Czechoslovakia Table of Contents
In 1987 the CSLA operated schools ranging from secondary schools through colleges for the academic, technical, and political training and advancement of regular personnel. All military training institutions were highly politicized in keeping with the party orientation of armed forces customary in communist countries. Many senior officers, in addition to successfully completing military schooling at all levels in Czechoslovakia, also have been sent to the Soviet Union for courses in that country's military institutions. General Vaclavik, for example, attended the Moscow Military Academy of the General Staff and the Frunze Military Academy.
At the highest level were the military academies, which contained two categories of institutions. First was the "university category." This group included the Klement Gottwald Military Political Academy in Bratislava, the Military Medical Research and Continuing Education Department of Jan Evangelist Purkyn in Hradec Kralove, and the Military Section of the Department of Physical Education and Sport at Charles University in Prague. The Klement Gottwald Military Political Academy prepared cadres for the political apparatus of the CSLA. The medical academy prepared military cadres in general medicine, stomatology, and general pharmacy. The physical education department at Charles University produced specialists in sports organization, sports medicine, and related subjects.
The other category of military academies included five "technical" institutions. These were the Antonin Zapotecky Academy in Brno, the Ludvik Svoboda Higher Academy of the Ground Forces in Vyskov, the Military Technical Academy of CzechoslovakSoviet Friendship in Liptovsky Mikulas, the Military Aviation Academy of the Slovak National Uprising in Kosice, and the Military Department of the Academy of Transport and Communications in Zilina. Students from these schools were graduated with the title of engineer and the rank of lieutenant.
In 1987, the CSLA also operated four gymnasiums, or secondary schools, and eight "military intermediate specialized training" institutions. The military gymnasiums offered courses of study comparable to civilian gymnasiums, with some military education and an emphasis on physical fitness. The specialized training institutions offered different areas of technical training. The gymnasiums and the technical schools were both four-year institutions. Graduation from military secondary schools led to commissioning in the armed forces. Previously the mandatory two-year conscript tour was also part of the procedure, but that requirement for duty in the ranks was cut to five months in 1980. For a brief period after 1968, candidates for commission dropped noticeably, but the allure of a prestigious career overcame political antipathy, and during the 1980s the number of young men seeking military commission was adequate.
In 1987 all but one of the specialized training institutes were connected with two-year officer schools, the students of which become second-lieutenants upon graduation. The two one-year officer schools offered specialized training to gymnasium graduates between eighteen and twenty years of age.
As of 1987, women could not enroll as students in the Czechoslovak military schools; they could, however, take specialized courses to become home air defense specialists, operators in the special-purpose radio technical troops, ground specialists for the air force, office typists, or radio operators. Depending on the speciality, training courses were held in Prague, Kosice, and Nove Mesto nad Vahom. Upon passing a final examination, the graduates became members of the CSLA, either as enlisted personnel with a three-year service obligation, as career enlisted personnel with the rank of warrant officer, or as cadre NCOs.
Data as of August 1987