Service with the Soviet in the army. Service in the Soviet army

A lot has been written about military service in the Soviet Army. Those who wrote about their service remember these two years as interesting and, on the whole, useful - a “school of life.” They usually write with irony, humorously describing “adventures” while AWOL or about stupid expressions and antics of commanders. Sometimes in the stories there is pride in the formidable military equipment entrusted to them, eighteen-year-old youths: “I drove my tank 60 kilometers per hour, as if there was nothing to do!” And I decided to write truthfully about the army. There was no humor, no friendship, much less heroism or “school of life.” Only almost hopeless mental melancholy and everyday disorder.
I was drafted on November 15, 1981. I was already a year out of school, unsuccessfully entered college twice, worked at a post office as an operator and postman, and as a cinema designer.
...In Moscow, each team was put into covered trucks and transported from the station. We were brought to a military camp behind Sheremetyevo airport. This is the Khimki district, Chashnikovo post office. This is where my two years of service passed. First, everyone was seated in the club and began to be distributed. They asked about different specialties: “Drivers, stand up! Are there any electric welders? They also asked about the artists, then I stood up. They asked me where I studied and worked. My weak level of professionalism did not interest my superiors.
In the town there were two three-story barracks, each with two entrances. Several military units were stationed. My unit No. 52564 was the largest - four companies. There were also buildings: a headquarters, a club, a dining room, a bathhouse, warehouses, garages, a “laboratory,” and a guardhouse. The perimeter of the town is surrounded by a concrete fence, with a canopy with barbed wire hung on three sides. There was no canopy on the side of the Sheremetyevo-Lobnya highway. In the middle of the town there was a parade ground with a small platform, surrounded by billboards with slogans. There were no sports facilities.
But first, quarantine or the so-called young fighter course. We were placed on the first floor. They gave out the form. And they forced everyone to sew up old clothes, write addresses to send them home, and fill out postal forms. I only sent boots, but no one received my parcel with boots.
The uniform was issued according to the size indicated in the military IDs, but for some reason it hung ugly on us; we had to sew it up ourselves with a needle. I had to struggle with sewing on black shoulder straps with yellow plastic letters “SA”, buttonholes, chevrons on the hub, paradka and overcoat. It is especially difficult to sew on shoulder straps, because you need to secure them so that they are slightly forward, in the same way, I have to redo them several times. The most difficult part was sewing the shoulder straps and buttons onto the overcoat.
The quarantine was located on the ground floor in the premises of the 3rd company, which was temporarily evicted somewhere. We were “chased” to the parade ground by sergeants who had just come from “training”. It was already the end of November, the icy wind was throwing snow pellets in the face, the neck was constantly bare sticking out from the collar of the overcoat, which offered almost no protection from the wind. The best thing was to sit in class studying the charter: warm, cozy. They learned the text of the oath by heart, which I never managed to learn. Several times they brought a couple of Kalashnikov training assault rifles and we disassembled and reassembled them.
Once I was invited to the club to design something. I went with pleasure, just as everyone was being sent out for tactical training, that is, they had to run and crawl in the snow. There were two sergeants in the club who were drinking tea and began to “make fun” of me, becoming increasingly incensed. This was my first encounter with hazing.

