The history of the exchange of news begins in ancient times, when information was transmitted by the smoke of fires, beats on a signal drum, and the sounds of trumpets. Then they began to send messengers with oral and later written messages. The first postal relations in Ancient Rus in the XI-XIII centuries. existed only between appanage princes, who, with the help of special messengers, corresponded with each other and sent orders to their subordinate boyars. During the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the Tatars established stations on the routes of their conquests - "pits" with messengers, which meant only "a place of stopping." On them it was possible to make the necessary exchange of horses, find an overnight stay, a table, the necessary continuation of the path of people. This word then became firmly established in the Russian language, and served as the root for the following word formations: "coachman - postal courier", "Yamskaya gonba", ie post, "Yamskaya road" - postal tract.
In 60-90 years. XV century a nationwide Yamskaya system was created. Already in 1490, the Yamskoy clerk Timofey Maklakov was mentioned, who was in charge of the drivers and the Yamskoy service. Initially, there was no special institution under the Yamsk clerks, and they directed the service using the office of the Treasury Prikaz. In 1550, the Yamskaya hut was first mentioned, and since 1574 - the Yamskaya order, as the central management bodies of this service. During the existence of the discharge system of management of the Russian state, the central state institution in charge of the personnel of the army was the discharge order, information about which has been preserved since 1531. It was the military couriers of the discharge order, using the service of the Yamsk order, carried out the transportation of the most important state correspondence (tsarist letters and etc.).
On July 6 (16), 1659, by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the first route of direct military courier communication from Moscow to Kaluga and further to Sevsk was established, and from September 19 (29), 1659 it was extended to Putivl. This route played a certain role in the timely delivery of military orders to the troops operating in Ukraine during the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667.
In pre-Petrine times, the ambulance correspondence to the army had no special name. At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century. began to talk about "mail to the shelves." In the 1710s. In the course of the Northern War, temporary military field lines of "urgent communications" were laid from the capitals to the front and the sites of the Russian troops, which were called "mail to regiments." In particular, an imprint of a postal seal with the text "From Moscow to the shelves" is known, which was placed on the accompanying mail documents and on the mail bag.
This naming lasted for several years, after which it irrevocably disappeared, giving way to a new one. In the documents of May 1712, the phrase "field mail" first appears. It, as a special service providing postal communication among the troops, was first established in the Russian army in 1695 by Emperor Peter I during the first Azov campaign, where the duties of government couriers were performed by "the kindest dragoons." Creation of a regular army of Russia at the beginning of the 18th century. demanded the centralization and streamlining of the system of delivery of the relevant documents both to the troops located in the theater of operations and to the military command and control bodies from the troops. To this end, the Military Regulations, approved by the Decree of Emperor Peter I on March 30 (April 10), 1716, indicated that “a field post should be established with the army”, since “before the army, many correspondence … have been sent in business”. Two chapters of the charter: XXXV - "On the rank of field mail" and XXXVI - "On the field postmaster" determined the purpose and tasks of the military field mail and the duties of the postmaster.
The charter formalized the concept of "field mail". It was established at the time of hostilities for the army to communicate with the already existing stationary postal lines. Military correspondence was delivered to stationary post offices by special military couriers. With the introduction of the charter, the word “postman” first appeared in the Russian language. Couriers carried letters behind the cuffs of their uniforms, they were not supposed to carry bags. The main difference between the field mail was that it dispensed with army horses and feed. In most cases, the same courier carried mail from the regiment to the nearest post office and changed only horses at intermediate stations, since the length of the lines was relatively short (usually not more than 100 versts). In accordance with the charter in large military formations and regiments, for the first time, field post offices are created, consisting of a postmaster, two clerks, several postmen and a clerk-registrar. Postmen stationed at temporary camps delivered her. Military postmen, along with the rest of the soldiers, took a direct part in the battles. Field post offices existed until 1732, then the mail delivery service was retained only at the army headquarters.
Form of ranks of the Courier Corps
during the reign of Emperor Paul I.
