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The General V. F. Margelov Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School was founded
The 1st Ryazan Red Army Commanders Infantry Courses were founded on November 13, 1918 by order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Republic. Later they were transformed into the infantry school and finally the airborne school.
Workers and peasants, soldiers, non-commissioned officers (unteroffiziers) of the former tsarist army were the first students. The command and teaching staff of the courses consisted mainly of officers of Moscow and Nezhinsky infantry regiments, artillery brigade and the 35th infantry division stationed in Ryazan. During the hard years of the Civil War the armed cadet units suppressed counter-revolutionary uprisings, took part in the fighting on the Caucasian front in Dagestan, on the Southern front against Wrangel, in suppressing the Antonov rebellion in Tambov province.
During the Great Patriotic War, a military paratrooper school for airborne troops training was urgently set up as part of the infantry school.
The merger between the Ryazan Higher Command Combined Arms School and the Alma-Ata Airborne School was initiated by the Commander of the Airborne Troops, V. F. Margelov in 1959. The new institution - the Ryazan Red Banner Higher Combined Arms Command School trained officers - platoon commanders of the airborne troops.
In 1964 when the school graduated its first officers, it was renamed the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command Red Banner School.
In February 1968 the school was awarded the second Red Banner medal and renamed the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command Twice the Red Banner School. In 1969 under the Directive of the General Staff, a special forces company (the 9th company) was formed as part of the school.
In September 1971 the school opened a special department for training foreign military servicemen.
On November 13, 1995 a monument to V. F. Margelov, legendary “uncle Vasya”, was unveiled by the school, while on November 12, 1996 by order of the President of the Russian Federation the school was renamed the V. F. Margelov Ryazan Higher Airborne Command Twice the Red Banner School.
Since 2008 the school has been providing female military training. In 2011 the training center opened courses for training military priests, as well as rabbis, imams and lamas for the navy and land forces.
In September 2013 in accordance with the order of the Government of the Russian Federation, the school became autonomous and subordinate to the Commander of the Airborne Troops.
On November 15, 2013 the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin awarded the school the Suvorov Medal for strengthening country's defence and training highly qualified military professionals.
On February 17, 2018 the General Margelov Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School received the honorary title “Guards” for training officer personnel for the Airborne Troops. This honorary title is awarded to the most combat-effective units and military schools of the Russian army.
The school has graduated about 50 thousand officers for the Airborne Troops and other troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, more than 130 graduating classes of young officers.
Among its graduates the school counts 53 Heroes of the Soviet Union and 82 Heroes of the Russian Federation, thousands of holders of military medals. Some of its graduates are: Pavel Grachyov - Hero of the Soviet Union, former Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Valery Vostrotin - Hero of the Soviet Union, former Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations, Alexander Lebed - former Army Commander, former Deputy Commander of the Airborne Troops and later Krasnoyarsk Krai Governor, Vladimir Shamanov - former Army Commander, Commander of the Airborne Troops, Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, Wojciech Jaruzelski - former President of Poland, Levan Sharashenidze - former Defense Minister of Georgia, Amadou Toumani Toure - former President of Mali, Sergei Kharitonov - Russian mixed martial arts fighter and others.
Lit.: Историческая справка. 1918 // Рязанское высшее воздушно-десантное командное ордена Суворова дважды Краснознамённое училище имени генерала армии В.Ф. Маргелова. 2011-2018. URL: http://www.rvvdku-vi.ru/o-vuze/istoriya/pamyatnyie-datyi/1918.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Materials have been provided by the Ryazan Regional Center of the Presidential Library