Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation named after Prince Alexander Nevsky (Russian: Военный университет Министерства обороны Российской Федерации, romanized: Voyennyy universitet Ministerstva oborony Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is a Russian military university operated by the Ministry of Defense of Russia (MOD). It is located on 14 Bol'shaya Sadovaya Street in Moscow. Since October 2017, the Commandant of the university has been Lieutenant General Igor Mishutkin.

The Military University started as the Teaching Institute of the Red Army which opened on November 5, 1919 by the order of N.G. Tolmachev of the Petrograd Military District. The first Commandant of the school was Mikhail Apletin.

In 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution to organize the Military Faculty of Foreign Languages at the 2nd Moscow State Pedagogical Institute for Foreign Languages (2nd MGPIFL) as a higher military educational institution. Its main task was to train military instructors in English, German, and French languages for schools and academies of the Red Army.

At the beginning of 1941, the faculty received a new official name: the Military Faculty of Western Languages at the 1st and 2nd MGPIFL. On April 12, 1942, by the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, the Military Faculty of Western Languages at the 2nd MGPIFL was transformed into the Military Institute of Foreign Languages of the Red Army (VIIAKA). According to the same order, the institute included the Military Faculty of Eastern Languages at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies and the military courses of foreign languages from the city of Orsk. The first head of the Military Institute of Foreign Languages of the Red Army was Russian-Italian Major General Nikolai Biasi, and his deputy in the political department was Political Commissar Petr Babkin.

On August 1, 1974, the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union) was formed as an affiliated school of the Vladimir Lenin Military-Political Academy.

The modern university was established on July 20, 1994 on the basis of the unification of the Military-Political Academy and Military Institute. For the first time in one school, the economic, humanitarian, legal and philological areas of officer training were taught at the university level.

In 2003, for the first time in the history of military universities, an off-budget faculty was formed at the university, where civilians can also study on a paid basis. Every year it enjoys more and more popularity among civilian youth. In 2008, the number of faculty is 1035 people.

After the creation of the Main Military-Political Directorate in 2018, it was decided that from 2019 the university will become the main university for training specialists in military-political work.