Instructor at Russia's secret elite hacker training school was born in Budapest

Bauman Moscow State Technical University is one of Russia’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, but hidden within its walls—concealed from the official organizational structure—is “Department no. 4,” which trains the next generation of elite hackers and intelligence officers for the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU—according to an article by the investigative portal Vsquare.

Leaked internal documents reveal that the training here is not merely theoretical: students are directly assigned to notorious units (such as Fancy Bear or Sandworm) responsible for cyberattacks against NATO member states, election interference, and sabotage operations.

In addition to technical skills—such as cracking passwords and analyzing the Pentagon's networks—the curriculum also includes lessons in creating propaganda and psychological warfare, while students are also trained to infiltrate Western countries using false identities.

The training program and the background of the instructors are also interesting in terms of their historical and Hungarian connections, reflecting the enduring legacy of the Soviet military. One of the key instructors, Dmitry Velikorodny, for example, was born in Budapest, as his father served in the Soviet Southern Group of Forces, which were stationed in Hungary until 1991. Velikorodny, who is now an instructor specializing in chemical and nuclear defense, is visibly proud of these roots: on several online platforms and in his username, he uses the Russian term “vengrec” (Hungarian) or the Cyrillic transcription of the Hungarian term as his identifier.

This personal connection highlights the fact that the descendants of the occupying soldiers’ families from the Soviet era are now fighting against the Western alliance system using the most modern tools of digital warfare, while the training taking place within the university’s walls serves the complete militarization of education and a state ideology based on conspiracy theories.