Origins The school traces its origins to the creation of the
Nizhny Novgorod Infantry Courses of the
Red Army command staff on 16 November 1918 during the
Russian Civil War. The courses were taught in the building of the city's former
eparchial school. Among the first cadets were workers from the city's
Krasnoye Sormovo Factory. The faculty were taken from experienced former
Imperial Russian Army officers, known as
Military specialists.
Ippolit Zhilinsky taught tactics, B.N. Moravsky engineering, and K.I. Bussov shooting. The first head of the courses was former Colonel A.I. Goryachev, and the first head of training was
Nikolay Pukhov. During the summer of 1919, the first group of cadets graduated and were sent into combat on the
Southern Front. In 1921, the courses became the 11th Nizhny Novgorod Infantry School and the training period at the school expanded to three years. On 15 March 1932, the school was renamed the Nizhny Novgorod Tank School named for
I.V. Stalin, and began training tank commanders for the Red Army's new armored forces. The 1st Tank Battalion, a training unit, was formed at the school, commanded by
Makar Teryokhin. It became the Gorky Tank School that year when the city was renamed. In the fall of 1934 the first class of tank commanders graduated; they included
Georgy Skleznyov, who was posthumously made a
Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions in the
Spanish Civil War, and future
Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergey Sokolov. In March 1938 it was relocated to
Kharkov and renamed the Kharkov Tank School named for I.V. Stalin. The school was subsequently renamed the 1st Kharkov Tank School named for I.V. Stalin after a second tank school was established in Kharkov. From 1997, the school trained tank platoon commanders in the operation and repair of armored vehicles and equipment, airborne platoon commanders in the operation and repair of armored and motor vehicles, and tactical short-range anti-aircraft systems commanders in radio engineering, as well as engineers for the operation and repair of armored vehicles and equipment, and
political officers in social sciences. == Commanders ==