Life has repeatedly proved the validity of Field Marshal Kutuzov's statement: What are the officers, so is the army. It largely depends on the officers how much each soldier knows his maneuver, is internally ready for sacrifice, including his own life, for the sake of the security of the state, which, by and large, makes the army potentially victorious. At the same time, the officer himself must be most prepared to manage the use of violence in special specific conditions, which, in fact, distinguishes him from all civilian specialists. Moreover, if a good soldier or sergeant can be trained within 23 years, then the training of an officer requires many times more time and money. And since society and the state will not get away from the need to defend their independence and sovereignty, they are obliged to train officers. These are common truths, misunderstanding or ignorance of which leads the state to disaster.
Today this danger seriously threatens our country. For two decades, the ongoing shuffling in military construction, which at various times was covered by statements of modernization, reform, giving a new look to the Armed Forces, but in fact boiled down either to the elimination or restoration of various structures, or to their consolidation or downsizing, movements from one region in the other and back, ultimately disorientated the officer corps, gave rise to indifference in it, reluctance to improve their professional skills. Separate bursts of allegedly activity of the army service, expressed in the conduct of exercises, are only evidence of the fact that they are organized at a primitive level, according to well-known schemes, without the need for any effort.
To this should be added the low and social status of officers and military pensioners. What this led to, is shown by polls on the topic “How do you imagine an officer in today's Russian army?” Recently organized by a research company. Almost 40 percent of the respondents gave negative characteristics, 27 - positive, 4 - neutral, the rest could not clearly formulate their answer. The general conclusion has not been made, but even from the figures it is obvious - a negative image in general. The vastness of negative epithets is striking: “they make ends meet”, “they have no home, wanders around military garrisons”, “being an officer is not prestigious, there is no respect in society”, “everyone laughs at the army”, “humiliated to the limit”, “from despair drink too much”,“a person who does not know what will happen tomorrow”,“they will sell everything for money, dissolve it”,“aggressive, irritated”,“it is they who organize hazing”,“intellectually handicapped people”…
As they say, there is nothing to add to this. It only remains to emphasize that junior officers especially suffer from all the perturbations that occur in our days in the Armed Forces. This is the least protected part of the officer corps, although it bears the entire burden of training personnel, organizing combat training and daily life of subunits, maintaining discipline, and solving tasks in combat conditions. Unable to withstand this burden and not receiving the necessary material and social benefits for their work, many junior officers terminate their military service contracts ahead of schedule. Moreover, the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense, with its, to put it mildly, incomprehensible decisions, is pushing them to do so. Consider the fact that a significant number of university graduates were appointed to sergeant positions last year. The suspension of the recruitment of cadets to military educational institutions is another evidence of this.
I would not like to believe in some kind of malicious intent, but we cannot agree with the statement of Tamara Fraltsova, Deputy Head of the Main Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, that the decision is due to an overabundance of officers and a shortage of relevant posts in the Armed Forces. After all, this contradicts what high-ranking representatives of the military department said a year ago. Then, proving the need to reduce the number of officers, they drew inverted pyramids at all corners and showed, in this way, that we have a lot of senior officers, but there are not enough junior ones. But the suspension of recruitment, even for several years, leads to the fact that there will be even fewer junior officers, and in the end they will not be in the army and navy at all. And if they are gone, where will senior officers, generals and admirals come from?
If there really is an overabundance of officers, then why not approach this problem prudently, in a state way. Not to dismiss officers, not to throw them out of the gates, as is done today, but to transfer them to other power structures, which already outnumber the Armed Forces and at the same time lack command personnel. By the way, they didn’t stop enrolling in their educational institutions and even sent cadets additionally to the universities of the Ministry of Defense.
It can be confidently asserted that, when deciding to suspend the recruitment of cadets, the current defense managers did not think, but what will happen to those young men who since childhood dreamed of becoming officers? With graduates of the Suvorov and Nakhimov schools, who are guaranteed the opportunity to continue their studies at military universities according to the regulations? They were also told to turn from the gate, although many of them could become officers, as they say, by vocation, the successors of officer dynasties, those who, according to popular wisdom, are called "military bone". And now the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense, in fact, "spat out" this bone.
