In uniform

I dream of this, the cruiser Aurora?!

January 31, 2013 Alexander Golts

News coming from the Russian military department, all “miraculous and miraculous”, as Alice used to say. So in an interview with the Vesti on Saturday program, the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu told: Fulfilling the order of the country's top leadership, he ordered specialists to find out if it was possible to “recreate in its original form” and force the Avrora cruiser to swim. Which, from a technical point of view, is a dummy of the ship or, more precisely, its mummy. During the “restoration”, produced in the 80s of the last century, the entire underwater part was cut off by Aurora, steam boilers were replaced by layouts, rowing screws were removed, the bottom was flooded with concrete. According to some reports, the ship itself is on a concrete pedestal. That is, for its resuscitation, the production of steam boilers of the beginning of the last century should be recreated, and at the same time, to grind the rowing screws. Then make a new case and install deck and superstructure on it. As a result, it will turn out not cheaper than to build a Mistral helicopter carrier, anatoly Serdyukov is now accepted in a ruin purchase of which.

Why right now the restoration of Aurora was so important for the armed forces? The army should have “unshakable symbols”, and “Aurora” - one of them, answers Sergey Shoigu. Who argues - such symbols are certainly necessary. Symbols of military valor, patriotism and fidelity of the oath. Only now does the Aurora belong to those? If I have not gone crazy, then the last 94 years she was one of the main (if not the most important) symbols of the October Revolution. A symbol of the armed uprising against the existing government. More precisely: a symbol of the participation of the armed forces in a military coup. I note that this is not about the historical truth (Aurora has a wonderful military fate - there is a feat during the Tsushima battle, the heroic protection of the Gulf of Finland during the First World War, and the protection of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War), namely about symbols. Everything is completely unambiguous here. Aurora is a symbol of a military coup. Well, how is all this, so to say, symbolism correlates with endless reasoning that Russia has exhausted its limit of revolutions? Not to mention the postulates that the army should be out of politics?

I suspect that nothing. Due to the pressure, either “from below” or “from above” Sergey Shoigu makes decisions that should demonstrate to everyone the rejection of the inheritance of the discredited Serdyukov. And since the former minister ordered a team of military sailors to leave the Aurora, then Shoigu makes exactly the opposite.

I do not presume to judge whether what is happening is a kind of smoke curtain designed to protect the main achievements of the Serdyukov reforms, or is it a creeping counter -reform. On the one hand, the deputy chief of the General Staff, Alexander Postnikov, in his article in the Red Star, seems to approve the basic elements of these reforms: the transition to a three -star management system, the creation of four united strategic commands, an increase in the number of contractors to 415 thousand military personnel, and the approval of a decisive reduction in the officer corps. Moreover, just Sergey Shoigu and the new chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov presented Putin to the defense plan of the Russian Federation, in the preparation of which 49 ministries and departments took part. It is quite obvious that such a document in which it was first possible to take into account “all the programs related to the defense of our country: the weapons program, the mobilization program, and the programs of all ministries and departments throughout our country” cannot be made in a couple of months that have passed after Serdyukov’s resignation. If this document is not written on the knee at the president’s immediate request, then Serdyukov and his chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov made it.

On the other hand, a quiet sapa is a revision of Serdyukov’s approaches. Shoigu and Gerasimov sat at the annual session of the Academy of Military Sciences. And they listened to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who cheerfully compared the change of leadership of the Ministry of Defense with the victory over the Nazis in the battle of Moscow. Moreover, Shoigu reported to Putin that, according to the new approach, the capital and average repair of military equipment was transferred to the defense industry. At the same time, the personnel of the repair plants are “released”. The question of how much the OPC will request for this repair remains open. In the same interview with Vesti, Shoigu almost begs industry to "wake up, but set up real prices." The minister, it turns out, is so naive to believe: corporations, finding themselves full of monopolists, will appoint divine prices for their products. Or will he complain to Putin or even Dmitry Rogozin himself for each case of overestimation?

The same story is in the case of military education. Shoigu canceled Serdyukov’s decision that officers receive basic military education once, and then not for long - a maximum of 10 months - are trained in military academies and special courses before receiving each new position, and with it. These decisions inevitably led to the closure of a significant number of military schools and academies. Which caused a completely expected reaction of the faculty. The generals and colonels did not write to different instances at all that they were reluctant to leave apartments in Moscow or the Near Moscow Region. They informed everyone that the unique system of Soviet military education is destroyed. Really unique - all others refused it. I remember the real fury of the intelligent Igor Sergeyev. The Minister of Defense once drove to the Academy of the General Staff and found out: future strategists in general ranks study which charge will be required for an explosion ... stump. Just because there were nothing to occupy the audience.

And now, going towards the "army public", Shoigu ordered to return to the old three -star military education system - a military school (four years), the Academy (two years), the Academy of the General Staff (two more years). Thus, a third of the term of their service, future leaders of the Armed Forces are doomed to carry out far from the troops. This is not enough. The new Minister of Defense ordered the admission of new listeners to military schools. Over the past two or three years, the reception was practically discontinued: as a result of the reforms, a giant reserve of officer personnel has formed. In recent years, many graduates of military universities have been appointed to sergeant posts. And suddenly, as if by the wave of a magic wand, the places were freed - a reception was again announced to military schools. At the same time, God alone knows where several tens of thousands of officers who were behind the state went.

In addition, albeit with reservations, but the head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said that "no one denies large -scale wars, and there can be no question of unremarking for them." In the jargon of domestic strategists of the "large -scale", a world war is called. And if such a war is allowed, then, then, there should be funds for its maintenance. And we are talking not only about the exchange of nuclear blows that will stop life on the planet. If you prepare for war with global opponents, therefore, we must return to the concept of mass mobilization, which Serdyukov seemed to refuse. Those. Crowned formations will return, and the army itself will again become a “black hole”, where any investment disappears without any result. And now the General Staff is turning to Shoiga with a request to cancel the decision of Serdyukov that the soldiers-rings would serve closer to the house.

Let's call a spade a spade. A talented organizer, smart person Sergei Shoigu is not going to linger for a long time as Minister of Defense. And therefore, with a light heart, he does everything that generals want from him. And they want to build steam boilers in the era of nuclear reactors ...

In the photo: Russia. Saint Petersburg. Cadets of the St. Petersburg Marine College after the ceremony of the oath on board the cruiser "Aurora". Photo by ITAR-TASS/ Yuri Belinsky