But I decided not to be an artist, I realized how hard and thankless work it is. In the 3rd company, in whose premises the quarantine was located, there was an artist. When I looked at his work, I realized that I would have to learn this skill for years! He taught me how to make “Combat sheets” and advised me to hide my ability to draw: “You’ll lose your eyes completely! You’ll sleep in fits and starts, because at night you’ll be drawing for officers and their acquaintances all over Moscow!” Once I watched him being reprimanded by a political officer for the fact that the artist wrote the text of a resolution of the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee in straight arial font, and not in times. But a large text was written on one and a half sheets of Whatman paper! And the artist immediately sat down to rewrite everything again with pen and black ink. “It’s better to dig the ground!” - I decided. When I was told to write five texts with a pen to complete the checkpoint, I decided to refuse. I somehow wrote one sheet of paper and took it to headquarters. I come to the chief of staff, Major Dubrovsky, and say that I can’t write with a poster pen, that’s all I could do, because I didn’t study to be an artist. He sighed and let me go. Since then, I have never done anything in the army as an artist. And thank God!
On December 2, 1981 there was a solemn oath. They were led in formation to the nearest forest, where there was a mass grave of those who died during the defense of Moscow in December 1941. Later I could see this monument from the window of my company (third floor). They all had two machine guns, which they passed to each other to read the text of the oath before the formation, and signed the list.
The construction battalion is very different from the combat units. Firstly, settlements in money are constantly taking place. Each “fighter” is paid a salary by the accounting department, from which food and uniform are calculated. The first six months you work on boots, overcoats, and so on. Then they deduct only for food, that is, half of the salary. The salary was about 70 rubles. Military builders were constantly reproached with this salary: “Why are the boots dirty? No waxing?! Where’s the paycheck?!” They didn’t give me my salary, of course, I received, it seems, 4 rubles and kopecks a month. It was necessary to buy a toothbrush, toothpaste, boot cream, and many other necessary things: envelopes, pens, collar pads... Moreover, Komsomol contributions were collected from accrued salaries, and they were required to pay out of these four rubles, that is, 40-50 kopecks per month. Of course, everyone’s relatives sent them “dozens”, otherwise you wouldn’t even be able to really get fired. There was a store in the town, located in the headquarters building, the entrance was at the end of the building. They sold a lot of stuff there, including oatmeal cookies and candy. On a day off, there was always a crowd of people shopping there, standing with friends, chewing cookies, and smoking.
Our company, that is, the first and second platoons, served the building materials base. It was unit No. 44215. But in words everyone called it “Zavelevich’s base.” Zavelevich was a small colonel, a dry Jew - Moses Abramovich, but in the eyes of civilians they called him Mikhail Abramovich. Everyone was wondering how old he was – 60 or 70? Zavelevich was a workaholic and a teetotaler, which greatly distinguished him from all other officers.
The third platoon of the company was very large - about 150 people, but half of it was constantly on business trips almost throughout the Soviet Union. Those who remained served the headquarters in Moscow and worked in various professions: accountants, economists, draftsmen, artists, bookbinders. There were about 15 artists, they painted various stands and posters for headquarters. About 10 bookbinders bound the copied instructions and other staff documents. Almost everyone in this platoon had some kind of education, most graduated from technical schools. Few were after college, but more often they were expelled from their last or penultimate year. They spent their entire service wearing paradkas, of which they were given one for a year, but they were not issued habes at all. The shirt quickly wore out, they had to buy shirts, socks, and update ties themselves. There was also hazing in their platoon, but not in such a vicious form. In their dormitory, swearing was heard less often, they read more in the evenings, and played chess. Once they showed me a collection of poems by Vladimir Vysotsky “Nerve”. It was an exact copy of the legendary book; they made copies illegally for sale, selling them for 15 rubles.
It was interesting to listen to those who returned from a distant business trip. These were some specialists who were sent to the sites. According to their stories, it turned out that in our company there was almost paradise, while in other military construction units it was a complete mess. There were, for example, units where there was a bathhouse only once or twice a month, sheets were given one at a time, they were fed rotten cabbage and moldy bread, and butter only on Sundays. The beds are infested with bedbugs, and because of lice, everyone has their head cut and their groin shaved.
I’ll touch on the topic of Russian swearing. All officers are uncontrollable swearers. Most have all lexicon replaced by obscenities. Multi-story constructions of obscene words are inherent in all army ranks. An officer without a curse word is nonsense. The unit commander, lieutenant colonel, will line up the battalion on the parade ground and instill thoughts of discipline and soldier’s honor with selective obscenities. Colonel Zavelevich ran around the base and, splashing saliva like an old man, cursed at soldiers, lieutenants, civilian drivers and storekeepers. Zavelevich's base was located a kilometer away from the location of our unit. We walked there in formation along a street along which there were other units and enterprises where military builders also worked. We went to work in the morning after the divorce, at one o'clock in the afternoon we went back for lunch, then back to the base. Around 7 pm we returned “to the barracks”. This is five days a week. Nobody liked weekends with us, since in the company there was nowhere to put themselves. You cannot sit or lie on the bed. The Lenin room can accommodate at most 40 people, and there were about 150 soldiers in the company. But we rarely had weekends; we had to work and work. The base's warehouses served various construction projects throughout the USSR, but most containers went to the Tyura-Tam railway station. At first, when I heard this word in the commander’s scolding: “Yes, I’ll send you to Tyura-Tam!”, I thought it was a folk expression like “where – to Kudykina Mountain” or “where the crayfish spend the winter.” It turned out that this real place in Kazakhstan, the railway station where the Baikonur cosmodrome is located.
The most difficult thing was to strengthen reinforced concrete slabs, piles, pillars, wells, pipes on railway platforms. It was necessary to twist it with 6 mm wire into 8 threads, then twist these threads with a crowbar, but no more than three turns, and so that when the crowbar hits the twist, a ringing sound would be heard. Experience and skill were needed. But it’s winter, frost, snow, the platforms are poorly lit, you’re crawling in mittens, felt boots, pulling a naughty piece of wire... After the first months of working in the cold until nightfall (often returning to the barracks at 23 and even at one in the morning), I have lower back pain appeared. Sometimes I couldn’t bend down to wrap the footcloth. Acute pain when moving was transmitted to the whole body.
When our conscription had been working at the base for a month, everyone was called in the evening to Zavelevich’s office, all the officers were there. There was a conversation about where to assign whom to permanent areas of work. First, we decided on drivers, crane operators, welders, and electricians. Here Zavelevich asks: “Who can type on a typewriter?” Everyone is silent, and I realized that this is my time to “make a career.” And I stood up and said: “I know a little. I typed when I worked at the post office after school.” So I was assigned to help the typist at the headquarters.
The next morning they brought me to Kapitalina Yakovlevna. Everyone at headquarters simply called her Capa. I had to master the machine quickly, since work began from the first day. I had to print on five copies of forms using carbon paper the names of the materials released from the base: nails, files, reinforced concrete slabs, engines, carburetors, soap, paint, etc., etc. Clients constantly came up with lists that I typed out on forms. At the bottom he invariably signed: “Commander of military unit 44215 Zavelevich” - I remembered it for the rest of my life.
The headquarters was a two-story building at the entrance to the base. Opposite the entrance, behind a glass partition, sat the attendant. There was a corridor going off to the right and left, with office doors on both sides that were sealed at night. Stairs to the second floor, there are also offices of accountants, economists, commodity experts, and the office of the unit commander. Opposite is the “machine bureau” office, where I sat down at the old “Ukraine”, and six months later they found me an electric “Optima”.
I typed the “black” documentation, and Capa typed the “clean” ones. But when she was on vacation or sick, or asked for time off, I did all the work. I typed fairly accurately; sometimes I regretted the lack of dictionaries to check some words. We had to print long, confusing texts to the arbitration court, which were written by our lawyer. Once Zavelevich detained me at work. I discussed something with a lawyer for a long time, then brought a small letter. I started typing and saw that the words were mixed up, so I corrected it. He took it to the office. A minute later the colonel flies out: “Son! Don't cross your dad! Print as I wrote!” I retyped it, the colonel read it, chuckled and let me go. It was some kind of lawyer's trick, as I understand it.
One day, a concerned party organizer of the unit (one of the civil engineers) comes and asks Capa and me to type the text, dictating to us at the same time some strange phrases. He took the printed copy and left, concerned. Kapa explained to me that again someone wrote an anonymous letter about the commander, they are looking for the machine on which this was done: “If this is ours, then they will definitely send you to Tyura-Tam!” Of course, colleagues sometimes asked me to reprint something, usually these were the addresses of comrades for the design of the demobilization album. This had to be done in secret from the authorities.
He worked at the headquarters from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a lunch break. And then he went to work on the ramp or in the warehouse, where there was a need to help. For a long time I was afraid of ridicule: “Staff rat!” The danger of this was real, I saw that the staff were treated with irritation in the company. And I managed to avoid coldness with my colleagues; I was considered one of them both at the headquarters and in the warehouses. And at the headquarters there were also forwarders and duty officers. Forwarders traveled with civilian drivers throughout the Moscow region, received goods from plants and factories, and delivered them to the base. They constantly wore parades, were nosy, knew everything, delivered vodka and cigarettes for the soldiers, and carried out various assignments. That is, they were very the right people, which connect the company with the world. But they didn’t like the people on duty at the headquarters; they spent the entire service in a warm duty room on the telephone. Once I was replacing the duty officer, I picked up the phone and said: “The duty officer is listening!” It turned out that this was a general from the department who had seen me at Zavelevich’s more than once. He asked who was on the phone and where the duty officer was. Then he says: “Now I’ll call you back, and you pick up the phone and report as expected: the acting duty officer at the headquarters of military unit 44215, Corporal Sukhopar, is listening, understand?” - “That’s right, Comrade Major General!” And so it happened. When I reported correctly, the general asked something, and we parted satisfied with each other.
About twice a month I was sent to take some documents or items (auto parts, for example) to some factory or military unit in Moscow. A business trip was issued within 24 hours. I put on a paradka, took a special briefcase from the duty room and drove to the specified address. Sometimes the whole day was spent searching for that unit. But usually he quickly completed the task and went to the cinema, ate ice cream and returned to bed. So I visited different areas of Moscow. The most dangerous thing was to get noticed by patrols. There were dark legends about these patrols. They allegedly took away all the construction battalion workers for a day, accusing them of violating the dress code; there is always something to complain about. I was never caught, but our forwarders ended up at the garrison “lip” many times.
Now about nutrition. When they brought us recruits to the unit and took us to dinner, they gave us something light brown in a bowl, some kind of liquid. I couldn't figure out what it was. They said peas. I ate nothing but bread for three or four days. Then I started trying pearl barley, pasta, borscht, and fell in love with pea porridge. In the meantime, I was constantly hungry, like all my peers. He also stole black bread from the table and carried it in his pocket. We were scolded and ridiculed for this, but we quietly ate this bread, piece by piece. I know for sure that there was no one who did not carry bread in his pocket. It was only later that everyone became “heroes” and could “forget”, but all the soldiers went through this. I think the bread in your pockets is not because of hunger, but because of extreme stress. I watched with sympathy, when I myself was already a “grandfather,” as recruits shared a slice of black bread, sewing them into a sewing collar. I already had enough of everything, but the “spirits” still suffered.
They entered the dining room one at a time and immediately sat at the tables, five people on each side of the table. When everyone stands, the warrant officer on duty commands: “First company, sit down!” It happened that an ensign would get angry with someone, then he would command several times: “Company, stand up! Company, sit down!” They sat on the benches. On the table is a bowl of cabbage soup, a bowl of porridge, an aluminum kettle of tea or jelly, a plate of sliced ​​bread, a stack of aluminum bowls and mugs. Everything is designed for 10 people. They took apart the bowls and spoons, and someone distributed portions with a ladle into the bowls. At the same time, you had to have a good eye in order to divide it equally; you put it on yourself last. When they ate cabbage soup, the distributor would give porridge into the same bowl. If someone didn’t want to finish their portion, they poured it back into the tank.
The “spirits” had the opportunity to eat to their fill on Saturdays and Sundays. There were days off for the dishwashers in the cafeteria, who did this professionally five days a week; they were replaced by those on duty from other companies. I myself often went to the “disco” in the first two months. Some washed the dishes, others washed the tables, others washed the floors. There was always a lot of porridge, bread, and compote left on hand. In addition, here they were hiding from hazing in the company, where someone would definitely force you to wash your habe, hem your collar, and clean your boots. And here, after cleaning, you could take a nap on the benches.
A sandwich with butter and egg yolks was considered a delicacy. On Sunday they gave us two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast. You eat the whites like this, and crush the yolks with the handle of a spoon onto a buttered piece of white bread. We also loved fried fish and potatoes. IN holidays They fed us Sunday food, but for lunch they gave us cutlets and apples. This is on February 23, Victory Day, Builder's Day (beginning of August), November 7. On holidays, the number of orderlies was doubled - four. However, even on holidays, almost everyone went to the base after the ceremonial formation and marching to the orchestra. They didn’t like holidays, everyone was eager to get to the base to “settle in” between the warehouses, relax, and not sit on a stool, buttoned up in front of everyone in the company. When I was on a business trip, I learned to buy a kilogram of sugar and a pack of Golden Label cocoa. In the office, when Capa was not there, I made myself a delicious drink, which greatly supported me. But this was already in the second year of service. Sometimes parents came to visit someone. They also came to see me. We came for the first time in December 1981, when I was still getting used to it. My mother and father arrived, and when I saw them at the checkpoint, my tears began to flow. They were allowed to spend the night in the officer's hotel, which was on the third floor of the “laboratory” building. The next day we went to Moscow, visited Red Square, the historical museum. Giving me my dismissal card, the company commander admonished me: “Don’t forget to salute! There are a lot of military personnel in Moscow, there are sailors, there are pilots, if you see anyone in uniform, give honor!” We arrived at Sheremetyevo and are waiting at the bus stop for the bus to Moscow. I see a guy in uniform walking past, I immediately “at attention” and salute. He smiled and walked on, and my father said to me: “What are you doing? This is a pilot! - “And the company commander said to salute everyone!” - I answered, beginning to realize that there are also civilian pilots. That was the first time I got on the subway, but I didn’t remember my reaction. Another time, my father came with his younger brother, he was then about 14 years old. We again went to Red Square and went on an excursion to St. Basil's Cathedral. Then, in the summer, my father, mother and brother came. We went to VDNKh and visited the Manezh art exhibition dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the USSR. All the visits from my relatives unsettled me greatly.
The best way to get along in the army is to quickly find an application of your strength to solve some problems of the team. For example, one of the young people knows how to repair cars, another is great at telling jokes, a third knows how to give a massage, a fourth can “get” any thing, and so on. Those who could not prove themselves and force respect through this are left to fight, hang themselves, run away from the unit or sink, become a victim. I observed both of them in my company.
For example, in our country, in the first week after quarantine, one tried to fight fiercely, and then cut his wrists with a blade, lay there until he was noticed and “saved.” A few days later he was sent to another unit, but during these days a hail of ridicule rained down on him. There were some who ran away, a day later they were caught and brought back. These were also transferred to other units, I don’t know them future fate, but I don’t think they were able to successfully adapt to the army; they need qualified help from a psychologist. In general, as far as I was able to recognize them, they were unpleasant guys, arrogant, “in their own heads,” and secretive. In the very first days, they stubbornly defended themselves with their fists or snapped at any appeal from an old-timer. Naturally, “one man in the field is not a warrior,” after all, the “grandfathers” also do not have a very healthy psyche, and everyone surrounded such an obstinate recruit with a negative wall, demanding to live strictly according to the rules.
Those who became “victims” were just as nasty. I especially remember one, nicknamed Plum. He was a year older than me, but anyone could tell him anything, and Plum rushed to do it. Until his demobilization, Sliva cleaned toilets and did laundry for other habes. He himself was constantly all dirty. These people need to be treated, not forced to serve.
There were few particularly degrading acts of humiliation. Much in this army was perceived as a joke. For example, after lights out, they raise several “spirits” and order them to crawl under their bunks and look for demobilization. I only had to crawl like that once, I tried not to show offence, I tried to look cheerful. The “grandfathers” soon praised me and let me go to bed, while the others who were slow were shoved even more viciously under the beds.
I also massaged the “grandfathers” and talked about what I had read. I was even surprised that for some reason I turned out to be the most erudite and well-read. Most of my colleagues have not heard of such magazines: “Technology for Youth”, “Science and Life”, “Around the World”. I spoke in my own words about a variety of things. I remember that I was recounting the headings “Anthology of Mysterious Cases”: Bigfoot, UFOs, the search for Atlantis, treasures, telepathy, teleportation, levitation, and so on. I tried to retell some novels, but was not successful; the “old people” quickly got bored with the narration. Basically, they simply forced them to work for themselves and take care of themselves, that is, wash habe, hem collars, clean boots, iron overcoats, and so on. They could also bother you just like that, venting your irritation: “Why are you smiling? Service seems like honey, huh?” And bam with a fist in the stomach. Or vice versa: “Why are you frowning so much? Don’t like serving, bitch?” And bang with your fist.
An important part of a soldier’s life is following traditions and unwritten laws. A lot of conversations were devoted to how to correctly count the days before the order, how to “devote” to “scoops”, from what time you can wear boots with increased heels... I think this is a big topic for research by ethnographers and sociologists, I have not yet come across scientific publications. Orders of the Minister of Defense on demobilization were then published twice a year: March 29 and September 29. Many carried a calendar in their pocket, where each passing day was pierced with a needle. I had one too, but after seven months I got tired of doing it. After lights out, someone loudly announced: “There are so many days left before the order!” When exactly 100 days remained, it was a significant holiday for the entire army. The officers knew this day and intensified the “vigil” in the company, looked for who prepared the drink, and warned them not to cut their hair bald. On this day, the “grandfathers” cut and shaved their heads. Not all of them, of course, but the most hooligan ones. In my call, only two of the company shaved. In general, it must be said that adherence to traditions was desirable, not mandatory. Those who followed tradition were highly respected.
A recruit was considered a “spirit” until the moment his “grandfathers” publicly “accepted” him as a “young man,” that is, until the order of the Minister of Defense on demobilization was issued. On the day of the “spirit’s” order, one of the “grandfathers” lashed him once on the back with a belt. The “young” acquired some rights, for example, he could sit in the presence of older employees, he could argue if he was forced to serve himself. Because of this, in April-May and October-December there was poor service and work: there were no new “spirits” yet, and the “young” did not want to thoroughly clean the toilets and fulfill the whims of the old-timers, that is, they “swelled”. And “demobilizations” appeared - these “grandfathers”, after the order, turned into “demobilizations” with new, expanded rights. The “young ones” were whipped with a belt across the pillow and became “scoopers.” The “scoops” were “quilted” with thread through the pillow and became “grandfathers”. This is such a harmonious hierarchy system. Military rank did not play any role in this hierarchy.
I have never forced the “spirit” to wash his habe or clean his boots. Of course, from my call I could hear condemnation of such “softness,” but I explained it by the fact that I was the secretary of the company’s Komsomol. It used to be that my same age would say to the “spirit”: “Hey, you! Are you completely swollen? And who will make Sukhopar’s bed? Don’t you respect “grandfather”?” - “He didn’t ask me to run the gas!..” - “Couldn’t you have guessed it yourself? He’s a secretary, he can’t ask!” And those who were especially humiliated, now, in the second year of service, “reigned,” humiliating the new conscription with various nagging. This was especially noticeable among representatives of Asia.
Another aspect of life in the company is national relationships. There were about 27 nationalities. The entire service - work and discipline - was based on Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians. The Tajiks, Tuvans, Ossetians, Ingush and other “chocks” could not be entrusted with anything, they could not do anything, did not want to, and even did something to the detriment of them. There were no interethnic conflicts, but there were intercultural ones. A lot could be recalled on this topic.
I'll tell you about " Jewish question" In the summer of 1983, a “scoop” was transferred to our company, who turned out to be a Jew; no one could remember other Jews in our unit. He was cultured, but somehow fidgety, sharp-tongued, and even fixated on his nationality. A few days later it happened that they were lined up to go to dinner, this guy said something in the ranks, and the lieutenant who was on duty in the company at that time reprimanded him: “The talkers are in the ranks!” Are you talking, you little Jew?” To this he said, clearly and separately: “You called me a Jew! I won’t leave this like this!” Everyone froze. I stood two meters from the lieutenant and clearly saw how his face changed. He commanded: “Company, march at a step!” After dinner, everyone talked only about the conflict. The guy assured: “He will ask for forgiveness or he will end up without shoulder straps!” I did not believe that the officer would ask for forgiveness; thousands of times the officers called us all sorts of obscene curses, “morons,” “bitches,” and so on. But then we lined up for the evening roll call. The lieutenant said: “Private... (I forgot his last name), get out of formation! Today I made an unfair remark to a private... I apologize to him and his comrades. Private... get into formation! Sergeant, start the roll call! It didn't look normal. I talked to the guy and learned a lot of different things from him that I had never thought about. About the Jewishness of Marx and Engels, about the Jewish roots of Lenin, about state and everyday anti-Semitism, about the problem of emigration.
Most of all, I was friends with Evgeniy Feryulin since my conscription. A village lad from the Tambov region. The naturally cunning Feryulin helped me out; we often did some work together. One day he had the keys to the company storage room, which was located behind the dining room. There were old mattresses, extra beds, bedside tables and all sorts of rubbish. Zhenya suggested that I sleep there on Saturday afternoon; in the company he would say that I had been called to the headquarters to print. It was April, cold, but I crawled between the mattresses and passed out. I slept well and felt healthier.
One day that same spring, we were called into the demobilization classroom and forced to make a sortie outside the unit’s fence. Beyond the Sheremetyevo-Lobnya highway there was a collective farm field where sunflowers were sown and the seeder was left just opposite our barracks. It was about 50 meters away. It was a sunny May day, the larks were ringing, everyone wanted a spectacle, and the demobilizers wanted seeds. The danger was from the “reds”, who could take it to the “lip”. We took off our belts and caps and took plastic bags. We quickly ran out of the barracks entrance to the concrete fence; there was an unevenness between the slabs, and it was easy to lean on your foot to jump over. They ran to the seeder, there really were seeds there, they put them in bags and then they heard a whistle, it was a danger signal. We saw three red dogs running towards us from the corner along the fence. We rushed to the fence, threw bags of seeds, Feryulin deftly pulled himself up and jumped over, but I couldn’t. Feryulin from the other side shouts: “Climb quickly, climb, I say!” - “Feryulin, give me your hand!” - I shout. Then I looked at the “red flags,” as the cap of the man running in front flashed, clenched in his fist, and incredibly I found myself on the saving side of the fence. We jumped into the company, everyone looking out the window was pleased with the spectacle, clapped us on the shoulders and praised us.
Another good friend of mine is Volodya from Eastern Ukraine, Russian. He worked as a truck crane operator. A good-natured, smiling guy of my calling. We had a common topic of conversation - collecting. Volodya, like me, loved collecting coins, stamps, badges, and read books on history, heraldry, and ethnography. He talked about his collection of samovars, charcoal irons, pre-revolutionary books, and so on. In Moscow, he wanted to collect a collection of cigarette boxes, he even sent the collected cigarette packs home by parcel. Many people smoked, maybe 60 percent. Those who joined the army as novice smokers, two years later were smoking steam locomotives. In the morning it was especially noticeable what a misfortune it was to have this bad habit: many coughed hysterically, in the morning nervousness and bustle they were looking for a moment to take a drag on a cigarette. They drove everyone out to exercise, smokers on the street immediately lit up, not everyone had cigarettes and the poor were persuaded to line up to take one drag. They looked so depressed.
Sometimes someone asked me: “Give me some for cigarettes!” I gave 15-20 kopecks. Sometimes they gave me a ruble or three, or even five, but they always returned it. I hid the money in different places, sewed it into the waistband of my trousers. Many soldiers had money. For some, for example, their parents sent money through civilians with whom the soldiers worked, so that the company would know less. Capa offered me her address so that they could send it for me, but I was shy.
Once I was appointed assessor of the soldiers' court. They didn’t explain the essence of the matter to me, they told me to sit and keep quiet. A guy from another company was tried, who was repeatedly noticed for drunkenness at work, as well as for going AWOL in the city of Lobnya. The “performance” was staged in the club in front of the entire unit. There was a table on the stage, three people sat at it: me, another “assessor” and in the center a judge - a junior sergeant from another company. Everything went as usual, the soldier was transferred somewhere the next day. When a AWOL was discovered in one of the companies, they were ordered to do the check four times for several days: at the divorce, before lunch and dinner, and before lights out. The verification process irritated everyone greatly; you stood there waiting for your last name to shout out: “I am!” And if you miss, the ensign swears: “You’re sleeping, bitch! I’m... dreaming, right?”
I was one of ten people from the company who was sent to the two-year “School of Komsomol Activists”. It was called beautifully, but it was a formality. On Sundays they gathered us at the club for one or two lectures, given by young officers from Moscow. I remember only one lecture: the senior lieutenant spoke about the war in Afghanistan. This was the first broad information about events in this country. After all, the media of that time did not cover the life of the country as fully as they do now, and the war in Afghanistan was simply hushed up. Before demobilization, I, the only one from the company, was given a certificate of graduation from the School of Komsomol Activists.
I kept thinking about going to college, some kind of humanities college, maybe studying to be a journalist? While typing, I decided to try my hand at writing a service note. I came up with the text completely in the spirit of those letters from soldiers that were published from time to time. I wrote a sweetly patriotic note “On the Holy Land” for the Stolin “district” “Naviny Palessya”. And it was published, albeit shortened. After some time, my mother sent me a newspaper page for November 20, 1982. Inspired, I decided to write about Feryulin in his native newspaper. He didn’t know the address of his newspaper, I simply sent the letter to his regional center in the Tambov region. Zhenya was very pleased with the fact that it was written, donated his photograph for such a cause, and when he went on vacation, he brought it to show me this page. These were my first publications in my life.
Our unit had a library, located in the room of the second company (second floor). At first I didn’t work for a long time, but when I found out that it had opened, I immediately went. I really missed reading, I didn’t have enough newspapers, I wanted to go into “binge” reading. The librarian was a “chock” soldier. I told him that before the army I entered the library department, he replied that he was a French teacher. He spoke Russian with a very strong accent, and I didn’t believe that he had higher education. Of course, there was no catalog in the library. Only a table with files of Pravda and Red Star, 4 shelves with books. I went through everything, looking for something Belarusian, but found only the collection “Modern Belarusian Tale.” I took some book and wrote it down in my form with great difficulty - I couldn’t write well in Russian. There was no place to store the book - it would immediately be “snatched” from the bedside table. Like all other book lovers, I had to carry it in my bosom and read it in fits and starts. I didn't use this library anymore.
Many soldiers had poor eyesight, but did not want to wear glasses. Only a few wore glasses all the time, others occasionally wore them for some work. Addressing the bespectacled man “Ochi” could not be taken as offensive; it was called that way only for brevity. I had a minus 4. Before the army, I carried glasses in my pocket and put them on when watching TV or writing. I've already started wearing it all the time. Glasses sometimes fell, and sometimes the glass broke. When the glass broke for the first time, the company commander, to whom I reported, asked: “Can you see me?” - “I see. But I don’t distinguish the shoulder straps,” I answered. The captain brought me a “business trip” and wrote on a piece of paper in detail how to get to pharmacy No. 1. This was my first independent trip outside the unit. I put on my sunglasses and went to buy glasses. It turned out that pharmacy No. 1 is literally next to Red Square, that is, in the very center of Moscow, where there are a lot of patrols. I don’t understand why he sent me to that particular pharmacy? There I bought ready-made glasses and safely, without stopping anywhere, arrived at the unit. From home they sent me a parcel of glasses to spare. It was not easy for the parents to do this, since the father had to go to Pinsk 100 km away to get glasses.
Behind the base there was a forest belt about 500 meters wide, with birch and spruce trees. Many people, especially the village boys, loved to take walks there. It's nice in the spring when the birds are chirping! Some skillfully picked birch trees and drank birch sap. I walked there for 10-15 minutes at any time of the year, as soon as I managed to escape from the base. Sometimes in the summer I managed to sleep there for half an hour. In the summer, it happened that some girls, “sluts,” would come from the direction of the forest and call the soldiers to give themselves up just like that. Some took advantage of this, but most were disdainful, wary of bad diseases. One day I was sitting on the carriage, exposing my back to the sun, sunbathing. I see one of our guys coming from the forest. He comes up to my roof and tells me how he just lost his virginity: “We’re walking with her, and I’m still thinking about how to throw her to the ground. Well, he admitted that he had never fucked before. Then she began to hug me, kiss me and whisper: “Oh, you, my boy! Oh, you, my dear!” She sat down under a tree, took off her jacket, and lifted her skirt. It turns out that she walks around without panties or a bra. Well, I settled down... After “this” she became so disgusting to me! He covered her, even wanted to beat her, but he turned and left.”
On Saturdays we have a scheduled school day. It was necessary to sit in political classes or walk in formation on the parade ground. Of course, no one liked this and everyone was waiting for the order to go to the base. This is what usually happened, at 9 o’clock Zavelevich called from the base and yelled, why is no one working, are the cars standing idle? Everyone's spirits rose and they quickly went to the base to load and unload the wagons. And in the class logs everything was in good shape. If sometimes there were lessons, I saw that many soldiers did not know basic things. For example, many “chocks” could not show on the map the border of the USSR, NATO countries, and CMEA. And some soldiers from Central Asia did not even know the capital of the USSR. I remember one of them, when asked to show the capital, confidently showed Tashkent and everyone laughed for a long time. “Where do you serve? – the political officer asked mockingly. - Oh, in Moscow? So this is the capital!” I also showed myself here with the best side and the political officer instructed me to conduct political information instead.
Therefore, it is quite natural that there was no other candidate for the post of new secretary of the company’s Komsomol bureau. Before that, I helped write the minutes of non-existent Komsomol meetings to the secretary, and he handed over the cases to me. There was little “work” for the Komsomol: collecting contributions - this is the most difficult thing - and once a month coming up with the minutes of the meeting.
One day I almost fell in the eyes of my comrades. Before the November holiday, an all-Union Komsomol subbotnik was held and I was given the task of preparing a speech on the divorce. I spent the entire evening composing, writing and memorizing the speech. In the morning we went out to the divorce, and I saw that they had installed a microphone on the podium. I remembered that I put the piece of paper with the speech in my jacket pocket when the command “at attention” sounded, now you can’t get it under your pea coat - I was standing in the first rank. And then they announced: “The floor is given to Corporal Sukhopar, secretary of the Komsomol of the first company.” I went to the podium and said the first memorized phrase into the microphone: “Comrade Komsomol members! Today, all Soviet youth from Brest to Vladivostok go to construction sites and other sites to support the revolutionary feat with their labor!” Then I got stuck, as my words were heard terribly loudly by the speakers, and in some completely alien voice. I was out of breath from fright, and I completely forgot the whole speech. Standing nearby The unit's political officer quietly suggested some suitable phrase, I repeated it, and then again. Leaving the podium, I thought of whispering to the political officer: “Thank you!” I return to duty, burning with shame. And the boys whisper: “Hammer, Sukhopar!” Then everyone praised that I was the only one who spoke without a piece of paper; everyone else read the speech from a piece of paper. Afterwards I saw the political officer and explained the situation, he himself guessed that it was the first time I spoke into the microphone.
All soldiers were forced to subscribe to at least one newspaper, and the money for it was withdrawn from their account. There was an order as to how many copies of Pravda, Izvestia, Krasnaya Zvezda and other publications were to be issued to the company. I was interested in whether it was possible to subscribe to a newspaper from Belarus, but it was only allowed to subscribe to a small list of Moscow publications. Every day before lunch, the orderly went to headquarters and picked up a large stack of newspapers with letters and brought them to the company. Some people liked to read newspapers, and I remember that Komsomolskaya Pravda was especially popular. I sometimes cut out articles, cartoons, photographs I liked, and sent them in letters home for younger brother. Copies of newspapers with the printed order of the Minister of Defense on transfer to the reserve were especially valued; the clipping was placed in the demobilization album in a place of honor.
I corresponded with home, with some of my classmates. I wrote home once a week. He wrote about nutrition, about movies, about trips to Moscow, and so on. He did not describe the order in the company. My letters were stored in the attic for several years, but one day, during another low spirit and depressive mood, I burned them all. Now I regret it, but then I started having nightmares about the army, and I wanted to forget it. It’s good that I didn’t burn the army photographs then, there were only a few of them. For some reason, I didn’t take many photographs, although there was an opportunity: civilian photographers, “schemers”, often came to the unit, or they could do it in a photo studio in the city.
For the first time, I went on independent dismissal after eight months of service - in July 1982. They were released until 19.00 in the town of Lobnya; they did not have to wear a full dress. I walked around the streets, then bought cheap candy, a loaf of bread and a bottle of Buratino. It was a hot day, I came to a small lake where many people were swimming and sunbathing. I chose a place, ate the delicacy I had stored and fell asleep in the grass.
Then I was laid off in Moscow many times. But usually several people were released on one leave ticket, even ten people under the command of a sergeant. It's quite painful. But thanks to such cultural trips, I visited the Kremlin twice, once to the Lenin Mausoleum, to the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater, to museums, and to concerts. One day such a crowd went to the Vagankovskoe cemetery to visit the grave of Vladmir Vysotsky. There are a lot of people in the cemetery; I did not suspect that the cemetery could be a place of pilgrimage. Vysotsky's grave is completely covered with flowers. A guy stood nearby, holding a tape recorder in his hands, people crowded around him and listened to Vysotsky’s hoarse voice. We walked around there, reading the inscriptions on the monuments. We also came across the grave of Sergei Yesenin. There, some elderly man recited Yesenin's poems by heart. At first I decided that he was a tour guide, but I noticed that some listeners were leaving while others were coming, apparently, he was just an admirer of the poet’s work.
Sometimes 20-30 people from the company were sent to the Olimpiysky sports complex, which was then new after the 1980 Olympics and was considered very modern. Various concerts were held there and we were placed in front of the audience stands to maintain order. First, a man in civilian clothes gave instructions, and after the concert we had to collect various garbage from the stands. So, at one of the concerts I saw Alla Pugacheva. She performed, it seems, five songs at the very end, and it was because of her that people came to the concert. Many simply went crazy when she appeared, began jumping and screaming: “Alla! Allah! Allah!” Pugacheva was wearing a wide white floor-length dress, so transparent that her underwear was clearly visible. She approached the stands, I, unfortunately, was not standing in the center, I saw Pugacheva 10-15 meters away. I also remember the buffet at the Olimpiyskiy, where for the first time in my life I tried a sandwich with red caviar - I didn’t like it, I didn’t even finish it, it seems.
The company sergeant major is the supply manager, he is responsible for all the company’s property and is financially responsible, so there are many opportunities to make money. During my service, 7 foremen changed in the company. All of them did not give us everything we were supposed to, soldiers’ belongings disappeared. Anecdotes about the theft of warrant officers are not an exaggeration at all. Each of the warrant officers and officers punished the guilty soldiers by demanding that they write an application to withdraw money from their account to buy sheets, pillowcases, and towels, which the soldier allegedly rendered unusable. There is no such ruble punishment in the charter, but it was widely used.
Once I myself helped the foreman steal the door to the sewing room (the room where collars are hemmed). It was on a spring Sunday. At 10 a.m., when most of the soldiers had scattered to the corners, he called me and Feryulin, ordered the door to be removed from its hinges and said: “Look out the window from the washbasin (the room near the toilet, where the sinks are for washing), as soon as the truck approaches, grab the door and carry it to the fence, throw it over it and run away!” We sat on the windowsill, and half an hour later a truck came and stopped in front of our window. We carried the door from the third floor, quickly carried it outside the building and threw it over the fence, where two men grabbed the door. When we got up to the company and looked out the window, the car was no longer there. Only a week later the company commander noticed that there was no door, he began to yell and swear, but no one remembered anything. And another foreman stole the ladder from me. Here is how it was. On the gate of Zavelevich's base, two party slogans were nailed, written in oil paint on tin. I was given the task of updating the inscriptions. I took a brand new aluminum ladder from a warehouse where there were about three or four dozen of them, took it to the gate and stood up with a brush and a can of white paint, but then my brush fell into the sand. I went down and ran to the headquarters, which is 20 meters away, to wash my brush under the tap, came back out, and there were no stairs! I went back and forth, no one saw anything. An ensign is walking here, I ask him if he saw, if anyone was carrying a ladder. He didn't see anything! I went and told the storekeeper (all storekeepers are civilians), he said, write a statement so that they will take money from you for the ladder, he named its price (25 rubles, it seems). And in the evening one “spirit” came up to me and said that the ladder was in the company, it was the foreman who ordered it to be stolen. I immediately entered the storeroom, there was my ladder there! I say to the sergeant major: “Well, comrade warrant officer! I didn’t expect you to take it from a soldier!” He began to say: “What, do you feel sorry for the money? Would you like to give 25 rubles for your own company? I took the ladder for the whole company, not for myself!” To this I said: “I don’t mind the money for the company, they could have warned me, but I’m offended that you deceived me, I’ll have to report to the commander!” Well, he began to reassure me that tomorrow the “spirits” would take the ladder back to the warehouse. The next day they actually returned the stairs, and I updated that slogan.
Once I saw how they stole meat from the canteen warehouse. It was winter, in the evening I went out into the street alone, walked through the town, and went into the dining room near the bathhouse. Suddenly the door of one warehouse opens, a soldier runs out with a whole carcass (judging by the size, it was lamb) on his shoulder and runs up to the fence, throws it over the fence and runs back into the warehouse. I immediately turned back, but heard a car start up behind the fence and drive away.
Theft in the army is rampant. Nothing can be left anywhere. Everything disappeared: soap, toothbrushes and paste, envelopes, ballpoint pens, foot wraps... And at the most unexpected moment. Once I came home from work, threw my jacket on the bed and went to wash myself. I return, and the jacket has been replaced with a worn one, and everything from the pockets has been shaken out onto the blanket. I asked around, but, of course, no one saw anything. I had to wear the jacket I left behind. My boots were also changed at night. I even had to buy new boots from my colleagues for 10 rubles, otherwise they left me in complete rags. There were such “getters” in the company that they could sell whatever you wanted, just pay. I usually carried a razor in my pocket - they would immediately pull it out of the nightstand. At the headquarters I had a safe for papers, to which only I had the keys; I could hide my small things there. But a machine and a toothbrush are needed every day in the company!
The privileged soldier could be easily recognized by the chain hanging from his right trouser pocket. Staff officers and drivers, that is, those who had access to premises closed to the majority, held the keys on this chain. I also wore this chain. At one end there was a ring with the keys to the machine office and the safe, also a seal the size of a three-kopeck coin, and at the other there was a clip used to secure curtains on the windows. With this clip, the keys cling to the belt of your trousers so as not to be lost. Some soldiers had fake keys to enhance their image; the “chocks” usually “suffered” from such props.
Many had sores and long-healing wounds. The climate of the Moscow region was blamed for this, but I think it was due to mental state weakened the body's immunity. We need at least more vitamins! There was suppuration of any scratch. For example, you hem a collar, prick your finger with a needle, this place will definitely rot for two weeks. Because of needle pricks, my fingers often festered and abscessed. Others did too, but many more received scratches and abrasions at work that also did not heal. My mother sent me some potassium permanganate in an envelope. There was an electric kettle in the machine office; I heated up some water, poured it into a half-liter jar and steamed it with potassium permanganate in my hands. I had to do this regularly throughout my service, only after the army I forgot what abscesses were.
It’s better not to get sick in the army. This is complete torture, because no matter what temperature you have to stand in line at the command to “form up”: to the dining room, for verification, and so on. In addition, those remaining in the barracks are forced to wash the floors, etc. Soon after quarantine, I caught a cold and felt that my temperature had risen. During the divorce, I reported to the platoon commander according to the regulations, who sent me to the company premises. From 9 o'clock a paramedic is received at the first aid station, which is located in the headquarters building. About 10 people from different companies gathered there. The ensign came and listened to everyone with a stethoscope. He gave me about 8 different tablets and watched me swallow them. He told me to come back tomorrow for the pills and sent me to work. I was shaking all over, but somehow the day passed. I don’t remember if I’ve ever gone to the medical center for something as trivial as a cold.
There have been injuries and accidents at work. On a wonderful summer Sunday, Feryulin and I “raftered,” that is, we hooked and unhooked reinforced concrete slabs under a gantry crane and moved them to another place on the site. The day was very hot, we relaxed and lost our caution. A spacer strip had to be placed on each slab. Feryulin hesitated and thrust the lath in when the slab was almost lowered; he did not have time to pull his hand away. He yells: “Pick it up!!!” The crane operator lifted the slab, and Feryulin stood confused with his right hand in a mitten, then carefully removed it, and there was a lot of blood there. I felt bad, but the crane operator came running, also scared, they found a bandage in the first aid kit, somehow bandaged it, and Feryulin went to the unit to see the paramedic. It turned out to be a fracture thumb. In the evening I returned from the hospital with a cast. Thank God, everything healed, the finger was functioning normally.
The climate in the Moscow region was characterized by very snowy winters. In mid-November, snow fell there and remained until the end of March. I remember I went for demobilization on November 15, and in the morning there were such snow drifts that, getting to the dining room, I scooped up snow with my boot boots. And I arrived in David-Gorodok - no snow, only mud and puddles. In winter they stood very coldy. One day it was minus 33. That very night I was on duty as a guard at the base. One of the soldiers worked as a permanent watchman, but on some days he was supposed to have a day off, then someone else was appointed. They appointed me, after dinner I climbed over the fence and went to the base. Everything was frozen with frost, numerous stars sparkled, the snow sparkled. It was my first time guarding the base, it was in the first months of my service, I was afraid of oversleeping. The ensign said: “If they break into the warehouse, you’ll go to court!” And then I’ll sit in the trailer, throw wood chips in the stove, and then I’ll go out onto the territory. And then I found out that it was minus 33 at night, schools that day, they say, were not open in Moscow. In frosts greater than 15 degrees, we were given felt boots, which are not given to everyone personally, but the foreman throws them out of the storage room in a heap to everyone at once. I had to choose the right ones for myself, but they were worn, worn out, cut off.
Now I mentioned that I climbed over the fence. In the first months of service, discipline in the town was weak; it was officially possible to pass through the checkpoint with passes, but the warrant officers did not bother issuing a pass, but sent them to climb illegally through the fence, where a meter of the barbed wire visor had been broken off. Then they fixed everything there and began to set up a guard of “red men.” This is a platoon of soldiers of the internal troops, which was located in the barracks on the first floor of the headquarters building. Based on the color of their shoulder straps, they were called “red dogs” and were strongly disliked. Their entire service consisted of drills on the parade ground, duty at the lip and at the checkpoint. When passing through a checkpoint, you could always get mocked by these fighters: “Where are you going? Why is the pea coat dirty? Attention! Surname! Are you completely swollen, military builder?!” When the formation was returning from the base, I stood in front of the gate and an ordinary “red soldier” walked around our formation, looking closely to see if there were any drunks. Our officers, who were leading the line, silently waited for the end of the inspection until the soldier gave the command: “Open the gate!” Then they came up with the idea of ​​issuing “route sheets” to some soldiers: drivers, forwarders, so that they could pass through the checkpoint at any time. I also had such a “sheet”, which stated: “It is allowed to follow the route military unit 52564 - military unit 44215 around the clock.”
The company's daily routine was as follows. Get up at 5.45. Physical exercise on the street (we’ll just go out, wave our hands in the corner of the parade ground and back). Washing. Breakfast. Formation on the parade ground for divorce at 7.00. Then: “Battalion! The first platoon of the first company straight ahead, the rest to the right! Step by step!” They went to Zavelevich’s base, and the rest left for their areas of work. Lunch was at 13.00 in the town canteen. Then we went back to the base. At 18.00, according to the schedule, they were supposed to leave for the company, but usually they arrived right before dinner at 19.00, and even after dinner they went to the base to “give” carriages. After dinner there was also the so-called evening walk, when they walked in formation along the parade ground and shouted a song. At 21.00 it is obligatory for everyone to watch the TV program “Time”. Then check-in and lights out at 21.45. Often the end of the day was delayed due to the slowness and fuss. 15 minutes after lights out, you were allowed to get up and do something: wash, hem, and so on. Lighting from blue bulbs was turned on in the sleeping area at night. This light made it very difficult for me to sleep.
On Sunday, instead of exercising, we went out with blankets and shook them out. Even on Sunday, obligatory viewing of the television program “Serving the Soviet Union!” at 10.00. A television, bought with money from soldiers from previous terms of service, stood in the company between the rows of beds - on takeoff. To watch, everyone took stools and sat down to watch. There have always been problems here. For example, someone began to sew on a collar, someone began to shave, another began to wash, but the company duty officer was obliged to force everyone to sit in front of the TV. The duty officer went to check on the companies how the daily routine was being carried out. There was no antenna on the TV, just a half-meter aluminum wire sticking out. The fact is that we were located relatively close to the Ostankino TV tower; it was clearly visible from the window of the barracks in the direction of the southeast. During my service, they chipped in a ruble and bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I remember a frequently heard song: “Hold me, little straw, hold me!..”
Movies were shown to us at the club on Saturday and Sunday. They played different films: Soviet, foreign, but very old. We went to the movies in formation after dinner, right from the dining room, that is, whether you want it or not, we took everyone. There were no posters. However, if the movie is not interesting, you could just take a nap. Most often I fell asleep immediately. About once or twice a month a trip to the cinema in Lobnya was organized. On Sunday afternoon, the warrant officer or lieutenant on duty gathered 20-25 people and traveled by city bus along the Sheremetyevo-Lobnya highway. We went there without changing into paradise, in a daily hubbe, so the main condition for the trip was a clean hubbe. We watched a movie and returned for dinner. I've been to the Lobnensky cinema 5-6 times.
The evening walk was carried out formally; we had no lead singers or anyone willing to sing. Yelled widely famous song: “Only two, only two winters, only two, only two springs...” When Bolkhovitin was on duty in the company, he, as a Ukrainian, was pleased to hear: “Spread the horses, boys, lie down, and I’m going to the green garden , dig a little bit of grass in the garden!” And then they began to sing a new popular song by Raymond Pauls: “Yellow leaves are circling over the city...” Not in combat, but they adapted. The words “you can’t hide from autumn, you can’t hide” reminded us of the inevitability of autumn demobilization.
There were conflicts in the ranks with one of the commanders. For example, he pushed people too hard to build or cursed too much when raising them. Then everyone hit the sole of their boot on the count of “four”: “One!” Two! Three! FOUR!". It was called a "paravoz". The commander was fuming, cursing, turning his formation to pacify the riot.
This is how they washed their clothes. First, wet your jacket and trousers under the tap (only cold water) in the washroom. Spread it on the tiled floor and thoroughly soap this side. Then, with a shoe brush (before that, the brush must be washed with laundry soap), everything must be wiped well. Then turn the layer over and soap and wipe again. Then wipe the cuffs of the jacket separately. Now rinse well under the tap. Sometimes, secretly from the base storekeepers, it was possible to open a barrel of solvent, push the habe into the hole, dangle it with a stick and pull it out - all the dirt came off, the fabric bleached. I only washed my habe like this once or twice.
Drying in winter was easy - they hung it in a “dryer”, where the temperature was high, everything dried in three hours. In the summer, when the heating didn’t work, and especially in the off-season, when there was a lot of dampness in the air, it took days, even two days, to dry. There was a problem finding some kind of replacement hub for this day. The sergeant-major had such replacements, but they were all dirty and torn, not the right size, but for my service at headquarters I had to look neat. It used to be that you put the habe you washed in the evening on yourself and walked around until lights out, and then went to bed in it - everything would be dry in the morning. Of course, it’s harmful to health, I only dried it on myself twice, when I urgently needed to be in a clean hub at headquarters, but I couldn’t wait a day.
In addition to the habe, we were also given a weseo uniform - military construction uniforms. These are wide trousers with fabric sewn onto the chest and at the waistbands, extremely uncomfortable. Jacket with plastic green buttons, pockets, quite practical. But for some reason the vehicle quickly disappeared, was torn, and wore out. They changed into it in the trailer or in the warehouse, and they were required to come to the company in a habe. I didn’t have any veseo, it disappeared immediately. To work on the ramp, I wore something I found in the trailer.
There was a bathhouse every Saturday before dinner. This is a brick building in the corner of the town. There was a cold locker room with benches along the walls with hooks nailed to them. In the washroom there are three rows of shower nets, no basins. We had to wash in cramped conditions, three at a time in one shower. Some took the moment to wash the habe in hot water. Everyone’s time was strictly allocated: if you were late to wash with your company, then no one would let you into the bathhouse. The sergeant-major immediately gave us clean foot wraps, a T-shirt and shorts, and in winter - long johns. And in the company they changed our sheets - we slept between two sheets - and pillowcases. The place to sleep often changed, there was nothing permanent: some quit, others arrived, others wanted to stay next to their fellow countryman. But I slept on the second tier all the time, like half of the old-timers - it seemed that the air was cleaner there. Before going to the bathhouse, everyone gave their wallets and watches to the company duty officer, the orderly. The orderlies walked around with bulging pockets, wearing ten watches on their wrists.
I got my watch six months later. They were easy to buy for a few rubles from colleagues. I bought them for three rubles, they turned out to be practical, although they were very used - they never broke.
I had to get my hair cut often. The boys cut each other's hair, I didn't even try to cut anyone's hair - I can't stand hair, especially someone else's! I was surprised that some people liked to cut their hair and offered to do it themselves. The scissors were kept in the storeroom. It was necessary to bring a stool to the sewing room, take off clothes up to the waist and prepare your own comb. After the haircut they went to wash with cold water.
We practically never had such a punishment as “three outfits out of turn.” Although these words were sometimes uttered by officers, no one remembered them or wrote them down. Usually random people were appointed as duty officers and orderlies after leaving the dining room from lunch. That is, those who are not very busy at the base and who can be painlessly distracted from work. Gantry crane operators did not serve as orderlies at all. For example, an ensign asked me: “Sukhopar, do you have urgent work?” Sometimes I said that there was, and sometimes that there was no, then I went as an orderly or on duty. There were two orderlies from the rank and file, the duty officer from the corporals or sergeants. I was awarded the badge of a corporal on Builder's Day on August 5, 1982. And soon after that he was appointed squad commander. It was necessary for 11 people of different callings to know well where everyone went and so on. I was not interested in this; I did not know how to get rid of such responsibilities. The company commander scolded me several times, and then removed me from my post and appointed another corporal. Things went well for him. He changed dramatically, tightened up. Even the habe “got a new one”, began to become active, only his voice could be heard when cleaning the barracks or building. The commanders noticed and on November 7 awarded him the rank junior sergeant. A whole platoon was sent to the kitchen to peel potatoes according to a schedule, about once every three weeks. We went there after dinner, but not immediately, but after the second shift had eaten, which was after 21:00. The knives in the kitchen were homemade, dull, and they peeled several bags of potatoes, a bag of carrots and a bag of onions. We returned at one o'clock in the morning.
Those assigned to the outfit after lunch went to the company to get ready: to stroke the habe, shave, and maybe sleep for an hour and a half. At 17.00 we had to stand on the parade ground along with the orderlies, where the divorce was taking place. Then they came “to the barracks” and took duty: they signed the duty book. The old outfit went to rest, and the new orderly became “on the bedside table.” This is a small platform 20 cm high in front of the entrance from the stairs to the company. Under any circumstances, one of the orderlies always had to be there around the clock; it was impossible to leave the bedside table. One of the harmful officers could quietly open the door from the stairs and look in to see if the orderly was there?
We had a weapons room in our company; there were no other such rooms in our unit. It contained 10 Kalashnikov assault rifles, two carbines, thirty training cartridges, and two training grenades. Sometimes they came from other companies to take machine guns for training in assembly and disassembly. I, like all my colleagues, never had a chance to shoot. The duty officer was required to count the weapons and sign in a separate journal. Once I was on duty, and while I was standing at the checkpoint (it was about 10-15 minutes), someone from another company visited the company and took two machine guns. I came and, without counting, automatically wrote in the journal: “Took 10 AK.” Bolkhovitin noticed this and shouted: “Come on, open the armory!” I opened it (the keys to the room and the metal cabinet were always with the company duty officer) and I saw that there were only 8 AKs. Bolkhovitin yelled some more, but left without consequences.
The duty officer had the difficult responsibility of feeding the company. To do this, you had to come to the dining room an hour before meals and start receiving bread, butter, and so on from the distribution window. The orderly carried everything to the tables. About three hundred people ate in the canteen at the same time, that is, different companies, different units, and in general the soldiers of the town ate in two shifts. We were on the first shift. There was always a danger that the soldiers serving the canteen would not supply something; we had to carefully count the rations of butter, white bread, and eggs. And another danger: theft of other people on duty already from their desks. Therefore, we did not take our eyes off the resulting bowls. If possible, they took several people with them to guard the food on the tables. After all, if someone doesn’t have enough butter or a boiled egg, they can beat them. Everything went well for me while on duty, the main thing was not to be lazy.
Once, when I was on duty in the company, Bolkhovitin said to me: “Give me a stool here.” I turned to bring it, and the captain yelled: “Where are you going?!” - “Behind the stool.” - "Stand!!! Are you a corporal or what?! Where is your orderly?! Why didn’t you give him the order?!”
There were also duties at the headquarters of military unit 52564. A sergeant and a private were assigned there. When “my” sergeant was on duty, he always took me as “the most intelligent one,” this is how he explained it. This was for me a break from the company team for the whole day. As part of my work, I had to wipe the floor in the headquarters corridor with a rag in the evening. True, we had to sleep on the floor - the sergeant slept on the couch. I sat in the duty room and picked up the phones if they called us. There were two apparatus: city Moscow and internal. By the way, the company only had an internal telephone, which connected all the companies in the town and the Zavelevich base and other nearby enterprises. Telephone messages were received via the landline telephone, which had to be recorded in a special notebook. That's all. I went to the canteen with the company, and the sergeant went separately. Since he did not return from breakfast for a long time, the officers were already on their way from the divorce. I looked through the crack, opening the door slightly. I see the deputy major coming from the rear. I stood opposite the door and when the door opened, I blurted out: “Comrade Major! In a while... Ah!..” - then I realized that it was not the major who appeared at the door, but the unit commander. - Sorry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel! During my duty at headquarters...” - and so on. The commander grimaced as if he had a toothache. Such a stupid oversight could only be expected from some “chock”, and not from an experienced staff officer.
And I remember such a case with the major. Sometimes officers asked for help for themselves personally, for example, when renovating an apartment or arranging a summer house. Deputy in the rear he asked me to help erect a monument, told me to take someone from the company with me, I immediately named Feryulin. On the Saturday after the divorce, we went to the garages, got into a covered truck and drove to the mechanical plant, which is next to the base. The major was waiting there. We loaded a welded metal monument with a fence into the truck. From the attached sign we learned that the major’s twelve-year-old daughter died six months ago. We drove along different roads Moscow region for an hour and a half. Zhenya and I squatted at the tailgate and looked around. It was the end of May, everything was bright green, the area with gentle hills was very picturesque. Finally we arrived at a rural cemetery near the forest. The major showed a place 100 meters away where to dig the turf, and he and the driver took care of the monument. We dug up some turf and brought it up by car and lined the area around the grave. Then we had lunch, the major treated us to store-bought cutlets and other food. But I remember a bunch of radishes. This was the only radish I ate during my two years in the army, it reminded me so much of my native David-Gorodok!
I was already a “grandfather” when some commission unexpectedly came to the unit. Me and one Russian of my conscription were urgently called from the base to the company to replace the “chock” orderlies. We ran to straighten all the beds and level the stools. The sergeant-major fussed about, laying out soap on the bedside tables. I stood on the nightstand, then the door opened and about five senior officers came in. The company commander reported in his thunderous voice. (By the way, the voice of the famous General Lebed very much reminded me of our company commander.) And one major comes up to me and immediately asks: “Are there lice?” - “Sorry, I didn’t understand, Comrade Major!” – I was confused. “I ask, are there lice?” - “I don’t know what it is, I’ve never seen it!” – I said honestly. Then everyone went to the sleeping area and began to tear the blankets off the beds, inspect the cleanliness of the sheets and pillowcases, and look into the bedside tables. We went to look in the toilet and other rooms, it looked like there was a raid, and we left. We later corrected everything, I don’t know if the commanders were satisfied with the check. But we really didn’t have any insects. There were cockroaches only in the dining room and both headquarters.
On November 7, 1982, I was ordered to take leave for 10 days. I was waiting for a vacation ticket any day now; all the others encouraged by this order had already returned home from their trip. But the company commander Bolkhovitin barked: “Secretary! Until you restore order in the company, you won’t go anywhere!” By the New Year, I was completely exhausted with the anticipation of vacation, and one day in response to Dubrovsky’s routine question “how are you?” replied: “It’s bad. The captain won’t let you go on vacation!” Dubrovsky said to come to him tomorrow. The next day, after the divorce, I stayed in the company and came to headquarters. Dubrovsky saw me, called me into his office and said: “Are there fur gloves in Belarus?” I said there should be. He asked me to bring leather gloves with fur and told me to go put on my paradka. I came to the company, and the foreman did not give a parade without Bolkhovitin’s order. I waited until lunch for the captain to appear; he turned green with anger that I had asked Dubrovsky for leave over his head. Still, they gave me a parade shirt, I changed clothes and ran to headquarters. It was necessary to get ready quickly in order to get to the Belorussky station in time for the departure of the train to Brest.
Everyone has had the train schedule home in their pocket since quarantine. I was issued a vacation ticket for 12 days, including travel. I ran from the metro to the station 10 minutes before departure. I didn’t know where the military ticket office was to buy a ticket. By the way, construction battalion members had to buy a ticket with their own money if they were going on vacation; Vacation time, like sick time, was not paid. There’s a patrol coming, I immediately have the thought: they’ll pick on me, and after the “lip” no one else will let me in. Therefore, I was the first to approach the officer and introduce myself: “Corporal Sukhopar! I’m going on vacation, the train is in ten minutes, but I can’t find the ticket office.” He showed me the ticket office, I saluted: “Can I go?” - and ran. I caught my train. Early in the morning, the radio in the Belarusian language turned on in the carriage. It was such a pleasure to hear Belarusian language! Arrived in David-Gorodok at 12 at night on January 5, 1983.
I returned back, carrying gloves with fur for Dubrovsky and two dried pikes, offered by my father when I explained his role in the vacation situation at home. I arrived in Chashnikovo in the evening. You cannot bring this package into the company - it will be stolen 100 percent! So I went to the base, hid it between the boxes, and the next day I brought the package, wrapped in newspaper and tied with twine, to headquarters. I ask the duty officer if Dubrovsky is alone in the office. He said he was alone. I come in, and there are two more officers sitting there. I said: “Comrade Major! I brought the package you were talking about!” “Okay, free,” the major waved his hand. I put the bag on the chair under the table and left. This was my first time in my life when I gave a bribe. Then the major borrowed money from me three more times “before payday”, 5 or 10 rubles, of course, never returned. They shout in the company: “Sukhopara to the chief of staff!” I come, and Dubrovsky asks how life is, how long have you been on leave: “Well, you’ll go on Sunday! Do you have any money? - “There is a little, Comrade Major!” - “Could you lend me a fiver until I get paid?” - “Of course, Comrade Major!”
Brezhnev died on November 10, 1982. In the morning, no one knew anything yet, but all our officers and warrant officers arrived for the divorce. Everyone was preoccupied with something. Unexpectedly, additional orderlies were appointed. At work I was sitting at my typewriter, and at 8 o’clock I suddenly heard a loud woman crying in the corridor. I looked out, it turned out that the women from the accounting department were crying, one was simply sobbing, the rest of the workers were all somehow alarmed. It turned out that Brezhnev’s death had just been broadcast on the radio. Capa arrived very alarmed. They didn’t do any work, but only fearfully discussed whether the war would start soon. It was strange for me to hear all this, the soldiers did not believe in the war, they said: “Lyonya gave the oak!” Then everything calmed down in the company, except for the problem of demobilization - demobilization was suspended, it seems, for 10 days. Soon, some strange things began to happen in Moscow due to the policies of Andropov, the new head of the USSR. They began to say that on the streets, in cinemas, in shops, people were being asked for documents and explanations during the day why they were not at work.
At the end of September 1983, I decided to get a medical certificate to enter the institute. I agreed with the political officer that he would let me go to Lobnya for half a day at the city clinic. The weather was warm, so I rode in one hub. At the clinic reception desk I explained the situation, they gave me a form and directed me to see the doctors. I went into offices without a queue, people let me through, after all, they just quickly wrote “healthy” to me. Only the ophthalmologist asked about my vision and wrote down “minus 4” from my words. I passed fluorography and received a stamp on the certificate form. But the therapist had a hitch. Elderly woman I wanted to listen to my heart. And she exclaimed: “Yes, you have pneumonia!” How are you walking?! I can’t sign the certificate!” I didn’t believe it: “It can’t be! I don’t cough...” But he promised to immediately contact a paramedic at the unit. The doctor thought, looked out the window and signed the certificate.
I drove back to the unit, happy that everything was going well. And I decided not to go to the medical unit until I started coughing, maybe the doctor made a mistake, it’s a shame to “mow.” The next day I had a high fever and a severe cough. I came to the medical unit, the paramedic listened to me and told me to go to the company, put on a paradise, and he would take me to the hospital. There were about five sick people from different companies. We waited until a business trip was issued for everyone, then we went by city bus to Moscow, and then by metro and again by bus. Now I don’t remember in which area of ​​Moscow, but I remember well that on one side there was a swamp overgrown with bushes, and on the other there was a river with barges and tugboats behind a lattice fence; the river and tugboats vividly reminded me of my native Goryn. On other sides of the hospital territory there were shabby old three-story residential buildings.
At the hospital we were examined by doctors and assigned to different departments. I was sent to therapy. I could barely stand on my feet because of high temperature. They put me in a room, took my uniform and gave me all the sick leave. I liked the robe, I thought I should make the same one in civilian life: from soft, thick fabric like plaid. A room with four beds. The soldiers' and officers' sections were located at opposite ends of a long corridor in a two-story old building. In the middle of the corridor were doctors' offices. The dining room was also in the middle, but the tables were different. The officers' tables were covered with beautiful oilcloth, and stainless steel cutlery was provided. Their menu is enhanced, for example, there is twice as much butter as was given to the soldiers. The officers left the dishes and left, and the soldiers had to take them to the sink.
The restroom also had separate sinks and stalls for officers. There was warm, even hot water and it was possible to have a good shave. I also remember from the life of the hospital the soap they gave there - “Egg”. I liked this smell and yellow color so much that after the army I only used “Egg”. Unfortunately, this soap became scarce and then disappeared from the shelves altogether.
The hospital was staffed by convalescing soldiers. All premises were washed by soldiers, however, also according to the customs of “hazing”. The toilets were cleaned only by “spirits”, the floors in the wards and corridors were cleaned by “young people”, in the doctors’ offices – by “ladles”. I was already a “grandfather” and even a “demob,” so I didn’t wash the floors, but I had to be on duty in the dining room - arranging plates, cleaning up after the officers - a couple of times. I stayed there for a month, the first week I just lay there, and then I began to walk, they also began to attract me to various jobs, which were managed by the sister-hostess. In the morning I drove out to sweep the paths from yellow leaves. Several times we were sent to help carry boxes of medicines in warehouses. These were several large warehouses separate from the hospital; they were approached along the street. There, under the command of an ensign, some boxes with numbers were carried from place to place.
I had to unload a car with wooden barrels in which pickles were brought. Heavy barrels were rolled off the truck along two planks and rolled into the basement of the hospital canteen. One barrel fell off the boards and the lid flew off. But no one was embarrassed by the spilled cucumbers and spilled brine. We collected the cucumbers back and brought the lighter barrel into the basement. After that, for two years I couldn’t eat cucumbers in the public canteen; it seemed like there was sand on them.
There was a library in the hospital, I took thick books and read avidly. There I read several volumes from the collected works of Dostoevsky, and several more volumes by Herbert Wells, who, as it turned out, wrote not only “The Time Machine”. The club often showed movies. I remember the film “Please blame Klava K for my death.” There was a TV in our department, but it stood in the corridor at the nurse’s station; 10-15 people could watch it; there was no room for more. At the same time, the officers sat on chairs, and the soldiers were supposed to stand behind. I remember that many people watched the program “Time” and football. We were treated not only for the first diagnosis, it was possible to make an appointment with various specialists. I made an appointment with a dentist and an ophthalmologist. The dentist gave me a filling, and the optometrist wrote out a prescription for glasses. Finally, I was scheduled for a “commission,” that is, an appointment with the head physician. There was a queue, they called according to the list. In line, all the soldiers talked about how much the diagnosis could affect demobilization; I was told that those who had pneumonia are always released into the first batch. Three elderly doctors and two nurses were sitting in the office: “Any questions?” And I asked: “I’m going to enter the preparatory department of the institute, and admission there is until November 10th. Is it possible to quit early?” "No! - the chief answered me. “Free!” They immediately took me to change into my uniform and waited for two hours for the paramedic from my unit to arrive. He took three of us from the hospital and we arrived at our “home” unit. How disgusting, wretched, gloomy everything here seemed to me! I came to the dining room, and there were bent aluminum bowls and no forks at all. After a month in the hospital, I got used to good things: plates, forks, hot water... But all this was nonsense, because I had two weeks to serve.
Then it was supposed to go home with a “diplomat”. I had the “diplomat” almost ready since the summer; all that was left was to strengthen the hinges and locks. But they had to be “ordered” for 5 rubles. After the hospital I got lazy, I didn’t want to buy anything unnecessary, so I made latches from large clothing snaps. And I unscrewed the hinges from some box in the warehouse. I made the entire diplomat myself, like most of the demobilization of the base. I found a piece of thick plywood, sawed out the parts for the walls, found thin plywood and knocked together a box, then sawed it lengthwise. Dermantin for tight fitting was stolen from the warehouse, where it was in large rolls. We also had to “get” a piece of 5mm foam rubber to make the lid of the “diplomat” look plump, and glue. I hid everything I did under the shelves in warehouse No. 4.
I didn’t prepare anything special for clothes, I just bought suspenders, which was then considered mandatory for a young man. And other colleagues, for example, altered the shoulder straps - polyethylene had to be inserted into them for rigidity. “Chocks” were especially “perverted”: they found chevrons, buttonholes, shoulder straps of other troops (paratroopers, tank crews, artillerymen) in order to hide their non-prestigious construction battalion service in their homeland. They made themselves a “demobilization” uniform, hid it at the base, and when they left the unit, they quickly ran to the base, changed clothes and went home as brave “warriors.” A week before demobilization, I once again checked my uniform in the storeroom to see if it had been stolen, but it turned out that my trousers had been replaced. It’s good that they hung new ones for me, but they are too big for me. I had to sit with a needle and stitch them on my hips, but 15 years later I found them at home, ripped them open and they turned out to be just the right size.
“Demobilization” was not supposed to work, but I had to type at headquarters. In the hospital I really missed the typewriter, even my fingers moved as if they were touching the keys. It is curious that the expectation of imminent demobilization was tolerated in different ways: some “demobilization” became somewhat sluggish and lethargic, others became very energetic, they were the first to get into formation, they carried boxes at work, they were nervous. We talked about “chords”. This is such a job or task, very hard, difficult, but those who did it successfully by hook or by crook could be fired from one of the nearby parties. For example, they were tasked with painting a room or a fence, laying linoleum, or repairing a “slumped” car, and they had to use ingenuity. One day, two “demobes” were tasked with clearing the area near Zavelevich’s base from scrap metal. They went AWOL to the collective farm, found a bulldozer driver there, and paid him. He arrived, in half a day he dug a trench and shoved all the scrap metal there and buried it. Everyone was happy.
The best of the best went to the incentive party on November 7 - one from the company. They were congratulated on the parade ground in front of the unit formation, presented with certificates, and an orchestra played. None of the demobilized soldiers knew who would be assigned to which party. I was almost sure that I deserved to be in the first place. The mood during these few days was somewhat suspended and distracted. They shuddered at every phone call near the orderly - they could have been called to headquarters for registration. Finally, someone brought a list, and they took away our military IDs. I joined the first batch on November 15, there were five of us from the company. There was no solemn farewell to friends, everyone went to work on a daily basis, and we remained in the company, dressed in parade clothes, and waited for a call to headquarters. At the headquarters we were given money in envelopes that we had earned in two years (I got a little more than 500 rubles), a travel document to Goryn station with a transfer in Baranovichi. At 5 p.m., two demobilizations departed from the Belorussky station: I was traveling with my fellow countryman Yura in a reserved seat carriage. Yura bought a bottle of vodka and a kilo of boiled sausage at the station, offered to drink it, I refused, then he didn’t drink either.
In the “diplomat” I was carrying bundles of received letters, a Swedish detective story “Police, Police, Mashed Potatoes” and “English Language Self-Teacher”, and also a stone with a split shell inside. I picked up this fist-sized stone on the railroad when I was leaving the base for a walk.
I arrived in David-Haradok at about 12 o'clock at night on November 16th. The next day I went to the Stolin military registration and enlistment office to register. There was a line under the window. When I pushed my way to the window and submitted the documents, I heard a question about what military specialty I should be enrolled in. I said: “What a specialty! I served in a construction battalion!” - “So he’s a mason!” - “No, we didn’t build it. I typed at headquarters for two years!” - “Well, then I’ll write down “clerk of office work”!”
About six months later, I wrote letters to my company, Kapitalina Yakovlevna, Feryulin and Volodya the collector, I wanted to boast about entering the institute. But they didn’t answer me. I never heard from my co-workers again.