In fairness, it should be noted that the collapse and destruction of military education in the country began even before the arrival of Anatoly Serdyukov's team to the Ministry of Defense, when in 2005 17 of 78 higher military educational institutions were closed. The current military leadership, which breaks everything over the knee, decided to bring destruction of military education to its logical conclusion.
Outwardly, this takes on a very acceptable form - once the Armed Forces are being cut, universities must be cut too. Of course, one cannot but agree with this. Until recently, the military education system of power ministries and departments included about a hundred military educational institutions. They trained specialists in 900 military specialties. At the same time, the network of military educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense was the largest. Naturally, the situation suggested that an optimization of the military education system was needed.
The leadership of the Ministry of Defense was to invite independent experts, authoritative military scientists, military leaders and jointly develop a program to optimize military education. Moreover, for a number of years the Academy of Military Sciences has been specially engaged in this, held scientific and practical conferences on it and has repeatedly offered its proposals to the Ministry of Defense. The Warlords Club did the same. However, no one listened to their opinion, and, unfortunately, they themselves did not have enough persistence and firmness in communicating their position to the country's leadership and the general public. The meeting of the Minister of Defense and the chief inspectors, held on October 22, 2010, once again confirmed this, since it was not a constructive discussion, but a monologue by A. Serdyukov.
Accustomed to working behind closed doors, without involving the general public in the discussion, the current leadership of the Ministry of Defense also did the same with regard to "giving a new look" to the military education system. It simply announced that by 2013 it intends to have 10 system-forming universities, including three military educational and research centers, six military academies and one military university. It is planned that the structure of the remaining universities will also include specialized research organizations, educational institutions of primary and secondary vocational education, Suvorov and Nakhimov schools, as well as cadet corps.
It is not difficult for any professional to notice that under the "new look" there is a Western model of military education. And mostly American. Let's not find out if it is good or bad. But let us note that in the United States, the officer training system is based on completely different realities. Yes, the US military has only three service schools - for the Army at West Point, the Navy at Annapolis, and the Air Force at Colorado Springs. But they train only 20 percent of the officer corps, and 80 percent are supplied by civilian universities. Moreover, the principle of choosing further officer service for graduates of civilian universities is purely voluntary. Nevertheless, many of them, having studied for a fee, make this choice, because in the United States the attitude towards the armed forces is completely different from ours. There, without having served in the army, it is very difficult to break through the ranks, even along the civilian path.
In our country, the main barker for domestic institutes and universities is not their material and technical base and the teaching staff, but the opportunity to “cut off” from military service. And even more so when the study is paid. By the way, unlike their foreign colleagues, who believe that if he paid, he should receive the appropriate knowledge, Russian students study according to the principle “I paid, so leave me alone”. And they are unlikely to voluntarily decide to become officers. And the army does not need such officers.
The sharp reduction in higher educational institutions, including unique ones that train specialists in the most important strategic areas, in fact means that the domestic military school will be destroyed, which for centuries trained highly professional military leaders and commanders who brought many victories to the Motherland.
Trying to calm public opinion, State Secretary - Deputy Defense Minister N. Pankov says that students and cadets have no particular problems. They will either complete their studies at the university they entered, or will be transferred to continue their studies in a similar specialty to another military educational institution. Teachers, who have expressed a desire to continue their teaching activities, will be able to work in the enlarged universities. All other officers will be offered other military positions or given the possibility of dismissal with the provision of all social benefits and guarantees established for the military by law. However, this is hard to believe given the current practice. After all, the rates, titles, degrees of teachers depend on the number of cadets. And if this is so, then even the suspension of enrollment in universities will lead to a cut in these rates, which, in turn, will cause an outflow from the military education system of the most qualified personnel who can find work in civilian universities. Ultimately, this will lead to the collapse of the entire system of military education, as the scientific school will be lost, the restoration of which will take decades.
