Orenburg Neplyuev Military School in the First Quarter of the XIX Century: Organization Issues

This research accumulated a representative source base on the history of military education institutions in Asian Russia in the XIX – early XX centuries. It featured the complex and contradictory processes that accompanied the first years of the Neplyuev military school in the first quarter of the XIX century. The paper introduces a wide source base that includes some previously unstudied documents from the Russian State Military Historical Archive and the Russian State Historical Archive. The author used a systematic approach that combined standard scientific techniques with special chronological, genetic, comparative, and functional historical methods. The paper describes the early years of the military school, i.e., prerequisites, opening, military governors’ contribution, the first teaching staff, financial issues, etc. The military school was unique in its international composition as it accepted sons of the Central Asian nobility. According to the curriculum, foreign languages were one of the main competences to acquire. The school trained not only officers for irregular Cossack troops, but also translators for the Orenburg Border Commission that provided international relations between Russia and the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. The school educated the indigenous population and developed its national intelligentsia while consolidating Russian influence in Central Asia. The school was an important step towards the development of the Russian Empire as a Eurasian power. The Orenburg Military School became the most important institution of military education in Asian Russia as it laid foundations for the formation of the local military and teaching personnel.