These are photographs from a Soviet photo album of the 80s of the USSR Armed Forces with comments taken from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. “...from the taiga to the British seas: the Red Army is the strongest,” they sang in a Soviet song. During the Second World War, the Red Army became Soviet and, together with the Navy, Civil Defense Troops, border guards and internal troops formed the Armed Forces of the USSR.
Armed Forces of the USSR - military organization The Soviet state, intended to protect the socialist gains of the Soviet people, freedom and independence of the Soviet Union. Together with the armed forces of others socialist countries they ensure the security of the entire socialist community from the attacks of aggressors.
Construction battalion members at BAM. Sappers in action. The Armed Forces of the USSR are divided into types: Rocket Forces strategic purpose, Ground Forces, Air Defense Forces of the country, Air Force, Navy, and also include the rear of the Armed Forces, headquarters and troops Civil Defense. The branches of the Armed Forces, in turn, are divided into types of troops, types of forces (Navy) and special forces, which organizationally consist of subunits, units, and formations. The Armed Forces also include border and internal troops. The Armed Forces of the USSR have a unified system of organization and recruitment, centralized management, uniform principles of training and education of personnel and training of command personnel, a general procedure for the service of privates, sergeants and officers.
Direct leadership of the Armed Forces is exercised by the USSR Ministry of Defense. All branches of the Armed Forces, the rear of the Armed Forces, headquarters and Civil Defense troops are subordinate to him. Each branch of the Armed Forces is led by a corresponding commander-in-chief, who is a deputy. Minister of Defense The border and internal troops are led respectively by the Committee state security under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. The Ministry of Defense includes the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, the Directorate of Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the Logistics Directorate of the Armed Forces, the main and central departments(Main Directorate of Personnel, Central Financial Directorate, Administration of Affairs, etc.), as well as military authorities and Civil Defense institutions. The Ministry of Defense, among other tasks, is entrusted with: developing plans for the construction and development of the Armed Forces in peacetime and war, improving the organization of troops, weapons, military equipment, providing the Armed Forces with weapons and all types of material supplies, managing the operational and combat training of troops and a number of others functions determined by the requirements of state protection. The leadership of party-political work in the Armed Forces of the CPSU Central Committee is carried out through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which operates as a department of the CPSU Central Committee. It directs political bodies, army and navy party and Komsomol organizations, ensures party influence on all aspects of the life of military personnel, directs the activities of political bodies and party organizations to increase the combat readiness of troops, strengthen military discipline and the political and moral state of personnel. Crossing on a pontoon. Artillery crew during an exercise. Material and technical support for the Armed Forces is carried out by departments and logistics services subordinate to the Deputy Minister of Defense - Chief of Logistics of the Armed Forces. The territory of the USSR is divided into military districts. A military district may cover the territories of several territories, republics or regions. To fulfill allied obligations to jointly ensure the security of socialist states, groups of Soviet troops are temporarily stationed in the territories of the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In the branches of the Armed Forces, military districts, groups of troops, air defense districts, and fleets, military councils have been created that have the right to consider and decide all important issues of the life and activities of the troops of the corresponding branch of the Armed Forces or district. They bear full responsibility to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the government and the Minister of Defense of the USSR for the implementation of party and government decisions in the Armed Forces, as well as orders of the Minister of Defense. On a submarine. Against the backdrop of the Motherland monument in the hero city of Volgograd. The formation of the Armed Forces by privates, sergeants and senior officers is carried out by calling up Soviet citizens for active military service, which, according to the Constitution of the USSR and the Law on General Military Duty of 1967, is an honorable duty of citizens of the USSR (see Military duty in the USSR). Conscription is carried out by order of the Minister of Defense everywhere 2 times a year: in May - June and in November - December. Male citizens who have reached the age of 18 by the day of conscription are called up for active military service for a period of service from 1.5 to 3 years, depending on their education and the type of Armed Forces. An additional source of recruitment is the admission of military personnel and reserve personnel on a voluntary basis to the positions of warrant officers and midshipmen, as well as for long-term service. Officer cadres are recruited on a voluntary basis. Officers are trained at higher and secondary military schools of the relevant branches of the Armed Forces and branches of the military; political officers - in higher military-political schools. To prepare young men for entry into higher education military educational institutions There are Suvorov and Nakhimov schools. Advanced training of officers is carried out at higher advanced training courses officers, as well as in the system of combat and political training. Leading command, political, engineering and other officer cadres are trained in military, air force, naval and special academies.
Communication with the commander.
Solemn ceremony of taking the oath. The history of the Soviet Army and Navy began with the formation of the world's first socialist state. To the Soviet people after the victory October revolution 1917 it was necessary not only to build a new society, but also to defend it with arms in hand from internal counter-revolution and repeated attacks by international imperialism. The Armed Forces of the USSR were created directly by the Communist Party under the leadership. V.I. Lenin, based on the provisions of the Marxist-Leninist teaching on war and the army. By the resolution of the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Soviets of October 26 (November 8), 1917, during the formation of the Soviet government, a Committee on Military and Naval Affairs was created consisting of V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, N. V. Krylenko, P. E. Dybenko; from October 27 (November 9), 1917 it was called the Council of People's Commissars for Military and Naval Affairs, from December 1917 - the College of Military Commissars, from February 1918 - 2 People's Commissars: for military and naval affairs. The main armed force in overthrowing the rule of the bourgeoisie and landowners and conquering the power of the working people were the Red Guard and revolutionary sailors Baltic Fleet, soldiers of Petrograd and other garrisons. Relying on the working class and the peasant poor, they played a major role in the victory of the October Revolution of 1917, in the defense of the young Soviet republic in the center and locally, in the defeat at the end of 1917 - beginning of 1918 of the counter-revolutionary uprisings of Kerensky - Krasnov near Petrograd, Kaledin on the Don, Dutov in the Southern Urals, in ensuring the Triumphal March of Soviet power throughout Russia. Army amateur activities. “... The Red Guards did the noblest and greatest historical work of liberating the working people and the exploited from the oppression of the exploiters” (Lenin V.I., Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 177).
At the beginning of 1918, it became obvious that the forces of the Red Guard, as well as detachments of revolutionary soldiers and sailors, were clearly not enough to reliable protection Soviet state. In an effort to strangle the revolution, the imperialist states, primarily Germany, undertook an intervention against the young Soviet Republic, which merged with the rise of internal counter-revolution: White Guard rebellions and conspiracies of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and the remnants of various bourgeois parties. Regular armed forces were needed that could protect the Soviet state from numerous enemies.
On January 15 (28), 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and on January 29 (February 11) - a decree on the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Fleet (RKKF) on a voluntary basis. Direct supervision of the formation of the Red Army was carried out by the All-Russian Collegium, established by the Council of People's Commissars on January 15 (28), 1918 under the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs. In connection with Germany’s violation of the truce and its troops going on the offensive, the Soviet government on February 22 addressed the people with a decree-appeal written by Lenin, “The Socialist Fatherland is in Danger!” This decree marked the beginning of the mass enrollment of volunteers in the Red Army and the formation of many of its units. In commemoration of the general mobilization of revolutionary forces to defend the socialist Fatherland, as well as the courageous resistance of the Red Army units to the invaders, February 23 is celebrated annually in the USSR as a national holiday - the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy.
In the army bath. Physical training. During the Civil War of 1918-20, the construction of the Red Army and the Red Army was carried out in extremely difficult conditions. The country's economy was undermined, railway transport was disorganized, the army was supplied with food irregularly, and there were not enough weapons and uniforms. The army did not have the required number of command personnel; Means. Some of the officers of the old army were on the side of the counter-revolution. The peasantry, from which the rank and file and junior command staff were mainly recruited, devastated by the 1st World War of 1914-18, were not inclined to voluntarily join the army. All these difficulties were aggravated by the sabotage of the old bureaucracy, the bourgeois intelligentsia and the kulaks.
Veteran and conscript.
From January to May 1918, the Red Army and the Red Red Army Fleet were staffed with volunteers, the command staff (up to the regiment commander) was selected; the number of volunteer units was extremely insufficient. By April 20, 1918, the Red Army numbered only 196 thousand people. Recruiting the army with volunteers and election command staff could not ensure the creation of a massive regular army, which was necessary in the international situation and in the context of the expanding scale of the Civil War. On March 4, 1918, the Supreme Military Council was formed to guide military operations and the organization of the army. On April 8, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on the establishment of volost, district, provincial and district commissariats for military affairs; on May 8, instead of the All-Russian Collegium for the formation of the Red Army, the All-Russian Main Headquarters(Vseroglavshtab) - the highest executive body in charge of the mobilization, formation, organization and training of troops. By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on April 22, universal military training of workers (Vsevobuch) was introduced, and military department bodies began to appoint command personnel. Due to the lack of qualified command personnel, the army and navy recruited former officers and generals; The Institute of Military Commissars was formed.
Military ID. On July 10, 1918, the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets adopted a resolution “On the organization of the Red Army” on the basis of universal military service for workers aged 18 to 40 years. The transition to compulsory military service made it possible to sharply increase the size of the Red Army. By the beginning of September 1918, there were already 550 thousand people in its ranks. On September 6, 1918, simultaneously with the declaration of martial law in the country, instead of the Supreme Military Council, the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic (RVSR) was created, whose functions included operational and organizational control of the troops. In September 1918, the functions and personnel of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs were transferred to the RVSR, and in December 1918 - the People's Commissariat for Maritime Affairs (became part of the RVSR as the Naval Department). The RVSR led the active army through its member - the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Republic (commander-in-chief: from September 1918 - I. I. Vatsetis, from July 1919 - S. S. Kamenev). On September 6, 1918, the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic was established (February 10, 1921, merged with the All-Russian Headquarters into the Headquarters of the Red Army), subordinate to the commander-in-chief and engaged in training troops and directing military operations. Political information.
Party political work in the army and navy was carried out by the Central Committee of the RCP (b) through the All-Russian Bureau of Military Commissars (created on April 8, 1918), which on April 18, 1919, by decision of the 8th Party Congress, was replaced by a department of the RVSR, renamed on May 26, 1919 to the Political Directorate (PUR) under the RVSR, which was also a department of the Central Committee of the RCP (o). In the troops, party political work was carried out by political departments and party organizations (cells).
In 1919, on the basis of the decisions of the 8th Party Congress, the transition to a regular mass army was completed, with a strong proletarian, politically conscious, personnel core, a unified recruitment system, a stable organization of troops, centralized control and an effective party-political apparatus. The construction of the Armed Forces of the USSR took place in a bitter struggle with the “military opposition”, which opposed the creation of a regular army, defended the remnants of partisanship in command and control of troops and the conduct of war, and underestimated the role of old military specialists.
By the end of 1919, the number of the Red Army reached 3 million people, by the fall of 1920 - 5.5 million people. Specific gravity workers accounted for 15%, peasants - 77%, others - 8%. In total, in 1918-20, 88 rifle and 29 cavalry divisions, 67 air detachments (300-400 aircraft), as well as a number of artillery and armored units and subunits were formed. There were 2 spare (reserve) armies (Republic and South-Eastern Front) and units of the Vsevobuch, in which about 800 thousand people were trained. During the Civil War, 6 military academies and over 150 courses and schools (October 1920) trained 40 thousand commanders from workers and peasants. On August 1, 1920, there were about 300 thousand communists in the Red Army and Navy (about 1/2 of the entire party), who were the cementing core of the army and navy. About 50 thousand of them died a heroic death during the Civil War. In the summer and autumn of 1918, active troops began to be consolidated into armies and fronts led by revolutionary military councils (RMC) of 2-4 members. By the fall of 1919, there were 7 fronts, each with 2-5 armies. In total there were 16-18 in the fronts combined arms armies, one Cavalry Army (1st) and several separate cavalry corps. In 1920 the 2nd Cavalry Army was formed.

