«ULYANOVSKAYA SVYAZ» – A UNIQUE TRAINING CENTER FOR MILITARY SIGNALMEN IN THE COUNTRY (on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and the anniversary of Ulyanovsk Higher Military School of Communications)

Abstract

May 24, 2021 marks the 85th anniversary of establishing Ulyanovsk Order of the Red Star Higher Military Engineering School of Communications named after G.K. Ordzhonikidze under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Within its walls, more than 25 thousand officers were trained, about 60 of them rose to the rank of generalship, 7 trainees of the school were awarded with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and one of them was awarded with the title of the Hero of Russia. The article is devoted to the experience of training military signalmen in this military educational institution, which is still of interest for specialists. The author of the article considers this topic relevant due to the year of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Its purpose is to identify the features of establishing and functioning of the military signal troops school in Ulyanovsk on the eve and during the war against fascism. Ulyanovsk Military School of Communications was formed on the basis of a special equipment school created in 1936 in Ulyanovsk. Transformed into Ulyanovsk Military Technical School, and then – into the military School of communications of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1937, it trained, in particular, signalmen for armored troops. This problem has not been sufficiently studied. The researcher pays special attention to the fact that he met with pre-war graduates of this educational institution, who passed training in the specialty «telemechanics» which was secret in those years. The author uses their memories in his work, which is new in the analysis of this topic. The work also traces the fate of the first head of the school, General T.P. Kargopolov. Summarizing, the author concludes that on the eve of the war, Ulyanovsk School was the first training center for unique military communications specialists in managing military facilities at a distance. After the beginning of the Second World War, Ulyanovsk School of Communications became a major center for training and educating qualified signal officers.