The reform of military education more and more resembles a pro forma
In 2010, the implementation of the federal program for reforming the military education system in the Russian Federation is being completed. As a result, the Russian Ministry of Defense will have 10 system-forming universities, including: three military educational and research centers, six military academies and one military university. Moreover, the transformation, as it has become fashionable, will be completed ahead of schedule - it was originally planned to reach these indicators by 2013. But today one can be sure that the military department does not intend to stop at what has been achieved. And the "sequestration" of the network of universities will continue in accordance with the Strategic Plan for Improving Professional Education and Training of Servicemen and Civil Servants of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation until 2020, which was approved by a special commission of the Ministry of Defense in December 2008. But it is already obvious that the measures proposed by the leadership of the RF military department to “optimize” military education need urgent and serious adjustments for the very reason that they simply undermine the security of Russia and the combat readiness of the Russian army.
… PLANOV GROMADIER
Let us recall that the first step in the formation of a new network of universities was the order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 24, 2008 No. 1951-r. He provided for the reorganization of eight military academies and universities by joining a number of military educational institutions. Its authors were the military themselves, who carried out a brilliant camouflage operation, stating that all existing military schools and institutes are preserved at the first stage, but join the system-forming universities as separate structural units without changing the points of deployment. State Secretary - Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov noted with some pride on this that when preparing the document “we were guided by the principle 'Do no harm!' At first, there was no smell of sabotage, although the Kemerovo School of Communications, the decision to liquidate which was made back in 2006, and the Irkutsk Aviation Engineering School, about the sad fate of which NVO more than once told on its pages, fell under the knife …
About a year ago, it was announced that the Nizhny Novgorod and Tyumen Higher Military Engineering Command Schools and the Saratov Military Institute of Biological and Chemical Safety will join the Military Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense and Engineering Troops (Kostroma). It would seem that subsidiary universities may not think with concern about the future and continue to live as branches. But no! Someone in the 5th Directorate of the Main Directorate of Personnel of the Ministry of Defense came up with the idea that so many engineers and sappers of the army are not needed in the future and one of the schools can be reduced. The choice fell on the Nizhny Novgorod VVIKU.
The fact that in 2009 the university passed a serious examination for the right to carry out educational activities, namely the procedure of re-licensing and state accreditation, did not bother anyone. The fact that all the necessary conditions have been created here for the full implementation of curricula in terms of field training, the correct use and operation of engineering equipment and weapons,arrangement in the field, performing training exercises with all types of small arms, conducting engineering reconnaissance, driving engineering vehicles and performing tasks using engineering equipment, including explosives, arranging and overcoming engineering obstacles, equipment and maintenance of crossings, training and maintenance routes of movement of troops, fortification equipment of areas, lines and positions of troops, making passages in obstacles and destruction of the enemy, building low-water bridges, etc., too. And in general, why the residents of Nizhny Novgorod, and not their Tyumen colleagues, fell under the "distribution" remains a mystery to many.
Judge for yourself. The Nizhny Novgorod VVIKU trains officers of the engineering troops in four specialties: "Multipurpose tracked and wheeled vehicles", "Power supply", "Industrial and civil construction", "Radio engineering". Tyumen school - only one: "Multipurpose tracked and wheeled vehicles", which are used by the paratroopers. In the city of Kstovo, where the Nizhny Novgorod "Bursa" is located, in addition to several hundred of our cadets, servicemen from 18 foreign countries of the near and far abroad are being trained in three specialties. In Siberia, they do not have any experience in training a foreign contingent and do not have a teaching staff of the appropriate qualifications. The transfer of a special faculty will require the redeployment of five departments to the base of the Tyumen VVIKU, the construction of an educational building and a hostel for foreign military specialists (at least 150 people) and the release of areas for educational and laboratory, simulator and field training bases. And this is not a pound of raisins! It will be necessary to deploy no less than a small town of special fortifications, 22 simulators for sapper and engineering equipment, 28 electrical units with a capacity of 0.5 to 200 kW, 53 units of special devices at the power range and much more - only a few tens of thousands of square meters of training and material base (UMB). Nobody seemed to be counting how much it would become.
