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migmitI happen to have a little bit of "experience" of being in the Ruskies "army". Let me explain in case somebody who reads my blog is not familiar with this practice.
In US — as far as I know — the army consists of volunteers. They chose this profession. Maybe some regret their choice, but in any case at some point in their lives they made a decision to join the army. In Russia, however, the army was always based on conscription. There are professional soldiers as well, but a very significant part of soldiers are conscripts. Because of that, draft dodging is kind of a national sport there. I know, I played that game myself, and managed to win without even breaking any laws.
Those who ARE in that "army" now are mostly those who lost. Think about that.
Anyway, while in college, I didn't know if I would be successful in this game. So, as a plan B, I joined the military training course offered by our college. Sounds a bit counterintuitive, but the real reason is that those who finish such a course and are drafted, do not start as a soldiers. They would start as officers. Which is, of course, way easier.
Most of that course is "theoretic" — meaning, students sit in classrooms and listen — or not — to the lecturer. The only difference with what's normal for them is that the lecturer is wearing uniform. But at the end of it (the course itself lasted for three years when I took it) there is a month-long practical part. The same students are herded into a "real" army base, they wear uniforms themselves, they live in barracks, they march, they... well, they don't really shoot. We weren't given loaded guns at all, except for one day, when we were supposed to do some target practice. It was explained to us very clearly that our results don't matter and, in fact, won't be recorded in any official documents; so, personally, I didn't even look where I was shooting.
That "real" army base wasn't real — it wasn't on the front lines anywhere, it wasn't even very far from Saint Petersburg where I lived. On the other hand, I would expect it to not have much trouble getting any kind of supplies, given how short logistical lines should've been.
There are just a few things I wanted to highlight. The first one is actually not my personal experience, but a second-hand one. A friend of mine once got an assignment to the base headquarters to do some data entry. There was an upcoming revision of the base, and the officers tried to straighten up all documentation they could, so, some bureaucratic backlog was getting cleared. He later related to me what those documents looked like. They would go like this: "Number of trucks — 15. Number of trucks in a working condition — 3. Status of the base truck fleet — satisfactory". I'm quoting numbers from memory, of course, but the order of magnitude is, I believe, correct.
And that "working condition" might not be exactly what that phrase is supposed to mean. The next one did happen to me personally. I was assigned a task of helping to deliver some waste from the kitchen to the pigsty.
Yes, the base did have it's own pigsty. I don't know if it existed officially.
Anyway, while driving there in the truck bed, I've heard some of what was said in the cabin. There were two people there: the driver — obviosly a conscript — and another, more experienced guy, who, if memory serves, had a rank of a sergeant. And I've heard the sergeant instructing the driver "Turn the wheel to the right, you moron!"
Yes, the truck did in fact reach its destination, and even managed to get back, although not without suffering some damage: the truck hit some wire (supporting a pole somewhere) and lost a little bit of wood on a side. Still.
And one more thing. During that month, we — students — took over some kitchen duties. I'm pretty sure that neither before nor after the soldiers weren't eating that well. At the very least, we did cut all of the rot out of the potatoes. All of it. I doubt the soldiers themselves did the same.
In US — as far as I know — the army consists of volunteers. They chose this profession. Maybe some regret their choice, but in any case at some point in their lives they made a decision to join the army. In Russia, however, the army was always based on conscription. There are professional soldiers as well, but a very significant part of soldiers are conscripts. Because of that, draft dodging is kind of a national sport there. I know, I played that game myself, and managed to win without even breaking any laws.
Those who ARE in that "army" now are mostly those who lost. Think about that.
Anyway, while in college, I didn't know if I would be successful in this game. So, as a plan B, I joined the military training course offered by our college. Sounds a bit counterintuitive, but the real reason is that those who finish such a course and are drafted, do not start as a soldiers. They would start as officers. Which is, of course, way easier.
Most of that course is "theoretic" — meaning, students sit in classrooms and listen — or not — to the lecturer. The only difference with what's normal for them is that the lecturer is wearing uniform. But at the end of it (the course itself lasted for three years when I took it) there is a month-long practical part. The same students are herded into a "real" army base, they wear uniforms themselves, they live in barracks, they march, they... well, they don't really shoot. We weren't given loaded guns at all, except for one day, when we were supposed to do some target practice. It was explained to us very clearly that our results don't matter and, in fact, won't be recorded in any official documents; so, personally, I didn't even look where I was shooting.
That "real" army base wasn't real — it wasn't on the front lines anywhere, it wasn't even very far from Saint Petersburg where I lived. On the other hand, I would expect it to not have much trouble getting any kind of supplies, given how short logistical lines should've been.
There are just a few things I wanted to highlight. The first one is actually not my personal experience, but a second-hand one. A friend of mine once got an assignment to the base headquarters to do some data entry. There was an upcoming revision of the base, and the officers tried to straighten up all documentation they could, so, some bureaucratic backlog was getting cleared. He later related to me what those documents looked like. They would go like this: "Number of trucks — 15. Number of trucks in a working condition — 3. Status of the base truck fleet — satisfactory". I'm quoting numbers from memory, of course, but the order of magnitude is, I believe, correct.
And that "working condition" might not be exactly what that phrase is supposed to mean. The next one did happen to me personally. I was assigned a task of helping to deliver some waste from the kitchen to the pigsty.
Yes, the base did have it's own pigsty. I don't know if it existed officially.
Anyway, while driving there in the truck bed, I've heard some of what was said in the cabin. There were two people there: the driver — obviosly a conscript — and another, more experienced guy, who, if memory serves, had a rank of a sergeant. And I've heard the sergeant instructing the driver "Turn the wheel to the right, you moron!"
Yes, the truck did in fact reach its destination, and even managed to get back, although not without suffering some damage: the truck hit some wire (supporting a pole somewhere) and lost a little bit of wood on a side. Still.
And one more thing. During that month, we — students — took over some kitchen duties. I'm pretty sure that neither before nor after the soldiers weren't eating that well. At the very least, we did cut all of the rot out of the potatoes. All of it. I doubt the soldiers themselves did the same.
