Letters to the President
Mr. President, feel like the Supreme Commander, because this letter is about the army and the most important commanders. But let's start with an ordinary soldier. He shot himself.
Last Friday, at a training ground in the Sverdlovsk region, Private Makarov shot himself twice. One bullet hit the left forearm, the other in the heart. Military investigators say he shot himself by accident. "The main version, - said the staff, - careless handling of weapons."
Anything can happen. But it looks much more like suicide: the first time he wounded himself, and the second shot he finished off. There is information that this is another victim of bullying; the guy was brought. If so, he posthumously became the enemy of the Minister of Defense. Because the Minister of Defense has publicly stated that we have no bullying.
On New Year's Eve, the minister gave a great interview. It is so beautiful that it would be best to put it to music and sing. For example: “There is not a single line of activity of the ministry that would not be affected by modernization, the transition to a new look. We work everywhere - in all areas …”
You see, Mr. President, all directions and all areas are touched by your favorite modernization, hurray.
Minister Serdyukov was asked a question on duty: did the army get rid of bullying? Get ready, Comrade Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the answer may overwhelm you.
The minister answered in a military manner:
There is no longer such a phenomenon in nature
Everything would have been fine, but two weeks later (January 11, 2011), Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky gave a big interview. The journalist asks: “Everyone expected that with the transition of the conscript service for 12 months, the hazing would subside. But this did not happen. Why? The Chief Military Prosecutor answers:
Yes, there were hopes that with the shortening of the service life, many bad traditions, in particular, hazing, would disappear by themselves. Did not happen. Today it is the conscripts who form the non-statutory statistics. Last year, over 2,000 soldiers and sergeants were convicted of assault and other violence
The army, Mr. President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief, is your most vertical vertical. There can be nothing more vertical than the army, do you agree? And there, inside, it turns out, just some kind of anarchy. The minister says there is no bullying, but the chief military prosecutor denies it.
Hazing is growing. According to the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office, "the number of hazing in 2010 increased by 1.6 times." Deputy Defense Minister Pankov spoke about the same last summer, who called one of the main reasons for hazing "communication skills acquired by recruits in informal youth groups of an extremist nature." That is, hazing is and is growing, but the army is not to blame for this, but the bad acquaintances of school years.
If we carry out modernization, reform education to the end, wean the youngsters to drink, smoke and use foul language - intelligent excellent students will come to recruiting centers - hazing will not. However, the Minister of Defense knows a much faster way. In his interview (saying that hazing is no longer in nature), he added that “there is just hooliganism,” and explained how to exterminate it clean:
It is important that the commander is in the subunit and fulfills his duties in full. Then there can be no conflicts by definition
By what definition? - the devil only knows. It's added for beauty.
“No conflicts”? - Yes, there are no such armies in the world, and there cannot be by definition, division and multiplication.
And the recipe is excellent, for all diseases … The minister is asked: "Is it possible to make sure that there is no preponderance of some ethnic group in the military units?" He answers:
If the commander fulfills his duties in full, then there will simply be no time and energy to conflict. There will be no misunderstandings
The recipe is simply ingenious: if all the officers are … If all sadists become humanists … If all alcoholics become teetotalers … If any Bulava flies where it needs to be … If all the details in Zhiguli are made of the right material and exactly in size, then this is will be a very good car by definition.
There is very little left: fix the faulty officers. Let's return, Mr. President, to the interview with the Chief Military Prosecutor. The journalist says: “The rampant corruption in the country, as you well know, has not spared the army either. This infection has affected all categories of the military - from generals to lieutenants. The prosecutor agrees:
The scale is sometimes amazing. Sometimes it seems that people have simply lost their sense of proportion and conscience. The amount of identified theft is often shocking
Shocking an experienced prosecutor is not easy. And the interview of the Minister of Defense (where modernization, spheres and a new look) ends like this: "It seems to me that everything is going quite well."
What has it “seems” to do with it? Indeed, everything is going well, one might even say, it floats into the hands of itself, only have time to modernize and acquire a new look from a Russian fashion designer, new ships from the French, new airplanes from Israel. And soon, they say, we will buy other people's machine guns and rifles (perhaps because our factories are maliciously delaying modernization and innovation).
Mr. Supreme Commander, in your presidential address you said: “Today we are faced with the fundamental task of creating a new high-tech mobile army. We are going to spend more than 20 trillion rubles for these purposes. It's a lot of money.”
Our generals are good at spending. But what we get is written with a pitchfork on the water. Until now, alas, there have been some unpleasant surprises. Including such sad ones as the suicide of a soldier after the minister's statement that there is no hazing.
Mr. President, do you want it frankly? One of the fundamental problems (which cannot be solved with money) is that high-ranking officers do not respect officers. Think about their unfortunate fate; years spent waiting in vain for human habitation; and they steal as much as they can. We, of course, will not smear everyone with black paint (we will not have enough), let's say this: some steal, while others see and are silent.
And since a frank conversation has begun, I have to say that your tandem is not especially loved by everyone in the army. If you were (invisibly) at any officer's table, you would hear what they say about you, about a minister, about a prime minister … Your ideas about the world would change dramatically … Or you would decide that these are enemies who shaved off their beard and stole an officer's uniform from Yudashkin's atelier.