During the fight against the interventionists and the White Guards, mainly the weapons of the old army were used. At the same time, the emergency measures taken by the party to establish the military industry and the unparalleled heroism of the working class made it possible to move to the organized supply of Soviet-made weapons, ammunition and uniforms to the Red Army. The average monthly production of rifles in 1920 was more than 56 thousand units, cartridges - 58 million units. In 1919, aviation enterprises built 258 and repaired 50 aircraft. Along with the creation of the Red Army, the Soviet military science, based on the Marxist-Leninist teaching on war and the army, the practice of revolutionary struggle masses, achievements of military theory of the past, creatively revised in relation to new conditions. The first regulations of the Red Army were published: in 1918 - the Charter of the Internal Service, the Charter of the Garrison Service, the Field Regulations, in 1919 - the Disciplinary Regulations. A great contribution to Soviet military science were Lenin’s provisions on the essence and nature of war, the role of the masses, social order, economics in achieving victory. Already at that time, the characteristic features of Soviet military art clearly appeared: revolutionary creative activity; intransigence to the template; the ability to determine the direction of the main attack; a reasonable combination of offensive and defensive actions; pursuit of the enemy until his complete destruction, etc. After the victorious end of the Civil War and the application decisive defeat By the combined forces of interventionists and White Guards, the Red Army was transferred to a peaceful position and by the end of 1924 its strength was reduced by 10 times. Simultaneously with demobilization, the Armed Forces were strengthened. In 1923, the united People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs was recreated. As a result of the military reform of 1924-25, the central apparatus was reduced and updated, new numbers of units and formations were introduced, the social composition of command personnel was improved, and new regulations, manuals and guidelines were developed and implemented. The most important issue of military reform was the transition to a mixed system of recruiting troops, which made it possible to have Peaceful time a small personnel army with a minimum expenditure of funds for its maintenance in combination with territorial police formations of internal districts (see Territorial police structure). Most of the formations and units of the border districts, technical and special troops, and the Navy remained personnel. Instead of L. D. Trotsky (since 1918 - People's Commissar for Military Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic), who sought to tear the Red Army and Navy away from the party leadership, on January 26, 1925, M. V. Frunze was appointed Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, after his death of which K.E. Voroshilov became People's Commissar.
The first all-Union law “On Compulsory Military Service,” adopted on September 18, 1925 by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, consolidated the measures taken during the military reform. This law determined the organizational structure of the Armed Forces, which included the Ground Forces (infantry, cavalry, artillery, armored forces, engineering troops, Signal Corps), Air and Naval Forces, troops of the United State Political Administration (OGPU) and USSR convoy guards. Their number in 1927 was 586 thousand people.

