Military Training in Comprehensive Schools of Khanty-Mansi National Okrug in 1941–1945

This article examines the organization of military training of school students of Khanty-Mansi National Okrug (Ugra) in 1941–1945. The author believes that using this example, it is possible not only to identify the real capacity of schools in the Soviet province to train Red Army soldiers in extreme wartime conditions, but also to assess the results of the development of national education in the region. The work draws on the materials of local archives, as well as the memories of former students of the region during the Great Patriotic War. Using historical, genetic, and statistical methods, the author identifies the origins and results of military training in schools of the USSR. It is claimed that it was practised starting with the Law on Military Service in the Soviet Union in 1925, but with the beginning of World War II, it was finally formalized in the form of a new Law on Military Service in 1939, in the resolution of the State Defence Committee of September 17, 1941, on the universal compulsory military training of citizens of the USSR. As a result, military training was introduced as a compulsory subject in the schools of Khanty-Mansi National Okrug. According to plan, students would master drill, tactical, fire, chemical warfare training, skills of a single fighter of the Red Army, as well as group combat operations. However, in practice, the research materials indicate that in the schools of the Soviet province, there were considerable difficulties with the availability of training weapons, gas masks, shovels, sports equipment and even geographical maps and globes! There were also considerable problems with military education instructors, their low qualification, which is why military training classes were not always held at a high level. The organization of military training for students at Ugra schools in 1941–1945 showed a low level of their material and personnel base and sidelined the tasks of developing national education in the region, which was not particularly important in the preparation of reserves for the Red Army.