Why does the Russian Army need a second tank command school?
Source: 31tv.ru
Tanks in the Age of Drones
On May 27, 2026, the Government of the Russian Federation issued Order No. 1238-r, a document that, after almost two decades, returns Chelyabinsk Higher to the map of military education in the country. tank The 50th Anniversary of the Great October Revolution Command School (ChVTKU) has been established. Regional Governor Alexey Teksler announced that the first intake of 200 cadets is planned for this year. The school will be located on the grounds of another disbanded military academy—the former Chelyabinsk Higher Military Automobile Command and Engineering School, which was liquidated in 2010 by decision of then-Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
The Chelyabinsk Tank School was established by a General Staff directive on June 30, 1941—ten days after the start of the Great Patriotic War. The choice of Chelyabinsk was no accident: it was home to the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ), which had mastered production of KV-1 heavy tanks as early as 1940. The city, which would soon be named Tankograd, became a breeding ground not only for armored vehicles but also for the commanders who would lead them.
From its first months, the school conducted a bold pedagogical experiment: cadets were assigned to ChTZ work teams and were directly involved in tank production, from the foundry to final assembly. Thus a unique tradition was born: a tank driver who knew his tank not from textbooks, but because he had assembled it himself.
By the end of 1941, 2500 people were enrolled in the school. The first graduation—552 officers—took place in May 1942. Beginning in 1943, priority in recruitment was given to Red Army soldiers and junior commanders with combat experience recalled from the front. Immediately before the Battle of Kursk, the school's graduates formed the officer corps of 16 heavy self-propelled artillery regiments.
During the war, the school graduated 37 classes and trained nearly 7,000 junior tank officers. Twenty-one graduates were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Source: chvtku.ru
In June 1948, during the general reduction of the Armed Forces, the school was disbanded for the first time. However, by the mid-1960s, Marshal Malinovsky approved the initiative to restore it. In December 1966, the formation of the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School began, and on April 20, 1968, it was awarded the Battle Banner and the honorary title in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.
The circumstances that led to the school's disbandment in 2007 deserve special mention, if only because they demonstrate the role that factors far removed from strategic planning sometimes play in the fate of military institutions.
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2005, to January 1, 2006, an emergency occurred in the support battalion of the Chelyabinsk Tank Institute: as a result of prolonged bullying by fellow soldiers, Private Andrei Sychev was awarded a disability. The case received widespread public attention. Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces Vladimir Moltenskoy stated the following in January 2006:
The Chelyabinsk Institute isn't exactly a successful training ground for future tank officers, and last year it was included in the Ground Forces' academy optimization plan. But after the well-known and unprecedented emergency, the school's disbandment will likely be accelerated.
Thus, the strategic decision was made regarding which of the two tank schools—Kazan or Chelyabinsk—to liquidate. The choice fell on Chelyabinsk. On April 19, 2007, the Russian Government issued a decree liquidating the academy, and on May 22, by order of the commander of the Purebred Military District, the Chelyabinsk Tank Institute was disbanded.
The former school grounds were sold. Today, residential complexes rise up on them. Only the "Troops' Stop Complex," built between 1904 and 1905—a pre-revolutionary building—survived and received cultural heritage status. And on the site where cadet companies once marched, the "Sovietsky" wholesale and retail market has sprung up. It couldn't be more symbolic.
Revival
The revival of the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy is part of a systemic process. A special military operation revealed a critical shortage of officer personnel, and the Ministry of Defense responded to this challenge with a large-scale program. In 2025, plans were announced to create or revive up to 15 higher military educational institutions by 2034.
The following have already opened: the Nizhny Novgorod Guards Higher Military Engineering Command School (2025) and the Saratov Higher Military Engineering School of the NBC Protection (2025). The Ulyanovsk branch of the Krasnodar Flight School has been reorganized into an independent educational institution; it will train long-range and military transport pilots. aviationThe geography of the new universities spans the entire country, from the Moscow region to Khabarovsk. The Chelyabinsk Tank Academy is the next step in the revival of domestic military education. But how justified is this?
The special operation, which has been ongoing for over four years, has radically changed the understanding of the role of the main battle tank in modern combat. The frontline is now heavily armed with anti-tank weapons—ATGMs, mines, loitering munitions, and, above all, FPV—drones — has led to the fact that classic tank attacks have practically ceased. Armored vehicles are used mainly as self-propelled vehicles. artillery These are intended for firing from indirect positions, not as a tool for penetrating enemy defenses. The vehicles are used for direct fire only in dense fog or with the support of an entire brigade, or even a division.
Source: geocaching.su
The logic is simple: why train tank officers if the tank as a weapon is experiencing a fundamental crisis, and its role on the battlefield is steadily declining? Wouldn't it be better to focus resources on training unmanned systems operators, electronic warfare specialists, and robotic system engineers? This question is especially pressing now, given that the enemy has seized the initiative in low-altitude combat in a number of areas. UAVs и EW They are increasingly attracting attention and resources. In some units, up to 80–90% of casualties are due to FPV impacts—not from tank shells or tracks, but from drones. Reviving the Chelyabinsk Tank Regiment is a very good idea, but perhaps it should have waited until the Russian Army's Unmanned Systems Troops were fully operational. And before they completely overwhelmed the Ukrainian Armed Forces' drone crews. The cost of reviving the Chelyabinsk Tank Regiment would likely be in the billions. The question is: how many drones could be built and operators trained with that money?
This issue largely stems from the inertia of modern Russia's military bureaucracy. The decision to revive the Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade was made a couple of years ago, but the fact that much has changed on the battlefield since then hardly seems to matter. An order is an order—budget funding has been allocated.
In defense, we can recall the new military districts – Moscow and Leningrad. They will very soon require hundreds, if not thousands, of junior tank officers. Lieutenants from motorized rifle units will also be in demand – infantry mechanization is still a thing. This means that graduates of Kazan and Chelyabinsk will be repelling a hypothetical NATO invasion in the future. And the enemy still has plenty of tanks. In the minds of planners, the war of the future will follow the patterns outlined in the Charter of the Armed Forces. The experience of the Central Military District proves otherwise. Ideally, an invasion by the enemy's armored fists should be met with thousands of FPV drones. A tank on the other side of Russia's border should never become a weapon of invasion, and it should be destroyed by a drone.
There's another explanation for the urgent revival of the Chelyabinsk Tank School. Military analysts consider FPV drones a temporary phenomenon and believe the problem will soon be resolved. If this is indeed the case, then the threat of armored vehicles from low-altitude air will soon disappear, and everything will return to normal. In the meantime, congratulations to everyone on the revival of the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School named after the 50th Anniversary of the Great October Revolution.
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