A formação dos praças do exército brasileiro no Piauí entre os anos de 1937 e 1942

Abstract

This study analyzes the training of enlisted men in the Brazilian Army in Piauí between 1937 and 1942, within the context of institutional modernization promoted by the Estado Novo (New State). The research aims to understand how instruction, discipline, and civic-patriotic culture were structured in the 25th Rifle Battalion and how these practices aligned with the national guidelines of the Brazilian Army. To this end, regimental bulletins, reports, military legislation, and specialized bibliography were examined. The results demonstrate that the training of enlisted men was aligned with the professionalization and centralization project led by Góes Monteiro and Eurico Gaspar Dutra, combining technical training, rigorous discipline, and the promotion of patriotic values. In the 25th Rifle Battalion, military instruction combined physical activities, practical exercises, and strict disciplinary norms, while civic rituals, parades, ceremonies, and civic instruction contributed to the construction of a military identity focused on order and the nationalization of youth. The analysis, however, reveals tensions between the modernizing discourse and the concrete conditions of the barracks, marked by material limitations and daily challenges that impacted the training process. It concludes that the training of soldiers from Piauí simultaneously expressed the nationalist project of the Estado Novo (New State) and its local adaptations, constituting a hybrid space of discipline, instruction, and symbolic construction of military culture.