13) Service of automobile troops - General Sekretev168
14) Radiotelegraph Service - Colonel Trikoza169
15) Military Engineering Defense of the State - General Stavitsky
16) Russian military history - Colonel Pyatnitsky 170
17) The current state of naval art - Professor Admiral Bubnov171
18) General history of World War 1914-1918 - Professor General Golovin, General Domanevsky, Professor Colonel Zaitsov
19) History of the latest military art - Professor Colonel Zaitsov
20) Military Psychology - General Krasnov172
21) Military Geography - Colonel Arkhangelsky
22) The structure of the armed forces of the main European states - Professor Emeritus General Gulevich 173
23) War and International Law - Professor Baron Nolde
24) War and the economic life of the country - Professor Bernatsky
25) Mobilization of industry during the Great War and preparation for future mobilization - I. I. Bobarykov 174.
The study of all these disciplines was based on the idea that knowledge for a military man has value only when he knows how to apply it. Therefore, courses not only try to expand the mental outlook and clarify the knowledge of the listener, but also teach him to apply this knowledge when the appropriate environment is created. This skill is achieved by using an applied method, when students comprehensively study the questions proposed by the leader, offer one or another original solution, and then listen to the criticism of the leader and their colleagues. So, they gradually get used to comprehensively cover the issue and quickly find one or another solution. The completion of training by this method is a war game, in which the participants show the degree of their preparation by deciding each move of the game.
General Golovin believed that training a student in all three grades would require up to 800 teaching hours. Half of these hours, that is, 400, will be spent listening to the obligatory lectures. The rest were intended for conversations, seminars, solving tactical problems and, finally, for a war game. Obligatory open lectures, to which every member of the General Military Union was admitted on an equal basis with the students of the courses, took place on Tuesdays from 21 to 23 hours. Practical classes, which were only allowed for course participants, took place during the same hours on Thursdays. With this calculation, the use of the scheduled teaching hours should have taken 50-52 months.
In the month of March 1927, at the time of the opening of the courses, the assistant to the chief leader for combat and economic affairs, Lieutenant General M. I. Repyev175 gathered more than a hundred reports of officers wishing to receive a higher military education. General Golovin first of all selected the reports of the officers made from the volunteers. He offered these officers to enter the military school courses earlier and, after passing the officer's exam, the right to enter the junior class of the Higher military scientific courses.
The rest of the officers were divided into 6 groups, and each such group constituted, as it were, a separate class. Group A-1 was made up exclusively of career officers, most of them already in staff officers' ranks, who had already worked for two years under the leadership of General Golovin in extramural higher military self-education circles. It also included generals who wanted to take a course in higher military sciences, as well as two volunteers, as they had a higher civil education. Groups A-2 and A-3 were made up of career officers who did not participate in extramural military self-education circles. Groups A-4 and A-5 included officers who graduated from military schools during the Great War, and, finally, group A-6 included officers who graduated from military schools during the Civil War.
General Golovin believed that gentlemen leaders should take into account the general training of students and, accordingly, make some differences in the methods of teaching and in their requirements, however, strictly remaining within the framework of teaching. In order to get to know the listeners better, it was recommended during each lesson to call them into a conversation and conduct it in such a way as to form an idea of how the listener understands this subject and how much he assimilates it. The leaders had to make sure that the students learned this military-scientific discipline not by cramming, but by conscious perception. Finally, leaders, examining various issues during practical exercises, should be especially tactful of the opinions and decisions expressed by the listeners, avoid insisting on their decision, so that the listeners do not have a kind of obligatory stencil or template for solving carved kind of issues.
After ten months of training, the chief leader on December 15, 1927 asked the gentlemen of the leaders to present him by January 1, 1928, an assessment of the success of the participants in the practical classes of the Higher Military Scientific Courses. They had to evaluate on five grades: 1) outstanding, 2) good, 3) satisfactory, 4) unsatisfactory, and 5) completely unsatisfactory. The managers had to supplement each assessment with several words that more accurately characterize it. The same leaders who completed the homework had to justify this assessment based on the homework. When making this assessment, gentlemen, the leaders had to take into account not only the knowledge acquired by the listener, but also the degree of his general development, interest in military affairs, decisiveness and ability to think.
This assessment, provided by the gentlemen by the supervisors, allowed the principal course leader to form a known opinion of each student.
