1. How it was
Even before the collapse of the USSR, more precisely, on the eve of this historical catastrophe, strange words for us began to sound for the first time: "contract army", sometimes more familiar words - "professional army". Beautiful formulations, vivid examples from the camp of the "potential enemy", the movement of soldiers' mothers (more precisely, mothers who absolutely do not want to be soldiers), the total denial of any positive examples of the history of their own country, the arguments of experts, and just a desire to reform everything that is possible and that it is impossible to reform, day after day, year after year, the denial of conscription was driven into the public consciousness.
Since that time I have been tormented by the question: where did such a large number of "experts", "specialists in military history" and the like "chicks of perestroika" come from, still flashing on the screens and pages of various media? Where are those scientific communities and educational institutions that have recognized THEM AS?
Of course, there were also real grounds for criticizing the army order: the construction battalion, a framed division, where the main type of military work of a conscript soldier was sweeping and dragging, and his leisure time was “scuffle”, scientifically called “hazing”, there was also a battle with the harvest, and construction of someone's summer cottages. But the core of the armed forces, the combat component, and this, in addition to the "internationalist warriors" in Afghanistan, all of Eastern Europe, the border military districts, was at the peak of its power. And the probable enemy, by the way, had the opinions of his experts, who were arguing about how long it would take from the start of hostilities to the appearance of Russian tanks at the English Channel - two or three weeks. There was no controversy over whether it would be possible to contain the Soviet Army's strike by NATO forces without the use of nuclear weapons.
Let us return, however, to the picture of the beginning of those troubled times (there was already the April plenum, Gorbachev said something about perestroika and began with an anti-alcohol campaign). I remember the spring of 1985, the military registration and enlistment office and the draft board. How was the fate of the boys crowded in those corridors? I remember a strong guy who memorized the eye test table so that they would not be rejected in the landing, and his joy when he was assigned to the Airborne Forces. There were volunteer sailors who were not embarrassed by an extra year of service in the navy. I remember my answer to the question "Where would you like to serve, comrade conscript": "Where will the homeland send, comrade colonel."
Out of my 10 "B" class of an ordinary Moscow school, out of 17 guys, 15 went to the army, two "squandered", one mother had a doctor and terrible health problems, the closer to conscription, the worse it got, the other somehow immediately left for home to Georgia to be called up there, but something did not work out.
My spring draft in 1985 was the first when full-time students began to be called up to serve in the Armed Forces. The scheme is simple: I entered the first year, studied for a year, turned 18 years old, formalized an academic leave for the duration of the service - and forward, to new impressions. There are many students among the recruits, but no one tore their hair and did not bang their heads against the wall. If everyone goes to serve, then what is there to complain about? What was born? They looked for pluses, passed exams, prepared as best they could for the service. The military registration and enlistment office was in no hurry, giving the opportunity to pass the session, the teachers willingly agreed to early exams.
I remember what a magical effect the summons had on my physics teacher, a gray-haired assistant professor, I don't know what convinced him more, the summons or my answer that "the divergence E in the equipotential field is zero," something dreary: "Well, go to your army." - “Not in ours, but in ours, the Soviet one,” I joked and caught the obviously amused look of the associate professor of the Department of General Physics of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys.
Much that can be remembered, but I do not remember the sensations or thoughts about the lack of understanding of what is happening, or even more so its inner denial. And in conversations with classmates and fellow students, we did not have any protests, complaints about fate or despondency. And as for the positive aspects in communicating with peers who became much more responsive in those spring draft days, probably each of my comrades remembers in a special way. There was also a send-off, everything was as it should be, in rank. Then the stadium "Dynamo-2" on the Kashirskoye highway, in the morning they gathered all the conscripts of the Krasnogvardeisky district of Moscow. I remember a friend, classmate Dimka. His classmates from the MEPhI carried him out of the bus and solemnly brought him into the gates of the stadium, a duplicate of the priceless cargo, so to speak. Then there was "Ugreshka", the Moscow assembly point on Ugreshskaya Street, all the conscripts were waiting for their "buyers" - officers from military units and formations who came to pick up the teams of conscripts in their units.
Then there was a service, two years, a lot of new things, knowing oneself and others. I remember that you need to run a 6-km march as part of a company in 32 minutes, or you can run in the OZK in the summer, shoot in a gas mask. I also remember the battalion on the parade ground and the question of the unit commander: "Who is ready to continue serving in the DRA, two steps forward," and everyone took a step, probably without thinking too much, simply because it was impossible not to step. Not everyone was taken away, Moscow and Leningrad are not suitable, why bother the capital with a "load of 200", children from incomplete families, not take one child, they will not go from small villages - if, God forbid, trouble, then the whole collective farm will have a funeral: it is also unacceptable for public peace, so to speak.