On December 17 (28), 1796, by decree of Emperor Paul I, the Courier Corps was established - a special-purpose military unit to carry out communications services and carry out orders from the emperor, and also approved the staff of the corps in the amount of one officer and 13 couriers. Captain Shelganin was appointed the senior courier group, who headed the corps from 1796 to 1799. In the period from 1796 to 1808. The courier corps was under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty and was subordinate to Count A. Kh. Lieven.
On January 26 (February 7), 1808, by the decree of Emperor Alexander I, the Courier Corps was transferred to the subordination of the Minister of War.
Feldjeger N. I. Matison hands over the package to Prince P. I. Bagration during the Battle of Borodino in 1812. Artist A. S. Chagadaev.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, the personnel of the corps, headed by Lieutenant Colonel N. E. Kastorsky ensured the maintenance of constant and uninterrupted communication of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Field Marshal M. I. Kutuzov with the Emperor (Moscow-Petersburg; Tarutino-Petersburg). Under the commander of the 1st Army, General M. V. Barclay de Tolly was the SI courier. Perfiliev, under the commander of the 2nd Army, General P. I. Bagration - N. I. Mathison.
The size and staff structure of the corps, depending on the volume of tasks being solved, underwent changes at different times. So, in June 1816, by the decree of Emperor Alexander I, a new state of the Feldjeger Corps was approved. The corps was divided into 3 companies, each of which was assigned a captain, 6 junior officers and 80 couriers.
Subsequently, officers and couriers were used not only for the delivery of especially important dispatches, but also for the coronation of Russian emperors, their escort and members of the imperial house during voyages around the country and abroad, maintaining regular communication with the imperial palaces located in the suburbs of the capital and in the Crimea. … They also accompanied government and military officials suspected of political unreliability, as well as heads of state, foreign guests and other government officials.
Even in peacetime, the corps personnel periodically served the commanders-in-chief of the armies and the commanders of large formations with courier communications, and during the period of military maneuvers, small independent courier groups (offices) were created to service them and special routes were established along which communication with the capital was maintained.
During wars, the officers and courier of the corps were used in combat conditions by the commanders of the armies and for the transmission of orders and orders. So, more than half of the officers and couriers of the corps visited during the Crimean War of 1853-1856. in Sevastopol with government correspondence, often delivering it in a difficult combat situation. With the beginning of the war with Japan, 15 officers and 13 couriers were sent to the active army at the disposal of the military command at the behest of Emperor Nicholas II.
By the beginning of the First World War, there was a well-coordinated institute of military field mail, which was supposed to provide mutual postal communication between the front and rear of the country. The main functions of this mail were: forwarding postal items of army personnel from the front to the rear and from the rear to addressees at the front; forwarding unclassified official correspondence of military units and institutions; dispatch and delivery of newspapers and other periodicals to addressees at the front. During the war itself, the delivery of orders, reports, securities, parcels, as well as escort of high-ranking officials was provided by the personnel of the Courier Corps.
On July 18, 1914, by order of the Chief of the General Staff, a group of officers in the amount of 20 people went to the disposal of the Supreme Commander and to the headquarters of the front-line military districts to use them as couriers in the Field Army, and after 2 days 4 more - to the disposal of the Military Campaign the office of His Imperial Majesty.
Thus, for a long time the existence of the Russian army, the Feldjeger Corps, which operated as part of it, was a special military unit that ensured the delivery of the most important correspondence, both in the interests of state administration and the military.
Along with the Feldjäger corps, a field post office continued to function in the Russian army, the leadership of which in the field army was carried out by the general on duty. The composition of the field mail changed depending on the needs. So, in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. it consisted of two main field post offices and a corresponding number of post offices at the headquarters of the armies and corps. During the First World War 1914-1918. 10 main post offices were already organized, as well as 16 at the headquarters of the armies, 75 at the headquarters of the corps.