In the 30s on the base achieved successes in the construction of socialism, further improvement of the Armed Forces took place; their territorial and personnel structure ceased to meet the needs of state defense. In 1935-38, a transition was made from the territorial personnel system to a unified personnel structure of the Armed Forces. In 1937, there were 1.5 million people in the ranks of the army and navy, in June 1941 - about 5 million people. On June 20, 1934, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR abolished the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR and renamed the People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs into the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. In November 1934, the Military Council of the People's Commissariat of Defense was created, in 1937 military councils in the districts, and in 1935 the Headquarters of the Red Army was transformed into the General Staff. In 1937, the all-Union People's Commissariat of the Navy was created; The Political Directorate of the Red Army was renamed the Main Directorate of Political Propaganda, and political departments districts and political departments of connections - into departments and departments of political propaganda. On May 10, 1937, by decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the institution of military commissars was introduced, responsible together with the commanders for the political and moral state of the troops, operational and mobilization readiness, the condition of weapons and military equipment; in 1938 the main military councils of the Red Army were established; Army and Navy. On September 1, 1939, the law “On General Military Duty” was adopted, which abolished the previously existing restrictions on conscription into the army and navy for certain categories of the population and proclaimed military service an honorable duty for all citizens of the USSR, regardless of their class affiliation.

