The Russian media has repeatedly raised the topic of the overdue resignation of Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. At the same time, not only journalists, political scientists, but also retired and active military personnel, and many other citizens who are seriously concerned about the problems of the Russian army, gave their forecasts. Even when Serdyukov was Minister of Defense, the names of people who could replace the unpopular head of the defense department were named. Among these "candidates" were: Nikolai Makarov, Dmitry Rogozin, Vladimir Shamanov and a number of other worthy personalities. However, in the end, Nikolai Makarov remains chief of the General Staff, although they say that after the dismissal of Anatoly Serdyukov, his days in this post are numbered. Dmitry Rogozin last December became Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Russian defense industry. Vladimir Shamanov remains the commander of the Airborne Forces.
The post of the country's defense minister, as you know, was taken by Sergei Shoigu. And here, as they say, no one guessed. President Putin appointed Shoigu to a new post on November 6, 2012, relieving Anatoly Serdyukov of his ministerial post.
In order to get an idea of the personality of the new Minister of Defense, it is worth touching on his biography and career.
Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu was born in the Tuva Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on May 21, 1955. His father, whose name at birth was Shoigu (first name) Kuzhuget (family name) by the will of a mistake made in the passport office, became Kuzhuget (first name) Shoigu (last name). The father of the current Minister of Defense began his career as a journalist, and then his career entered the political plane. During his professional career, Kuzhuget Shoigu was able to achieve the regional political Olympus in the form of the post of first deputy head of the Council of Ministers of the Tuva Autonomous SSR.
Sergei Shoigu's mother - Alexandra Yakovlevna Kudryavtseva (married - Shoigu) comes from the Oryol region. She also held fairly high positions in the Tuva ASSR related to agriculture. Alexandra Shoigu repeatedly became a deputy of the Supreme Council of Tuva, and also worked as the head of the planning department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Tuva ASSR.
Shoigu Jr. studied mediocrely, was a solid C grade. He was known as a bully (he even received the nickname Shaitan), but thanks to his father's high position, he got away with all the pranks.
After graduating from high school, Sergei Shoigu entered the Krasnoyarsk Polytechnic Institute and in 1977 received a degree in civil engineering. There is no exact data on whether Sergei Kuzhugetovich studied at the military department, but by April 1993 he had the military rank of senior lieutenant in the reserve.
After graduation from the university was received, Sergei Shoigu worked in construction trusts in Siberia. As a result, over 11 years of work, he went from a foreman to a manager of one of these trusts. At the end of the 80s, the political career of the current Minister of Defense went uphill. In 1988, Shoigu became the second secretary of the Abakan city committee of the CPSU, and a year later he received the post of inspector of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Party Committee.
A year later, Sergei Shoigu finds himself in Moscow and proposes his candidacy for the post of head of the Committee for the elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. His proposal was not supported, but Sergei Shoigu received the post of chairman of the State Committee for Architecture and Construction, which was fully consistent with the entry in his diploma. However, apparently, Sergei Kuzhugetovich was not attracted by such work, and he turns out to be the prototype of the future Ministry of Emergency Situations - the Russian rescue corps, formed from rescue teams that at one time performed hard work to eliminate the consequences of the terrible earthquake in Armenia.
A year later, the corps was transformed into a Committee, and Sergei Shoigu became its head. One of the first manifestations of Shoigu's extraordinary thinking and coordination work was emergency work in Ufa, when at a local oil refinery a multi-ton piece of pipe, ready to fall from a height, could cause colossal damage to the enterprise and even lead to a serious earthquake. That operation served as an example of the clarity of the actions of the staff of the Committee, and was even entered into the Book of Records. This particular case of Shoigu's first steps in the "emergency" field suggests that this person is able to solve in a short time tasks that are super difficult.
