Moscow Girls School Blends Academics, Military Training

Fragile teenage girls in festive military uniforms clutch red carnations and stand shoulder to shoulder, proudly looking at their parents after receiving student certificates. Older classmates goose-step to receive awards from instructors.

In an initiation ceremony held at the War History Museum, a boarding school for girls welcomes several dozen new students -- timid youngsters with braids and ponytails tied by white bows who will train to be soldiers, doctors and psychologists.

Opened a year ago, Boarding School No. 9 in southeastern Moscow combines military training with regular courses such as mathematics and history. The school encompasses grades 5 to 11.

“We are training students who are ready to serve their motherland both in the military and the civil field,” principal Viktoriya Selenskaya said.

After graduating, students will be able to choose to attend military or regular universities, Selenskaya said.

The school is financed from the state budget. It charges its 137 students a fee of 150 rubles a month -- about $5.30.

Many of the students come from families of soldiers and police officers who died or were injured in conflicts. “We are trying to support these families,” Selenskaya said.

Students live in dormitories on campus, attending classes Monday through Saturday and spending Sundays with their parents.

At school, girls compete in fencing matches, learn to dance at choreography classes, and get lessons in first aid. They are also taught to march and to assemble Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Masha Prokopenko, 11, began her studies in the fifth grade this year. Her father, Vitaly, 34, said his daughter had always been independent and wanted to study away from home.

Prokopenko, a Moscow entrepreneur, said Masha was enjoying her studies and was so busy that she didn’t have time to miss her parents. He is unsure whether Masha will opt for a military career or a regular job.

“The most important thing is for her to be happy,” he said.