MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin ordered the re-establishment of the Chelyabinsk Higher Tank Command School by Aug. 1, part of a sweeping plan to reopen 16 military schools and academies through 2034 as Moscow scrambles to fill an officer corps hollowed out by the war in Ukraine.
Mishustin’s directive, published May 28, gives the Russian Ministry of Defense four months to approve the school’s charter and six months to secure the necessary real estate. Located in the city of Chelyabinsk in west-central Russia, the tank school traces its origins to the Soviet Union’s war against Nazi Germany. Moscow shuttered the institution in 2007 following a hazing incident that left a serviceman maimed, though its closure had already been planned as part of a broader consolidation of Soviet-era military schools. The school’s land and buildings were later sold at auction.
The Chelyabinsk regional governor said the school will enroll its first 200 cadets this year, using the premises of another previously shuttered military institution. Col. Leonid Ryzhov, decorated for his service as a brigade commander in Ukraine, will reportedly lead the school.
The reopening is one node in a timeline stretching more than a decade. The Saratov Higher Artillery Command School officially reopened in August 2024, followed a year later by the Saratov Higher Military Engineering School of Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Protection and the Nizhny Novgorod Higher Military Engineering Command School. In 2026, beyond Chelyabinsk, Russia plans to reopen the Novocherkassk Higher Military Command School of Communications and is establishing the Ulyanovsk Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. A school in Moscow Oblast to train officers for Russia’s new Unmanned Systems Forces is planned for next year. The Omsk Higher Combined Arms Command School, closed in 1999, is reportedly set for revival in 2028. The Krasnoyarsk Higher Military Artillery Command School and the Krasnoyarsk Higher Military School of Air Defense Radio-Electronics are slated for 2029-2030, the Pushkin Higher Military School of Aerospace Defense for 2032, and the Tomsk Higher Military Command School of Communications for 2034. Four branches of the Military Medical Academy are reportedly set to open in Sevastopol, Samara, Novosibirsk, and Khabarovsk between 2029 and 2034.
The expansion addresses a structural crisis. Since 2022, Russia’s military has grown by 40 to 50 percent, with the ground forces roughly doubling in size. Moscow has created new armies, corps, and other formations while enlarging existing units, a process that remains ongoing. Heavy casualties have decimated the junior officer corps in particular. Unlike Western militaries, which rely on non-commissioned officers as their backbone, Russia depends more heavily on its commissioned officer corps, with cadets generally training four to five years at specialized military higher educational institutions before receiving their commissions.
The shortage has compelled Moscow to thrust underqualified personnel into leadership roles, either pulled from the reserve or promoted from the enlisted ranks with abbreviated training. According to the Long War Journal’s analysis, this has driven an overall decline in force quality since 2022, hamstringing Russia’s ability to plan and execute at the tactical level.
All indications point to a post-war Russian military substantially larger than pre-2022 levels. Moscow appears intent on continuing to expand brigades into divisions, a trend that predates the full-scale invasion. The Ministry of Defense faces an Aug. 1 deadline to stand up the Chelyabinsk school, with the Novocherkassk communications school also recruiting cadets for enrollment later this year.