Higher Naval School named after Nikola Vaptsarov

Higher Naval School. Nikola Vaptsarova (VVMU) is located in Varna , Bulgaria. His graduates serve in the Navy and Civil Fleets of Bulgaria, and also work as highly qualified specialists in the field of maritime industry.

Higher Naval School. Nikola Vaptsarova is the oldest technical educational institution in Bulgaria. The history and current state of the school indicate that it is the most prestigious Bulgarian training center for marine specialists. The predecessors of modern faculties, departments, departments and professional colleges that make up the modern Higher Naval School. Nikola Vaptsarova, were several independent educational structures of the end of the XIX century, led since 1912 by the "Educational part" ("Marine educational part").

The early decades

The beginning of Bulgarian maritime education was laid by Circular No. 7 of January 16, 1881 of the Military Department of the Principality of Bulgaria. This document announced that in the city of Ruse, on January 9, 1881, the "Naval School" was opened.

The initiator of the formation of the school was Alexander Egorovich Konkevich , captain-lieutenant of the Russian Navy, ^{[3] the} head of the “Flotilla and Marine Unit” (the Bulgarian Navy had this official name in the 19th century).

The first chief of the Naval Academy also became a Russian officer, second lieutenant of the corps of mechanical engineers of the fleet Pavel Alekseevich Mashnin, who remained in this position until March 1882 ^[4]

The Maritime College was given the task of training machinists and firemen for the princely flotilla. All teachers were Russian officers and all subjects until 1885 were taught only in Russian. After 1883, the school began to be called (in various documents) “Machine School”, “Technical School”, “Mechanical Class”, but this did not change its status: it successfully continued to train technicians for the Flotilla and the marine part. In 1885, the students of the school participated in the Serbian-Bulgarian war, two of them were awarded medals. ^[5]

In 1892, the school was reorganized and renamed the "Marine Non-Commissioned Officer School", which trained boatswainmen, helmsmen, artillerymen, miners and train drivers. In the same year, the first “Certificate” ^[6] was issued on the completion of the school, which has survived to this day.

In 1893, in the city of Rousse, at the Flotilla and the marine part, the “Interim Course in Naval Sciences” was founded, which was the prototype of the modern navigation faculty of VVMU. On it trained ground officers in order to obtain naval qualifications. In 1914, he received the name "Officer Training Course".

In 1900, the Marine Non-Commissioned Officers School was headed by a Bulgarian officer, Lieutenant Todor Solarov, a pupil of the Russian school of naval engineers, the Kronstadt Technical School of the Maritime Department . Then the school was moved to Varna and received a new name: "Fleet Machine School". Since 1904, it has already provided secondary education, becoming the first secondary technical educational institution in the history of Bulgaria. In 1910, a special building for the school was built in Varna.

Pupils of the school participated in the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913), as well as in the First World War (from 1915 to 1918). They had the honor of developing new mine weapons, seaplanes and the first Bulgarian submarine.

Listeners of the first post-war issue of the “Officer Training Course”, done in 1920, were first issued certificates of higher naval education under the full program of the pre-revolutionary Russian Naval Corps (St. Petersburg). ^[7]

Marine Machine School

The fate of the Machine School is very closely connected with the Bulgarian Navy. In this case, usually, when the Fleet changed its name, the name of the school changed. Since 1900, the “Flotilla and the Naval Unit” became known as the “Fleet”, and since 1906, when Prince Ferdinand took patronage over him, “the Fleet of His Royal Highness”. In 1908, with the proclamation by Bulgaria of independence from the Ottoman Empire, the fleet became known as the "Fleet of His Majesty." In the spring of 1921, under the terms of the peace treaty, Bulgaria was forbidden to have a navy, and it was disbanded. Instead, the Maritime Police Service was organized.

The Fleet Machine School was subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Labor, but retained the military character of its training and became known as the Marine Machine School. From 1934 to 1940 the school functioned in the city of Sozopol, but then again returned to Varna.

In 1937, Bulgaria regained the right to officially have a navy. In 1941, it began to be called "His Majesty's Naval Forces."

Since 1942, the Royal Naval Engineering School received the status of a higher special naval academy by royal decree and became known as His Majesty's Naval School. In 1943, the “Marine Department of the School of Reserve Officers” was formed in it, which trained the reserve officers of the “Naval Forces” of Bulgaria.

Post World War II

Since 1946, the educational institution was called the “People’s Naval School”, and in 1949 it received the name of Nikola Vaptsarov , a pupil of the school (1926-1932), an anti-fascist poet who was shot in 1942.

Since 1953, the school began training foreigners. The first foreign cadets were scholarship holders from Albania and Czechoslovakia. Until 1994, a total of 141 foreigners received a higher education diploma at VVMU. ^[8]

In 1954, the school moved to a new, specially built complex of buildings on ul. Vasil Drumev 73, where it is located today. Since 1991, the educational institution has received its modern name: “Higher Naval School named after Nikola Vaptsarova. "

In 2016, the 135th anniversary of the school was especially solemnly celebrated.

The modern school consists of the “Navigation” and “Engineering” faculties, the “Department of Advanced Studies” and the “Professional Elders College”. ^[9]

The school provides training in the following specialties (the names of specialties are given in the Bulgarian version):

For the Navy:

1. Naval Navigation
2. Naval vehicles and mechanisms for the Navy
3. Naval communications and radio systems

The term of study is 5 years. Successfully completing the course receive two educational qualification degrees "Bachelor" (in military and civilian specialties).