The social composition of the army improved: from 40 to 50% of soldiers and junior commanders were representatives of the working class. In 1939, there were 14 military academies, 63 military schools of the Ground Forces and 14 Navy, 32 flight and flight technical schools. On September 22, 1935, personal military ranks(see Military ranks), and on May 7, 1940 - general and admiral ranks. In terms of technical equipment, the Armed Forces during the pre-war five-year plans (1929-40) rose to the level of the armies of advanced capitalist states. In the Ground Forces in 1939 compared to 1930, the number of artillery increased; 7 times, including anti-tank and tank - 70 times. The number of tanks increased 2.5 times from 1934 to 1939. Along with the quantitative growth of weapons and military equipment, their quality has improved. A noticeable step has been made in increasing the rate of fire of small arms. Mechanization and motorization of all types of troops increased. Air defense troops, engineering, communications, chemical protection armed with new technical means. Based on the successes of aircraft and engine manufacturing, the Air Force further developed. In 1939 compared to 1930 total aircraft increased by 6.5 times. The Navy began construction of surface ships of various classes, submarines, torpedo boats, as well as aircraft naval aviation. Compared to 1939, the volume of military production in 1940 increased by more than 1/3. Through the efforts of the design bureau teams of A. I. Mikoyan, M. I. Gurevich, A. S. Yakovlev, S. A. Lavochkin, S. V. Ilyushin, V. M. Petlyakov and others, and workers in the aviation industry, various types were created fighter aircraft: Yak-1, MiG-Z, LaGG-Z, Pe-2 dive bomber, Il-2 attack aircraft. The design teams of Zh. Ya. Kotin, M. I. Koshkin, A. A. Morozov, I. A. Kucherenko put into serial production the world's best heavy and medium tanks KV-1 and T-34. The design bureaus of V. G. Grabin, I. I. Ivanov, F. I. Petrov and others created new original types of artillery guns and mortars, many of which entered mass production. From May 1940 to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, the gun fleet increased by more than 1.2 times. Designers Yu. A. Pobedonostsev, I. I. Gvai, V. A. Artemyev, F. I. Poyda and others created rocket weapons for salvo firing at areas. A large group of designers and scientists - A. N. Krylov, P. N. Papkovich, V. L. Pozdyunin, V. I. Kostenko, A. N. Maslov, B. M. Malinin, V. F. Popov and others. , developed several new types of warships that were put into mass production. Great successes were achieved in 1940-41 by factories producing small arms, ammunition, fuels and lubricants and etc. Increased technical equipment made it possible on the eve of the war to significantly improve the organizational structure of the troops. IN rifle divisions tanks, powerful divisional artillery, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery were included, which significantly increased their firepower. The organization of reserve artillery of the High Command (RGK) received further development. Instead of separate tank and armored brigades, which since 1939 have been the main armored formations tank troops, the formation of more large connections- tank and mechanized divisions. IN airborne troops Airborne corps began to be formed, and the Air Force began to switch to a divisional organization in 1940. The Navy organized formations and associations intended for joint actions with ground forces and for conducting independent operations.

