Birth of the Military Intelligentsia 243
Ritterakademien in Prussia and other European states. Mi.lnnich's role in its
foundation was reflected in the provision that a quarter of its 360 places
should be reserved for non-native (in effect, Baltic German) entrants, who
were likely to be better prepared for the instruction offered. Students received
a basic general education for the first two years and then concentrated on
military-related subjects. On graduation they were accorded a rank (and a job)
that supposedly reflected their scholastic proficiency. Most were assigned to
the field forces as ensigns.^70 During the Seven Years War, at the behest of P. I.
Shuvalov, similar facilities were set up for artillerymen and engineers and the
Cadet Corps was expanded. The latter's budget, fixed at 63,000 roubles in the
1730s, had risen to 200,000 roubles half a century later, when the student body
numbered 600. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, only 985 men
had graduated out of the 2,186 admitted.^71
During Catherine's reign 'foreigners' were limited to 100 places and some
entrants were accepted from the under-privileged classes. In the curriculum the
emphasis was shifted towards more general subjects, in an effort to broaden
the pupils' intellectual horizons and to fit them for service outside the armed
forces as well as within them. The atmosphere became more humane and culti-
vated-indeed, almost excessively remote from reality, in the view of some
contemporaries. S. N. Glinka, who studied at the college under Lieutenant-
General F. Ye. fon-Angal't, director from 1786 to 1794 and noted for his
broad-mindedness, remarks ironically that some of his fellow cadets 'who left
after completing a classical education collapsed under the weight of their
learning when they encountered ordinary officers; in despair they took to Bac-
chus' cup and so were prematurely lost to the service'.^72 The instruction was
coloured by Rousseauist ideas and cultivated elevated moral sentiments,
including patriotism. One German observer thought that family bonds would
suffer from the excessive importance attached to implanting 'love for the
Fatherland'.^73
It is hard to overestimate the psychological impact of the educational experi-
ence which young men went through in the Cadet Corps and other select insti-
tutions. Induction into them, as many memorialists record, was a traumatic
experience soon eased by the forging of strong personal ties; these were often
kept up after graduation and could help men in their subsequent careers. In
this way informal associations were created which cut across divisions of rank
and softened their asperities. F. N. Glinka, brother of the man just mentioned,
10 PSZ viii. S8ll (28 Aug. 1731), xliii. S881, 60SO (18 Nov. 1731, 12 May 1732); Stein,
Geschichte, p. 107; Petrov, Russkaya voyennayasila, ii. IS3.
11 Beskrovnyy, Russkaya armiya, p. 4SO. For the corps' budget in the late eighteenth century,
see the relevant entry in Dolgorukov, Khronika.
(^72) Glinka, Zapiski, p. 100; he adds that others were inspired to imitate the feats of classical
heroes on the baulefield.
n Von Hupe), Beschreibung, p. 40. For a recent critical view of the instruction given in the
corps, see M. J. Okenfuss, 'Education and Empire: School Reform in Enlightened Russia', JGOE
27 (1979), p. S9.