Baltic Navy Musician School During the Years of Military Trials of 1941–1945 (Based on Archival Materials)

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet education system was subjected to severe tests. It was necessary first to transport, and then to ensure the functioning of schools, boarding schools, orphanages in the conditions of evacuation. By the beginning of the war, there were various types of schools in the USSR, including closed ones. Among the closed ones there was a school that gave 14-17 years old boys special musical and general education. This school has its roots in the 19th century, when the inspector of military choirs (orchestras) of the naval department N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov founded the Navy Musical School. In the 20th century, the Navy Music School became a closed educational institution. The pupils lived in conditions of a boarding school. From the beginning to the end of its existence, the school trained not so much individual performers as groups of musicians for military orchestras. During the Great Patriotic War, the Rimsky-Korsakov Naval Music School was evacuated to the village of Syola in the Verkhne-Gorodkovsky district of the Molotov region (Perm Territory). Despite the wartime, the school carried out annual admission and graduation of pupils. Future pupils were selected in orphanages on the basis of musical abilities, excellent and good academic performance and discipline. The pupils were fully supported by the state. The school administration made great efforts to provide pupils with the most necessary things: clothes, uniforms, shoes, school supplies, food, tolerable living conditions.