Military officers of the First World War: How the war changed Russian officers In the First World War, the Russian army faced a problem that was clearly discounted in peacetime: where do they get tens of thousands of junior officers? The war quickly destroyed the officer cadre. It was the junior officers who directly commanded the soldiers in the battle who suffered particularly heavy losses. By September 1915, the shortage of officers in the active army reached 24,500 men. The infantry lacked more than half the required number of officers! The problem is exacerbated by the low level of education of the population. In 1907, for every 1,000 conscripts in the Russian army, there were 617 illiterate people. In Germany, about 1 recruit out of 3000 was illiterate. The difference is huge! But the officer had to be able to read a map, make reports and do calculations. Before the war, it was believed that there would be enough reserve officers to carry out combat operations. Also, all military schools graduated the cadets (cadets) early and began to train officers in wartime with a training period of 3-4 months. The assumption was that there would be 1-2 issues and the war would be over. However, from 1915 it became clear that it was necessary to expand the training of officers, for whom special schools began to be established. The first six were opened in the fall of 1914, and in 1917 there were already 41 of them. They mainly trained infantry officers. The scope of the preparation is impressive. From July 1914 to the beginning of 1917, about 74 thousand officers graduated from regular military schools, and 113 thousand from officer schools! The martyrs were divided into two categories - those who graduated from schools based in military schools had the right to automatic promotion to second lieutenant after 4 months. to remain at the front, and those who graduated from "ordinary" schools could rise to the rank of second lieutenant only because of military exploits. At the same time, only those who completed at least 6 grades of gymnasium or real school were admitted to schools based on military schools, and those who completed 4 grades were admitted to "ordinary" schools.

Military officers of the First World War: How the war changed Russian officers In the First World War, the Russian army faced a problem that was clearly discounted in peacetime: where do they get tens of thousands of junior officers? The war quickly destroyed the officer cadre. It was the junior officers who directly commanded the soldiers in the battle who suffered particularly heavy losses. By September 1915, the shortage of officers in the active army reached 24,500 men. The infantry lacked more than half the required number of officers! The problem is exacerbated by the low level of education of the population. In 1907, for every 1,000 conscripts in the Russian army, there were 617 illiterate people. In Germany, about 1 recruit out of 3000 was illiterate. The difference is huge! But the officer had to be able to read a map, make reports and do calculations. Before the war, it was believed that there would be enough reserve officers to carry out combat operations. Also, all military schools graduated the cadets (cadets) early and began to train officers in wartime with a training period of 3-4 months. The assumption was that there would be 1-2 issues and the war would be over. However, from 1915 it became clear that it was necessary to expand the training of officers, for whom special schools began to be established. The first six were opened in the fall of 1914, and in 1917 there were already 41 of them. They mainly trained infantry officers. The scope of the preparation is impressive. From July 1914 to the beginning of 1917, about 74 thousand officers graduated from regular military schools, and 113 thousand from officer schools! The martyrs were divided into two categories - those who graduated from schools based in military schools had the right to automatic promotion to second lieutenant after 4 months. to remain at the front, and those who graduated from "ordinary" schools could rise to the rank of second lieutenant only because of military exploits. At the same time, only those who completed at least 6 grades of gymnasium or real school were admitted to schools based on military schools, and those who completed 4 grades were admitted to "ordinary" schools.