The former Lviv Higher Military and Political School is 60 years old

The overwhelming majority of modern military journalists, as it turns out, have a "foreign education": the LVVPU has the Lviv Higher Military and Political School of the Order of the Red Star, that is, the Lviv alma Mater, or "bursa", or "politukha", as it is also called. There was only one blacksmith shop for war correspondents in the entire Soviet Union. It is now "foreign" and repurposed, in November it turns 60 years old.

The history of the Lviv Military School dates back to November 1939... from the city of Bryansk. It was a difficult time. The Second World War was already raging in Europe, and the country was in dire need of military personnel. Between 1939 and 1941, the newly established military school trained 940 young specialists for the army...

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and the worsening situation on the fronts, the school changed its location several times: first to Bobrov in the Voronezh Region, and then to Khalturin in the Kirov Region. During the war, the school trained thousands of officers. Fourteen of its graduates became Heroes of the Soviet Union: Pavel Dudchik, Nikolai Kolosov, Nikolai Kozakov, Mikhail Filimonov, Makhmetin Gainutdinov, Pyotr Gora, Mikhail Zamula, Fyodor Yefremov, Logvin Lyakhov, Vasily Ageyev, Alexander Volokhov, Mikhail Bulatov, Ivan Pichugin, and Nazim Yakupov. These people have become not only an embodiment of heroic history, but also a high symbol of the military educational institution. The Heroes' Alley near the main educational building still greets and sees off every cadet...

After the liberation of Ukraine in 1944, the school was relocated to Kharkiv. In the post-war years of 1947, it was relocated to its permanent location in Lviv, where it was renamed the Lviv Military and Political School. In 1962, the school was upgraded to a higher education institution, and since then, it has produced over 90% of the military journalists and cultural workers in the army and navy. A special faculty for training military specialists for friendly countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa was established here.

Needless to say, the Lviv School has always been considered an elite institution and held a special place in the structure and life of the Armed Forces. Everything flows, everything changes...

By the will of fate, our graduation took place "at the crossroads of the ages." We received our lieutenant's epaulettes in 1984, a year before the announcement of "perestroika." We were congratulated by the editor of the military department of Pravda, Rear Admiral Timur Gaidar. No one could have imagined the near-future "Gaidar reforms."

After the collapse of the USSR, when we found ourselves on the territory of sovereign Ukraine, our school was repeatedly reformed, but it still survived. Today, it is the Military Institute at the State University "Lviv Polytechnic". It's not just a change of name; the institution has fundamentally transformed. However, the university level of education was established much earlier. Today, the Military Institute trains officers in twelve specialties: traditional journalists and cultural and educational workers with a technical focus, lawyers, financiers, translators (from fourteen languages), mechanical engineers, geodesists, cartographers, and physicists. The majority of students complete their studies in five years. The twenty-two specialized departments are staffed by thirty-two candidates and one doctor of science. Additionally, thirteen doctors and seventy-two candidates of science from civilian universities in Lviv teach here. The Military Institute has a training ground, weapons, and equipment. The traditional system of field exercises and military internships has been preserved.

Young life is still boiling in the old classrooms. However, there is a new addition. Girls have joined the cadet ranks. They are essential in journalism, law, and finance. Moreover, they add a special charm to the military academy. By the way, there are approximately 94,000 women serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Military Institute has old traditions of internationalism. The cadets come from different regions of Ukraine, which has a population of fifty million and is ethnically diverse (with eleven million Russians). Teaching, publishing newspapers, magazines, and books is often done in Ukrainian, while informal communication is usually conducted in Russian. This is immediately noticeable. The old and the new coexist.

The Department of Journalism is now replaced by the Department of Military Intelligence (with a vigilant guard at the entrance). However, the Department of Journalism remains the oldest (37 years old) and most respected department. Veteran military journalists, retired colonels Vladimir Bogdanovsky and Viktor Chizhevsky, and retired captain 1st rank Konstantin Mamlyga, continue to work productively here. By the way, I noticed a fresh issue of "Orientir" on one of the department's desks... And speaking of veterans, our battalion commander, retired Colonel Vladimir Sadovsky, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, who has been serving at the school since 1960, is still in active duty.

