Abstract

The article is devoted to the formation of higher education and training of engineering personnel in Belarus. In the conditions of the civil war, mass mobilization was carried out in the country, under which students also fell. By the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b), only students of medical and engineering higher educational institutions could be exempted from conscription. During the unfolding campaign to combat desertion, this decision significantly increased the importance of universities in the eyes of young people, as it allowed them to use the legal way of obtaining a deferral from the army. Students of the first Belarusian State Technical Institute were involved in universal military service, from which they were temporarily exempted by taking pre-conscription training courses at military commissariats. This circumstance significantly hindered the learning process. A number of students did not have time to simply drive from one place to another, in view of which they were arrested on charges of desertion. At the initiative of the students, pre-conscription training was organized on the basis of the Polytechnic, which marked the beginning of military training in the walls of universities in Belarus. For the first time, the positions of an instructor in sports and preconscription training appeared in the staff of the university. These decisions marked the beginning of the implementation of new principles of youth state policy.