Training of artillery personnel in Russia in the late XVIII – first half of the XIX centuries

The purpose of the study is to reveal the specifics of the organization of the educational process and educational and methodological work in military educational institutions in which artillery personnel were trained in the late XVIII – first half of the XIX centuries. Based on previously unknown archival documents from the Scientific Archive of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Communications Troops and other little-studied sources, the article examines certain aspects that characterize the formation of prerequisites for the establishment of new military educational institutions of artillery profile, the process of their creation and the organization of the educational process in them during the period under review. The main focus is on the fact that the material part of the artillery, its maintenance and use in combat conditions required all artillery officers to be more educated and trained than officers of other branches of the armed forces. All these circumstances determined the need to create a special military educational institution of a new type, in which future artillery officers would receive high-quality general and special training and would fill the shortage of officers in combat artillery units and units. The author comes to the conclusion that in 1800 After the renaming of the Artillery and Engineering Gentry Cadet Corps to the 2nd Cadet Corps, it lost its special purpose for training personnel for the artillery and engineering corps. Moreover, the level of technical and military-special training of graduates of the 2nd Cadet Corps was very mediocre and did not meet the requirements for officers of artillery units. It is also concluded that one of the important conditions for ensuring the activities and development of the new military educational institution was the work on the preparation and publication of teaching aids necessary to ensure the educational process.