Let's make it clear right away, because not everyone is yet accustomed to the new names of many military universities. In our case, we're talking about the former Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy. Do you remember it? Now, we believe, the title doesn't raise any questions. The old walls are, of course, only partially about architecture. The mansion in the center of Moscow on the Boulevard Ring is still there, along with numerous modern additions and a training base in Nikolovo-Urupino near Moscow. The old walls are, first of all, a huge accumulated scientific potential. It is wisdom, experience, traditions. In a word - it is a School. Higher school.

The Military Engineering University is one of the oldest military engineering educational institutions in Russia. On December 6, 1819, the Main Engineering School was established in St. Petersburg to train military engineers with higher education. The establishment of the school was driven by the changing requirements of combat practice, which were revealed during the Patriotic War of 1812. The war experience demonstrated the need for military engineers in the army who could construct fortresses and other defensive structures at the highest technical level, as well as provide engineering support for the marches and field battles of the Russian troops.

Realizing that the success of military engineering training depends on the quality of teaching, the academy and school commanders invited some of the most prominent scientists in St. Petersburg at the time to serve as instructors. For example, the Academy and the School taught mathematics by "teachers of teachers" Academician M.V. Ostrogradsky and I.A. Vyshnegradsky, chemistry by N.P. Voskresensky and D.I. Mendeleev, architecture by the architect-artist Stukei, structural mechanics by the famous bridge builder S.V. Kerbeda, drawing by the future academician of painting K.A. Trutovsky, and physics by the famous physicist F.F. Ewald, among others.

The Academy's graduates, who became prominent figures not only in military engineering but also in various fields of science, technology, and culture, were known for their fundamental and comprehensive training.

A.Z. Telyakovsky, F.F. Laskovsky, E.I. Totleben, A.I. Savelyev, K.I. Velichko, R.I. Kondratenko, L.N. Kirpichev, and V.G. Tyurin became prominent military engineers and fortification specialists. Their efforts led to the development of the Russian fortification school in the 1880s and 1890s, which surpassed the achievements of their foreign counterparts in this field.

Many graduates of the academy have made military engineering famous on the battlefields. Among them are the heroes of the Sevastopol Defense, A. P. Orda and E. I. Totleben, the hero of the Port Arthur Defense, R. I. Kondratenko, the organizer of the engineering support for the Brusilov Offensive in 1916, K. I. Velichko, a participant in the Russo-Japanese, Russo-German, Civil, and Great Patriotic Wars, and the builder of the famous Brest Fortress, Ivan Osipovich Belinsky.

In 1932, the Military Engineering Academy was established in Moscow on the basis of the Engineering Department of the Military Technical Academy and the Moscow Higher Military Construction School.

The pre-war period was a bright and fruitful time in the academy's history. During this time, it became a center for training military engineers and developing applied military engineering science.

Graduates of the Academy became the organizers of large-scale defensive construction in the pre-war years. Among them are P.V. Afanasyev, V.A. Bolyatkov, A.G. Dubov, D.S. Zherabin, V.V. Kosarev, I.E. Pruss, G.I. Tunichev, and others.

During the Great Patriotic War, the need for mass training of command personnel led to the reorganization of the academy and the reduction of the training period for students to one year in the engineering department and two years in the geodesic department. However, starting in the fall of 1942, the academy was transitioned to a four-year training program.

The Academy provided the front with about 5,000 military engineers, which was 1.5 times the number of graduates in the first hundred years of its existence. The Academy's graduates formed the backbone of the command staff of the engineering troops and the military topographic service on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.

The government highly appreciated their military achievements, awarding several thousand academy graduates with orders and medals, and 45 of them were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The world knows the feat of the outstanding scientist, Lieutenant General of Engineering Troops Dmitry Mikhailovich Karbyshev.

After the end of the war, the academy faced new challenges related to the restructuring of the training system for military engineers in peacetime and, of course, to studying the experience of the war and further developing military engineering skills. The revolution in military affairs brought about by the emergence of nuclear weapons presented the academy with new major challenges. The curriculum of all departments was expanded to include topics related to the protection of troops and facilities from weapons of mass destruction, as well as the engineering support of combat operations in a nuclear missile war. The educational work was closely connected with in-depth scientific research in all areas of military engineering.

The Military Engineering University has existed in its current form since August 1998. It was then that the Government of the Russian Federation issued a decree transforming the Military Engineering Academy into the Military Engineering University with three branches: in St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod (Kstovo), and Tyumen. The branches were former military topographic and military engineering schools.

The structural changes in military education in general, and in the Military Engineering University in particular, were demanded by the military reform. They were primarily driven by the desire to improve the efficiency of training, on the one hand, and to optimize the educational process, on the other.

The command and faculty of the alma mater of military engineers, now headed by Major General A. B. Shevchuk, sees its main task in ensuring that the Armed Forces, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Federal Protective Service, and other agencies, receive specialists with a proven "Russian style" of training from the "old walls." The country's leading military engineering educational institution has always been renowned for such specialists.

The university currently has a huge scientific potential. It is proud of the fact that three of its graduates have become laureates of the Lenin Prize, seven have become Heroes of Socialist Labor, and 22 have become laureates of the State Prize. The university's scientific schools are staffed by 39 doctors, 271 candidates of military, technical, and other sciences, 42 professors, 176 associate professors and senior researchers, 14 academicians, 7 corresponding members of various academies of sciences, and 11 honored scientists. Not every university can boast of such staff. Today's cadets and students have someone to look up to.

Military feats and military valor, as we know, do not go into reserve. The contribution made by veterans of the engineering troops and the university, participants of the Great Patriotic War, to the training of highly qualified military engineering personnel is invaluable. Among them are leading teachers and researchers, including retired Colonel-General Evgeny Sergeevich Kolibernov, Doctor of Military Sciences, Professor; retired Major General Yuri Pavlovich Dorofeev, Doctor of Military Sciences, Professor; Mikhail Porfiryevich Tsivilev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor; Yuri Nikolaevich Glazunov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor; Vladimir Kuzmich Shamshurov, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor; Alexey Ignatievich Lylin, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor; and many others.

The university's departments and research units make a significant contribution to the development of scientific issues relevant to military practice, including the use of the experience of the Great Patriotic War. Retired Lieutenant Generals V.V. Bespalov, L.S. Medlev, and V.I. Spiridonov, as well as retired Colonels Yu.P. Georgievsky, A.D. Astakhov, V.I. Subbotin, O.V. Poteminsky, S.A. Igin, and Yu.V. Reutov, actively participate in the training of personnel and the provision of educational services.

The Council of Veterans, headed by retired Major General Y.P. Dorofeev, carries out extensive military-patriotic work. All veterans, regardless of their positions, are distinguished by their impeccable performance of their duties and their best human qualities. In the "old walls," they know no other way to work.

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