The material base has risen to a qualitatively new level. Today, it is difficult to imagine training cadets without PCs. For example, the newspaper "Kursantsky Vestnik" is published entirely in a computer version, exclusively by the cadets themselves. The Department of Journalism has its own regional-level television studio. Special attention is paid to television and radio journalism during the training process.

Continuing on a related topic, I would like to point out that it is easier for future military journalists to specialize in different branches of the armed forces, as they are surrounded by representatives of many military professions. In addition, the Department of Journalism collaborates constructively with all Ukrainian universities that train journalists. There are established contacts and an exchange of experience with foreign colleagues. Over the past 37 years, the department has trained 3,200 journalists for 26 countries worldwide. The frequent guests here are not only graduates from the CIS countries, but also "our people" from Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania. The aura of the old traditions and glory has been preserved and enhanced. Despite the circumstances.

Externally, the military school has grown and improved. New buildings and a new metal fence have been added, and the grounds are kept in perfect order. However, the residential wing of the old school building is constantly undergoing cosmetic repairs.

The bust of V. I. Lenin was replaced by a sculptural image of T. G. Shevchenko - this is a new ideological symbol... There are also "legends of deep antiquity". On the stands next to the images of the battle marshals of the USSR and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). By the way, similar political confusion is observed in the city:

The streets of Academician Sakharov and S. Bandera are nearby, and T. Shevchenko Avenue is adjacent to D. Dudayev Street...

Cadets are still in formation, with a drumbeat go to the dining room and "chemical" at a pay phone, making free calls using a piece of wire. The stadium and sports town are filled with their busy life.

In early July, the 60th anniversary edition was held. The solemn ritual has remained almost unchanged. There was no shortage of traditional song and marching compositions (the combined choir is still led by Associate Professor and Honored Artist of Ukraine Vladislav Pindyuk). I believe that Lviv has not forgotten our "calling card" - "Soar, Falcons, Like Eagles."

New - a theatrical performance in the style of "Special Forces Among Us", with shooting, breaking boards with fists, and an attempt to blow up the main training building...

As the 99th class of officers marched past the Military Institute's Боевое Знамя, the band played "Farewell to Slavyanka."

Graduates are expected by almost all of Ukraine's security agencies. Interestingly, young lieutenants now see Sevastopol as the "end of the world"...

My travel notes do not claim to have the depth and breadth befitting an anniversary. Each graduate of the Lviv Higher Military School would tell about their impressions in their own way. Each person remembers their alma mater in their own way: the harsh "bursa", the strict "system", the magnificent library, the beautiful Lviv museums and art galleries, the ancient parks, the cool coffee shops and beer bars, the magic of the medieval streets, the hot Yavoriv training ground, the cascades of military internships, the training of parade boxes, and the feeling of unity...

Youth is wonderful, and the years spent in one of the best military schools in the country are doubly wonderful. In ancient Lviv, we each sought our own luck and dreamed... At that time, we did not understand that luck and wealth were our youth and the untapped reserves of vitality that were with us.

Then fate took some of them to hot Afghanistan, and others to the burning North and the harsh Far East. Regardless of time, place, or position, those who came to the LVVPU with a dream did not change their minds, and they preserved their officer's honor and human dignity in all the turbulent waters of recent history. This is the most important thing.

On November 18, the Military Institute will celebrate its 60th anniversary. An international scientific and practical conference will be held, and graduates of different years will gather... They will be waiting for them.

"If you pass by Lviv, come to the institute! They remember their graduates and are always happy to meet military journalists and cultural workers from all over the world," says Colonel Sergey Gorevalov, head of the Department of Journalism. And these are not just words.

It seemed to me that even on the other side of the "transparent" border, alma mater was moving in the ocean of time in the same direction as its "old" graduates, scattered all over the globe.

... Ancient and eternally young Lviv is thoughtfully rustling with the crowns of parks and captivates with the beauty of architecture, the stone music of centuries. It has seen and experienced a lot: the Mongol-Tatar cavalry, the swordsmen of Polish King Casimir, the Swedish conquerors, the invasion of Napoleon, the Austrian gendarmes and the Nazis, the "indestructible friendship" in the family of nations, and "independence". Everything comes and goes, but the city remains. Is it because, having left Lviv many years ago, we return to it as to a pure source: in our memories, thoughts, and actions?

LVVPU and the ancient city, as a symbol of eternity, live on in our souls despite everything.

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