 ABOUT the FUND
Boris Jordan, President of the Fund
The history of Russian cadet corps is no longer than 300 years. Peter the Great, thinking of the future of his new army, founded the first cadet schools in Russia. In 1917, there were over 30 various cadet corps in Russia. Their alumni were the pride and glory of the Russian State. The idea of resurrecting cadet corps in Russia appeared in the early 1990s, among reservist, Suvorov, officers. They initiated relations with alumni of cadet corps in other countries. One of them, Alexei Borisovich Jordan, was among those who came to Russia in the beginning of 1990s. Through common efforts, the first corps in Russia were organized in Moscow, Novocherkassk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh and St. Petersburg. Each year, Alexei Jordan spent 3-4 months in Russia, visited the corps, met with the cadets, directors, and educators. He passed away in August of 2002.
The Fund was established in 1999 by Boris Jordan, the president of the
Sputnik Group and the
Renaissance Insurance Group. It was one of the first private philanthropic foundations in Russia. It is financed by the personal resources of its founder. The Fund works with 80 cadet corps (cadet schools and cadet academies) in the Russian Federation.
The Fund's goals: rebirth of spiritual, moral, cultural and military-patriotic Russian traditions in the system of education, instruction and formation of the new generation.
The Fund's programs: among the Fund's programs are grants for various educational programs of the cadet corps, organization of pan-Russian contests, awards for the best officer-educators, publishing of educational methodological literature, and of the journal "Russian cadets' roll-call".
Russian Cadet Corps History
The Cadet Corps is one of the most significant phenomena in the history of Russia's military educational institutions, really, in the entire history of Russia's intellectual development. Set up with to educate the children of military servitors both in the sciences and social graces, they served as the first formative step in the preparation of military officers and civil servants.
In pre-revolutionary France, the term cadet (French, for younger son or brother, or underage minors) was applied to young noblemen already enlisted for military service as well as underage children of prominent families until their initial promotion to an officer rank. The word cadet comes from "capdet" in the Gascon tongue, derived from the Latin "capitellum" (diminutive of caput/capit-, i.e. head, or captain).
French cadets, gathered into specialized schools, were the precursors for future Cadet Corps in Prussia and Denmark, and later in Russia as well. Currently, cadet corps exist in Argentina, Denmark, India and Russia.
In Russia, between the founding of the Nobility's Cadet Corps by Empress Anne in 1731, and until the closing of the last of the corps in the fall of 1922, approximately fifty corps, or military-educational institutions similar to the corps in function, existed at various times. The Cadet Corps were a most important part of the system of preparing officer cadres for the Russian army between the eighteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.
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Outside Russia's borders, after the revolution of 1917, five Cadet Corps functioned at various times, three in Yugoslavia, one in Tunisia, and one in France.
For the entirety of their existence, the educational program of the Cadet Corps included the foundations of exact, natural and humanitarian sciences. Russian language and literature, history (including that of ancient Greece and Rome), natural history, jurisprudence and foreign languages were all studied. Cadets were also taught horseback riding, fencing and dance. A special place was reserved for the military sciences.
The Cadet Corps took the form of male boarding schools, with students residing in the corps year-round going home only during vacations. A protracted cohabitation within the walls of the corps, and multiple shared experiences fostered a sense of camaraderie, mutual reliance. Patriotism, honor, decency, altruism, modesty, chivalry, a sense of duty, a broad education in humanities and the professional sciences and a respect for the order, were marks of Russian cadets.
The Cadet Corps became a distinctive feature of the national heritage in the history of the Russian State. With rare exception, almost all significant geographical naval discoveries and great victories at sea accomplished by Russian admirals are connected with the graduates of the Naval Cadet Corps. Graduates of the Pages' and Cadet Corps are the pride of Russia. Among theme are many distinguished military leaders and statesmen, scientists, musicians, writers and artists. Hundreds of those educated in the various Cadet Corps institutions garnered undying glory on the fields of battle in those numerous wars fought by Imperial Russia from the eighteenth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Many of them became Cavaliers of the St. George Cross.
Initially, education in the Cadet Corps was for the children of the nobility, of distinguished military officers and civil servants, as well as for military orphans whose fathers had fallen in the course of duty. But by the beginning of the twentieth century the Corps began to admit the children of various estates, including children of the clergy.
In 1943, the Suvorov Military Schools were created along the lines of the old Cadet Corps for children of Red Army soldiers, partisans, as well as war orphans whose parents fell at the hand of the Nazi occupiers. These institutions were the direct inheritors of a longstanding educational tradition.
The rebirth of the Cadet Corps in contemporary Russia began in the nineties of the last century. These institutions are distinguished by falling within the sphere of responsibility of a specific governmental entity, their purpose, and their terms of study. Ten Cadet Corps are currently active within the Defense Ministry system, one under the purview of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and one more under that of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). As of January 2007, over seventy Cadet Schools and boarding schools, or just Cadet Corps in common usage, exist within the purview of the Ministry of Science and Education. After all, Cadet Corps is both simpler, and closer to Russian history.
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