In Russia today, May 28, is the Day of the Border Guard.
In Latvia, Border Guard Day is celebrated in November, in Ukraine in April, in Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in August. Based on this, we can say that these former Soviet republics carried out a reform to demonstrate their isolation from their own history, from any ties with the Soviet past, "hated" - as they say in some circles. The dates were changed, among other things, so that they would not suddenly be suspected of "sympathy" for Russia and the common past with our country. The crisis of adolescence. It will pass.
We have - traditionally and inviolably - on May 28th. The date, which reminds of the glorious past of the Border Troops, tells about their present and allows us to reflect on new stages of development in the future.
Russian border guards protect the longest borders in the world. From the Baltic to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, from the mountain ranges of the Caucasus to the snow-covered expanses of the tundra, from those places where the dawn of a new day is first met to those where “friendly partners” who have become NATO countries managed to settle down.
The total length of the Russian border is 23.53 thousand km, of which more than 14 thousand km is the land border. The Russian Federation borders on 18 states of the world, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whose independence was recognized in August 2008 after the Georgian aggression against Tskhinval and the completion of the operation to force the then Georgia to peace.
In most of the wars and armed conflicts unleashed by foreign states against Russia, it was the border guards who were the first to enter the military business. One of the most difficult periods in this regard is the period of the formation of the young Soviet state, when, after the collapse of a huge empire, the borders were, so to speak, a sieve through which both ordinary smugglers and those who hatched plans for a full-scale occupation strove to infiltrate. Russia.
After the end of the Civil War, the Separate Border Corps of the GPU troops was created, which included all the formations that guarded the border. The total number of the corps was also determined - about 50 thousand people. Artur Artuzov was appointed the first commander of the border corps. He headed the Counterintelligence Department (KRO) of the Secret Operations Directorate of the GPU / OGPU. Then the corps included seven border districts: North Caucasian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, Western, Petrograd, Turkestan, Siberian. A little later, the Office of the Border Guard of the Plenipotentiary of the GPU of the Far East was formed.
The first Soviet border guards were forced to take battle on literally all "fronts". Gangs of Basmachs attacked in the sands of Central Asia, from Poland and Romania to the young Soviet state, gangs made forays, which were sponsored, among other things, by Western intelligence services (the Bulak-Bulakhovich and Savinkov gangs), in Transcaucasia, border guards suppressed attempts at pogroms in local cities and villages, hijacking livestock, the murder of those who did not speak out against the Soviet regime. There is still no exact information about how many border guards laid down their heads defending the borders of the state in these difficult (including from a historical point of view) years.
Heroism and courage were shown by the Soviet border guards during the Great Patriotic War. Together with individual units of the Red Army, the first powerful blow of the Nazis was taken by the servicemen of the border units and subunits on the western borders of the Soviet Union. The battles were fought directly on the line of the state border. The courage shown in the battles by the border guards is worthy of a separate discussion. In a number of cases, it was the actions of the border detachments, which fought to the last bullet, to the last drop of blood, that allowed the Red Army units to regroup and take positions to "meet" the enemy.
For the first battles near the border of the USSR, by the decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of August 26, 1941, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to the border guards I. Buzytskov, K. Vetchinkin, N. Kaimanov, A. Konstantinov, M. Mikhalkov, A. Ryzhikov for their heroism.
Today, the Border Troops of the FSB of the Russian Federation carry out tasks of protecting the state border in a difficult geopolitical situation. Several armed conflicts are ablaze near our borders, which, as the main ideologists of this border instability dream of, would long ago have spilled over into Russian territory. The border guards are doing their job.
Voennoye Obozreniye congratulates the veterans of the Border Troops and active career servicemen of the FSB FSB on the occasion!