The second wave of the outflow of the teaching staff should be expected due to the announced consolidation of universities and their transfer to other cities, which is associated with the deterioration, despite the assurances of the "reformers", of the standard and quality of life. It is not a secret for anyone that the overwhelming number of generals, admirals and officers who finished military service within the walls of universities remained there in civilian positions and were mentors for the teachers who replaced them for many years. They passed on their experience to them, served as a kind of link between generations and were, I'm not afraid of pretentiousness, the moral basis of the educational institution. Of course, they will not move when the university is relocated, which will also negatively affect its fate.
A striking example of this is the transfer in 2005 from Moscow to Kostroma of the Military Academy of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection. As a result, the university suffered significant losses. Of the 25 doctors of sciences who worked in it at the time of relocation, not one moved to Kostroma, and out of 187 candidates of sciences - only 21. This means that not the academy was relocated, but only its signboard, to maintain the image of which they were hastily recruited in Kostroma local less qualified personnel. According to some estimates, during the redeployment of military universities in the capital, 90-95 percent of the teaching staff will refuse to move to other cities for a new job.
Another example is connected with this academy. About a year ago, it was decided to attach the Tyumen and Nizhny Novgorod Higher Military-Technical Command Schools and the Saratov Military Institute of Chemical and Biological Safety to the Academy. And a couple of months later, the Nizhny Novgorod VVIKU, which traces its history back to the 1st military engineering school, created by the personal decree of Peter I in 1701 and which laid the foundation for national education at the state level, was sent “under the knife”. And this despite the fact that it trains officers of the engineering troops in four specialties: "Multipurpose wheeled and tracked vehicles", "Power supply", "Civil and industrial construction", "Radio engineering".
The Tyumen school - only one: "Multipurpose wheeled and tracked vehicles", which are used by the paratroopers. Moreover, residents of Nizhny Novgorod train servicemen in three specialties from 18 foreign countries of the near and far abroad. In Siberia, they generally have no experience in training a foreign contingent and do not have a teaching staff of the appropriate qualifications. If the Ministry of Defense intends to continue their training, then it will have to relocate the base of the Tyumen Higher Military Institute of Higher Education - 5 departments, build an educational building and a hostel, create an appropriate training laboratory, simulator and field training base. Nobody seemed to be counting how much it would become.
The question is, will we continue to train foreign military specialists? Indeed, in those universities where they studied, and these are 59 of the 65 schools and academies that still existed, translators were first eliminated, and then the departments of the Russian language. As a result, training became almost impossible, since there was no simple understanding between teachers and students, and foreigners flocked to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, where they kept the old school. They say that when the Minister of Defense was informed about this, he simply waved his hand away. But the training of foreign specialists is not even a departmental task, but a state one, since there is a lot behind it: currency, the sale of military equipment, weapons, influence. It is known that many of those who studied with us, and until now, universities graduate from five to eight thousand foreign military personnel, at home they have grown to major military leaders and even heads of state.
In the proposed program of reforming the military education system, there was, in fact, no place for the Military Academy of the General Staff, designed to train the highest operational-strategic echelon of command and control of the Armed Forces. This is confirmed by the statement of General of the Army N. Makarov that in the first year about 80 percent of the study time will be devoted to studying military discipline at the operational and strategic level, how to lead strategic groupings and the Armed Forces, and 20 percent of the first year and the entire second the course listener "will study only those sciences and disciplines so that he can skillfully work both in the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and in the Government or to lead the subjects of the Russian Federation." Training will be conducted in only two departments. It turns out that the graduates of the VAGSh will be trained not for the leadership of the troops, but for bureaucratic work in the state apparatus? It is interesting that from now on, the selection of students for the academy will take place, it seems, on an authoritarian basis, since in 2010 the exams for candidates were taken, obviously, with no other business, personally by the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
One cannot fail to see that the "arithmetic" merger of military educational institutions into scientific centers is breaking the connection between them and the troops. From now on, the commanders and staffs of the combat arms will not be able to form the very ideology of training cadets, develop, and most importantly, directly influence their training, as well as determine the quantitative and qualitative composition of the trainees. An example is the famous and unique Ryazan Higher Air Force Command School, which has been turned into a branch of the Combined Arms Academy. Now, in order to visit the school, the commander of the Airborne Forces must ask for permission from the head of the academy and agree with him on his plan of work in it !!!
