Soviet Military Academies - Military Academies and Schools of The Central Adminstration and Ground Forces - M.V. Frunze Military Academy

M.V. Frunze Military Academy

The Frunze Military Academy (Russian: Военная академия им. М. В. Фрунзе) was established in 1918 as the academy of the General Staff. In 1921, it was transformed into the RKKA Military Academy. It is named after Mikhail Frunze who was the USSR Minister of Defence in mid-1920s and is located in Moscow. It is roughly the equivalent of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS or the British Army's Staff College, Camberley. Officers usually enter when they are between late twenties and thirty-two years old with the rank of Captain or Major, depending on whether they pass the competitive entry examinations.

In the 1930s, Higher Academic Courses were added to the Frunze curriculum, as an advanced training program for earlier graduates. Later on, this program became the basis for the Voroshilov Academy. Following the creation of the Voroshilov General Staff Academy, the Frunze Academy refocused upon combined arms ground warfare training at the tactical level.

Scott and Scott (1979) noted that, as of 1979, ..within the Academy are 'chairs of operational-tactical disciplines, Marxism-Leninism, history of the CPSU and Party-political work, history of war and military art, foreign languages, and other subjects and scientific research sections' In the late 1970s the Scotts noted the Frunze library had about two million volumes.

The Frunze Academy and the Malinovsky Academy were amalgamated in September 1998 into the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Russian: Общевойсковая академия Вооруженных сил Российской Федерации ), (ru:Общевойсковая академия Вооружённых Сил Российской Федерации) on the site of the former Frunze Academy. Since 2010, the title of Military Educational and Scientific Center as been applied to the academy.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Combined Arms Academy has been the site of a number of Russian-Western joint military activities, including an IISS conference in February 2001, and U.S./Russian exercises.

After graduation from this academy, every graduate officer used to receive a diploma and a silver diamond-shaped badge on his uniform or civil suit which had to be worn on the right side of the chest above all other military or civil decorations or ribbon bars.

The Commandant, as of 2004, was Colonel General Vladimir I. Popov.

• About the Combined Arms Academy (on the official Ministry of Defence web site) (Russian)
• Frunze Academy graduation badge (at a numismatic site) (Russian)