Донской кадетский корпус в Египте

Abstract

The article covers the stay of the Don Cadet Corps in Egypt in 1920–1922, when its personnel was transferred from Novorossiysk to Alexandria and first placed in the Tell el-Kebir refugee camp, and then, at the insistence of the corps director, the cadets were transferred to the vicinity of Ismailia. There the cadets spent more than two years, after which they were transported to Turkey and Bulgaria. The author clarifies the circumstances of the cadets’ everyday life, showing on the basis of archival materials that they lived in tents, received adult allowance and wore the English military uniform. Based on archival materials and eyewitness accounts, the author traces changes in the physical form of young people who quickly gained strength in a warm climate and even received permission to swim in the Suez Canal twice a day. On Sundays, young men swam to the other side of the canal, where they collected cartridges and coins left from the First World War. Sources confirm that the cadets were fond of sports, especially football. At the end of 1921, the best cadets visited Cairo, looked at the pyramids, visited the Egyptian Museum, the opera house, and another group of cadets went to Palestine, where their choir performed in the local church. Don Cadets had their own orchestra, theater troupe, published a magazine. Upon analyzing the sources, the author came to the conclusion that for the most part the cadets were very much satisfied with their stay in Egypt and perceived the need to leave this country with sincere sadness.