How many years have you served in the Russian army before? Recruitment of the Soviet (Red) Army Conscription age in the Soviet army.

In order to answer the question of how many served in the army in the USSR, you need to understand that the formation of this period was preceded by a long history of the formation of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.

1. In pre-revolutionary Russia, 25 years were allotted to serve the fatherland. All nobles had to repay their debt to the Motherland during this period.
2. Thanks to the military reform of 1874, service was reduced to 7 years.
3. After the end of the First World War and general mobilization, the service period was 3 years. It remained this way until 1941.
4. From 1945 to 1967 the term was 3 years, in the navy it was 4 years.
5. With the military reform in 1967 and until 1993, people were drafted into the army for 2 years.

How was the service?

The armed forces of the Soviet Union served to protect the freedoms and gains of the entire Soviet people. For this reason, the attitude towards the army was appropriate. On September 1, 1939, the law on universal conscription into the army came into force, as a result of which service in the Soviet army became an honorable right of all citizens. Since 1939, active growth in weapons production began, and specialized military educational institutions were also opened.

Before the start of the war with Nazi Germany, the reorganization of the armed forces was not completed in full, so the war of 1941-1945 became a heavy burden for the Soviet people.

During the war, officer training continued through accelerated courses. After victory in World War II was won, conscription service continued.

In those days, this was a mandatory and prestigious duty and no one had the desire to shirk it in any way, but they were also afraid to serve, no less than now. Nevertheless, everyone had to go through this stage of life, otherwise in later life it would be difficult to find their place in society. After all, even when applying for a job, the first thing they asked was where they served. It was a shame not to join the army; they were not accepted into the ranks of the armed forces only because of illness, and this already cast a shadow on the attitude towards such a person.

Find out: How many are conscripted in the army in Russia in 2018?

The service began with a farewell to the army. During the Soviet era, great attention was paid to this issue, feasts were thrown, the number of guests equal to a wedding celebration. Such events usually lasted all night and the next morning the boy, the whole company, was sent to serve.
The Soviet army was a school of life for yesterday's schoolchildren. They really grew up there. They learned discipline and acquired the skills necessary for life. Not always useful, but we learned a lot. First of all, physical endurance.

Striking differences

How is service different in Soviet times from how it is now:

• In order to inform my mother that everything was fine, it took from two weeks to a month, that’s how long it took for the letter to arrive by mail.
• Exercise. This issue received great attention. In 2 years, a guy who couldn’t do one pull-up on the bar could be turned into a strong and resilient man.
• You had to get dressed in 45 seconds, and this was a prerequisite for further service.
• Due to the fact that 2 years is a long service life, there was room for extra-statutory relations based on service life. The army hierarchy was strictly observed.
• A reverent attitude towards fellow countrymen. In the USSR they could have been distributed throughout the Soviet Union, so fellow countrymen were treated in a special way.
• All soldiers were required to be assigned kitchen duties. There were no specially invited people in the kitchen. Cooks were recruited from among the soldiers.
• Such a ritual as hemming collars was an obligatory component of a soldier’s ordinary day.

But in the army of the Soviet era, the issue of “hazing” was very strongly developed. Absolutely everyone went through the entire hierarchical army order, from “spirit” to “grandfather,” and in order to survive in this system, you had to have a strong spirit, first of all. Many who served then say that my service in the Soviet army was a natural selection, because the strongest survived. It is believed that these army laws came to the ranks of the Soviet army in 1967, after another military reform.

Find out: Are pension points given for military service?

In the army that year the term was reduced by 1 year. This became the reason for the discontent of the old-timers, who splashed out their anger on the younger recruits, and then, progressively, the former “young” rose to the rank of “grandfathers” and, in turn, began to educate the new arrivals. It was no longer possible to break this chain. Also, in Soviet times, there was a high probability of ending up in some hot spot, helping the fraternal people of some country, the soldiers were not given a choice.

Russian army in our time

Currently, service in the Russian army is 1 year. In the ranks of the armed forces, the number of contract servicemen exceeds the number of conscripts.
What changes did military reform bring to the army?

