"In the event of a military conflict, men in blue berets will go into the mouth of the enemy with one goal - to tear this mouth apart."
V. F. Margelov
Parade crew of the RVVDKU, on Red Square, Moscow, May 9, 2005
94 years ago, on November 13, a glorious military institute of the armed forces of our Motherland was organized - the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School (RVVDKU) named after Army General Vasily Filippovich Margelov.
The history of this institution began in August 1918, when it was decided to form the first infantry courses in Ryazan to replenish the command staff of the young workers 'and peasants' Red Army. On their base, in the future, they organized first an infantry, and later an airborne school. The birthday of the RVVDKU was November 13, 1918 - the first day when the courses began. Colonel Ivan Aleksandrovich Troitsky was appointed head of the school. It was a wartime, turbulent time, classes were held at an accelerated pace. Pupils were given only the very basics of military wisdom, taught to work with subordinates, to handle weapons. The first red commanders were released on March 15 of the next year. Every last man, they were immediately sent to various fronts of the civil war. In total, while the civil war lasted, seven graduates, or 499 people, passed through the school.
In 1920, these infantry courses were renamed the fifteenth Ryazan infantry school. The term of study immediately increased to three years. And at the end of autumn 1921, the infantry school was awarded the Revolutionary Red Banner of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR for the courage and courage shown by the personnel. In 1937 the school was transformed into the infantry school of Kliment Voroshilov, one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union. And on August 2, 1941, a military parachute school was secretly created on the basis of this school in Samara for the education and training of airborne troops. In all the papers, the new part was hidden behind the number 75021.
In November 1943, the RVVDKU celebrated its 25th anniversary. On the day of the anniversary, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the training center was awarded the honorary order of the Red Banner. The document read: "For military services to the Fatherland and great success in the training and education of officers." During the years of the Great Patriotic War, ten gallant graduates of the school were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the summer of 1958, by decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Ryazan secondary infantry school was reformed into a higher command combined-arms school. The term of study increased again, now to four years. Graduates of this institution could receive higher education degrees, but military training has not changed in any way. Then V. F. Margelov, who headed the airborne troops, suggested that the top leadership of our country combine this school with the Alma-Ata landing force for training airborne officers. In 1959, the two educational institutions merged. On May 1 of the same year, the first group of cadets under the leadership of Colonel Leontyev arrived from Kazakhstan. The name - Ryazan Higher Airborne Command - the school received only by the end of their training on April 4, 1964. The military parachute school of Alma-Ata, having become part of the Ryazan, also trained the officers of the airborne forces of our country.
V. F. Margelov closely watched the work of the institution. Under his careful guidance, the school grew and acquired an excellent educational base, transformed beyond recognition. Much later, a monument to the famous general will be erected at the school in 1995 as a token of gratitude to the merits of the founder of the airborne service.
Vasily Filippovich Margelov was born in 1908 in the city of Dnepropetrovsk into a working class family. He got into the Soviet Army in 1928. He graduated from the Belarusian military school. He served in the army as a platoon commander, then a company and a battalion. During the Great Patriotic War, he became commander of a rifle regiment, chief of staff, deputy commander of a rifle division, commander of a guards rifle division. Participated in battles during the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of the city of Kherson. He was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Later he was the commander of the Airborne Forces. Among other awards, Vasily Margelov is an honorary citizen of Kherson, an honorary soldier of a military unit of the Airborne Forces, a laureate of the State Prize of the Soviet Union, a knight of more than 60! Soviet and foreign medals and orders. He died in 1990. Under his auspices, the Airborne Forces achieved great results in the development of means for landing, training troops and their weapons, organizing units, and capabilities for combat use.
In 1962, knowledge in foreign languages was put at the head of the preparation process. At the same time, the school began to accept and train foreigners. The first of them were the Vietnamese, then the Indonesians appeared. Today, children from thirty-two countries of the world study at RVVDKU! In 1968, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the school was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the second time, and in 1989 it received the "Commander's Cross" of the Order of Merit of Poland for excellent training within the walls of the training center for the military personnel of this country. On July 9, 2004, by order of the Government of the Russian Federation under number 937-P, the school was for the last time renamed into the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command (Military Institute) named after General of the Army Vasily Margelov. Rumor has it that this was done on the basis of numerous requests from veterans and the staff of the school. For excellent combat training, the school in 2006 was awarded the Pennant of the Minister of Defense of our country.
This educational institution never stops there. Since 2008, the RVVDKU began to train girls in the military profession called "The use of airborne support units." Female officers will command parachute handlers to help drop paratroopers and military equipment on special platforms or complex multi-dome systems. Since 2011, on the basis of the training center, courses have been opened to train military priests, as well as rabbis, imams and lamas for the navy and land army.
Today, the institution includes the school itself, a training center sixty kilometers from the city, an aviation squadron and a parachute club. On the basis of the school, hostels were built to accommodate students, laboratories and educational buildings where classes are held, a shooting range, sports halls, gyms, for teaching martial arts, airborne training, a stadium, a canteen, a cafe, a post office, a club, a consumer service facility, medical Center. On the territory of the school there is the Orthodox Church of Elijah the Prophet and the Museum of the History of the Airborne Forces.
The school prepares cadets in two specialties. Commander of an airborne platoon of the Airborne Forces with the additional qualification of a manager and the commander of a reconnaissance platoon of airborne units of the Airborne Forces with the qualification of a linguist-translator. The military institute has nine military personnel (weapons and shooting, special tactical training, humanitarian and economic disciplines, materiel and repair, airborne training, peacetime troop control, operation and driving, physical training, tactics) and three civilian departments (mathematics and physics, foreign languages, Russian). About a dozen doctors of sciences and several dozen candidates work for them. The military education system is constantly being improved. Candidates undergo a rigorous multi-stage selection, during which a conclusion is formed on the degree of suitability of a particular individual for the needs of the chosen profession. Education at the Ryazan Institute of the Airborne Forces for all five years is based on the closest combination of practice and theory. Any independent work of cadets to improve personal skills is encouraged and encouraged. During training, cadets spend more than a year in the field. And those who graduate from an educational institution with honors are given the right to choose a place of further service (unfortunately, so far, within the limits of the order designated for the school).
Among the honorary graduates there are forty-five Heroes of the Soviet Union, sixty-nine Heroes of Russia, hundreds of holders of military orders, more than sixty champions of our country and the world in parachute jumping. This school graduated from: the former Minister of Defense of Russia P. S. Grachev, former commander of the Airborne Forces A. P. Kolmakov, Honored Artist of Russia, singer, actor O. V. Kukhta, former army commander, governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory A. I. Lebed, a fighter of mixed martial arts S. V. Kharitonov, Advisor to the Minister of Defense, former army commander, head of the Ulyanovsk region, Hero of Russia V. A. Shamanov, governor of the Ryazan region, former commander of the Airborne Forces G. I. Shpak, governor of the Tver region A. V. Shevelev and many others. From other countries studied at the RVVDKU: the former leader of Poland V. V. Jaruzelski, President of Mali A. T. Toure, the former head of the Georgian defense department L. L. Sharashenidze.
Today, the main goal of the RVVDKU is to educate a qualitatively new generation of military command personnel of any level, capable of serving their Fatherland not by compulsion, but only by personal conviction, ready at any time to defend the independence, sovereignty and state interests of our great country.