From the first day of the opening of the courses, the classes went on as usual. But for many students, regular attendance at classes was too much for them. After all, at the same time as scientific studies, it was necessary to roll up not only one's own personal life, but - for family ones - and for the maintenance of the family. Therefore, the junior class was a kind of filter: all those who could not keep up with their classmates dropped out. There were about half of them in the junior grade of each course.
The courses were so successful that already in the fourth month of their existence, the chief leader turned to the gentlemen leaders with a proposal to work out the text of the home problem within two weeks. This text was to be subdivided into the following headings: a) general assignment, b) particular assignments for each question asked by him, c) instructions on what the resolver should do for each of the questions. Then, on July 2, 1927, the exact order of how problems should be handed out for solving at home, when students are required to turn in solutions, was established; then the order of the individual parsing, and finally the general parsing. It was pointed out that individual discussions should be kept as short as possible, since each group is given only one practice session. The leader in individual discussions plays a passive role, prompting the audience to short debates, which, among other things, can point out well-known shortcomings in his lectures.
The general analysis takes only one two-hour lecture. It should begin with reading the problem and the decision, which was made by the leader himself with the same details that were required from the listeners, since all written answers and orders were read and it was also shown on the cards that the listeners were supposed to show on tracing paper. In the second part of the general analysis, the leader must indicate other options for solving this problem. But it must be done in a tactful way so that the audience does not think that a stencil is being imposed on them.
In the third part of the general analysis, the manager dwells on those mistakes that he met in decisions. This indication should be accompanied by an explanation of those questions of the theory, the poor assimilation of which led to these errors. General Golovin almost always checked in every detail every tactical problem, as well as the solution to this problem by the leader before proposing a solution to the listeners.
In the spring of 1928, the time for the transition of the 1st year from the junior class to the senior one began to approach. The question arose among the listeners, what tests and tests of knowledge will cause this transition. - In the order of the chief head of the courses dated February 27, 1928, it is indicated that these tests will consist of: a) rehearsals, b) a war game and c) a reporting tactical task with her oral explanation.
The rehearsals were established at the request of the students themselves, who expressed a desire that the knowledge of all courses be checked before the war game. Rehearsals should take place in front of a panel chaired by the chief course leader or his deputy. Each rehearsal program will be divided into 15 - 20 tickets, representing the basic questions that the listener will have to answer after thinking them over. Therefore, when drawing up a program, you should pay attention to the fact that the table of contents of the ticket is a program of the answer that is expected from the listener to the main question asked in the ticket.
The purpose of the rehearsal is to test how consciously the students have learned the military-scientific disciplines they have studied. The order of the rehearsal was as follows. The next listener, having taken a ticket in which the main question proposed to him is listed, thinks over and prepares an answer at a separate table, using the manuals taken with him, for half an hour. Then, presenting himself before the commission, he must, within 15 minutes, fully, but briefly, report to the commission. After that, individual members of the commission ask the listener volatile questions.
While listening to this report, the members of the commission should pay attention to the fact that it was not a simple retelling of the relevant passages of the manual, but would represent a reasonable consideration of the main issue, albeit with the personal conclusions of the listener.
The answer was assessed with the following marks: excellent (12), very good (11), good (10-9), quite satisfactory (8-7), satisfactory (6). In cases where the answer is unsatisfactory, the listener is announced to re-exam.
To give the highest ranks of the Russian Army an opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the Higher Military Scientific Courses, General Golovin invited generals E. K. Miller and Postovsky 176; to a rehearsal on infantry tactics - generals A. P. Kutepov and Holmsen177; for a rehearsal on cavalry tactics - Generals Shatilov and Cheryachukin; to a rehearsal on artillery tactics - General Prince Masalsky178; to a rehearsal on the tactics of the air forces - General Stepanov179 and Colonel Rudnev180; to a rehearsal in field military engineering - General Bem181.
At the end of October 1928, a new admission of students to the junior class of the Higher Military Scientific Courses was announced. On November 7, 1928, General Golovin gave the following order: “I have opened a new junior class. Classes on it will be held according to the same programs and in the same volume, as was the case for the first composition of regular students. Some of the changes I am forced to make due to financial constraints are as follows: the students of the current junior class will listen to lectures on Tuesdays with the senior. Special classes for the junior class will be held for them on Mondays.
These activities should be: a) conversations of the nature of the lectures and b) exercises on the map. Taking this into account, I have increased the number of such classes compared to the previous course."