In a word, everything is thought out, maybe that's why the monument to the “Afghans” stands on the banks of the Kacha River in Krasnoyarsk, the regional Siberian cities of many children were sent to Afghanistan. Many of our soldiers fought and died on Afghan soil, not yet knowing that their valor and courage, self-sacrifice and simply hard soldier labor by the people of the country they defended would be considered unnecessary in five years.
Eternal memory to the soldiers, the last defenders of the Soviet Union!
Then they did not think about it, they served and that was all, Afghan was far away, and everyone had their own pot of porridge. In mine there were outfits, guards, shooting, checks, reading newspapers, the program "Vremya", it also could not do without a lip, the usual service, like everyone else, scribbled with a bayonet-knife in the guardhouse "Dembel is inevitable, like the collapse of capitalism" and a poster on the wall in the Lenkomnat "Motherland highly appreciates your service, soldier." How do you evaluate this "folklore" years later? One night, the chemists-dosimetrists were raised and ordered to conduct radiation reconnaissance, everyone wondered that this was the first time such garbage, Major-Nachkhim - and he did not know. In the morning, a new introductory - conduct radiation reconnaissance continuously, up to a special order. Three days later we learned about Chernobyl. Days, weeks, months, and years - there are only two of them, and both have passed, home soon, take a walk, have fun, and go to school. Nothing stuck to the shoulder straps, a detour sheet and a divorce on the parade ground - and our former colleagues march past us under the "Slavyanka". Here it is, the delight of demobilization, a brief moment from the gates of the unit to the house, May 1987.
And somehow it immediately caught the eye: the country was becoming different, the air smelled of "perestroika". The queue for vodka in three rounds around the shops, kiosks with juice at every step, "Lyuber", articles about AIDS in newspapers and daily Gorbachev on TV, radio. They joked that if you listened, the iron, plugged in, would speak in the voice of the secretary general.
And then talk about a "professional army", contract service and the most amazing thing about our lag in military development, about the inexpediency of content and the need for reform, about peaceful coexistence and a bunch of correct, smart things moved from the category of chatter to the category of the main topic in all layers that already losing its form, idea, meaning of existence of society. Now it’s impossible to figure out whether the government decided to please the people, or the people caught the leader’s thought, or the leader threw the idea into the masses. Do not know. But the fact that the idea sown by someone found support and support is a fact, and here is another fact - this idea turned out to be a catalyst for the collapse of the army and the entire country as a whole.
In the meantime, the army was fighting, the same, non-professional, non-contract, lagging behind in recruiting, in dire need of reform, already betrayed by the country's political leadership, it was quite professionally fighting a serious dangerous enemy. And she also prepared to fight, studied and at the same time was in a state of readiness to immediately join the battle.
Let the "specialists" answer me, only not cardboard ones, but real ones. Has there ever been in world history a strategic army group comparable in terms of combat readiness, equipment, training, similar to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in the period from its creation to the year 1987-88?
And with this force the most terrible thing that can happen to the army, to its soldiers happened - the army was betrayed by its own people. "Soldier's mothers", human rights activists, the yellow press lined up in a line of accusers and accusers and, on behalf of the people, mixed with the mud the soldiers of their country fighting in Afghanistan. They began to call for the withdrawal of our elite formations from Eastern Europe, which by their presence alone cemented the global world order, guaranteed the security and untouchability of our native territory.
The Soviet army was defeated and destroyed by its people, its highest generals, the political leadership of the country, the country that went into oblivion after its army. Of course, now it is easier and clearer to see the truth, the foam has settled, the dregs have settled and it has become clear that the betrayal of the army by its people and the government is destroying the army that defends the country, and the country without an army is doomed to death. At the very moment when we turned our backs on our army, we signed the verdict to the country where we were born. In 1941, our grandfathers did not turn away, they did not betray and survived and won, but we decided that we needed a mercenary army, Afghanistan would be a shameful war, and, lo and behold, someone already heavily drunk was conducting a German orchestra, and we were applauding.
Years passed, many events and many changes, demonstrations gave way to shooting, democracy to separatism, athletes became bandits, bandits - MPs. My comrades at the institute became businessmen, my comrades in the service went to the "cops" and look after the businessmen. Someone left, someone is drinking, someone is gone. Life in an era of change.
But only in May in every city, from Moscow to the very outskirts, do the boys and already gray-haired guys get their green caps; in August, troops of all ages across the country put on berets, sailors - peakless caps. What are they nostalgic about and why, why these are no longer boys remembering those very years in that very ineffective and outdated army. (By the way, I do not advise asking them about this.) Let the psychologists put their drunken souls on the shelves, this is not important. It is important, in my opinion, that for a large part of our fellow citizens, serving their country in the ranks of the armed forces has been and remains, if not a lifelong affair, then certainly a lifelong affair.