Military strategy, operational art and tactics received further development. In the mid-30s. the theory of deep combat and deep operation is being developed, reflecting qualitative changes in the technical equipment of troops - fundamentally new theory conducting operations by massive, highly mobile, well-equipped armies. Theoretical provisions were tested during maneuvers and exercises, as well as during the combat operations of the Red Army in the area of ​​Lake Khasan, river. Khalkhin Gol, in the Soviet-Finnish war 1939-40. Many charters and instructions were developed anew. In 1940, the troops received the Infantry Combat Regulations (Part 1), draft Field Regulations and Infantry Combat Regulations (Part 2), the Tank Forces Combat Regulations, the Combat Regulations, the Guard Service Regulations, etc. On May 7, 1940, S. was appointed People's Commissar of Defense. K. Timoshenko.
Despite the measures taken, the preparation of the Armed Forces to repel the aggression being prepared by German fascism was not completed. The reorganization of the Armed Forces on a new technical basis was not completed by the beginning of the war. Most of the formations transferred to new states were not fully equipped with weapons and military equipment, as well as vehicles. Many mid- and senior-level commanders lacked experience in modern warfare.

Great Patriotic War. the war of 1941-45 was the most difficult test for the Soviet people and the Armed Forces of the USSR. The fascist German troops, due to the surprise of the attack, lengthy preparations for war, 2 years of experience in military operations in Europe, superiority in the number of weapons, the number of troops and other temporary advantages, were able to advance hundreds of kilometers in the first months of the war, regardless of losses deep into Soviet territory. The CPSU and the Soviet government did everything necessary to eliminate the mortal threat hanging over the country. From the beginning of the war, the deployment of the Armed Forces was carried out in an organized manner and in a short time. By July 1, 1941, 5.3 million people were called up from the reserves. The entire life of the country was restructured on a military basis. The main sectors of the economy switched to the production of military products. In July - November 1941, 1,360 large enterprises, mainly of defense significance, were evacuated from front-line areas. On June 30, 1941, an emergency body was formed - the State Defense Committee (GKO) under the chairmanship of I.V. Stalin. On July 19, 1941, J.V. Stalin was appointed People's Commissar of Defense, who on August 8 also became Supreme Commander Armed Forces. The State Defense Committee led the entire life of the country, combining the efforts of the rear and the front, the activities of all government agencies, party and public organizations for the complete defeat of the enemy. Fundamental issues of governing the state and waging war were decided by the Party Central Committee - the Politburo, the Organizing Bureau and the Secretariat. The decisions made were implemented through the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the State Defense Committee and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, created on August 8, 1941. The Headquarters carried out strategic leadership of the Armed Forces with the help of its working body - the General Staff. The most important issues of warfare were discussed at joint meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee, the State Defense Committee and Headquarters. Since the beginning of the war, the training of officers has been expanded by increasing the number of students at academies, school cadets and reducing the duration of training, creating a large number of courses for accelerated training of junior officers, especially among soldiers and sergeants. From September 1941, units that distinguished themselves began to be given the name Guards (see Soviet Guard). Thanks to the emergency measures taken by the CPSU and the Soviet government, mass heroism and unprecedented self-sacrifice of the Soviet people, army and navy soldiers, by the end of 1941 it was possible to stop the enemy on the approaches to Moscow, Leningrad and other vital centers of the country. During the Moscow Battle of 1941-42, the first major defeat was inflicted on the enemy in the entire 2nd world war. This battle dispelled the myth of invincibility fascist German army, thwarted the “blitzkrieg” plan, and was the beginning of a decisive turn in the war in favor of the USSR.

In the summer of 1942, the center of military operations moved to the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. The enemy was eager for the Volga, the oil of the Caucasus, and the grain-growing regions of the Don and Kuban. The Party and the Soviet government made every effort to stop the enemy and continued to increase the power of the Armed Forces. By the spring of 1942, the Armed Forces included 5.5 million people in the active army alone. From mid-1942, industry began to increase the output of military products and more fully meet the needs of the front. If in 1941 15,735 aircraft were produced, then in 1942 there were already 25,436, tanks, respectively, 6,590 and 24,446, and ammunition production almost doubled. In 1942, 575 thousand officers were sent to the army. IN Battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943 Soviet troops defeated the enemy and seized the strategic initiative. This victory was the beginning of a radical change not only in the Great Patriotic War, but also in the entire 2nd World War. In 1943, military production developed rapidly: the production of aircraft increased by 137.1% compared to 1942, warships by 123%, submachine guns by 134.3%, shells by 116.9%, and aerial bombs by 173.3%. In general, military production increased by 17%, and in Nazi Germany by 12%. The Soviet defense industry managed to surpass the enemy not only in the quantity of weapons, but also in their quality. The massive production of artillery pieces made it possible to strengthen divisional artillery, create corps, army artillery and powerful reserve artillery of the Supreme High Command (RVGK), new units and units of rocket, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery. A significant number of tank and mechanized corps, most of which were later combined into a tank. army. Armored and mechanized troops became the main striking force of the Ground Forces (by the end of 1943 they included 5 tank armies, 24 tank and 13 mechanized corps). The composition of air divisions, corps and air armies has increased. The significant strengthening of the power of the Soviet Armed Forces and the increased military skill of its military leaders allowed Battle of Kursk 1943 apply fascist troops a major defeat that confronted Nazi Germany with a military catastrophe.
Internationalist warriors and pioneers.
Decisive victories were won by the USSR Armed Forces in 1944-45. By this time, they had enormous combat experience, possessed colossal power, and by the beginning of 1945 they numbered 11,365 thousand people. The advantages of the socialist economic system, the vitality economic policy CPSU and the Soviet government. In 1943-45, an average of 220 thousand artillery pieces and mortars, 450 thousand machine guns, 40 thousand aircraft, 30 thousand tanks, self-propelled guns and armored vehicles were produced annually. New types of aircraft were produced in large quantities - La-7, Yak-9, Il-10, Tu-2, heavy tanks IS-2, self-propelled artillery systems ISU-122, ISU-152 and SU-100, rocket launchers BM- 31-12, 160 mm mortars and others Combat vehicles. As a result of strategic offensive operations, including near Leningrad and Novgorod, in Crimea, on Right Bank Ukraine, in Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic States and in the Arctic, the Armed Forces cleared the invaders Soviet land. Developing a rapid offensive, Soviet troops in 1945 carried out the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder and other operations. IN Berlin operation they achieved the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Armed Forces fulfilled a great liberation mission - they helped the peoples of the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe get rid of fascist occupation. Carrying out your allied obligations, The Soviet Union entered the war with Japan in August 1945. The Armed Forces of the USSR, together with the armed forces of the Mongolian People's Republic, defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army and thereby played a decisive role in ending World War II (see Manchurian Operation 1945).
The leading force of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War was the Communist Party. During the war, she sent over 1.6 million communists to the front; during the war, about 6 million people joined the ranks of the Communist Party.
In an Afghan gorge. The Party and the Soviet government appreciated the exploits of soldiers on the war fronts. Over 7 million soldiers were awarded orders and medals; over 11,600 of them - representatives of 100 nations and nationalities - were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. About half of all awarded soldiers are communists and Komsomol members.

Wall newspaper. During the war, the USSR Armed Forces acquired enormous combat experience. Soviet military science, especially military art and all its components - strategy, operational art and tactics - received further development. The issues of front-line and strategic offensive operations of a group of fronts were comprehensively developed, and the problems of breakthrough were successfully resolved enemy defense, continuity of development of the offensive by introducing mobile - tank and mechanized formations and formations into the breakthrough, achieving clear interaction of forces and means, surprise strikes, comprehensive support for operations, issues of strategic defense and counter-offensive In the army canteen. Having defeated the armies of fascist Germany and imperialist Japan, the Armed Forces of the USSR emerged from the war organizationally stronger, equipped with the latest technology, with a sense of fulfilled duty to the Soviet people and all humanity. Mass layoffs of personnel began. On September 4, 1945, the State Defense Committee was abolished, and the Supreme Command Headquarters ceased its activities. On February 25, 1946, instead of the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy, a single People's Commissariat of the Armed Forces of the SS was created
Young family.

“Military service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR is an honorable duty of Soviet citizens.” (TO Constitution of the USSR.)

Do you remember what were the favorite topics of conversation among men “over a glass” at THAT time? Many people probably remember. There were three of them: women, work and military service. That's it - service in the Soviet army. It was a unifying theme for men different ages. One of the first questions when I joined a new men’s team was “where did I serve?” In any such team there was always someone who served in the same troops, or in the same places, and if there was a “fellow soldier”, it didn’t matter that he served 20 years earlier - he became almost a relative and guardian of the newcomer. Military service was the very beginning that united the vast majority of men in the Soviet Union, despite the difference in age, social status, etc. We've all served in the army or navy. We all performed an “honorable duty.” And that everyone wanted to serve and were simply eager to join the army? Nothing like that! Perhaps in childhood... But the closer the draft age approached, the scarier it became. Having listened to horror stories from friends who had served in the service about nightmarish training, many-kilometer forced marches and (the most terrible thing!) - about hazing, which could not be avoided, a small trembling began to pound. But we swaggered around and didn’t show our fears. I didn’t want to join the army, oh I didn’t want to! BUT! We knew that we had to go through the army and could not escape it. Rarely did the thought occur to anyone to “cut it down” by any means. Do you know why? The current generation is unlikely to believe it... Not serving in the army was a SHAME! In the same company of men, if it turned out that one of us had not served in the army, a tactless question was asked - “sick, or what?” Although the reasons could be completely different and quite compelling, but... the person fell out of the “clip.” He’s certainly a good guy, but he didn’t serve... It’s somehow awkward.

And what did it cost to see off to the army!!! Yes, many weddings paled in comparison. Oh, and we loved seeing off. Twice a year, during the conscription period, farewells to the army thundered throughout the vast Soviet Union. And seeing a party in the city in the morning, in the center of which a lad, dazed from parting words and vodka, was wandering in awkward clothes, with a backpack and a sobbing girlfriend around his neck, it became clear to absolutely everyone that he was joining the army. Even the police didn’t touch such bunches, well, they would warn you, perhaps.

The army was pathetically called a school of life, but despite all the pathos, there is a large share of truth in this. Even notorious slobs were forced to submit to discipline, of course they violated it, but they could not completely ignore it, yesterday’s “house boys”, for whom their mothers and grandmothers sewed on buttons and cleaned their shoes, were forced to learn to take care of themselves, I’m generally silent about physical training, Personally, I struggled to get to the army, but I returned from the army with a rank in all-around. And what’s most remarkable is that what I learned in the army stuck with me for the rest of my life (to this day, I am the family champion in peeling potatoes :)). It was in the army that the boys grew up. Service in the Soviet Army was the very milestone that every self-respecting guy had to pass. Even at school, our life already had a definite plan for the near future. Those who were going to study further set this immediate goal for themselves; those who did not feel the strength to enter a university (by the way, institutes in the Soviet Union were accepted mainly for knowledge, not for money), were going to go to work ( most often to a factory) or to study at a vocational school, but both of them knew that the army was ahead. And only after the army, having served his due duty, was it possible to make serious plans for his future life. At the same time, the attitude towards later life was, oh, how different from the “pre-army” one. It was after serving in the Soviet army that many guys went to study, and believe me, their attitude towards studying was a little different than that of yesterday’s schoolchildren.

A guy who served in the army had much wider opportunities than someone who “didn’t serve.” Many of the professions and jobs were simply inaccessible to those who did not serve in the army. And the girls! Yesterday's soldier was rated much higher in their eyes. After the army, you can already get married, it’s time... The service itself proceeded differently for everyone, there were a lot of things that you don’t even want to remember. But what is most amazing is that this is not remembered, memory drives these memories into the very far corner consciousness, and leaves in the most visible and honorable place all the best and most interesting things about service in the Soviet army. And every man who served in the army has a story to tell. And if you embellish a little more, and lie a little... You’ll be heard! But this is a topic for another article.

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The army began for me like this - immediately after the May holidays, I came to the university and at the entrance ran into our headman. “Andrey,” she said, “go to the dean’s office, they wanted something from you there.” At that time, I was a good student, there was nothing on my record book other than A’s and “pass” grades, so I didn’t feel any fear of the dean’s office. I go to the dean’s office, and the curator of our second year immediately approaches me - “Andrey, here is a document, sign what you received.” I take it without reading it and sign it, then I just decided to see what I signed for - oh, a summons from the military registration and enlistment office. “What,” I say, “have they already expelled me and forgotten to warn me about it?” (I’m trying to joke like that...) “Andrey,” they say, “you should read newspapers at least sometimes, well, at least Pravda or Izvestia, or something. Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov canceled deferments for all universities that do not have military departments. And here, as you should have noticed in two years, military department No".

About three days later I was already sitting on the “ assembly point» next to the railway station in Krasnoyarsk and waited for the next “buyer” from the unit to arrive and pick me up. Another day later, I was already on a train full of people just like me, ragged and drunk (ragged - because it was known that your civilian clothes would be taken away from you upon arrival at the unit and you would never see them again, but drunk - from fear of the unknown, probably) on western Ukraine. Then there was the Ivano-Frankivsk station, a barracks in the city center, according to rumors - in former prison, adapted for a military camp, two weeks of quarantine, oath and... service. The unit turned out to be a “separate communications regiment”, or rather special communications, and the service consisted of a daily 12-hour sitting in the R-410 radio relay communication station. This very service was most similar to a strange computer game - it was necessary to ensure that the point indicating the direction of the station's radio beam was always in the center of the display and when it deviated, restore the position by turning a series of knobs... It’s even strange that all this was called “military service”, “repaying one’s debt to the Motherland” and other big words. By the way, I had a machine gun at the station, but without cartridges... In general, I fired from it once during my entire service - two days before the oath, during target practice.

The famous “hazing”, oddly enough, did not affect me. The “grandfathers” in our unit were from somewhere in Central Asia - from Kazakhstan, it seems. Most of all, they wanted to capture the imagination of their peers upon their return, demonstrating that they really served in super-sophisticated troops. Therefore, for the first six months, all the time that I did not sit in the station and did not sleep, I soldered all sorts of amateur radio toys for our “grandfathers” - color music, mini-receivers, sound amplifiers from stolen radio parts. This was hazing - but to be honest, it was for me I even liked it...

