INFORMAL TRADITION IN RUSSIAN MILITARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ON THE FIRST WORLD WAR EVE

The unofficial tradition, formed in cadets corps and military schools of Russia at
the turn of the XX century are considered in the article. Based on the analysis of military
memoiristics of the given period, the unwritten laws of the inner life of military
educational institutions, the system of informal values, ideological stereotypes and
the resulting behavioral practices, handed down from generation to generation by the
students are reviewed and synthesized. Principal directions of students’ everyday life,
on which these rules were projected, were determined. Firstly, it is an attitude to outside,
non-military world, and secondly the relationship between the various military
educational institutions, and thirdly, the system of relationships among students in
one institution. Original samples of Junkers’ folklore, rituals, and taboos were examined.
The tradition of military hazing in military schools in pre-revolutionary Russia
was considered.