The compulsory attendance of every general lecture by all course participants on Tuesdays began to give the latter a very special character. These lectures began, as it were, to drop out of the general system of passing military sciences. The topics of the lectures on Tuesdays were mainly new questions and theories based both on the experience of war and on improvements in weapons, sorted out in the latest military-scientific foreign literature. At these lectures, the works of officers who graduated from the Higher Military Scientific Courses were also considered later. So, I. I. Bobarykov, on behalf of Honored Professor General A. A. Gulevich, did research on the work of industry in Russia and France during the war of 1914-1918 and gave two lectures on the history and experience of this mobilization. He also, on behalf of General Golovin, traced the influence of the works of generals Manikovsky and Svyatlovsky, as well as other Soviet researchers, on the development of plans for the first and second five-year plans. It should be noted that during the 13 years of the official existence of the courses, none of the lectures given on Tuesdays was repeated a second time.
The wide attendance of these lectures by non-course, so to speak, "outside" military students allowed General Golovin, in a conversation with the head of the Belgrade military-scientific courses, General Schuberki182, to imprudently say that the Paris courses are a kind of people's university. General Golovin had in mind the military knowledge acquired by outside military visitors to lectures on Tuesdays. General Shubersky took this expression literally. Therefore, in his book (“On the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Higher Military Scientific Courses in Belgrade,” p. 13) he says: “At the very first meeting of the Training Committee, it was decided to organize the Courses on the model of our former Academy. In this way, the organization of the Belgrade Courses differed from the Paris Courses, organized on the basis of the People's University”. With such an idea of the Parisian courses, it is quite normal to state that "the composition of the course participants … consisted … also of civilians, if they were recommended by the Military Organizations" (Ibid.: 9). This, of course, would have been normal in a popular university, but, as mentioned above, there was no such thing in the Parisian courses. When meeting with General Schuberki, one of the leaders proved that the Parisian courses differed from the Belgrade ones only by one extra lecture per week, which on its topic did not touch on the mediocre issues currently being studied at the courses. General Shubersky admitted his mistake.
The only drawback of the Parisian courses was the lack of research and rehearsals for the course on the actions of armored forces in the first years of their existence. This situation was caused by the fact that Russia actually withdrew from the war almost immediately after the 1917 revolution, and its army had only the first armored vehicles. She was not aware of any later all-terrain vehicles or tracked tanks, as well as the issues of their use and tactics. Massive tank operations on the Western Front began much later than the February Revolution. Their experience and conclusions from it were very contradictory. This defect was corrected in the 30s by Professor Colonel Zaitsov. He took up the study of new ways in the theory of military affairs, and in particular the works of the British military scientist and specialist in armored forces, General Fuller. In 1936, there were 8 lectures of Professor Colonel Zaitsov on the topic: "New ways in military affairs - armored troops." They were included in the number of general lectures, that is, they were intended for listeners of all three grades: junior, senior and additional. In 1938, 5 more lectures were held on the same basis (for all students of the courses) on the topic: "The tactics of armored troops." The lectures of Professor Colonel Zaitsov attracted the greatest attention of the audience. At the same time, units of the mechanized troops were introduced to the tasks of the war game for students of the courses.
Meanwhile, the top military leaders of the French and British armed forces did not take sufficient interest in General Fuller's theories until 1939. And the troops of the Western powers entered the battlefields in 1940 with a large number of tanks, but with completely outdated fundamentals of tank tactics. Large formations of German tanks with the new tactics quickly won a complete victory over the troops of the Anglo-French.
A very serious test of the knowledge acquired by the students was a two-sided war game, for which 25 lessons were allocated. This game took place when the senior class of the courses graduated from the Study of Higher Tactics. It was carried out as follows: the entire senior class was divided into two groups. Each had a pumped-up mediator - an experienced senior leader. By the beginning of the game, the bosses were choosing a battle site on the map that would correspond to the task they wanted to base the game on. Then, information was prepared for each group, which allowed each group to form a certain idea of the enemy, as well as to understand the existing situation and, in accordance with these data, make one or another decision. The mediator of this group determines different positions between the participants, starting with the commander of this higher unit and ending with the one that will be occupied by the last member of the group. Then the mediator invites them - starting with the commander of the formation and ending with the last occupied position - to write, according to the position of each, orders and instructions. All this should be completed by the end of the session, when it is surrendered to the mediator. The two mediators of the parties study the work together and determine what could have been noticed by intelligence or in some other way in relation to the other group, as well as those actions of both groups that could somehow affect the situation. In the next lesson, the mediators, having analyzed individually the decision, orders and orders, again redistribute positions, and it was recommended to transfer the participants from one position to another each time. Then they are given new information about the enemy. Group members must write all orders and orders, taking into account the new data on the situation. Throughout the game, group mediators produce light, individual criticism of mistakes, both in the main implementation of the command task and in the formulation of orders and orders.
