WHAT IF TOMORROW IS A WAR? …
And what is the current Russian army like? This is a different army, a different quality. This is the army of the bourgeois state, it is called upon to defend the power of capital, the interests of its protégés. The army received its first baptism of fire in the war with its own people and the execution of the Russian parliament. The Russian military machine is a seriously ill organism and does not provide security for our country.
The former power as a result of the reforms is in a landslide state. Would we have won the Great Patriotic War if there was such a negligent attitude of the authorities to the issues of the country's defense as it is now, if the industry were so collapsed? Is the capitalist economy capable of performing such a miracle when, during the war years, 2,593 industrial enterprises were evacuated from the western regions to the eastern regions! Of these, 1,523 are large enterprises of the aviation industry, which made it possible by November 1942 to eliminate the superiority of the fascist bloc in the production of basic types of weapons.
Is it possible to defeat the enemy if the share of state ownership in the most important large industrial monopolies is essentially zero? Is it possible to win a victory over an aggressor if the military-industrial complex is steadily destroyed and given over to private hands? Is it possible to withstand a modern war when food security is entirely dependent on the West? Would we have won the war if the country's energy system together with the switch, railways, oil, civil aviation were in the hands of the Chubais? There are many similar questions to be asked.
The attitude of the ruling regime towards the army has also changed. And it began even when the destroyer of the USSR and torturer of Russia Yeltsin, in one of his speeches, called the military idlers sitting on the neck of the state. The military swallowed it, didn't even get upset, and then it went on and on. All the internal enemies of Russia practiced blaming the army, especially the officers. In addition to odious personalities such as Sobchak, Gaidar, Chubais, Nemtsov, representatives of the mass media also succeeded in this, who, in their reports on the hostilities in Chechnya, called the Russian troops a derogatory word: "federals." The deliberate collapse of the Army and Navy inherited from the Soviet Union began to please the West. Former Prime Minister Kasyanov said openly about the goals of the government - that "our priorities are to protect private property, not the interests of the state."
The prevailing point of view of the authorities was the conclusion that the army is not needed to defend Russia, since Russia has no enemies. They were not interested in the fate of our country. They are closer to the interests of the comprador bourgeoisie, which practically includes all the oligarchs who, if "thunder breaks out," in the best case scenario, will not be on the side of the Russian people. Their main capital is in foreign banks and, therefore, work for the economies of other countries, while they themselves squeeze out everything possible from those natural resources that they got at the behest of Gorbachev-Yeltsin-Chubais. During 15 years of reforms, the government did not deal with the defense complex, did not re-equip the army and actually financed its biological existence. The state of affairs has not changed under Putin's presidency.
The landslide nature of the army stabilized, and only patriotic rhetoric appeared, words of gratitude addressed to war veterans, recognition of the right of defenders of the Motherland to a decent life and promises to improve the state of affairs. And that's all, but there is no serious matter. Under Putin, Russia handed over military bases in Cuba and Vietnam, and now two more important radar facilities are being prepared in Mukachevo and near Sevastopol. The Mir station, which dominates space, was flooded. The military-industrial complex has been undermined in the bud.
In 2005, out of 2,200 defense plants, 600 remained, but their fate is also problematic. Highly qualified professionals have been lost. Over 15 years, 200,000 scientists have left Russia, including those from the defense complex. The Moscow plant "Znamya Truda" collects only 12 MiG-29s a year, and that is for China. Russia has been driven out of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Its place is taken by the United States (NATO). The pro-Western regimes of Georgia and Ukraine are rushing to NATO. Meanwhile, Russia is pushing away fraternal Belarus.
Unlike the USSR, Russia no longer has "buffer" allied states that would cover the territory and give time for mobilization in the event of a military threat. The army failed not only to protect its people, but also itself. The situation in the Armed Forces is alarming. Serious daily combat training in the troops is absent; it does little to improve the combat training of soldiers. Equipping with new military equipment is essentially not done, so new equipment comes in single copies.
A significant part of the weapons has worn out and is not ready for combat use. As for the military-industrial enterprises, which have not yet gone bankrupt against the ill will of the ruling officials, they, as a rule, work and supply foreign countries with new equipment. They live by paying for these orders. The television screening of individual samples of the latest military equipment created by domestic designers, the sailing of a separate ship or the flight of an aircraft along a long route and other blissful pictures only create the semblance of concern for the country's Armed Forces and do not change their state of combat readiness.