2. How it came to be
Any inheritance has heirs. The indestructible and legendary Soviet Army has an heiress, and the fleet also remained, although a story similar to an anecdote happened to the fleet. In the city of glory of Russian sailors, Sevastopol, there are now two fleets - Russian and Ukrainian. If I had dreamed this in 1985 at the conscription, I would have ended up in a "fool", and not in the army, and I would have surrendered myself.
The historical breakdown experienced by the country has in the most disastrous way changed the attitude of people towards the army towards military service. A staunch denial of the need for such an unshakable, system-forming concept as conscription has been formed. The conscription service is the lot of fools, the army is an aging institution of the state, we will not let our children go there, the attitude towards military service has changed among the majority, and a few sober voices drowned in the sea of popular discontent with their army. This tendency was reinforced by the fact that difficult combat trials fell on the fragments of the Soviet Army, which had not yet become the Russian Army. Two Chechen campaigns, drawn out on the veins and blood of the boys who were drafted into the service, but could not train, and it was not easy to feed and dress them, in the not so long ago powerful military districts the combined battalions barely scraped up … to transfer the fleet. The militias weren’t needed, I don’t know, is it really good or bad.
It was hard for our soldiers also because they did not have the most important thing, the idea with which the soldier goes into battle, and they traded them, sometimes surrendering, then ransoming from captivity. But they fought, died in the second term of Yeltsin, and another billion Berezovsky, and took Grozny and drove a well-motivated, well-equipped, informed enemy into the mountains. And they, the recruits, went into the fire, eh, the "mercenaries" are professionals?.. Let the historians get to the bottom of the truth and tell about the contribution of the mercenary and conscript units in those battles. It is not for me to judge who and how fought in Grozny on that very New Year's Eve, I was not there.
Let the scientists calculate with arithmetic precision how many contract soldiers were in that company of Pskov paratroopers, which all died, but did not retreat. And without cold calculations, it is clear that the Highlanders, who had gone too far to lose their humanity, were basically a conscript army, simply because we did not have another, and it could not and could not be.
Later, in 2008, Saakashvili's "contract soldiers", trained by American instructors, dressed and fattened on overseas handouts, with the support of Bendery's hired heirs, ran ahead of their own screeching from conscripts, boys of 18-20 years old, who at that time were Russian soldiers - the defenders of their country …
Now, basically, our army remains conscript, the percentage of mercenaries is small, their contribution to the country's defense, in my opinion, is rather negative.
Let me explain. Imagine an army with a mixed manning principle.
On the one hand, there is a boy, a romantic, dreaming of a landing, of victories and heroism, of serving the country. He didn’t “slap off”, he was not “smeared”, he is ready to serve. On the other hand, he is a fully formed, but not found himself in civilian life, who came for the "money" is far from an ideal contractor.
And now the question: what military specialty will the army offer to one and the other? Who will do the dirty work, and who will be the cream?
And why do we cut the wings of our sons, why can't we appreciate the good that brought them to the service? Why do we want our army to rely on recruited contract soldiers, how are they more useful? Why, instead of maintaining the patriotic impulse, do we want to eradicate it, exchange it for money?
Because it's easier? Yes. Do you have to mess with the conscripts? Learn? Working with their parents? Yes. But the army is not only an instrument of foreign policy, defense, and deterrence. The army is also a huge mechanism of education, the formation of a worldview. The army is a different scale of values. The army is courage, patience, the will to win, honor and justice. By investing money in "fussing" with conscripts for 12-24 months, we form a whole generation of young, capable people. And these people, returning to their cities, villages, houses, change the life of the whole country. The conscript army is a unique mechanism for domestic policy, education, and the creation of a favorable economic environment.
Only this mechanism should be used with skill and care.
Again, I believe that the USSR Armed Forces were defeated because they were betrayed, and the country that lost its army disappeared.
I am sure that the external enemy will not be able to defeat the Russian army, but you can destroy it by making it mercenary. And if Russia loses its army, we will lose Russia.
3. Is there an alternative to mercenaries?
There is. I am sure there is. It must be! Simply because the army was not hired for all its victories for Russia. What kind of army do we need then? I will put aside the technical component of the aircraft. This is a critical topic for another article. Let's talk about people in uniform.
To begin with, I will try to draw a portrait of such an armed forces (an ideal military machine). An army that will be a part of the country, its support, its pride and glory.