After the October Revolution of 1917 with the formation of the Red Army and until 1922, the organization of field postal communications of the Red Army was based on the system that operated in the Russian army. On May 2, 1918, on the basis of the abolished Imperial Courier Corps, the External Liaison Service was created under the Directorate for the Command Personnel of the All-Russian General Staff. She ensured the delivery of government and military correspondence throughout the country, to the headquarters of the fronts and military districts. Its staff consisted of 30, and since May 1919 - of 45 people, and after a few months it was increased by another 41 people, and the Council of the All-Russian General Staff was given the right to decide on its own in the future the question of the staff of the Service. At the same time, in the period from November 1917 to December 1920, first in Petrograd, and then in Moscow, the Military Team of scooters operated under the Administrative Department of the Council of People's Commissars of the Republic, delivering correspondence to state, Soviet, party, trade union bodies located in the capital.
From October 1919, the management of all military and field postal communications was under the authority of the Communications Department of the Red Army. November 23, 1920By order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic No. 2538, it was announced the creation of the Courier Corps under the Communications Directorate of the Red Army, which ensured the delivery of not only military, but also government correspondence. On January 1, 1921, it included: the External Communications Service of the All-Russian State Headquarters; a courier unit at the headquarters of the commander of the naval forces; communications department of couriers of the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic; a number of other small divisions of courier communications that existed at some directorates of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. Order No. 2538 approved the staff of the Courier Corps in the amount of 255 people, including 154 couriers.
On August 6, 1921, in parallel, a courier unit was formed at the Administration of the Cheka, in 1922 it was transformed into a courier corps. He was entrusted with the delivery of nonresident correspondence of the Council of People's Commissars, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs, Railways, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and the State Bank.
Financial difficulties forced not only to significantly narrow the functions of the army courier communications, but also to reduce the number of personnel. So, on August 1, 1923, only 65 people were supposed to be in the Feldjäger corps, of which 55 couriers. The courier detachments at the headquarters of the military districts were also disbanded.
On the basis of a joint order of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and the OGPU No. 1222/92 and 358/117 of September 30, 1924, the Courier Corps of the Red Army was disbanded, and the delivery of nonresident secret, top secret and important correspondence of units, departments, institutions and institutions of the military and naval departments was entrusted by this order to the Feldjeger corps of the OGPU. Thus, this corps turned into a nationwide courier connection with a courier route scheme covering 406 cities and other settlements of the country.
In the pre-war years, when the size of the army was not large, postal exchange was carried out through stationary civilian post offices.
In this form, the courier service worked until June 17, 1939, when it was divided by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The NKVD courier communications department retained the service of the most important state and party bodies with the delivery of correspondence to the largest republican, regional and district centers; delivery of correspondence to other settlements was transferred to the Main Center for Special Communications of the People's Commissariat of Communications; the transportation of valuables and money was entrusted to the collection service of the State Bank.
The courier communications of the NKVD also carried out special tasks on the line of the military department, especially during the period of large military maneuvers of the Red Army. In such cases, special courier field departments were created, which helped to carry out command and control of the troops, ensuring the timely and reliable delivery of classified documents.
A huge army of military postal signalmen marched with the troops along the roads of the Great Patriotic War. Already on its second day, the People's Commissariat of Communications (NKS) deployed the Main Military Post Sorting Point (GVPSP) in the buildings of two schools vacated as a result of the evacuation of children from Moscow. On all fronts and in large administrative centers, military postal sorting points (VPSP) were created, with each army - military postal bases (VPB), and at the headquarters of formations, armies and fronts - field postal stations (PPS, later - UPU), through which the processing of postal correspondence, newspapers and magazines, leaflets and propaganda literature and its delivery to addressees was carried out. The management of the entire network of field post offices of the fronts and armies was carried out, respectively, by the Upolesvyaz of the fronts and the communications inspectorates of the armies. The overall leadership was entrusted to the NCC Central Field Communications Directorate.
Issuance of correspondence at the field post station during the Great Patriotic War.
