Welcome to the GRU University, Where Moscow Turns Students into Spies and Hackers
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Since its founding in 1830, Bauman University has been one of Russia’s most prestigious technical universities. “Courage, will, work, perseverance” are its stated principles. Today more than 30,000 young people study at the university in eastern Moscow. Its computer science faculty is considered its flagship; many graduates end up at the country’s most important tech companies.
However, Bauman University also secretly trains spies. According to 2,000 internal documents obtained by an international consortium of media outlets including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Insider, The Guardian, Delfi Estonia, VSquare and FRONTSTORY.PL, the university hosts a clandestine section never mentioned in its official organizational chart: “Department No. 4.”
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**Courses in Hacking and Propaganda**
Each year, between 10 and 15 Bauman students are assigned—before even finishing their studies—to the GRU units they are expected to join after graduation.
Some are sent to the more infamous units of Russia’s military machine, such as Unit 74455, better known as “Sandworm” or “VoodooBear.” This group has been accused by US and European authorities of orchestrating destabilization operations during the 2016 US presidential election, as well as large-scale cyberattacks on Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and on Poland in December 2025.
According to a Bauman University document, some of its agents work out of Anapa, a town on the Black Sea, at a previously unknown secret military base located next to the ERA military research center specializing in artificial intelligence. One of the leaked files listing dozens of students and their future assignments also reveals little-known GRU units such as 62174, based in Sevastopol in illegally occupied Crimea, and 48707, which shares an address with the GRU’s Scientific Research Center 11135 in Kursk, near the Ukrainian border.
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Those who enroll in the course “Countering Technical Intelligence,” spend a total of 144 hours over two semesters learning the complete toolkit of modern hackers. This includes all digital intrusion tools for penetrating foreign computer systems: from simple password attacks and the exploitation of known IT vulnerabilities to more sophisticated “trojans.” There are also “practical penetration tests” — hacking exercises. Especially important: Module 6, “Computer viruses.” At the end of the course, students must hack a test server.
The curriculum also covers tools and techniques for so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Such an attack — in which countless devices organized in botnets automatically bombard online services — recently caused problems for Deutsche Bahn customers when their app was unavailable for an extended period. Russian hackers also repeatedly take down the websites of institutions like airports and hospitals. It is a strategy of a thousand pinpricks.
More surprisingly, some classes introduce “experimental psychology” or the development of propaganda campaigns. One syllabus describes the “creation of a video for social networks, using manipulation, to support or refute a ‘hot’ topic,” promising to teach “information warfare” while citing the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz.
Even at this level of education, in a renowned institution, trainee hackers are themselves flooded with disinformation: Ukraine is described as a country “seeking nuclear weapons,” the West as having tried to destroy Russia in the 1990s and 2000s, and Russians in the Donbas region as threatened by a “genocide” backed by European countries. “This state-sponsored conspiracism structures and legitimizes Vladimir Putin’s regime,” Limonier explains. **“Even among the country’s elites, these lies must be repeated.”**
...
This mix of technical skills and conspiracy theories was designed by Lieutenant Colonel Kirill Stupakov, the professor in charge of the entire program—himself also an intelligence officer within Russian military intelligence. According to his CV, which was found in the leaked documents, Stupakov headed GRU Unit 45807 for three years, until July 11, 2025. Within his teaching staff, he brought in several of the most senior hackers from Russian military intelligence.
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[Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260507101126/https://vsquare.org/welcome-to-the-gru-university-where-moscow-turns-students-into-spies-and-hackers-bauman-stupakov/)
Since its founding in 1830, Bauman University has been one of Russia’s most prestigious technical universities. “Courage, will, work, perseverance” are its stated principles. Today more than 30,000 young people study at the university in eastern Moscow. Its computer science faculty is considered its flagship; many graduates end up at the country’s most important tech companies.
However, Bauman University also secretly trains spies. According to 2,000 internal documents obtained by an international consortium of media outlets including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Insider, The Guardian, Delfi Estonia, VSquare and FRONTSTORY.PL, the university hosts a clandestine section never mentioned in its official organizational chart: “Department No. 4.”
...
**Courses in Hacking and Propaganda**
Each year, between 10 and 15 Bauman students are assigned—before even finishing their studies—to the GRU units they are expected to join after graduation.
Some are sent to the more infamous units of Russia’s military machine, such as Unit 74455, better known as “Sandworm” or “VoodooBear.” This group has been accused by US and European authorities of orchestrating destabilization operations during the 2016 US presidential election, as well as large-scale cyberattacks on Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and on Poland in December 2025.
According to a Bauman University document, some of its agents work out of Anapa, a town on the Black Sea, at a previously unknown secret military base located next to the ERA military research center specializing in artificial intelligence. One of the leaked files listing dozens of students and their future assignments also reveals little-known GRU units such as 62174, based in Sevastopol in illegally occupied Crimea, and 48707, which shares an address with the GRU’s Scientific Research Center 11135 in Kursk, near the Ukrainian border.
...
Those who enroll in the course “Countering Technical Intelligence,” spend a total of 144 hours over two semesters learning the complete toolkit of modern hackers. This includes all digital intrusion tools for penetrating foreign computer systems: from simple password attacks and the exploitation of known IT vulnerabilities to more sophisticated “trojans.” There are also “practical penetration tests” — hacking exercises. Especially important: Module 6, “Computer viruses.” At the end of the course, students must hack a test server.
The curriculum also covers tools and techniques for so-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Such an attack — in which countless devices organized in botnets automatically bombard online services — recently caused problems for Deutsche Bahn customers when their app was unavailable for an extended period. Russian hackers also repeatedly take down the websites of institutions like airports and hospitals. It is a strategy of a thousand pinpricks.
More surprisingly, some classes introduce “experimental psychology” or the development of propaganda campaigns. One syllabus describes the “creation of a video for social networks, using manipulation, to support or refute a ‘hot’ topic,” promising to teach “information warfare” while citing the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz.
Even at this level of education, in a renowned institution, trainee hackers are themselves flooded with disinformation: Ukraine is described as a country “seeking nuclear weapons,” the West as having tried to destroy Russia in the 1990s and 2000s, and Russians in the Donbas region as threatened by a “genocide” backed by European countries. “This state-sponsored conspiracism structures and legitimizes Vladimir Putin’s regime,” Limonier explains. **“Even among the country’s elites, these lies must be repeated.”**
...
This mix of technical skills and conspiracy theories was designed by Lieutenant Colonel Kirill Stupakov, the professor in charge of the entire program—himself also an intelligence officer within Russian military intelligence. According to his CV, which was found in the leaked documents, Stupakov headed GRU Unit 45807 for three years, until July 11, 2025. Within his teaching staff, he brought in several of the most senior hackers from Russian military intelligence.
...
[Web Archive link](https://web.archive.org/web/20260507101126/https://vsquare.org/welcome-to-the-gru-university-where-moscow-turns-students-into-spies-and-hackers-bauman-stupakov/)