Printed Publications of Irkutsk Military School as a History of Military Cadres Training in Eastern Siberia

Abstract

Irkutsk (Cadet) Military School was founded in 1874 in Irkutsk. The School began training military officers for military bases located not only in Siberia, but all over Russia. Since its foundation the School has trained dozens of thousands of highly-qualified specialists for the army. The School has been through difficult times over the course of its development. Opened as a cadet school first it soon received a higher status becoming a military school. It functioned as a military school until the Civil War when it was disestablished. In 1931 the school was reestablished, however, as an aviation technical school and existed in this status while undergoing several reorganizations until 2009. Since the schools foundation it has had a number of printed publications covering its life and activities. These publications are usually not available for the majority of researchers as they were circulating only among military men and the schools faculty members and were not issued for mass circulation. Being an officer of Irkutsk Military School O. N. Astrakhantsev managed to collect some of the schools printed publications. Having analyzed these publications and relying on the principles of historism, the social approach and the comparative historical method the authors of the article conclude that nowadays these publications are a valuable source for studying the military schools history. The analysis of these publications allows one to take a fresh look at this military school everyday life. The comparison of these publications with archive documents and statutory acts and some other documents allows one to reconstruct in more detail and evaluate more precisely the schools activities at a particular time. The article describes evolution of printed publications, studies their main trends and peculiarities.