TRAINING A RUSSIAN CADET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12818, 18 March 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAINING A RUSSIAN CADET.

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RUS-

SIAN AND ENGLISH METHODS.

Trn-) Russian youth who decides to enter the army has to begin his military training at a far earlier ago than is deemed necessary in England.

The aspiring Russian officer is sent to a preparatory school at twelve years of ago, from which he emerges three years later, to enter one of the great cadet schools in some part of Russia.

The school is tinder the command of some retired army officer, but his position is more or less a nominal one, for the real training and discipline of the cadet lies in the hands of officers.

A boy leaving one of the preparatory military schools has already learnt a fair amount about the rudiments of his future profession, and comes to the school in a quite as advanced state of military training as is a Sandhurst cadet after a year at the Royal Military College. The result, of com ie, is that the Russian cadet at the end of ins two years' training at the cadet school is better educated in military affairs than is the Sandhurst cadet when he comes, at the end of the same period, into the dignity of a commission in the army.

In any case, however, it must be admitted that the training received by a Russian cadet is of a more amplified character than that given at the Royal Military College. For instance, the Russian cadet learns notonly how to use his rifle at the rifle range, but must master its mechanism and learn how it is made. At Sandhurst, until a year ago, there was not even a rifle range, and every officer in tho Br'tish army had to go to Hythe to learn musketry after he had entered the army. livery Russian officer is something of a carpenter, a trade lie has thoroughly to master whilst at the cadet school, and there can be no question tnat when on active service this branch of his training is frequently found to be of considerable use. Fencing is an art that is taught not only at Russian military schools, but practically in every military training establishment in Europe except at Sandhurst. In countries where duelling still prevails it is obviously wise for a mar to become a good swordsman, for he never can tell when he may be called upon to defend his life and honour with his sword. Duels sometimes take place at the Russian cadet schools, and very serious affairs they are, and not so very long since a young cadet was fatally wounded in ono of these youthful affairs of honour.

The life of a Russian cadet is far rougher than that of his more fortunate prototype at .Sandhurst.

The discipline which the former has to conform to is terribly severe. He must be up at six, winter and summer, and frequently make lengthy marches before breakfast. — a meal that consists of but coffee and bread and butter.

.After breakfast he may have to go survey ing or bo put to erecting earthworks, at which he will be kept sometimes lor many hours at a time.

Three hours in the afternoon is generally devoted to class study, and then comes an hour's recreation.

The favourite game of the Russian cadet is chess, and it is a pastime the pursuit of which the authorities very much encourage. Dinner is served at six o'clock, and consists of beef and pudding, though under certain conditions the cadets are allowed, if they wish to do so, to supply themselves with more luxurious fare.

It would be quite impossible in a brief article of this character to go fully into the complete training of a Russian cadet, but one marked difference between the English and Russian system of training should be noted. This consists in the fact that in Russia, though the training in every cadet school is precisely the same, the particular school to which the cadet goes to depends upon the rank of life in which lie happens to be born. The sons of wealthy nobles nearly all go to a school at Moscow, whilst there" is a.cadet school at St. Petersburg of tiie most exclusive character, to enter, which the embryo officer mint obtain the nomination of the Tsar. At Sandhurst, of course, all the cadets-, be they sons of princes, peers, or commoners, meet on the strictest social equality, being all regarded simply as gentlemen cadets.