For example, as already reported in the press, if in the famous Tsushima battle in May 1905, Russia's losses amounted to 26 ships and vessels, then the losses of only surface ships during the so-called "reforms" amounted to about 30 "tsushim". The naval and numerical strength of the Navy has decreased significantly. The naval missile-carrying aviation was particularly affected. The Navy's ship-repair base has decreased by more than 4 times. The situation is similar in other branches and branches of the armed forces. Take the problem of preparing youth for military service. Nobody does this. Although the experience of Soviet power shows how to implement the Constitution of the country and its requirements for the defense of the Fatherland.
Moreover, in the current Yeltsin Constitution of the Russian Federation, it is written in Article 59 that the defense of the Fatherland is the duty and obligation of a citizen of the country. However, young people with poor health who do not have a secondary education, even chronic alcoholics, drug addicts, people with mental disabilities, and a criminal past get into the army.
Many conscripts are rejected for health reasons (up to 40%), and the Ministry of Health does not bear any responsibility. A significant number of conscripts enter the troops, scientifically speaking, with a lack of body weight, or, more simply, dystrophics. It's the 21st century, and many illiterate people are being drafted into the army. Where can they learn to write and read if 2 million young men do not go to school! Today, 10% of the country's population is illiterate. Again, the people's power in the future will have to start a struggle to eradicate illiteracy.
Now the efforts of statesmen, deputies, military leaders led by Putin are reduced to reducing the term of service to one year and transferring the army to a contract basis, to serve as volunteers in it for a high salary, including foreigners. With the simultaneous cancellation, although not immediately, of conscription. With the reduction of military service to 12 months, it will be difficult for the army to live up to its mission. Refusal from a mass army is, in my opinion, a serious mistake, and in the end it will have an impact in the event of hostilities. Nowadays, such concepts as the defense of the Fatherland, as the sacred duty of every citizen of the country and universal military duty, have gone down in history. With the current army, we would not have won the Great Patriotic War, nor will we win in a modern war.
But where is the strictly regulated military order stipulated by the military regulations with its inherent mutual assistance and friendship, without which the army organism ceases to be a combat unit, without which victory in battle is impossible? The decrease in concern for the state of their department led to the fact that, with the destroyed harmonious system of training and education of soldiers, which was in the Soviet Army and the Navy, the zeal of officers and commanders disappeared, and indifference appeared in the performance of their duties. Young officers ask themselves the question: “and to whom to serve, whose and which Russia? The one where the work of an officer is not appreciated, when the army is turned into protection of a money bag, and the officers themselves are kept on a starvation ration? Such an officer serves Russia today without any desire.
The social security of servicemen turned out to be much worse than that of civilian officials. This indicates a lack of understanding of what military labor is. Firstly, military people are also civil servants and must go on the list at number 1, ahead of civilians. And secondly, is it possible to compare the work of an official with military service, full of danger, risk, hardships and hardships, with irregular working hours, frequent movements to a new place of service, including uninhabited places, service full of anxiety? And these service people are kept in power by a beggar ration.
In addition, officers often serve in such garrisons where their wives cannot get a job due to lack of jobs. Apparently, the laws and decisions concerning military development and the life of servicemen are made by those officials who have never served in the army and do not know what military service is, have not experienced even a hundredth of the hardships experienced by the defenders of the Fatherland. Many officials themselves are mired in corruption, are hung with privileges and benefits, and the fate of the army does not bother them.
If under Soviet rule the commanding staff of the army was one of the highest paid in the country, nowadays many officers are reduced to a beggarly state. Although Putin speaks surprisingly beautiful words about officers and even not so long ago said about the existence of a military danger for Russia, his words and deeds are exactly the opposite. He sometimes throws a couple of hundred rubles to the military to their salary, but he takes care of his faithful support - the bureaucracy, giving him high salaries that cannot be compared with the salaries of military men. But at all times in Russia the Army and the Navy were allies of the authorities.
And then Putin took and took away from the military the privileges they deserved - in fact, the title of "veteran of military service" disappeared from circulation, the law "On the status of military personnel" lost force. Many officers' families fell apart due to lack of money, how many did not take place for the same reason! Young officers are afraid to start a family due to the inability to adequately support it. The following fact also speaks about the attitude of the ruling regime towards its army. The salaries of the servicemen of the Russian army are ten times less than in the armies of other foreign countries, although there is now a lot of money in Russia as a result of the barbaric exploitation of oil and gas reserves.
Due to their inability to manage them, they are sent abroad, to Uncle Sam's banks. Isn't it a shame when keeping a dog in a kennel in Moscow costs more than the cost of a combined-arms ration. Today, the current international environment remains explosive as a result of the aggressive actions of the United States. The aggressive NATO bloc is expanding, it surrounds more and more. The United Nations has been relegated to the role of a silent witness to what is happening in the world. The military danger for Russia has become a reality. If Russia has not yet become an object of attack, it is not because the powerful Armed Forces are holding back the aggressor, but because we have nuclear weapons. Bush-Putin friendship and partnership is a temporary phenomenon. Agreements in politics are respected as long as they are beneficial to the strong side. The United States did not like it - and they withdrew from the ABM Treaty, regardless of anyone.