Initially, it was supposed to make a field trip to the places where this task theoretically took place after the end of a tactical task or military game. But the very first trip to the Villers-Cottrets area attracted the obvious attention of the gendarmes; General Golovin decided not to make more such trips.
When moving from senior class to additional students, students had to go through rehearsals: 1) in the military-engineering defense of the state, 2) in the history of military art, and 3) in higher tactics. The assistants at these rehearsals were: in the military-engineering defense of the state - General Boehm, and in higher tactics - General Miller.
The rehearsal for the first year in the history of military art was canceled, since the lectures had not yet been cast. In addition, the role of a test was played by decisions during a war game in the classroom and at home: in tactics, in the service of the General Staff and in the supply and rear services, in the reporting task for the corps.
While the first year was completing the study of the sciences that were part of the senior class program, and was preparing for the transition to the additional class, General Golovin, in his order of May 8, 1929, introduced a large written work into the program of the additional class,not exceeding 20 pages in size. This work should have the character of an independent creative work of the listener. In fact, it replaced the oral "second topic" of the course of the Imperial Nikolaev Military Academy. At the Higher Military Scientific Courses, this topic will be a purely written work. The order also indicates the reasons for such a deviation from the program of the academy. The reasons are as follows: 1) spring rehearsals showed the listeners' ability to make oral presentations, 2) it is easier to judge the development and knowledge of the listener by written work, and 3) arranging such oral presentations for each listener would require a lot of time, as well as costs for renting a hall.
Each leader had to submit ten topics for each of the courses he taught by May 20, 1929. These topics should address the latest issues. The works on these topics presented by the listeners will be considered by General Golovin and the leader who gave the topic. Topics should be chosen and formulated so that the listener can limit himself to one or two manuals. These written works are a test of the listeners' ability to independently study any classic or new military printed work.
Finally, a special instruction regulates the production of a special final test for strategy, higher tactics and service of the General Staff. This test aims to test the candidate's ability to think independently in these areas of military knowledge. The main part of this is a 15-minute presentation on a specific topic given to the examiner a few days before. This report should represent the listener's conclusions from the particular case given in the topic. It is recommended that when answering, present diagrams, cartograms and tables. The assessment will focus on the richness of the content, the presentation, the clarity of thought, the convexity of the content and the precise use of the time provided.
At the end of this report, the listener and after the instructions given by the chief leader, the listener will be asked several volatile questions on the courses of strategy, higher tactics and the service of the General Staff. The answers given to the examiners will be assessed not from the point of view of the factual side, but from the point of view of understanding the modern theory of military art. The distribution of topics among the examinees will be made by lot. Attendance at the tests is mandatory for all students of the additional class, even those who are not examining that day.
The 1st year final exam was very solemnly furnished. Around the main head of the professor, General Golovin, gathered: Honored Professor of the Imperial Nikolaev Military Academy, General Gulevich, two more general professors of the academy, the former head of the Imperial Naval Nikolaev Academy, Admiral Rusin183 and the main generals of the General Military Union: General E. K. Miller, General Erdeli, General Postovsky, General Shatilov, General Prince Masalsky, General Kusonsky, General Suvorov184. Thus, the examination committee consisted of four professors, specialists in higher military education, and a number of generals who graduated from the Military Academy before the First World War and, therefore, were well acquainted with the program and requirements that were imposed on officers - students of this academy.
General Golovin very closely followed the work of each student and, long before the end of their courses, outlined which of them might be capable of further scientific work. The best of them were assigned to the departments immediately after completing the courses, and then after a year or two, after performing various works and a test lecture, they were assigned to the departments. These were: Colonel Pyatnitsky, Colonel Kravchenko, Colonel Prokofiev185, Staff Captain Yanovsky186, Staff Captain Konashevich187, Staff Captain A. V. Osipov 188, Lieutenant Kuznetsov189, Second Lieutenant Galai190, Bobarykov, Khvolson191 and Vlasov192.