But relations with the “father-commanders” did not work out. Especially with warrant officers and long-term sergeants. I was “too smart” for them, and in this regard I also claimed special treatment. It is known that for the sergeant major, the company exists mainly to continuously restore order at its location. Therefore, the main thing in the service is the outfits for the unit and the kitchen, and everything else comes second. And everything would be so if not for one “but”. The unit was considered to be on constant combat duty - we ensured constant communication between the Ministry of Defense and the headquarters of the Carpathian Military District. And if for the company sergeant-major I was a new guy who needed to be driven “in tail and mane” according to orders, then for the unit commander I, a former second-year excellent student at the physics department, who was going to radiophysics in my third year, was the best radio mechanic of the unit, which was often the only one that could provide a stable communication channel. And now, imagine, the foreman puts me on duty in the kitchen. Since the outfit is 24/7, I have the legal right to sleep for a couple of hours before the outfit. Having slept in " work time", I go to the dining room to honestly peel potatoes and scrub dirty dishes for the next 24 hours... And then the foreman is found by a messenger from the unit commander with an order to remove Private Leutin from his detail and urgently send him to the station, from where I will come at 11 pm and calmly go to bed. And he, the foreman, urgently needs to look for someone to fill the outfit instead of me, and send him to the outfit without enough sleep. This, from the foreman’s point of view, was not just impudence, it was super impudence. But he could not do anything with me - I was protected from unofficial reprisals by the need of our “grandfathers” for radio toys, and from official ones - by the status of the best radio mechanic of the unit.

I would have sat quietly for the entire two years at my station, but a misfortune happened. The next "Shield" exercise - "Shield-85" - has begun. They walked for a week, and all this week I was the only one who ensured the connection of our radio relay - I even slept in the station, and not in the “kung” with everyone else, so that I could be ready to “turn the verniers” all the time. And so, at the close of the exercise, an inspector from the district headquarters came right to the “point” where the station stood and... decided that such a radio mechanic would be useful to them at the district headquarters. And now I’m already flying with this same inspector to Lvov, to the headquarters of the PrikVO. Naturally, no one there knows what to do with me - since the staff in all units, including the separate communications regiment at the district headquarters, is full and no one needs any radio mechanics “from the outside.” But an army is an army, the order of a higher commander must be carried out, and after two days I end up at the TRC (receiving and transmitting center) 40 km from Lviv. There I honestly served for another six months and those were the best six months in my service. The POC garrison consisted of 15 people - 8 soldiers and 7 officers. No drill training, no marksmanship, no physical training, even the work of cleaning the barracks was kept to a minimum - only duty at stations, cross-country and ZAS-equipment (communication secrecy equipment).

But as we know, all good things come to an end. My “godfather”, who brought me to Lvov, moved to Moscow, to the Moscow Region, and the local authorities decided to find out what kind of incomprehensible soldier was forced upon them six months ago. No, I served well here too, but no one likes being forced to do something without explaining why and why it is necessary. And to begin this “showdown,” I was removed from the “point” and sent to Lvov, to the barracks of the communications regiment headquarters. And here I am thrown into everything that I had already become unaccustomed to at the “point” - continuous outfits for the kitchen, drill and physical training, and the most disgusting thing - “a soldier must always be busy.” If there is no work for a soldier, let him sweep the parade ground with a crowbar... Well, I found against the last one elegant solution- at the regimental headquarters, as in any other Soviet unit, there was the so-called “Lenin Room” - a room for political studies + a library of “politically correct literature” (collected works of Marx, Lenin, Brezhnev, subscriptions to the newspaper “Pravda”, etc. .) It was in this Lenin room that I began to conduct everything free time, reading and rereading the philosophical works of Marx. Even the stern senior warrant officer, the foreman of the unit, did not have the courage to distract a soldier from reading the classics of Marxism-Leninism. But on the other hand, I began to walk around the outfits with the maximum permitted frequency - i.e. in one day. And from all this - continuous outfits, the absence of any meaningful activity, frankly hostility“junior command staff” - I lost it.

The details are not important, in short, it was like this - in the next outfit, the officer in charge of the canteen made a remark to me in an openly boorish tone, in other words, he sent me obscenities. I answered him something, although according to accepted standards of behavior I should have simply remained silent and done what I was told. In response to my remark, he hit me - in general, a fairly common situation for the Soviet (and perhaps for any) army. I should have “don’t care and forget,” but in fact I was already in a state of continuous hysteria. I stated that I was going on a hunger strike until this officer publicly apologized to me. For a day I starved completely calmly, it was of no interest to anyone, on the second day the story reached the authorities, they began to persuade me to stop “all this crap”, they even promised that the officer would apologize to me - but, of course, not publicly - this was in basically impossible and I knew it. On the third day, three healthy men in white coats over their uniforms entered the isolation ward where I was staying and told me that I would have to starve for Soviet army maybe only a crazy person, and that means my place is in a “psychiatric hospital.” Thus began the last part of my army “opupei” - three months in the 16th department of the Lvov military hospital. That is, in a “psychiatric hospital”.

In the “psychiatric hospital”, for starters, they gave me 8 “cubes” of sulfozine (who is interested in what this is http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1 %84%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BD
I’ll just say - this is when everything hurts, every piece of your body, it hurts constantly, without stopping, and nothing can be done about it. It was called “so that you immediately understand where you are.” And yes, I understood everything right away. I stopped the hunger strike - they told me that they would inject me with sulfozine until I started eating, and I started eating as soon as I was able to get out of bed and walk to the dining room. You know, in Orwell’s “1984” the main anti-hero, O’Brien, says: “Every person can be broken, you just need to find what his greatest personal fear is.” After sulfazine, physical pain became the “most important fear” for me.
However, everything was not so scary, or at least not always scary - I received “sulfa” only three times in the entire three and a half months, including the very first one. I was constantly injected with chlorpromazine and magnesium, which was unpleasant, but in no way comparable to sulfazine. The overall effect of chlorpromazine was that I gradually became indifferent to everything, “paralysis of the will” set in... Somewhere towards the end of the fourth week, when I had already received about 80 injections, I resembled more a plant than a “homo sapiens”. It was almost impossible for me to perform any “voluntary” action, to make any decision, even the simplest one. The only thing I could do was write reports addressed to the head doctor of the hospital stating that I was healthy and demanding that I be returned to the unit for further service. As I was later told, it was these reports that played the main role in determining my future fate. Somewhere around the end of the third month I was called to the manager. department, they showed me the entire stack of my reports (about three dozen), they said that only a madman could rush back to the unit and therefore I would be commissioned under Article 6 “B” of the Schedule of Diseases - “psychopathy of moderate severity.” And indeed, a week later a commission was held, I was declared unfit for service in the Soviet Army (now I completely agree with this, but then I was insulted to the core) and a week later I was already traveling on a train with a silent accompanying officer to my native Krasnoyarsk It was the end of August 1985. 15 months of my life devoted to “service to the Motherland” are over.

Earning points for completion conscript service in the Soviet army may serve as a basis for revising the amount of the assigned pension. In the vast majority of cases, the initiation of such a procedure either leads to a very slight increase in the pension payment or does not affect its size at all. Although the Internet is full of information that pension payments based on the inclusion of points for the period of service in the armed forces of the USSR may not increase, but even decrease, there is no truth in these statements. It is impossible to reduce the pension under any circumstances, and, as you know, they don’t take money for demand. Therefore, a pensioner can calmly ask the pension fund to calculate his pension with points accrued for the period of service.

From the moment the point system for calculating pensions was introduced, the question arose whether it was worth converting time in the army into points and whether this would bring material benefits to pensioners.

The Soviet and modern Russian pension systems were very different. For a modern system general level Low Soviet salaries are absolutely unprofitable. In addition to points, pension payments are influenced by many factors - the average wage in relation to a citizen and the national average, working conditions, personal coefficient, monetary equivalent of a point for the period of retirement, fixed payment, etc. It is for these reasons that independent calculation of pension payments is very complicated, and without special knowledge, it is almost impossible to perform calculations on your own. To understand this, just look at the text Article 15 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Insurance Pensions”.

For example, in 2017, the price of a pension point was determined by 78 rubles, and the amount of the fixed payment was 4,000 rubles. In 2018, the price of one point increased to 81 rubles, and the fixed payment amounted to 4983 rubles. That is, the numbers change constantly and only Pension Fund employees know reliably about the changes.

Rules for counting work experience of the USSR

When calculating the amount of pension payments to citizens who have work experience in the USSR, the estimated amount of pension capital will be multiplied by one percent for each year of work, documented before the collapse of the USSR. In addition, data on the amount of salary for 5 years is taken sequentially, at the choice of the citizen. The totality of these calculations will determine the total amount of the pension payment.

The period from the date the USSR ceased to exist until 2001 is traditionally considered transitional, and therefore difficult for calculating pension payments. During this period, citizens' pension capital increases by 10%, regardless of whether there is a documented work experience for this period.

Pension capital calculated in this way is converted into modern points. The entire calculation methods are given in paragraph 10 of Article 15 of the Law “On Insurance Pensions”.

As can be seen from the text of the article, the cost of one coefficient at the time the law was adopted was just over 64 rubles.

The calculation of pension payments for the length of service accumulated under the USSR, as well as during the transition period, that is, from the collapse of the USSR until 2002, occurs by including work and other socially significant activities carried out during that period in the total length of service at the time of registration pensions. Next, the Soviet and transitional periods of service are converted into calculated pension capital.

As can be seen from the above clause 3 art. thirty, the ratio between the average monthly salary in the Soviet and transition periods and wages in the Russian Federation is estimated at a coefficient of not more than 1.2.

At the same time, an increased coefficient is provided for citizens who worked or served under special conditions.

For persons who worked in the Far North, the coefficient is set at a rate of 1.4, but not more than 1.9. The gradation is based on the figure established by the local coefficient.

Work experience in the Far North or in regions equivalent to the Far North is calculated at the rate of one year per year and a half.

Serving in the armed forces of the USSR

By virtue of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of August 3, 1972, service in the ranks of the armed forces of the USSR for urgent conscription was included in the work experience according to a special grid, establishing that one day of service was equal to two days of work in civilian conditions. Execution military duty in special conditions (for example, in the OKSV in Afghanistan), one month was equivalent to three months of work in civilian conditions.

Therefore, crediting the time of urgent military service in the SA, when recalculating pension payments to men who retired before 2015, it can be done in two ways:

1. The time spent on service is counted towards the length of service according to the principle “one equals one”.
2. The second method is more suitable for those who had a small salary during the Soviet and transition periods. The calculation method in the second option is expressed in counting the time of military service in the SA according to the “two-day” type. With this option, points will also be awarded, but in a fixed form, namely 1.8 points for each year of service. Thus:

• conscripts of the Navy will be able to claim points for three years of service - 1.8 × 3 = 5.4 points for the entire period of service;
• those whose service life was 2 years - 3.6 points for the entire service life.

It is on this point that the fears of those who claim that a pensioner may lose money if he decides to demand a recalculation of his pension in connection with service in the SA are based.

To understand the groundlessness of these fears, you just need to know the very system of converting Soviet experience into points. This does not require calculations with epsilons. The fact is that the system for calculating pensions in the Russian Federation is very opaque, and no matter how much a future pensioner calculates, his calculations will still be incorrect if he does not have special skills in matters of pension calculations. Moreover, the difference between the Soviet and Russian principles of calculating pensions is expressed in the fact that in the USSR a labor pension was calculated, and in the Russian Federation - an insurance pension.

For the USSR, the total and continuous length of service and the amount of wages were important, and for the Russian Federation, the amount of monthly insurance payments was important. It is enough to know that the converted pension point for Soviet period- This is a cumulative reflection of the total length of service and average monthly salary.

Simplified comparative model for calculating pension payments

Two men, Ivan and Andrey, born in 1950, began their labor activity in 1968, when they were drafted into the ranks of the SA. Ivan was called up to serve in the Navy and served for 3 years. Andrey served in the artillery for 2 years. After the army, both began to work. Ivan is a postman on a collective farm, and Andrey is a drilling machine operator in the Far North. Until 1991, Ivan’s salary was 60 rubles, Andrey’s was 620 rubles. Since 1991, Andrey continued to work in the Far North. Ivan's collective farm collapsed, and he began to work on the railroad. In 2013, Ivan and Andrey reached the age sufficient to retire. Both have 43 years of work experience, of which 23 were in the USSR and 10 during the transition period.

Calculation of Andrei's pension for the Soviet period:

Andrey’s coefficient for working in the Far North is 1.7. Salary – 620 rubles.

We calculate the length of service coefficient for 33 Soviet and transition years using the formula

SC = 0.55 + 0.01×(27-25) = 0.55 + 0.01×2 = 0.55 + 0.02 = 0.57

We calculate the coefficient of Andrey’s average monthly salary using the formula:

KSZ = ZR/ZP = 620 rubles (Andrey’s salary) ÷ 230 (average salary

by country) = 2.69.

Andrey's KSZ is higher than his northern coefficient, and therefore his KSZ cannot be more than 1.7.

The pension calculation will look like this:

(0.57 (length of service coefficient) × 1.7 (average monthly salary coefficient) × 1671) – 450 = 1169 rubles calculated pension.

As mentioned above, for each year of service until 2002, one percent is added to the pension capital, that is, for 33 years of service, Andrey is entitled to 33% of 1,169 rubles or 385 rubles.

1554 × 5.61 = 8196 rubles.

It remains to divide this amount by the cost of one point as of December 31, 2014, that is, by 64.1 rubles.

Thus, Andrey’s total points for the Soviet period will be 127 points. The cost of one point in 2018 is 81 rubles. We multiply 127 points by 81 rubles and get an increase of 10,368 rubles to the pension.

As can be seen from the example, it makes no sense for Andrey to ask to include service in the SA in his seniority at the rate of 1 for 2, since this will lead to a decrease in the coefficient of his average salary.

If we carry out the same calculations in relation to Ivan, we can see that the amount of his increase in pension will be half as much due to a decrease in the average salary coefficient, since it was two times lower than the national average. That is, the coefficient of his average salary will be 0.5 percent.

Accordingly, the number of points for the Soviet and transition periods will be reduced by half, and the increase in pension will be about 5,000 rubles. Ivan can compensate for the lack of points by increasing his length of work experience. Since Ivan served 3 years in the Navy, he can increase his pension by adding 1.8 × 3 = 5.4 points. In general calculations, this will add an additional 150 rubles per month to his pension. Whether this is a lot or a little, only Ivan can judge. Given the small size of his pension, an increase of about 2,000 rubles per year can play a very significant role. In addition, an increase in the amount of the pension also results from the increase received from the indexation of pensions, which is also important.

You don't risk anything

The easiest way is to entrust the calculations to specialists. In any case, their count will be final. It was mentioned above that recalculation can be carried out in two ways - by general length of service and according to length of service, taking into account allowances for serving in the SA. The second option will result in an automatic accrual of 1.8 points per year of service. This can be beneficial for those who had a small salary. But in both the first and second options, calculations will be made according to the best scenario for the pension recipient.

Important! There will be no reduction in pension payments. This is the general rule of any law that prevents the deterioration of a citizen’s condition. That is, if the pension payment is 10,000 rubles, and based on length of service with credit for service in the SA, it is reduced to 9,000 rubles, then it will not be reduced. Pension authorities will simply choose the best option for the pensioner.

Where to go

Recalculation will be carried out within five days. If the pension authorities determine that service in the SA will lead to an increase in pension payments, then a corresponding order will be issued, and from the beginning of the month following the application to the Pension Fund, the pensioner will begin to receive an increased pension.