In theory, a different option has been calculated, when the Nizhny Novgorod VVIKU will become the base. In this scenario, the minimum investment of money will be required, associated with the relocation of cadets and the transportation of UMB only for training airborne specialization cadets for the Airborne Forces. Especially taking into account the fact that today in Kstovo there are free areas for accommodating both future paratroopers and related equipment. Moreover, for the specialization of the Airborne Forces (according to the assessment of the management of the engineering service of the Airborne Forces), conducting internships, trips to complete the jumping program, practical trips to carry out training programs on the basis of the Nizhny Novgorod Airborne Forces, it is economically profitable 3-4 times, since the 98th air - an amphibious division in the city of Ivanovo, as well as various units in the cities of Medvezhye Ozera, Kubinka, Ryazan, Tula. In this regard, there is even a justification and a petition from the head of the engineering service of the Airborne Forces. But who read it?..
Whatever one may say, but from the state point of view, the most acceptable option is to transfer the training of cadets from the Tyumen VVIKU to the Nizhny Novgorod VVIKU as the most rational and economically feasible. Not to mention the fact that this will allow preserving the first military engineering school, created by the personal decree of Peter I in 1701 in Moscow at the new Cannon Yard and which laid the foundation for engineering education in Russia at the state level. But centuries-old traditions are not taken into account at all …
CHEKHARDA, KUMOVISM, NEPROFESSIONALISM
One good friend in a frank conversation told how the decision was made, which of the schools to keep and which to put under the knife. It turns out that everything happened outrageously simple. The former chief of the Engineering Troops of the RF Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Yuri Balkhovitin, removed from office by the decision of the President of Russia on November 24, 2009 after a series of explosions at the 31st arsenal in Ulyanovsk, just before his dismissal decided to please his own little man and, without looking, waved a paper that basic Tyumen will become a university. It is not known for certain how the head of the Tyumen Higher Military Engineering Command School, Major General Mikhail Loginov, managed to achieve this, but it is possible that the argumentation was not only of a moral nature.
But the final decision is clearly not made by the Balkhovites! There is also the current leadership of the Engineering Troops, the corresponding directorate of the Main Personnel Directorate, which directly oversees military education issues. But they are also silent in this situation. And who, in fact, should try to revise the previously adopted decisions, for which (which is very important!) Considerable financial resources have already been planned? Acting Chief of the Engineering Troops of the Armed Forces, Colonel Vladimir Prokopchik? So he sleeps and sees himself appointed to the position and will not stick out. Deputy Head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Head of the 5th Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Tamara Fraltsova? So this lady hardly knows what a counter-escarp is and how the MON-100 and PMN-3 mines differ. Not to mention that its purpose is completely different from what someone thinks. A teacher by education, who began by working in preschool institutions, she even managed to be a State Duma deputy. And having handed over the mandate, suddenly she again began to sow reasonable, kind, eternal, heading the Boarding School for pupils of the Ministry of Defense. True, she did not work there for a year. A candidate of pedagogical sciences with experience of work in gymnasiums and public education bodies at a level not higher than the regional level was abandoned to determine the policy in the field of all military education. The fact that all of it is largely reduced to the closure of a number of military universities and a reduction in enrollment in the remaining ones, it, and indeed its patrons, probably does not bother her much.
Yes, any reform causes an ambiguous reaction in society. The modernization of military education is no exception. The decision to reorganize any university causes a storm of indignation among those who were in one way or another associated with this educational institution. Dozens of indignant letters about the undermining of the national security of the state, about the uniqueness of the school or academy, about the collapse of military education are being sent to the president and the government, the State Duma and the Federation Council, the Ministry of Defense. Moreover, some local leaders associate the liquidation of universities with the aggravation of the socio-economic situation in the region, calling on the Ministry of Defense for charity, even to the detriment of the interests of training military personnel. But all this remains a voice crying in the wilderness. The Defense Ministry does not hear or does not want to hear any arguments. And the still unfinished, but potentially sad story of the Nizhny Novgorod VVIKU threatens to prove it once again.
