Conscription in Russia
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Conscription in Russia is presently a 12 month draft, mandatory for all male citizens age 18-27, with a number of exceptions. The mandatory term of service was reduced from 18 months at the beginning of 2008.[1][2]
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[edit] Russian Empire and earlier times
Prior to Peter I, the bulk of the military was formed from the nobility and people who owned land on condition of service. During wars additional recruiting of volunteers and ordinary citizens was common. Peter I introduced a regular army consisting of the nobility and recruits. In XVII century, the nobility was gradually relieved of the military service duties (but not of their privileges and land), so the bulk of the recruits was formed by peasants and bourgeoisie. The universal conscription system was introduced into Imperial Russia by Dmitry Milyutin in the 1870s.
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[edit] Soviet Union
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[edit] Early Soviet Russia and Soviet Union
[edit] Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War all able-bodied men of ages ?-? were subject to draft with the exception of specialists declared vitally necessary in industry, which was revamped for military/defense production.
[edit] Late Soviet Union
In the late Soviet Union, including the Russian SFSR, there was a mandatory draft (with some exceptions) for all able-bodied males for 2 years in land forces and 3 years in the Navy. The conscripts were normally sent to serve far away from their place of residence.
Men were subject to draft at the age of 16. The draft could be postponed due to continued education.
Most universities had an obligatory Military Chair which were in charge of military training of all able-bodied male students to become officers of reserve of a particular military specialty depending on the university.
[edit] Russian Federation
As of 2007, Russian Federation has a mandatory 18 months draft for men but most Russians try to avoid it. The most widely used ways to avoid the military service are:
- Studying in a university or similar place. All full-time students are free from conscription, but they can be drafted after they graduate (or if they drop out). Graduated students serve one year as privates, but if they have a military education, they have the option to serve two years as officers. Persons who continue full-time postgraduate education, or have an academic degree (Candidate of Science, PhD, Doctor of Science) are not drafted.
- Getting a medical certificate that shows that a person is unfit for service. Sometimes such certificates are false and can be made for a bribe.
- Bribing military or civilian officials responsible for draft.
- Just not going to a draft station – draft-dodging. This sometimes can be a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison. Russian police and military draft boards often perform conscription through detention [1].
- A rarely used way is having more than two children, or one child younger than three years. The latter will be dropped from the law in 2008.
- There are other legal (described in the law) and illegal ways to evade the draft.
In Russia, a person can be conscripted at the age 18 – 27, i.e. a man can't be drafted after he turns twenty-seven.
In 2006, the Russian government and duma gradually reduced the term of service to 18 months for those who will be conscripted in 2007 and to one year from 2008 and to drop some legal excuses for non-conscription from the law (such as non-conscription of rural doctors and teachers, of men who have a child younger than 3 years, etc.) from 1 January 2008. Also full-time students graduated from civil university and have military education will be free from conscription from 1 January 2008.
As a result of draft evasion, Russian generals have complained on numerous times that the bulk of the army is made up of drug addicts, imbeciles, and ex-convicts, which in turn has led to an overall decline of the morale and function of the Russian armed services. Conscripts often face brutal hazing and bullying upon their entrance into the military, known as dedovshchina, some dying as a result. Suicide among Russian conscripts is at an all-time high.
[edit] References
- ^ Military service in Russia cut by half
- ^ Army time cut to one year Russia Today Retrieved on April 28, 2008
[edit] See also
- Conscription through detention in Russia's armed forces
- Only eleven percent of Russian men enter mandatory military service.
- Dedovschina.
- Russian draftee’s legs and genitals amputated after hazing incident.
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