Vsevobuch

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vsevobuch (via Russian: всевобуч, a portmanteau for всеобщее военное обучение (vseobshcheye voyennoye obucheniye), universal military training) is the name of the compulsory military training of men practiced in the former Soviet Union. Vsevobuch is also affiliated with the sports training, to which it contributed.

The first vsevobuch was urged by the 7th congress of the Workers' and Peasants' Bolshevik Party. It took place de iure in March, 1918 to fight the remnants of opposition to the Soviet rule. Initially Vsevobuch engaged mainly the workers and from summer also the poor peasants.^[1] The whole process was canceled in 1923.

Shortly after the opening of the Eastern Front of World War II a decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense was issued on September 17, 1941. Named "On Universal Compulsory Military Training of the Citizens of the USSR", it came into force on October, 1 of the same year and embraced the males between 16 and 50 years old. The document ascertained that the military training should be provided in civilian way without the isolation from work. The Central Department of Vsevobuch was formed within the People's Commissariat of Defense.

It is estimated that the total figure of those passed through Vsevobuch in 1941-45 would be 9,862,000 men.^[2]

A 4550 m-mountain in Trans-Ili Alatau was named after Vsevobuch.^[3]