The main content of the work of the military field mail bodies was the processing, transportation and delivery of written correspondence, parcels, newspapers and magazines to personnel from the highest headquarters to the smallest units at the front, as well as the transportation and dispatch of letters and money transfers from the fronts to the rear of the country. …
Feldsvyaz was used at all levels of command - from the front headquarters to the regiment, inclusive. It was carried out by mobile communications units (mobile communications) that were part of the communications troops. The main ways of its organization were: along the axis, directions and circular routes. At large distances, directions were created with the combined use of aviation, land and water vehicles. Near command posts and along the communications axis, report collection points were deployed, which included expeditions for registering correspondence, vehicles, couriers, and accompanying guards. At the command posts of the associations, runways were equipped to receive communications aircraft.
Secret correspondence from the central directorates of the People's Commissariat of Defense (NCO) addressed to the fronts was processed by the 1st NCO Expedition, which handed it over to the NKVD courier communications department and the NKS special communications. This correspondence was delivered to the fronts by employees of these bodies by rail and by airplanes allocated for this purpose by the NPO.
Since March 1, 1942, all military mail bags have had the distinctive Voinsky address tags attached and shipped first.
By order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 0949 of December 6, 1942 "On the reorganization of the bodies of the deployment-postal service of the Red Army and the military field mail", the military-field mail bodies were removed from the NKS system and transferred to the head of the Main Directorate of Communications of the Red Army (GUSKA) … On December 18, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 0964 "On the creation of the Military Post Office and the Military Field Mail Departments and Armies' Communication Warehouses as part of the Main Communications Department" field mail of the NKS, and the departments and offices of the field communications of the NKS of the fronts and armies are reorganized into departments and offices of the military field mail of the communications directorates of the fronts and the communications departments of the armies.
All that remained for the NKS was the allocation of specialists for the formations of field mail, as well as supplying them with special postal and technical equipment and operational material in a centralized manner.
The procedure for addressing correspondence in the Red Army and the rules for communicating between military units and formations with civil organizations and individuals during the war years changed two times: September 5, 1942 and February 6, 1943. The latter was introduced by order of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense No. 0105. He introduced a new system of conventional names for directorates, associations, formations, units and institutions of the Field Army, as well as combat units of military districts. Instead of three-digit numbers, the conditional numbers of units became five-digit ones, called the phrase "Military unit - field mail." This system fully justified itself, survived until the end of the war, and it is still used today.
Postal correspondence and periodicals coming from the rear of the country were processed and sorted at the VPSP and VPB, after which the PPS of the formations were sent, where they were received by the postmen of the units and handed over to the warrior. From the front to the rear, postal correspondence followed in the opposite direction. At the same time, often the path of the postman from the PPS to the dugouts and trenches was tens of kilometers and passed under the bullets of the enemy. Despite all the difficulties, thanks to the selfless work of the postal enterprises of the NKS and the units and subdivisions of the military field mail of the NCO, postal communication within the country, the rear with the front, the front with the rear, was maintained regularly, and the letter was delivered to the front on the fourth day. Letters and newspapers received at the front, according to the figurative expression of the workers of the military field post, in their importance were not inferior to a military projectile. Pravda wrote on August 18, 1941: “It is important that the letter from the soldier to his relatives, letters and parcels to the soldiers who come from all over the country are not delayed due to the fault of the signalmen. Each such letter, each such package in the name of fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, in the name of the entire Soviet people infuse new forces into the soldier, inspire him to new deeds. " And they were not delayed, since the slightest delay in military correspondence, sending, marriage in processing was regarded as a malfeasance, with all the ensuing consequences. For military mail, in terms of the consequences, it was like an order "Not one step back!" on the front lines.
The transportation of newspapers from the center was carried out by the GlavPUR air regiment, aircraft of the Civil Air Fleet, as well as, in the order of reloading, aircraft of the GUSKA air division, which provides communication between Moscow and front-line reporting collection points.
Formation of postal cargo during the Great Patriotic War.