Imagine that the top political leadership, realizing all the perniciousness and danger of the destruction of the army, suddenly decides to radically change the situation. For this (besides, of course, real rearmament), it will take a number of organizational measures, namely:
1. Transition to manning the RF Armed Forces with conscripts.
2. Conscription for military service on the principle of VOLUNTARY, that is, a citizen of the Russian Federation who has reached the age of 18, undergoes a medical commission and other standard procedures that exist now, but at the draft commission gives a written answer to the question: “Is he willing and ready to join to the ranks of the RF Armed Forces or renounces such a right”.
3. The term of conscription service is 24 months.
4. The first six months - combined arms training, aimed at leveling the physical, moral, adaptive capabilities of young soldiers. Such training is carried out on the basis of district training centers under the guidance of the best commanders. Daily medical control, psychological support of EACH soldier. A soldier of the Russian army is a "piece product", and it must be protected, but not pampered, tempered, but not broken, taught, but not trained. The personal responsibility of the commander is for each soldier, for his physical and moral condition.
The tasks of the stage are to prepare each soldier for further in-depth training in the military specialty. Full adaptation of a soldier to military service, its hardships and hardships. Vocational guidance by combat arms, specialties, identification of candidates for junior commanders' schools. Each soldier must be sifted, examined, examined with a magnifying glass to maximize natural tendencies and personal deficiencies.
The second six months - getting a military specialty. Tankers, artillerymen, paratroopers, border guards, motorized riflemen, pre-selected and assigned during the first stage of their service, begin to study their specialties. This stage of training takes place on the basis of training centers for combat arms. The goal of the stage is complete mastery of a military specialty, in-depth combat training, taking into account the specifics of the type of troops. Full preparation of a soldier to solve the tasks of carrying out combat service in the troops. Distribution to a specific combat unit for continued service.
The third half of the year - service in a combat unit as a full-fledged member of a military collective, improving skills, mastering related specialties. Study of specific local conditions of combat work.
The fourth half of the year - change of the warhead, west to Siberia, north to south (to acquire additional skills of service in different climatic zones and relieve psychological fatigue from monotony).
5. To stimulate young people, citizens of the Russian Federation to make a decision to voluntarily join the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, amend federal laws. Namely:
1) State medical insurance for military personnel, lump sum payments for injuries. Benefits (not handouts) in case of injury or death. Lifetime social provision in case of disability, quality medical care for life.
2) The right to receive higher education at the expense of the state.
3) Tax incentives. Citizens of the Russian Federation who have served voluntary military service in the ranks of the Armed Forces are exempt from paying income, property, land and other types of tax on physical. persons.
4) Legislative consolidation of the norm that male citizens of the Russian Federation can enter the civil service if they have completed the voluntary conscription service. Exceptions are for those recognized as unfit for service in the Armed Forces.
5) At the end of the urgent voluntary service - a state interest-free loan for the purchase (construction) of housing in the place where he was called from.
6) Admission to military schools and higher military educational institutions, the assignment of officer ranks - only after voluntary military service.
I hear a chorus of skeptics! Their arguments are not hard to foresee. Don't waste your time, suggest an alternative if you have one. Of course, it is easier to pay: 500-600 thousand mercenaries, there is a contract, and that's it. Pay off the conscription by the whole country. We have recruited mercenaries, and our children do not have a headache, but the army is now professional, trained, and must crush any enemy. It should, but can it? The simplicity of a mercenary army is apparent, soaking. There is no rear behind the hired army, there is money for them, but there is no people, no country behind them. We have already lost one country, do you want to go on a rake?
Personally, I think that rather than throwing money on contract soldiers, it is better to train conscripts. The money spent on such an army will return to the economy when these guys get home. And how many we will tear away from drunkenness and drugs, how many we will teach to be people, warriors, defenders. How many we will get rid of prisons, how many we will open our eyes to the world and give way to another life. We will teach you to set a goal, find ways to solve problems, temper their will to move along this path. How to get up in this world for a boy from a Siberian village of 100 yards, where men in thirty have already drunk themselves to the "squirrel", and he wants and can live. So this guy, instead of perishing, will serve the Motherland in the army, return home and, already looking at his village with different eyes, will begin to change it with his already persistent soldier character and already much stronger hands, thereby serving the Motherland once again.
And most importantly, if we do this, if we can still give these guys modern technology, then, even if not immediately, we will create such a force that no one, even a suicide, would ever think of to try.
And you cannot tear this army away from the people, and you cannot betray it. Because there is no border between the army of the country and its people.
And the old forgotten slogans "The people and the army are united" and "The army is the school of life" oh, how relevant will sound again.
P. S. After I wrote this article in the media, there was information about the proposals of the MOB to change the principles of manning the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The initiative seems to come from Minister Shoigu, and it seems that in these proposals you can see the elements of what is written above through a magnifying glass.
Wait and see.
