The Creation of Suvorov Military Schools as an Element of the Russian Army Traditions Revival during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945

The article is devoted to the identification and analysis of versions about the goals of the creation of Suvorov military schools during the Great Patriotic War. In 1918, the almost twocentury history of cadet education in our country was interrupted. The cadet corps contravened the ideology of the new Bolsheviks’ regime and were liquidated. At the same time, all symbols and traditions of the Russian army were banned. The ranks, titles, insignia, and awards of the Russian Empire were abolished. During the Great Patriotic War, the threat of the country destruction by the German invaders forced the Soviet Union authorities, in order to spiritually mobilize the people to fight the enemy, to abandon ideological postulates for a while, turn to the glorious pages of national history, to attract images of heroes from the forgotten past, and use some symbols of the tsarist army. The article reconstructs the main stages of the new Soviet ideological policy during the Great Patriotic War from the establishment of guard units and the creation of orders named after generals to the return of shoulder straps as insignia for military personnel. The author shows that the creation of Suvorov schools "like the old cadet corps" became another demonstration of the continuity of the Russian and Soviet armies. Suvorov military schools were designed in the image and likeness of cadet corps. The organizational structure, the daily routine, the cadets’ lifestyle, and their uniforms were copied. To do this, officers and generals who had graduated from the Imperial cadet corps, bearers of the traditions of those years, were recalled from the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. In addition, the Suvorov military schools performed an important social function – maintenance, upbringing, and proper education for children orphaned during the War. With the end of the war, there was a return to the previous ideological attitudes, which no longer fit the theory of succession of cadet corps and Suvorov military schools. The interest of the authorities in military preparatory educational institutions noticeably weakened, in the 1950s their numbers were significantly reduced, and the issue of their complete elimination was being worked out. Having analyzed various versions of the purpose of opening Suvorov military schools, the author concludes that the main purpose of their establishment was to demonstrate the continuity of the traditions of the pre-revolutionary military school to raise the morale of the Red Army during the crucial period of the Great Patriotic War.