Workers of the military field post under the leadership of the People's Commissar of Communications, Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, Head of the GUSKA Marshal of the Signal Corps I. T. Peresypkin and the head of the GUSKA Military Field Mail Directorate, Major General G. I. During the war years, Gnedin performed a colossal amount of work on the forwarding and delivery of military mail. Up to 70 million letters and more than 30 million newspapers were delivered to the active army every month, and the GVPSP accepted, processed and dispatched more than 100 thousand tons of mail cargo, 843 million letters, 2, 7 billion sheets, posters, brochures and books, 753 million copies of newspapers and magazines.
Also, 3 million parcels were received and sent. On January 1, 1945, the UPU opened the reception of personal parcels from the Red Army, sergeants, officers of units, formations and institutions, as well as from the generals of the active fronts of the Red Army to be sent to the rear of the country. They were sent no more than once a month in sizes: for privates and sergeants - 5 kg, for officers - 10 kg and for generals - 16 kg.
Military parcels from the Red Army and non-commissioned officers were accepted free of charge, from officers and generals for a fee of 2 rubles per kilogram. At the same time, parcels were accepted with a declared value: from privates and sergeants - up to 1000 rubles, from officers up to 2000 rubles and from generals - up to 3000 rubles with the collection of an insurance fee at the current tariff.
To receive postal parcels, the head of the GUSKA, Marshal of the Signal Corps I. T. Peresypkin created: as part of the UPU formations - a post office of three people; as part of the army UPS of the 1st and 2nd echelons - the separation of parcels from two people in each; as part of the army VPB - a parcel department of 15 people; as part of the front-line UPS of the 1st and 2nd echelons - the separation of parcels from two people in each; as part of the front-line VPSP - a parcel department of 20 people.
Receiving parcels at the fronts and sending them to addressees caused many difficulties. In Europe, there was no regular postal and passenger railway traffic, there were no postal transport agencies that carried out this work on the territory of the USSR. The military field post abroad was not able to carry out detailed sorting of parcels and send them to stationary enterprises of the NKS for delivery to addressees. This led to their accumulation on the APSP fronts, a delay in departure and even capture by the enemy. So, in 1945, during a German counterstrike near Lake Balaton, one of the VPBs of the 3rd Ukrainian Front did not manage to take out 1,500 parcels that had accumulated there, and they fell into the hands of the Germans.
Marshal Peresypkin made a decision to concentrate all parcels arriving at the PPS on the APSP of the fronts, then send them by special rail transport to Riga, Leningrad, Murmansk, Minsk, Kiev and Moscow. There they were sorted and sent on their usual routes to the local communications enterprises of the NKS.
But no one imagined that there would be such a colossal amount of load on the mail. In the first days, after the permission to send parcels from the front, tens of thousands of them began to arrive at the field post offices, then in a few weeks - millions. So, if in January 1945, 27,149 parcels were sent from the 3rd Belorussian Front, then in February - 197,206, and in March - 339,965. Moscow, although with great stress, but coped with the dramatically increased volume of work. However, difficulties arose in other cities. A particularly acute situation was created at the Kiev railway junction, where more than 500 wagons with parcels accumulated, filling all the tracks and disrupting the normal operation of this junction. To eliminate this congestion and normalize the operation of the unit, Marshal I. T. Peresypkin. He attracted for unloading wagons, sorting parcels of all employees of city communications enterprises, cadets of the Kiev Military School of Communications, in order to send parcels to the specified addresses
The work with parcels is just one example of the activities of the military field post, which characterizes both the nature and the volume of its work during the war years. Its personnel selflessly carried out their modest service both in the headquarters and in the combat formations of the troops, often under artillery fire and during enemy bombing, fulfilling their duty to the Motherland. The deputy head of the UPU No. 57280 Maria Pavlovna Perkanyuk recalled: "I did not kill a single German, but in my heart there was so much hatred for the enemy and pain for the Motherland that every blow with a postmark seemed to me a blow to the Nazis."
Monument to the military postman. The sculptor A. I. Ignatov. Opened in Voronezh on May 7, 2015.
