The ongoing reform of the Russian army, which includes, in particular, the modernization of military education in the country, is highly ambiguous assessed. Due to the fact that the name of the ex-Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov, the majority of Russians have become firmly associated with a certain negative (Serdyukov himself clearly continues to contribute to this), to evaluate all those actions that were carried out during the years of his leadership of the department, as they say, with a cool head extremely difficult. Any assessment can quickly go astray in the direction of a new exaggeration of the facts of corruption schemes in the Ministry of Defense while the mentioned person was at its helm. However, we will try to consider the changes that have occurred in the field of military education in recent years, separating the corruption flies from the cutlets of the planned reforms, if such a separation in the light of today's events with the ex-minister is generally possible …
So, a few days ago, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation received information that the Minister of War Sergei Shoigu took the path of a certain suspension of the reform of military education. Some publications presented such information in a very restrained manner, while others decided to follow the path of presenting "hot pies", the filling of which still remains untested. Channel One followed the first path, which published information that Sergei Shoigu's move in terms of implementing changes in military education was only in the fact that he (Shoigu) decided to cancel the move of the famous Military Army from St. Petersburg to the region. This decision was announced at the moment when Sergei Shoigu met with the veterans. In addition to the words that the VMA, let's say, will be left alone, the Minister of Defense announced plans to develop a system for effective financing of the Military Medical Academy in St.
A publication like Izvestia followed the path of publishing materials that boil down to the fact that Sergei Shoigu generally focused on counter-reform and canceled all decisions on reforming the military education system that had been made in recent years. In particular, the newspaper reports that an unnamed source (and this publication often publishes data, referring precisely to "secret" sources) announced the withdrawal of all military universities from the sphere of influence of the Department of Military Education under the Ministry of Defense with the simultaneous transfer of educational institutions under the control of a specialized commander. That is, all flight educational institutions will have to go under the control of the Air Force, land ones - under the "tutelage" of the High Command of the Ground Forces, etc.
The publication notes that this is due to the discrediting of the Department of Education under the Ministry of Defense by its own work. The main, if I may say so, the discreditor at the same time is called Mrs. Priezzheva, who headed the department and was one of the "combat units" of the "women's battalion" discussed today by Anatoly Serdyukov. It was under Ekaterina Priezzheva that the ubiquitous Bologna system with three educational levels for universities was introduced into military education, which led to endowing Priezzheva herself with an offensive nickname from the military - "Bolonka".
The very appointment of Mrs. Priezzheva to the post of manager of all military education in Russia caused criticism. Why? Because it had absolutely nothing to do not only with military education, but also with education of any other type. Prior to her appointment, Priezzheva worked at the Federal Tax Service and was involved in collecting taxes from companies specializing in the sale of alcohol and tobacco. The traditional appointment of the ex-minister's era.
However, at that time it was somehow not customary to talk about appointments in the reforming ministry (the reform, they say, then you will find out everything), and this appointment was explained by the fact that the department needed a person who, in fact, could not represent the interests of any of the parties. the military educational process, as well as the interests of the command of certain types and branches of the country's troops. Well, well - Ekaterina Priezzheva performed the functions of "non-representation of interests" regularly exactly until the moment she was fired by the new Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Around the same time, Shoigu signed a document that called for the abolition of the Bologna system for Russian military training centers. This decision caused definitely positive emotions, if only because, based on the rating data published by various research sites, universities with the Bologna education system are beginning to yield leading positions to those higher schools that refuse this system.
However, so far, the Defense Ministry has not given clear explanations of what kind of system of higher military education will be built in Russia. On the website of the main military department at the beginning of the second decade of 2013 in the "Department of Education" section there is a document that reports on the main results of the military education system for 2011. Apparently, it is not entirely advisable to post more recent results (for the year 2012) due to the fact that the main figures who led to the achievement of these results today do not work either in the department or directly in the leadership of the ministry.
By the way, in order to understand the essence of the reform of military education, which was carried out under the ex-minister, it would be interesting to pay attention to some of the results of 2011, including. The document says that the department, headed by the aforementioned Mrs. Priezzheva, continued the course on optimizing the network of military educational institutions. And, most importantly, the quote:
The main results of reforming the military education system and measures for its further improvement were reported to the President of the Russian Federation at an operational meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on June 23, 2011 and were generally approved.
"On the whole, approved" - you must agree, it is somehow too vague … And even to a certain extent makes you look askance at the person who deigned in the summer of 2011 (if, of course, the department does not dissemble) to approve the reform of military education … Okay - they looked askance, move on…
Recently, we have already been taught that we read "optimization", and meant "cut" or "close." If you believe the recently published data of one of the research groups, it turns out that over the past 4 years, a total of 64 military universities were liquidated in Russia. Some higher military educational institutions changed their registration, although the employees of these educational institutions could not always understand what positive would be if the military academy moved from point A to point B … But employees of military universities could not explain, but employees of the ministerial department eloquently explained …It turns out that everything was done in order to cut the ties of corruption that fetter the country's military sphere …
The teaching staff has decreased significantly, while truly professional military teachers who have managed to educate and teach the military craft more than one generation of graduates have left their jobs, but somehow they did not have time to prepare young military teachers …
On the one hand, we all perfectly understand that the military education system can and should be reformed. The modern realities of strengthening the security of the state and its citizens are somewhat different in terms of what it was 25-30 years ago. We all understand that on the territory of the country numerous military, or rather, near-military universities, which prepared, for the most part, excuse me, unemployed or merchants with diplomas of military engineers or specialists in the field of managing units of military equipment and commanding personnel, bred on the territory of the country. It is obvious that the country does not need such "military specialists" whose level of training, to put it mildly, left much to be desired.
However, very often in our country the very word "reform" is understood as a call to start cutting from the shoulder. “There are many universities, you say? Now let's subtract! " “We don’t need half a million officers - we’ll make 5000 - that’s enough … We have only sworn friends all around us - everyone loves and respects us …”
Yes - half a million officers today, indeed, for the Russian army is an obvious overkill. But no one says that we absolutely need to hold on to the number of troops that was in the days of the Soviet Union. The point here is different. The system of the current reform is obviously not well thought out. It is taken in someone else's image and likeness. But for whom, no one can say. As no one is able to tell about what kind of appearance our officials are going to lead the Russian military education to. So far, this appearance seems to be a mystery, even for those directly involved with military reform.
The fact is that during the so-called optimization process in military education, and in fact, during a total reduction in the number of universities, cadets who study at these universities, and employees of higher military schools, there is a risk of losing not just universities that train officers, but also the traditions of Russian military education themselves. There is a risk of destruction of the basic principles of military education until the moment when its new principles are developed. As the saying goes: really again "to the ground, and then …"