The creation of three military educational and scientific centers has not yet been supported by material resources. And this despite the fact that the most complex laboratory facilities of the schools and academies that are part of them, as a rule, cannot be dismantled and transported. It is almost impossible to re-create it because of the colossal costs and the disappearance of the factories where it was previously produced. Expansion of existing and construction of new educational and laboratory buildings, barracks and dormitories for students, houses for teachers and service personnel of "super academies" will cost a colossal amount that the Russian budget simply cannot afford. The creation of a new training complex for the Navy in Kronstadt alone is estimated at at least 100 billion rubles. In fact, it will, as always, be 2-3 times more expensive - up to a quarter of a trillion rubles.
What is most interesting is that the leadership of the Ministry of Defense claims that it will carry out the transformation of the military education system without additional appropriations and does not include expenses in its budget. Meanwhile, to all appearances, it is precisely the receipt of "additional appropriations" that is the main goal of "giving a new look to the Russian army." The point is that in the course of this process, about 40,000 military facilities with corresponding buildings, infrastructure and territories are expected to be released. Often, especially in the case of military schools and academies, these facilities are located in Moscow, St. Petersburg and large regional centers. The cost of these facilities is estimated at several trillion rubles, which is several times more than the entire annual military budget of Russia. The military department itself is engaged in the sale of objects.
As for the declared readiness of the Ministry of Defense to involve civilian universities in the training of officers, there are also “stones” here. In particular, it is proposed to introduce the division of civilian institutes and universities in relation to service in the Armed Forces into three categories. Graduates of the so-called "elite" higher educational institutions (classified as the first grade) will immediately be sent to the reserve after graduating from the military department. This list includes 12 metropolitan, five St. Petersburg universities, two higher educational institutions from Kazan and Novosibirsk, and one educational institution in 14 cities of Russia. The second category includes 33 educational institutions, upon admission to which young people will conclude a contract with the Ministry of Defense. The contract will provide them with an increased scholarship during the period of study, exceeding the federal one by five times, and service in officer positions for at least three years. Upon termination of the contract, the graduate will be required to return the scholarship in full. Graduates from other universities are classified as third grade. They will be drafted and serve in the army in rank-and-file positions.
In fact, we are talking about the creation and introduction (albeit tacitly) of a kind of property qualification. Since a native of rural areas, albeit gifted and talented, but lacking the means (and enrolling in a Moscow or St. Petersburg university with peripheral education, even using the privileges of the Unified State Exam, without a bribe is simply not realistic), is guaranteed to get into the army as a soldier. Urban youths, with a complete lack of abilities, have the opportunity either to avoid conscription altogether, or, having received an education in an elite university, immediately, without serving a single day, go to the reserve. At the same time, the army turns into a "student - workers 'and peasants'" army.
There is no need to emphasize that officers are the backbone of any army. Let me remind you: after the First World War, Germany was forbidden to have its own armed forces. However, the country retained the officer corps and on its basis very quickly created the Wehrmacht. It is quite obvious that the implementation of the proposed program for reforming the military education system will lead to the final elimination of the Russian armed forces and will be a crushing blow to our defense capability.
At the same time, the impression is created that the "renewal of the appearance of military education" is only covered by the interests of national security. In fact, behind all this is not so much the absence of plans and plans, but the inability and unwillingness to carry them out as painlessly as possible for the country and its citizens. And can the current defense managers be called reformers? After all, any reform implies an evolutionary path of development, and their hands are itching to destroy everything to the ground.
Only people who sincerely believe in their own infallibility can, with such stubbornness, ruthlessly destroy everything and everyone, not created and built by them.
