Vystrel course


The Vystrel course was the popular name for an officer training course of the Soviet Armed Forces, later part of the Russian Armed Forces, located in Solnechnogorsk. The training course had a one year curriculum to train battalion and regiment level command and political personnel for the rifle arm of the Red Army, later the Soviet Army, as well as officers from the Socialist Bloc countries.

History

The Higher Rifle School for Command Personnel of the Workers-Peasant Red Army was formed in November 1918 in place of the Imperial Russian Army's Oranienbaum Rifle Officer School. The school's task was officer training for the infantry, but also research and development of weaponry and the production of educational literature. The course, provided twice a year for five and a half month periods, trained future company commanders. In its first decade of existence, 6,000 officers completed it, with class sizes averaging about 300 students in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1932 the course was divided into two faculties, one for infantry and another for mechanized tactics; the latter was split off a year later. In 1936 Vystrel expanded to include courses for battalion and regimental commanders.
On December 26, 1926 the training battalion of the Rifle Tactical Courses was used as the basis for the formation of the 2nd Rifle Regiment of the Moscow Proletarian Rifle Division of the Moscow Military District. In 1929 Vystrel added a sniper training course to its structure.
After the launch of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the Courses were evacuated from Moscow Oblast's Solnechnogorsk to Kyshtym in the Chelyabinsk Oblast with branches of the courses also organised in Gorky, Ulyanovsk, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Arkhangelsk and Ordzhonikidze. Over 200 of the Courses' alumni received the Hero of the Soviet Union medal and thousands received lesser decorations. After the War the Courses were busy analyzing the combat experience and implementing the lessons learned into the training of future cadres. From the 1950s on the doors of the Center were opened to officers from the Warsaw Pact and allied countries, such as SFR Yugoslavia, People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Mongolian People's Republic, India, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Angola, Cuba, Nicaragua, North Korea etc.
In 1974 a training course for United Nations peacekeeping military observers was added to the Vystrel. The training of foreign officers continued after the collapse of the USSR, including training for peacekeeping missions.
On 1 November 1998, it was combined with the Frunze Military Academy and the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy to form the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, in accordance with a decree of the government of the Russian Federation. Under the umbrella of the Combined Arms Academy, the courses became the Vystrel Officer Training Center. The training center was abolished during the Russian military reform in 2009.

Commanders

The following commanded the course:
1918, November 21 — Higher Rifle School for Command Personnel of the Workers-Peasant Red Army
1921, June 7 — Higher Rifle Tactical School for Command Personnel of the Workers-Peasant Red Army
1921, October 13 — Higher Rifle Tactical School for Command Personnel of the Workers-Peasant Red Army "Third Comintern"
1923, April 24 — Higher Rifle Tactical School for Command Personnel of the Workers-Peasant Red Army "Third Comintern" «Vystrel»
1924, October 9 — Rifle Tactical Courses for Development of Command Personnel of the Workers-Peasant Red Army "Third Comintern"
1932, May 10 — Rifle Tactical Institute «Vystrel»
1935, December 9 — Higher Rifle Tactical Red Banner Courses for Development of Infantry Officers «Vystrel» "Marshal of the Soviet Union B. M. Shaposhnikov"
1954, ? — Central Order of Lenin and Red Banner Tactical Rifle Courses for Development of Officers of the Soviet Army «Vystrel» "Marshal of the Soviet Union B. M. Shaposhnikov"
1963, December 11 — Higher Officer Order of Lenin and Red Banner Courses «Vystrel» "Marshal of the Soviet Union B. M. Shaposhnikov"
1998, November 1 — Order of Lenin and Red Banner Training Center «Vystrel» of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
2009, October 14 — the «Vystrel» Training Center was disbanded
2011, December 10 — a Museum of Combat and Labor Glory «Vystrel» was founded in the building of the center's Officers' Club
2015, May 19 — the Minister of Defence signed an order for the formation of a Military Formations Command Personnel Training Center as a successor of the traditions of the «Vystrel»
2016, January 12 — the Military Formations Command Personnel Training Center was reformed into Land Forces Inspection
Note that Vystrel is a word play, both an actual Russian word meaning 'shot' and a portmanteau from Higher Rifle «Vystrel».

Citations