The Nizhny Novgorod Count Arakcheyev Cadet Corps was a military educational institution of the Russian Empire that operated from 1834. It was originally founded and opened in Novgorod under the name Novgorod Cadet Corps and was later renamed in honor of Count A. A. Arakcheyev. The Corps became one of the provincial cadet corps created under the tsar's 1830 plan, which provided for the establishment of similar institutions in Novgorod, Tula, Tambov, Polotsk, Poltava, and Yelisavetgrad. The Corps is the oldest provincial military educational institution in Russia — the first cadet corps opened outside the capitals.[1][2]

Founding and Opening

The project for the Novgorod Cadet Corps was developed over several years. Its opening was hastened by Count A. A. Arakcheyev's decision to donate 300,000 paper rubles to the treasury so that the sons of nobles from Novgorod and Tver Governorates could be educated at the Corps with these funds. Arakcheyev's estate of Gruzino lay several dozen kilometers northeast of Novgorod; the Corps was placed on the right bank of the Msta River, 28 km east of Novgorod.[2]

In early January 1834, the future cadets began to be brought in. The first cadet is considered to be Vasily Pushchin, admitted on January 8, 1834, and graduated into the Noble Regiment in 1842. By the time of the official opening on March 15, 1834, the Corps already had 69 cadets. The ceremony was held in the presence of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Chief of the Administration of Military Educational Institutions, Count Arakcheyev himself, and other high-ranking figures. March 15 became the Corps' feast day.[2]

Arakcheyev's Legacy and the Renaming

On April 21, 1834, Count Arakcheyev died, leaving neither heirs nor a will. By a supreme decree to the Governing Senate of May 6, 1834, Nicholas I ordered that the Gruzino Volost be transferred to the Corps "forever, into full and undivided possession," "so that its revenues might go toward the education of youths," and that the Corps itself be renamed the Novgorod Count Arakcheyev Cadet Corps, with the right to use Arakcheyev's coat of arms bearing the motto "Devoted Without Flattery."[2]

The Corps became the owner of the Gruzino estate, a library of 10,000 volumes, portraits of the sovereigns Peter I, Paul I, and Alexander I, and a portrait of Arakcheyev himself by Dawe — all of which formed the basis of the Corps' museum. The museum also housed two goblets from which the emperors Alexander I and Napoleon had drunk at Tilsit, valuable icons, and Arakcheyev's personal belongings. The management of the Gruzino estate was entrusted to the Corps' administrative committee.[2]

Buildings and Organization

The main building of the Corps had two large three-story wings connected by a riding hall that was no smaller than the Mikhailovsky Riding Hall in Saint Petersburg. Nearby stood stone and wooden structures for auxiliary services and staff housing. All the buildings were located half a kilometer from the Msta River.[2]

The staff establishment was approved for 400 cadets, but the enrollment was to be brought up to full strength gradually — over four years, admitting 100 pupils annually. In the first year, children aged 12 to 14 were admitted; the fourteen-year-olds formed the senior class. In January 1835, it was planned to admit children aged 11 to 13, in 1836 those aged 10 to 12, and in 1837 those aged 9 to 11.[2]

In 1866 the corps was transferred to Nizhny Novgorod and reorganized as a military gymnasium. From 1866 to 1918 the corps was housed in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, in the building later occupied by the regional legislative body.[3] In 1918 the corps was disbanded. Among its graduates was the military pilot Pyotr Nesterov, the first in the world to perform the aerobatic maneuver known as the "dead loop"; a monument to him stands in Nizhny Novgorod, and his name became a symbol of the corps for later generations. During its existence the corps produced more than 150 Knights of St. George (as of 1917); its graduates include the founder of aerobatics Pyotr Nesterov, the first Russian general of aviation Vyacheslav Tkachev, the poet Arseny Nesmelov (Mitropolsky), the founder of physicochemical analysis Academician Nikolay Kurnakov, Bishop Andrey (Ukhtomsky), a hieromartyr, and also the inventor in the field of rocketry and aerology, Engineer Major General Mikhail Pomortsev.[1][3][4]

In the 2010s an attempt was made in Nizhny Novgorod to revive the corps: the Nizhny Novgorod Count Arakcheyev Cadet Corps-Externat operated under its director Eduard Kapranov; in 2017 the first admission of classes was planned, along with a transition to a full-day school format. In 2019 the pupils of the externat corps regularly met with Orthodox clergy: the priest Pavel Moloshtan, a cleric of the Church of the Most Merciful Savior (Spas-na-Poltavke), held weekly talks with the cadets.[5][3]

The corps festival of the revived externat was traditionally celebrated on March 27 and, because it fell during Great Lent, concluded not with a ball but with a literary and musical composition, in keeping with the pre-revolutionary festival program. The corps festival is celebrated on March 27 (New Style), which corresponds to March 15 Old Style, the date of the corps' opening in 1834; in 2022, the 188th anniversary of its founding, the celebrations included the Divine Liturgy at the Ascension Pechersky Monastery for men, a moleben at the Church of St. Nicholas at the former military riding hall in the Kremlin, and the traditional "Evening Gun with Ceremony" ("Zarya s tseremoniyey") held in all of Russia's cadet corps since the mid-19th century.[1][3]

Sources

  1. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolia
  1. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis — The Corps is the oldest provincial military educational institution in Russia — the first cadet corps opened outside the capitals. (archive)
  2. opentextnn.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Count Arakcheyev Cadet Corps — OPEN TEXT (archive)
  3. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis — From 1866 to 1918, the Nizhny Novgorod Cadet Corps was housed in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin (archive)
  4. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis — In 1866 the corps was moved to Nizhny Novgorod and transformed into a military gymnasium. (archive)