Everything new is well forgotten old. Another proof of this is the military training system introduced by the Russian Ministry of Defense in the country's civilian universities. The system is aimed at preparing a high-quality reserve for the Russian army, the need for which was mentioned in his message by President Vladimir Putin in December 2013.
At first glance, it may seem that the innovations are obvious: from September 1 of this year, all students of 63 Russian universities (this is how many higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation received the right to train reservists) will be able to get a military specialty, as they say, without interrupting the development of the profession civilian character. The preparation by the Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, will be carried out in stages.
The first stage is to give an opportunity to willing students of civilian universities to undergo theoretical training in the framework of one or another VUS in specially created interuniversity centers. At the same time, the total duration of training at the IEC (interuniversity training center) will be from one and a half to two and a half years (1.5 years - for training reserve soldiers (sailors), 2 years - for training reserve sergeants, 2.5 years - for training officers stock). At the second stage, students are expected to complete military training on the basis of higher military educational institutions and military units. At the same time, the minimum time spent by a student at a military training camp should be three months. So far, the Ministry of Defense designates the three-month period for the practical training of reservists as a period that applies to all categories (soldiers, sergeants, officers).
On closer examination of such a training system, it can be stated that it has a lot in common with the Soviet version of training. This is a kind of mixture of the classical Soviet education system in the format of military departments and training with the involvement of DOSAAF.
If we talk about the scale of training reservists under the new programs, then so far these scales are far from impressive. Only about 15 thousand Russian students of civilian universities expressed a desire to receive shoulder straps and become a reserve soldier immediately after graduating from their educational institution. It is worth recalling that officials of the Ministry of Defense, after the presidential message, announced that they plan to recruit about 53 thousand students for training in various VUS as part of the preparation of a professional reserve. It turns out that the plan has been implemented by less than a third. With what it can be connected?
There are several reasons. First, not all Russian students understand the principles by which such training will be conducted. In this case, a simple desire works to better understand how the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Education and Science implement everything - to understand from someone else's experience. And it is quite possible that if the system proves to be truly efficient, if military training is not carried out to the detriment of the civilian and vice versa, then already next year the number of students ready to become reservists will increase significantly. Therefore, the issue of organization and balanced financing is one of the key issues here.
Secondly, the influence is exerted by the fact that interuniversity training centers, in which students will receive knowledge within the framework of the chosen VUS, is not enough. There are simply not enough of them to give the opportunity to study the number of students announced by the main military department at the beginning of this year. According to the First Deputy of the Main Organizational and Mobilization Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, Major General Yevgeny Burdinsky, 37 training centers have been created, after completing a training course on the basis of which students will receive the rank of lieutenant. At the same time, we are talking about those universities that have their own military departments (there are about seventy universities with a military department in the Russian Federation). That is, all these 37 training centers are unlikely to be used at the first stage of the innovation for training reservists of private and non-commissioned officers.
That is why a number of experts express the opinion that the system and DOSAAF can be used to expand the possibilities of the process of training students in military specialties. Moreover, quite recently the Ministry of Defense received an initiative to transfer to DOSAAF, to improve the quality of training of young people, the military equipment that is not involved in the troops, but which it is too early to write off and send to the "ferrous metal".
If the program is implemented without significant difficulties, then next year the main military department plans to create an OVR - an organized military reserve. If I may put it that way, this is the most mobile and in-demand part of the reservists who have undergone (are) trained according to the above principle. The total number of OVR should be about five thousand people. How does the Ministry of Defense plan to use these reservists? First, they will be called up for annual military training, which will last 30 days. Second: OVR reservists will be obliged to take classes to improve the level of existing military knowledge, skills and abilities. The reservists will undertake such obligations themselves when signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense, which will also include a monetary allowance.
It seems that if the OVR is formed, then it is unlikely that employees of private structures (companies, organizations, etc.) will be able to stay in it, because not every owner of a JSC or LLC will be ready for his employee to leave the place of work on the first to the call of the Ministry of Defense. In the USSR, for obvious reasons, it was much easier to call a reservist for training camps without any special problems with the employer. But Russia is still a long way from the Israeli experience. Perhaps we will come to such an experience over time, but to learn from the experience, announcements from the Ministry of Defense alone are clearly not enough. Here you will have to work, as they say, in several social areas.
