Aware of their role in society and their relative isolation from other social strata, many advanced Russian officers expressed the idea of creating a kind of community, partnership, where similar in spirit and hobbies, unit commanders, staff officers could meet in their free time to discuss interesting issues for many people related to improving their professional skills, organizing the organization of professional activities, etc. shared vacations, etc. Such proposals found a response in the officer's environment, but they were rarely implemented. It was necessary to find a form of spiritual connection between officers that would give real chances of moral and professional unity of commanders and staff members of units and divisions. The first military communities, later called officers ' meetings, in Russia begin to appear in the second half of the XVIII century. So, in 1779, the club of senior and junior officers of the Novgorod Infantry regiment was formed in the city of Tikhvin, and three years later a military club was created in the St. Petersburg garrison. In the evenings, the officers gathered in the clubs talked about military topics, had a rest together, which helped to strengthen good relations between colleagues and spiritually brought them closer. But it would probably be premature to consider these associations as officer meetings, since they did not have officially drawn up club rules, there was no highest permission for organizing and holding events, and meetings of colleagues often took place in random places, as well as in the apartments of unit commanders or any of the senior officers. And the prehistory of the emergence of officer meetings is as follows. The commander of the port of Kronstadt, Admiral Samuel Karlovich Greig, the hero of the Battle of Chesma, an educated and humane man, sympathizing with the dull and meager lifestyle of his subordinates, correctly assessed the moral damage inflicted on young officers who spent the long autumn ... Read more