For civil marine industry:

1. Navigation
2. Ship Electronics
3. Ship machines and mechanisms
4. Ship power supply
5. Ship repair technology
6. Fleet and port operations
7. Ocean engineering
8. River shipping
9. Water Transport Management
10. Information and communications technology in the maritime industry

Duration of study - 4 years. Successfully completed the course receive an educational qualification degree "Bachelor".

• Maritime College (from January 9, 1881)
• Machine school
• Technical school
• Navy non-commissioned officer school at the Flotilla and the naval unit (1892-1900)
• Fleet Machine School (1900-1904), Varna
• Fleet Machine School with the rights of a secondary technical educational institution (1904-1917)
• Machine Marine School (1917-1920)
• Marine Machine School (1920-1929)
• Maritime College (1929-1942)
• His Majesty's Naval School (1942-1945)
• Naval People's College of the Naval Forces (1945-1946)
• People's Naval College (1946-1949)
• People’s Naval School "N. J. Vaptsarova "(1949-1956)
• Higher People's Naval School "N. J. Vaptsarova "(1956-1991)
• Higher Naval School "N. J. Vaptsarova "(since 1991)

Heads (ranks and dates of employment):

• 1 Engineer Second Lieutenant Pavel Al. Mashnin 1881-1882
• 2 Engineer-lieutenant Pavel Mikh. Izotov 1882-1884
• 3 Engineer-mechanic captain Pavel D. Kuzminsky 1884-1885
• 4 mechanic of the II category Aleksey Theodorov Nadein - 1885
• 5 Engineer-mechanic midshipman of the 1st category Konstantin R. Bozhkov 1885-1886 and 1899-1900
• 6 Midshipman I category Vladimir Vl. Lutsk - 1886
• 7 Midshipman of the I category Vladimir P. Kisimov 1886-1888
• 8 Captain Methodi Art. Boychev 1888-1895 g
• 9 Leith. Stancho D. Dimitriev 1895 1896
• 10 Midshipman of the I category Stefan H. Abadzhiev 1896-1897
• 11 Midshipman I category Yordan Minkov - 1897
• 12 Midshipman I category Nikola Popov - 1898
• 13 Midshipman I category Simeon M. Vinarov 1898-1899
• 14 Engineer Mechanical Leith. Todor Solarov 1900-1906
• 15 cap. - leith. Dimitar D. Dobrev 1906-1908
• 16 cap. - leith. Dimitar G. Kovachev 1908-1910
• 17 Cap. - leith. Ivan D. Angelov 1910-1912
• 18 cap. II rank Rashko Serafimov - 1913
• 19 cap. - leith. Boris Popov 1913-1914
• 20 cap. - leith. Georgi A. Antonov 1914-1915
• 21 Leith. Kiril G. Svetogorsky 1915-1919
• 22 cap. - leith. Ivan A. Mikhailov 1919-1920, 1921-1924
• 23 Leith. Vasil G. Ignatov 1920-1921
• 24 Leith. Boris Stanev - 1921
• 25 cap. - leith. Georgi Slavyanov 1924-1926
• 26 cap. - leith. Peter I. Kashlakev 1926-1927
• 27 cap. II rank Todor V. Todorov 1927-1928
• 28 cap. II rank Sava Ivanov 1928-1931
• 29 Major Bocho N. Rachev 1931-1934
• 30 cap. - leith. Peter Nedelchev 1934-1935
• 31 cap. II rank Todor D. Tsitselkov - 1935
• 32 cap. - leith. Stefan Hrankov - 1936
• 33 cap. - leith. Pavel Pavlov - 1936
• 34 Leith. Stanyo Vlkov 1936-1937
• 35 cap. II rank Stefan T. Tsanev 1937-1939, 1940, 1941-1944
• 36 cap. - leith. Georgi G. Petsov 1939-1940
• 37 cap. II rank Atanas Shalapatov 1944-1945
• 38 cap. I rank Angel I. Papazov 1945-1946, 1949-1955
• 39 Cap. II rank Vasil H. Kutevsky 1946-1947
• 40 cap II rank Dimitar E. Minkov - 1947
• 41 cap. II rank Branimir Ormanov 1947-1948
• 42 cap. II rank Stefan Nikolov 1948-1949
• 43 cap. I rank Methodi D. Mutafov 1956-1959
• 44 Rear Admiral Dicho Uzunov 1959-1972
• 45 Rear Admiral Chavdar Manolchev 1972-1975
• 46 cap I rank Petko J. Khalachev 1975-1976
• 47 Cap. I rank Emil Stanchev 1976-1982
• 48 cap I rank Rumen Popov 1982-1990
• 49 cap. I rank Mincio Bakalov 1990-1996
• 50 cap I rank Mikhail D. Yonov 1996-1998, 2000-2001
• 51 Cap. I rank Assoc. Dr. Ivan Yordanov 1998-2000
• 52 cap. I rank Stanko Stankov 2002 - 11/15/2007
• 53 cap. I rank Dimitar Angelov 11/15/2007 - 05/26/2011
• 54 cap. I rank prof. Ph.D. Boyan Mednikarov 05/27/2011