• Due to the fact that the service life has been reduced to 1 year, the period for completing the KMB is 1 month.
• Such a concept as “hazing” has lost its meaning because a new conscription can only be encountered in a unit with old-time soldiers who have served for 8 months or less. There are almost no extra-statutory relationships based on length of service.
• Dressings in the dining room have been cancelled. All food preparation is done by civilians.
• It is allowed to have a mobile phone. Thanks to this, parents know all the details of their son’s service.
• Soldiers on duty are rarely allowed access to equipment and weapons. Maintenance of military equipment and its repair are entrusted to military personnel under contract.
• The soldiers are mainly engaged in auxiliary work. They dig, paint fences and do other useful things.
• Living conditions for personnel have improved. Mostly soldiers live in renovated or new barracks.
• The soldiers stopped beating. Physical examinations are performed daily to check for scrapes and bruises.
• In the soldier's uniform, such clothing details as collars and foot wraps were abolished. Soldiers use socks, but do not use collar collars.

To summarize, I would like to say that serving in the army was and remains a difficult task, both in Soviet times and now. But despite this, many young people join the army, and even

RECRUITMENT AGE- the age established by law, upon reaching which men are called up for active military service. VP ends adolescence. During this period, despite the fact that the physical and mental formation of the body is not yet completed, the person reaches a level sufficient for successful work. Experience shows that with a rational regime of work, nutrition, physical activity. education and training, which are provided in the Soviet Army and Navy, men who have reached conscription age can successfully complete military service without harm to health. Conscription of citizens at a young age for military service is also advisable from a state point of view, since they, as a rule, do not yet have industrial qualifications and their conscription into the army has less impact on the country's economy. After studying in secondary school, they receive in the army physical, moral and political training useful for later life, and often a specialty applicable in the national economy.

In many countries (USA, Germany, etc.) VP is 18 years old. In England, volunteers are accepted at 15 years and 9 months. In Tsarist Russia, the age for conscription was 21 years. In the USSR, by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of September 28, 1922, a military sentence of 20 years was established. In 1925, due to the adverse effects of the First World War and the Civil War on the physical development and health of young people, the first Law on Compulsory Military Service raised the age of military service to 21 years. In 1936, by resolution of the Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V.p. was reduced to 19 years of age, which was due to a significant improvement in the material well-being, culture and health of the population, as well as a decrease in the number of young people of conscription age born during the First World War and the Civil War.

In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the “Law on Universal Military Duty”, which established military service for 19 years, and for those who graduated from high school - 18 years. The experience of Soviet military schools in the post-war period, where young men were admitted from the age of 17, showed that they successfully master military affairs and develop harmoniously physically. Taking this into account, on October 12, 1967, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a new “USSR Law on Universal Military Duty”, which introduced a single military service of 18 years. The maximum V. ft. has also been established. in peacetime, in the positions of privates and sergeants up to 27 years, in officer positions up to 30 years.

According to the joint instructions of the M3 of the USSR and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, young men from 15 years of age must be examined annually by medical specialists with anthropometry, X-ray and laboratory tests. Those in need are provided with the necessary health-improving medical and professional measures. In the year that young men turn 17, they are assigned to conscription stations with medical services. examination and determination of suitability for military service in accordance with the Schedule of Diseases and the Table of Additional Requirements put into effect by order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR. Persons fit for service are registered with the military and are preliminarily designated for service in the branches of the Armed Forces (arms).

Those who have reached V.P. undergo repeated medical examination before conscription. examination by conscription commissions, which decide on conscription for service in one or another branch of the armed forces, branch of the Armed Forces, exemption from conscription for those unfit for service who need a deferment for treatment, due to marital status or to continue their education. Those who received a deferment for health reasons after treatment undergo medical treatment again at the next conscription. examination.

P. A. Pisarenko.

In pre-revolutionary Russia:

Until 1874, military service was carried out by recruits (peasants and townspeople). At first, military service was indefinite; from 1793, the period of service was reduced to 25 years. It gradually decreased - and by the time of the military reform of 1874 it was already 7 years.

After the reform, conscription was replaced by universal conscription. The total service life in the ground forces was 15 years (directly in service - 6 years, and the rest of the time in the reserve), the total service period in the navy was 10 years (direct service - 7 years).

In 1906, the period of active military service was reduced to 3 years. Then, in August-December 1914, general mobilization took place in connection with the outbreak of the First World War.

After the revolution of 1917 and the civil war, a new army began to form in the new state.

In the USSR:

Based on various decrees and resolutions of the Central Executive Committee, the length of service was changed several times until the law on compulsory military service was adopted in 1925.

In the ground forces, until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it was 2 years. In aviation: from 1925 to 1928 - 3 years, from 1928 to 1939 - 2 years, from 1939 to 1941 - again 3 years. It also varied in the navy. So, from 1924 to 1928 you had to serve for 4 years, from 1928 to 1939 - 3 years, from 1939 - 5 years.

