It is customary that we celebrate Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23, as the day of the creation of the Red Army. Skipping the topic of the fact that the day of the creation of the Red Army is actually a slightly earlier day in the 1918 calendar, today it is worth focusing on something else. In the newest Russian holiday calendar, one more date stands out in relation to the country's Armed Forces. It's about a date like May 7. It was on this day in 1992 that a document was signed, which spoke about the creation of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
This date is considered to be the day of the creation of the RF Armed Forces. And this suggests that today, on May 7, 2017, the Russian Armed Forces are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their founding - after the formation of such a state as the Russian Federation on the world map.
Of course, one cannot say that the Russian armed forces have only 25 years of history. The date of foundation of the RF Armed Forces is more calendar. But the fact of the legal basis of the document, on the basis of which both the Armed Forces and all the military departments of the new Russia were created, does not in any way cancel it out.
Meanwhile, what constituted the Russian armed forces of Russia in May 1992, and what they represent now, not only a significant time interval, but also a qualitative gap. If we talk about the period of time 25 years ago, then the Russian army that was then forming was actually demoralized. The reason is quite understandable: servicemen who took an oath to one state suddenly found themselves in another state - without ideology and a clear goal.
The homeland was destroyed by the political games of those whose interests clearly did not include the progressive development of the country with a clear protection of state interests. The elite of the army found itself in such a state when political figures who were in power were wiping their feet about it, and this is not even a figure of speech. The instillation of the idea that "the army of Russia is not needed, since we now have no enemies" began to be implanted. Against this background, the post-Soviet space was shaken by interethnic conflicts, bloody strife, which cut the state alive. And after all, they cut not only states, but also families, which were formed in a single, large country, and in the end turned out to be divided by borders.
Redistribution in the post-Soviet space led to the fact that many servicemen ended up outside of Russia. What the families of Soviet servicemen had to go through in the Baltics, in the republics of Central Asia, is a topic for separate materials. The fact remains that a new reality was born, in which not the officer's honor tried to come out on top, but speculation on the very status of hundreds of thousands of servicemen.
Many modern officers who survived that time call it the most painful in their life: there was no army, no country, no prospects.
However, the years passed, and the Russian army, going through the hardest pages of its history, grew stronger and developed as much as possible in those conditions. And the conditions are virtually a complete lack of funding, when career officers were forced after service to go to work part-time as security guards in jewelry stores or taxi drivers. We have experienced this too.
The army of a completely new model comes to replace that army. What is gratifying, at the same time, the most important link remains - in fact, the basis of the Armed Forces. Speech and long-term traditions, which, fortunately, have not been lost, despite all the difficulties experienced by the Russian military.
The Armed Forces of Russia today are one of the main bases of the security of the Russian Federation. They include about 850 thousand servicemen of various types and branches of the military. Moreover, over 2.2 million people are in the reserve of the RF Armed Forces. Statistics show that in terms of the number of personnel, the Russian Armed Forces occupy the fifth place in the world (after the PRC, the USA, India and the DPRK). But in terms of combat potential, equipment with weapons, professionalism of servicemen, the number of military exercises of the RF Armed Forces among the main leaders. In particular, international experts rank the Russian army first in the world in terms of equipping the Russian army.
Whether it is possible to assess the readiness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of protecting the Fatherland with scores, ticks and other numerical variations is a largely philosophical question. But an important feature of the Russian army lies precisely in the fact that for the overwhelming number of people who have tied their lot with the defense of the Motherland, it is the readiness for self-sacrifice that is the key factor. Material well-being is an important thing, but, as history and practice show, security and material wealth do not always play the first violin in protecting the interests of their Fatherland. And this is not at all for a catchphrase, it is a statement of fact.
By 2020, the army should be updated technically by about 70%. This makes the RF Armed Forces one of the most technologically advanced among all the armies of the world. For some, this causes a gnashing of teeth, but for with their grinding, let such persons be left alone …
Voennoye Obozreniye congratulates the servicemen of the Armed Forces on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the new Russian army and hopes that the development of the RF Armed Forces will continue regardless of what the so-called “partners” think about this.
