At the suggestion of the Russian Defense Minister in the Armed Forces, a five-day working week with two days off will be introduced for conscripts, and civilians will take over cooking for personnel, cleaning the territory and premises in military camps. The Ministry of Defense also wants to change the daily routine in the army, making the rise at 7.00, and the retreat at 23.00 (now - 6.00 and 22.00, respectively). In addition, an additional hour is planned for the afternoon rest in all parts. In distant garrisons, conscripts will be able to use the accumulated weekend in the form of additional leave. Also, the leadership of the military department came to the conclusion that it was necessary to relieve the defenders of the Motherland from performing functions unusual for them, which should be assumed by commercial organizations.
Anatoly Serdyukov's initiatives drew a flurry of criticism. Some opponents of the Minister of Defense even express suspicions that there is a secret part of the innovations, in which it is prescribed to additionally issue pointe shoes and ballet tutus to fighters.
Meanwhile, traditionally in the Soviet / Russian army there was a lot in the life of a soldier that was not caused by any strategic / operational need, but served exclusively as a means of creating additional torment. Other hardships and deprivations of military service were invented exclusively on purpose. Even the expression of Alexander Suvorov "Hard in training - easy in battle" was interpreted in our Armed Forces in a distorted manner (the generalissimo, by the way, said something completely different about the organization of combat training). They tried to instill in Soviet soldiers and officers many skills that cannot be consolidated by human nature. For example, during maneuvers, they constantly tried to teach the fighters not to sleep for several days (instead of a reasonable organization of shift combat activities), to carry 60-70 kg of equipment and ammunition on themselves (instead of the timely supply of materiel to the battlefield), “not to be afraid” of a crackling frost (which is much easier to supply winter uniforms that meet the climate of the area where hostilities are being deployed). Only in the Armed Forces of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, personnel were not entitled to vacations (as there were none 40 years later, during the Afghan campaign). Only we lacked such a concept as the withdrawal of a unit (formation) to rest to restore combat effectiveness (if they were withdrawn, then only headquarters with rear services for replenishment). Moreover, only in our army did we encounter such phenomena as death from exhaustion (or even from hunger).
To this day, many different kinds of minor bullying still live and live in everyday peaceful army life. These include, for example, cleaning the territory (coupled with various notions of commanders in the form of laying out various kinds of figures from stones and cones on the ground), aligning blankets on soldiers' beds strictly along stripes, giving pillows some completely unusual cubic shape, scraping barracks floors with broken glasses to white, cleaning taps for washing to a shine … and much, much more. Not a single army in the world, except ours, has invented devices for giving soldiers' beds the shape of a brick. And we still have them in every barracks. This nonsense was sometimes the main criterion when assessing the combat readiness of a unit. Naturally, this did not increase the ability to repulse the enemy, and it took a lot of time. If we add to this the guards and outfits, the procurement of vegetables and other household work, then there was absolutely no time left for combat training. Maybe that's why any war takes the Russian army by surprise.
However, the measures of the Ministry of Defense (and personally the head of the military department) to overcome these phenomena and to humanize the military service cause gnashing of teeth among other Russian ex-military leaders, parliamentarians, politicians and publicists. It is quite possible (and this must be dealt with separately) that most of Anatoly Serdyukov's critics have never completed military service (and even less commanded companies). After all, it is very fashionable in our country to act according to the principle: I have not read it, but I condemn it, I haven’t looked, but I didn’t like it.