In 1994, Sergei Shoigu became Minister of Emergency Situations, and he was awarded the rank of Major General. This fact in the biography of Sergei Kuzhugetovich from the public side raises certain questions, because before Sergei Shoigu, the extraordinary assignment of titles took place only in connection with the flight of Yuri Gagarin into space. However, we must pay tribute to Sergei Shoigu. By his work in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, he proved that the work performed by his employees is often not much inferior to space flights in terms of the level of risk. At the same time, the work of Sergei Shoigu himself in his post did not cause complaints from any of the leaders of the state.
The media wrote about Shoigu as the head of the Tuvan diaspora in Moscow. It was noted that in his homeland his name is highly respected: in his hometown of Chadan, a street was named after him, a mountain peak Sergei Shoigu appeared, the state farm "Flame of Revolution" was solemnly renamed into the State Unitary Enterprise "Balgazyn" named after Sergei Shoigu. The outcome of the elections in the republic depends on his word.
In a political sense, Shoigu “outlived” a truly impressive number of government leaders, like these Governments themselves. Starting work in the Ministry of Emergency Situations within the framework of the Cabinet of Ministers of Viktor Chernomyrdin, he worked in the Government of Sergei Kiriyenko, again Viktor Chernomyrdin, then Yevgeny Primakov, Sergei Stepashin, Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Kasyanov, Viktor Khristenko, Mikhail Fradkov, Viktor Zubkov and again Vladimir Putin.
After, let's say, a short break associated with his work as the governor of the Moscow region, Sergei Shoigu returned to the Government, which is currently headed by Dmitry Medvedev.
Obviously, Shoigu gets the reins of government in the Russian army at a difficult time for her, but are there any easy times for our army at all?.. that he will try to justify the hopes placed on him.
In his new post, Shoigu will have to solve, first of all, the problems associated with the continuation of the modernization course, the provision of housing for military personnel on the waiting list, and heaps of corruption scandals that have become a negative talk of the town for the Ministry of Defense. The reform, at the initial stage of the implementation of which was Anatoly Serdyukov, clearly cannot be reversed, and therefore Sergei Shoigu will have to apply all his strength and knowledge to move it forward, which he has accumulated a lot over the years of work in different Cabinet of Ministers.
Sergei Shoigu, judging by his work in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, is determined to solve any tasks assigned to him, and clearly will not look like a black sheep in the Ministry.
Today, the new Defense Minister is faced with the task of increasing the prestige of service in the ranks of the Russian Army, as well as increasing the prestige of the Ministry itself, which (prestige), it must be admitted, has been pretty shabby in recent years (by the way, not only when Anatoly Serdyukov was Minister of War) …
Shoigu is accustomed to relying on a strong team, which means that we should expect that in the near future the Ministry may begin to pursue a systematic personnel policy to select those who are ready to go to the end to complete the assigned tasks. At the same time, we must not forget that Sergei Shoigu is, excuse me, the “grandfather” in the Government, and is clearly not ready to dance to someone's tune here. He needs associates, but he will not compromise with those who stand in his way. This proves once again that Shoigu is a strong and extraordinary personality, and therefore not only the state of affairs in the Armed Forces, but also the degree of relations with his colleagues will depend on his attitude.
In this regard, it will be interesting to observe such a combination as Shoigu-Rogozin. After all, it is no secret that Rogozin ended up in the Government at the moment when it became clear that the Ministry of Defense was not coping with the plans for the State Defense Order, but, in fact, at the moment when one of the disadvantages of Anatoly Serdyukov's work in the Ministry appeared. But today Serdyukov's place has been taken by a more decisive Shoigu, and the whole question is, does he need some kind of external assistant in the form of a special deputy prime minister? Obviously, in the near future there will be no changes on this flank, but over time, the presence of the post of Deputy Prime Minister for Defense will depend on the zeal of both Dmitry Rogozin and Sergei Shoigu in their posts.
In general, there is more than enough work for the new minister, and therefore we should wish him success in increasing the country's defense capability, relying on experienced and professional personnel.