The US military budget is 25 times that of Russia. One cannot but take into account the decision of the authorities, surprising in its cynicism, to allow the presence of NATO troops on the territory of Russia. Apparently, fearing the anger of the people, the current government no longer hopes for the protection of its army and internal troops. An act of sacrilege continues in the Russian army and navy, a crime is committed against Russia, its glory, and its history. By decision of the ruling regime, military units are freed from the glorious battle banners symbolizing the heroic past of the country and its Armed Forces, depriving our army of honor, dignity and traditions, handing over the banners to the archive.
Instead of them, at a cost of 130 million rubles, panels with an eagle and a cross, alien to the Russian army, are being introduced, not overshadowed by any victories, without asking the opinion of the military people, the Russian people. The military reform was naturally caused by the internal needs of the country, the circumstances of the external order and the peculiarities of the current stage of development of the Armed Forces. For the first time, they started talking about military reform during the Soviet era, in 1989. She was already ripe then. But the Ministry of Defense believed that the Armed Forces fully met the requirements of the time and did not show much activity in its implementation. And Gorbachev had no time for that. Well, then came the Yeltsin period of the collapse of the Armed Forces.
But the legitimate needs of military reform made themselves felt, and even those who had never served in the army and did not know what it was, spoke out loud about military reform. I mean Nemtsov, Khakamada and other "experts". Their interference was only harmful. Talks about military reform continued under Putin's rule, but there was no concrete case. Earlier, there was no money in the country, and when it appeared, the talk about military reform began to subside. Nowadays there is no mention of her.
Thus, she died without being born. Although S. Ivanov, being the Minister of Defense, announced in 2003 the completion of the military reform. Although neither the country nor the Armed Forces felt this. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the substitution of the concept of "military reform of the state" by "reform in the army", implementation of certain changes in the organizational structure of the army and the principles of its manning, reduction of its number. So, for example, from 1993 to 2000, that is, over 7 years, the Russian Armed Forces decreased from 4.8 million people to 1.1 million, but the number of generals in the army grew steadily and exceeded their number in the Soviet Armed Forces. Apparently, this was done with a specific purpose: to turn the top of the army elite into obedient defenders of capitalism.
As a result, a number of generals fled from the CPSU to the United Russia party, initiated anti-Soviet actions (events with the Victory Banner), became perjurers, participants in the shooting of the Russian parliament and other unseemly deeds. The fundamental problems of improving military organizational development and strengthening the country's defense capability remained untouched. This approach is not only erroneous but also harmful. This was essentially the collapse of the Armed Forces. Military reforms were carried out by Ivan IV (the Terrible) in the middle of the 16th century; under the leadership of Peter I in the first quarter of the 18th century; in 1890-1970 under the leadership of Minister of War D. A. Malyutin as an integral part of the bourgeois reforms in Russia in the 60-70s. XIX century; then in 1905-1912. and finally, in 1924-1925. - this reform was associated with the name of M. V. Frunze.
Each of these reforms led to significant changes and a new quality in the Russian military system. For example, the military reform in 1924-1925. implemented a system of major measures to improve the military organization and strengthen the country's defense. She influenced all areas of the Armed Forces. One-man command was introduced, the supply system of the troops was reorganized, a clear procedure for the passage of military service and the training of a conscript contingent was established, the training of fighters was improved, new military regulations and instructions were developed. The technical re-equipment of the troops was started, the personnel training system was changed, and the military command and control bodies were improved. All these measures have increased the organization of the troops and their combat effectiveness.
Recognizing the existence of a military threat poses extremely tough questions to take measures to protect national interests. The attitude to national security issues should be a priority so that the Russian Armed Forces are able to deter any aggressor from the temptation to attack our country. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that between the appearance of new models of equipment and its serial production and entry into the troops there is a huge distance, during which the equipment undergoes state and military tests. Veterans of military service and patriots - acting officers for their army - are worried and resentful. History will strictly ask the perpetrators of the collapse of the army, no matter how they hide behind verbal balancing act and patriotic rhetoric.
To change the attitude of the state and society towards the army, it is necessary not in words, but in deeds to constantly take care of it, to understand its prestige. All authorities in the current international situation consider military issues as a priority. The mass media should stop vilifying the Armed Forces, popularizing them in every possible way, promoting pride in mastering the heroic profession of “defending the Motherland”. And, of course, increase the pay for officers twice as high as for corrupt civilian officials. But this, apparently, cannot be done without changing the bourgeois character of the existing system.
