The message reads, in part:
“Your school, which was established in Leningrad in 1944, soon after the Nazi siege of the city was lifted, offered solid professional training and became a home for the young people who had fought on the front lines and in partisan units, the sons of army and navy regiments, and the hundreds of orphans who had become homeless and lost their parents in the Great Patriotic War. Their teachers and mentors offered sincere affection, care and attention to their charges, showed them the way to the universe of knowledge, and helped them realise themselves. The school’s graduates became outstanding naval leaders, experienced commanders, talented scientists and engineers, politicians and diplomats, and proved their worth in other spheres.
The branches of your prestigious school, which have been established at all our fleets, comprise a big and close-knit family of school graduates, who uphold the traditions of patriotism, fellowship and honest service to the Fatherland entrusted to them by their predecessors. I wish you success, health and all the best.”
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The Nakhimov Naval School was established in Leningrad in 1944. Today, it has branches in Vladivostok, Sevastopol, Murmansk and Kaliningrad, as well as a branch in Mariupol, which opened in 2024. The school’s cadets take part in the annual Main Naval Parade held in St Petersburg. Over 100 of its graduates hold the ranks of admiral and general, and eight of them, the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Russia.