|
Czechoslovakia Specialized and Officer Training
In 1987 the CSLA operated schools ranging from secondary
schools through colleges for the academic, technical, and
political training and advancement of regular personnel. All
military training institutions were highly politicized in keeping
with the party orientation of armed forces customary in communist
countries. Many senior officers, in addition to successfully
completing military schooling at all levels in Czechoslovakia,
also have been sent to the Soviet Union for courses in that
country's military institutions. General Vaclavik, for example,
attended the Moscow Military Academy of the General Staff and the
Frunze Military Academy.
At the highest level were the military academies, which
contained two categories of institutions. First was the
"university category." This group included the Klement Gottwald
Military Political Academy in Bratislava, the Military Medical
Research and Continuing Education Department of Jan Evangelist
Purkyn in Hradec Kralove, and the Military Section of the
Department of Physical Education and Sport at Charles University
in Prague. The Klement Gottwald Military Political Academy
prepared cadres for the political apparatus of the CSLA. The
medical academy prepared military cadres in general medicine,
stomatology, and general pharmacy. The physical education
department at Charles University produced specialists in sports
organization, sports medicine, and related subjects.
The other category of military academies included five
"technical" institutions. These were the Antonin Zapotecky
Academy in Brno, the Ludvik Svoboda Higher Academy of the Ground
Forces in Vyskov, the Military Technical Academy of CzechoslovakSoviet Friendship in Liptovsky Mikulas, the Military Aviation
Academy of the Slovak National Uprising in Kosice, and the
Military Department of the Academy of Transport and
Communications in Zilina. Students from these schools were
graduated with the title of engineer and the rank of lieutenant.
In 1987, the CSLA also operated four gymnasiums, or secondary
schools, and eight "military intermediate specialized training"
institutions. The military gymnasiums offered courses of study
comparable to civilian gymnasiums, with some military education
and an emphasis on physical fitness. The specialized training
institutions offered different areas of technical training. The
gymnasiums and the technical schools were both four-year
institutions. Graduation from military secondary schools led to
commissioning in the armed forces. Previously the mandatory
two-year conscript tour was also part of the procedure, but that
requirement for duty in the ranks was cut to five months in 1980.
For a brief period after 1968, candidates for commission dropped
noticeably, but the allure of a prestigious career overcame
political antipathy, and during the 1980s the number of young men
seeking military commission was adequate.
In 1987 all but one of the specialized training institutes
were connected with two-year officer schools, the students of
which become second-lieutenants upon graduation. The two one-year
officer schools offered specialized training to gymnasium
graduates between eighteen and twenty years of age.
As of 1987, women could not enroll as students in the
Czechoslovak military schools; they could, however, take
specialized courses to become home air defense specialists,
operators in the special-purpose radio technical troops, ground
specialists for the air force, office typists, or radio
operators. Depending on the speciality, training courses were
held in Prague, Kosice, and Nove Mesto nad Vahom. Upon passing a
final examination, the graduates became members of the CSLA,
either as enlisted personnel with a three-year service
obligation, as career enlisted personnel with the rank of warrant
officer, or as cadre NCOs.
Data as of August 1987
|
