December 17, according to the modern Russian calendar, quietly passed a holiday in honor of "mail of special importance" - the Day of employees of the State Courier Service, which, along with the FSB and other special services, is "an integral part of the forces and means of ensuring the security of the Russian Federation." Using such a suitable occasion, it is necessary to tell about some pages of the biography of this actually classified "special organization".
The "intricate" term, in which a hard and a soft sign coexist, appeared in Russia more than two centuries ago. The date of the "birth" of the Russian courier service is considered to be December 17, 1796, when Paul I signed a decree establishing the Courier Corps. It was a separate military unit to carry out communications assignments, as well as special assignments of His Majesty.
The staff initially consisted of 1 officer and 13 couriers. A wave of important tasks fell upon the servicemen - the delivery of government documents to different parts of Russia and abroad, the fulfillment of personal tasks received from the sovereign. As a result, it was necessary to hastily expand the staff. Taking into account the importance of their work, couriers were recruited from the army elite - from the personnel of the Life Guards of the Cavalier Guard, Preobrazhensky, Izmailovsky, Semenovsky and other guards regiments.
Most often, the imperial couriers were instructed to carry secret papers. In addition, they were the ones who delivered large consignments of money, jewelry, accompanied the most dangerous state criminals to the place of exile, during the war brought orders to the active army to reward heroes …
The courier service turned out to be almost the only state institution that survived all the Russian cataclysms of the twentieth century. Although the government in the country has changed, the secret documents have not disappeared, and they still need to be delivered! After the revolution, the "old-regime" medical service first served the Provisional Government, and then the communist comrades.
On May 2, 1918, on the basis of the Courier Corps, the Foreign Liaison Service was created under the Directorate for the Command Personnel of the All-Russian General Staff. Later, in August 1921, a courier unit was formed in the structure of the Cheka, which was soon transformed into a courier corps. From now on, he was entrusted with the delivery of nonresident correspondence from the Council of People's Commissars, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the most important People's Commissariats, and the State Bank. In addition, the Bolsheviks came up with one more thing for the special couriers: in the pre-war years, the registration cards of the members of the CPSU (b) were sent from the district committee to the district committee only with the help of courier communications!
For more than 200 years in our country, an attempt was made only once to abolish field communications. Nikita Khrushchev, wishing to "save money", decided to transfer the duties of military couriers to their civilian colleagues. But the highest authorities in the USSR were able to hold out without couriers for only 10 days. During this time, such confusion occurred with the transfer of important papers that it began to threaten the security of the state. I had to hurriedly "work back" everything.
The most important quality for a courier is dedication. Indeed, for telecom employees, the correspondence that needs to be delivered to its destination is dearer than one's own life. Should any emergency happen on the route, each of these people must at all costs keep the documents entrusted for delivery, not to allow them to fall into the wrong hands. And extraordinary cases happened in the practice of the Courier Service more than once. Here are just a few stories.
In September 1994, a car accident occurred at the intersection of Novy Arbat with Gogolevsky Boulevard in Moscow. The driver of the Volga courier suddenly had a heart attack, and the car crashed into a pole at a speed of 90 km / h. At the same time, the courier captain Olenin was severely crippled and, in addition, his legs were pinched in the twisted body. Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene, but the bleeding officer did not allow anyone to come near him. He guarded the briefcase entrusted to him with documents until a SFS officer called by phone appeared and took the correspondence against receipt.
According to the instructions of the courier on the route, they should not get involved in any conflicts, however, on July 5, 1983, junior lieutenants A. Raschesov and V. Zubovich, who flew with special documents from Moscow to Tallinn, had to break this rule. In the air, two armed criminals attempted to hijack the plane abroad, but the field communications officers managed to neutralize the bandits.
Many dangers fell to the lot of employees during the Great Patriotic War. In the winter of 1942, two couriers with urgent operational documents for the military command set off on a steamer from Tuapse to besieged Sevastopol. Forty miles offshore, the ship was blown up by a mine. One of the special communications officers died, and the other, G. Filippov, tied a heavy bag with documents on his back and threw himself into the sea. He swam in the icy water, holding onto a piece of the board with the last of his strength, but did not even try to get rid of the luggage. Only a few hours later, the courier was rescued by a Soviet patrol boat that approached the scene of the tragedy.
To the "condition" of special couriers, heightened demands were always made - not only in terms of physical fitness, but also in terms of the level of discipline.
“Every newcomer should attend initial training courses for several weeks,” one of the former courier officers told the reporter. - After all, couriers of the medical service have their own specifics: you need to be able to fight even with three opponents, while not letting go of the portfolio with the correspondence! In such a situation, the emphasis is on acting against the attackers with their feet. Among others, already by no means fighting techniques, future couriers are shown, for example, how to approach a high-ranking official's desk so that his owner does not have any suspicions that the courier is trying to examine the documents lying there … carpet, and besides, cross-country skiing in winter, jogging, swimming in summer … Shooting exercises are regularly scheduled. They are also specific: I ran 10 meters back and forth, pulled out, jumped 10 times and only after that you shoot at the target …
“When following the route, you must strictly observe safety precautions,” my interlocutor continued. - If you are walking, you must hold your hand free of luggage on a holster with a pistol … On airplanes, on trains, on motor ships for special couriers, convenient seats are reserved, separate compartments. Embarkation and disembarkation are separate from all other passengers. Once in the carriage, you should immediately lock yourself in the allotted room. During the entire trip - even if it lasts several days - you practically never go out. You have to eat dry rations, and sleep only in turns, so that secret correspondence is not left unattended for a second.