In general, General Golovin set himself the task of not only helping those wishing to get a higher military education, but also preparing people who could, in the event of a change in the political situation, return to Russia, raise the Higher Military School there to the proper height.
The organization in Paris of the Higher Military Scientific Courses with the program of the Academy of the General Staff could not fail to attract the attention of the Soviet government. There is every reason to believe that one of the 1st year students, a staff officer who, according to him, fled from Soviet Russia in 1923, attended the entire course, successfully passed all the works and tests, was expelled one or two weeks before graduation. from the list of courses and then disappeared without a trace from Paris - was sent to the courses by the Soviet government. This assumption is all the more substantiated because soon the information sheet of the Organization of the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich notified all its members that this headquarters officer was a Soviet secret agent.
It should also be remembered that in the first year of the courses' existence, when the classes were getting better, the Soviet envoy in Paris demanded that they be closed. General Golovin, having learned about this demand, turned to Marshal Foch. The latter, together with General Golovin, went to the chairman of the Council of Ministers. In a conversation with the latter, Marshal Foch pointed out that a new war with Germany was inevitable, and Russian military emigration was widely admitted to France as a magnificent fired shot, which could prove to be very valuable for France and that it would be absurd to prevent this shot from maintaining its military at a certain height. knowledge. A way out of the situation was found in the fact that the courses will continue their work under the name "Institute for the Study of War and Peace."
Subsequently, all students who graduated from the courses were assigned to the Institute for the Study of War and Peace. In this way, they could better keep in touch with each other, use books from the course library, attend general lectures on Tuesdays, and sometimes carry out separate assignments from Professor General Golovin on the military scientific part.
The courses as such formally ceased to exist when France entered the war in September 1939. In fact, they existed in 1940 until the beginning of the German occupation of Paris and produced 6 issues. A total of 82 students graduated from them.
In order to give the opportunity to receive a higher military education for those officers who lived outside Paris, General Golovin opened correspondence courses on January 1, 1931, under the program of the Higher Military Scientific Courses in Paris. Information about the work of the correspondence courses has not been preserved.
At the end of 1930, it became possible to open a branch of the Foreign Higher Military Scientific Courses in Belgrade, in order to give the officers living there an opportunity to receive a higher military education. The courses were opened on January 31, 1931. At the head of the Belgrade courses, General Golovin appointed General Staff General A. N. Shubersky. 77 students graduated from the Belgrade courses.
Excerpt from an article by Colonel A. G. Yagubova193
The Academy was supposed to be opened in Serbia in 1921, that is, without any preliminary training, without having any trained teachers, not a single modern textbook. The students were supposed to be provided financially in order to relieve them of worries about a piece of bread. The head of this academy was proposed to General N. N. Golovin.
General Golovin convinced General Wrangel that such a hasty opening of the Higher Military School, without serious preliminary preparation, could not give positive results. And behind the loud signboard "Academy" there will be insignificant content.
According to General Golovin, the Higher Military School should be created through long-term work to educate the teaching staff, united by the unity of military doctrine, which still had to be worked on. It was necessary to compile textbooks that fully correspond to the modern level of military knowledge, and to make a selection of students. As for the latter, with the inevitable limited number of them and with their material support, the Higher Military School could be filled with people who are not so much thirsty for knowledge, as wanting to free themselves from the worries of earning a livelihood.
According to General Golovin, a properly delivered higher military education should not only provide the knowledge necessary for the top leadership, but also select strong-willed people.
Proceeding from this, General Golovin believed that the emigrant Higher Military School should not give students any material benefits, but, on the contrary, demand sacrifice and perseverance from them in achieving the goal they once set for themselves. Under such conditions, General Golovin hoped that only people who really wanted to gain knowledge, people who were nationally minded and believed in the bright future of their people, would go to the Higher School.
General Golovin set the following as the goal of the émigré Higher School: 1) keeping the work of the Russian educational personnel of military science up to date; 2) the creation of a cadre of Russian officers with a European military education, capable of thinking and creating in the aggregate of all the phenomena of war.
The first goal set by him was achieved thanks to the brilliant selection of leaders, such as Professor General Gulevich, Professor Colonel Zaitsov, Generals Stavitsky, Domanevsky, Baranov, Vinogradsky and Colonel Ivanov. As for the second goal, more than 300 officers passed through the Paris courses at different times and for different periods. Of these, 82 successfully completed the five-year course and received the right to wear the badge.