On May 7, 2015, the first in Russia monument to the military postman by the sculptor A. Ignatov was unveiled near the building of the Voronezh Main Post Office. Grekov, which depicts the postman of the Voronezh front, corporal Ivan Leontyev.
In the post-war period, as the number of the USSR Armed Forces was reduced and the units were disbanded, the number of military postal services decreased. In March 1946, the Office of Military Field Mail was renamed into the Department of Military Field Mail of the Office of the Chief of Signal Troops of the Ground Forces of the USSR Armed Forces, from April 1948 - into the Department of Military Field Mail of the Office of the Chief of Signal Troops of the Soviet Army, from October 1958 - to the Military Mail Service of the Communications Troops Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
On January 16, 1965, in accordance with the decision of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, the organizational unification of subdivisions, bodies and institutions of the military post was carried out into single bodies and institutions of courier-postal communications and the Military Post Service of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR was formed.
In July 1966, the Military Mail Service of the USSR Ministry of Defense was renamed into the Courier and Postal Service of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
On July 1, 1971, 39 nodes and 199 postal courier stations were deployed in the USSR Armed Forces. In the 1990s, the FPS system of the Armed Forces consisted of 44 nodes and 217 FPS stations. More than 10 million classified items were processed per year. The staffing of the nodes and stations of the FPS was 3.954 thousand people.
In February 1991, the Courier and Postal Service (of the USSR Ministry of Defense) was reorganized into the Courier and Postal Service of the USSR Ministry of Defense, and in June 1992 - into the Courier and Postal Service of the RF Armed Forces.
Since April 2012, the Office of Courier and Postal Service of the RF Armed Forces has been part of the Main Communications Department of the RF Armed Forces.
In the post-war period, courier and postal specialists provided daily postal services to Soviet servicemen doing military service in the GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Mongolia, Vietnam, Angola, and Cuba. A special page in the history of courier-postal communications is her work in the Limited contingent of Soviet troops in the Republic of Afghanistan and in the grouping of troops in the Chechen Republic.
Courier post office in Afghanistan, Kabul airport, 1987
The network of courier-postal communications of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation currently has more than 150 FPS nodes (headquarters of military districts, fleets, associations) and stations of courier-postal communications (formations and garrisons). In addition, military correspondence is delivered to Russian troops stationed in Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Abkhazia. In total, the network includes about 2,000 servicemen, contract soldiers and civilian personnel, about 300 units of courier and postal communications. In total, the Armed Forces have organized more than 1000 routes (aviation, rail, road and foot) with a total length of more than 150 thousand km. About 10 thousand military units and organizations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are assigned to the nodes and stations of the FPS. Annually, the nodes and stations of the Federal Border Guard Service of the Armed Forces of Russia process and deliver more than 3 million (this is about 5 thousand tons) of ordinary official mailings only.
An invaluable contribution to the formation and development of the Service was made by its chiefs - Major General G. I. Gnedin (1941-1945), colonels F. F. Stepanov (1958-1961) and B. P. Melkov (1961-1972), Major General V. V. Timofeev (1972-1988), Lieutenant General E. G. Ostrovsky (1989-1990), Major General V. D. Durnev (1990-2006), Colonel L. A. Semenchenko (2006 - present); officers - Colonels G. A. Sworn, P. M. Titchenko, N. M. Kozhevnikov, A. I. Chernikov, V. V. Vasilenko, B. F. Fitzurin, Major General of the Internal Service A. N. Salnikov, as well as currently serving officers - Captain I rank F. Z. Minnikhanov, colonels - A. A. Zhelyabin, A. B. Suziy, I. A. Shakhov and many others. They and their subordinates deserve a great deal of merit in providing communication through mail to millions of people in our country with their relatives and friends.
The courier-postal service currently operating in the RF Armed Forces is historically the successor of the field post office, first created on March 30 (April 10), 1716 by the great Russian reformer, Emperor Peter I. This powerful, reliably controlled, mobile structure is capable of successfully solving all the tasks assigned to it are still the most reliable, reliable, effective and, most importantly, a form of communication necessary for command and control of troops.