After the Great Patriotic War (with the beginning of which mobilization was carried out again), a new law on universal conscription was adopted already in 1949. In accordance with it, men were drafted into the ground forces and aviation for 3 years, and into the navy for 4 years.

In 1967, a new law on universal conscription was adopted, the service life was shortened and was 2 years for those sent to the ground forces and aviation, and 3 years for the navy.

In modern Russia:

In 1993, the normative act that existed in the USSR was repealed - the Russian Federation Law “On Military Duty and Military Service” came into force. Initially, the document reduced the service life to 18 months (i.e. 1.5 years), and in the fleet - to 2 years.

In 1996, in connection with the beginning of the Chechen campaign, a new law came into force, according to which the duration of service in the army and navy was equal - and amounted to 2 years.

In the early 2000s, preparations began in Russia for the division of military service by conscription and contract - and at the same time to reduce the period of conscription service from 2 years to 1 year. For the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian leadership plans to reduce the length of conscription military service back in 2002.

The transition took place in stages: for example, young people who joined the army in the fall of 2007 had to serve for 1.5 years. And since January 2008, the service life has been 12 months - 1 year.

In November 2012, the media, following a statement by the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, reported that the length of service in the Russian army would be revised again. Thus, according to the chairman of the committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, the optimal length of service is one and a half years, and the reduction of service to 1 year was a “political decision” and in fact has a bad effect on the combat readiness of the army.

A source in the Kremlin almost immediately refuted this, recalling the president’s implemented initiative to reduce deadlines.

I found somewhere that before the war the conscription age was 21 years old. With the start of the war, the bar was lowered to 18, and that’s how it remains...
however, according to http://www.soldat.ru/doc/law/law_war/war1939.html

CHAPTER II
On conscription for active military service.

Article 14. Citizens who reach the age of conscription (from January 1 to December 31) are called up for active military service. nineteen years old, and those who have graduated from high school and its corresponding educational institutions are eighteen years old.

http://hghltd.yandex.net/yandbtm?url=http%...OEOpiJ7Sw%3D%3D

Vladimir Bogdanovich, apparently, is not aware of what was happening in connection with the events in Poland and therefore is trying to squeeze a completely routine Law on universal conscription into the system of evidence of the “aggressiveness” of the USSR.
“Before 1939, there was no universal conscription in the Soviet Union. The conscription age is 21 years old. This is not clear. [...] And no one can really explain why it is necessary to enlist in the army at the age of 21, and not earlier.”

It can be explained quite simply. A young man looks better as a soldier than a beardless youth. At one time, 21 was the standard conscription age. For example, in Finland. The need for soldiers led to the fact that in 1940 the Finns called up younger age groups for emergency training. However, the emergency system as a conscription system could not be long-term, and on January 24, 1941, the Finnish parliament adopted a new law on conscription, which increased the length of service and lowered the conscription age to 20 years. As a result of this, in the Finnish army in 1940–1941. There were three conscription ages in active service. France in the 1910s gives us the same example. The conscription age was 21, but in 1913 the conscription age was lowered to 20 years. As a result, in the fall of 1913, two ages were called up simultaneously, 20- and 21-year-olds, receiving 445 thousand instead of 256 thousand recruits in previous years. The French army, which previously averaged 450 thousand people, in 1914 reached 690 thousand combatants and 45 thousand non-combatants for a population of 39 million. In a word, “Icebreaker” about France in 1914 is written at once. And the plans were offensive, and two ages were called up in 1913, and in the regulations they wrote about the offensive as the main type of action.

But the history of the Red Army does not even provide a reason for such stories. Vladimir Bogdanovich is simply not in the know and therefore informs readers:
“And Stalin also had a reserve: according to the new “Law on Universal Military Duty,” the conscription age was lowered from 21 to 19 years, and for some categories - to 18. And they immediately raked in all those who were 21, and all those who were 20, and who are 19, and in some cases even 18. My father was also in this set; he then turned 18.” (Day M, Chapter 16.)

The conscription age was lowered not in 1939, but three years earlier, when a resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was issued on August 11, 1936, SZ 1936 No. 46, which read:
"1. In amendment to Art. 10 of the “Law on Compulsory Military Service” of August 13, 1930(SZ 1930 No. 40, Art. 424) establish that citizens are called upon to serve active military service in the Red Army upon reaching 19 years of age by January 1 of the year of conscription (instead of 21 years of age).” (Legislation on the defense of the USSR. M.: Voenizdat, 1939. P. 63.)