Indentured servitude

Last weekend, the army topic became one of the most discussed. On April 1, the spring conscription began. And the day before this, sub-Kremlin youth groups tried to prove the unnecessaryness of the transition to a contract army and the usefulness of universal recruitment into the troops by throwing chicken legs at their civically active peers. But even with the transition to a contract, everything turns out to be not so simple. Already on April 2, there was information about a young man who had escaped from a GRU base, where he was forced to sign a contract “blindly,” then his wages were taken away and he was forced to rob civilians. We are publishing an article about the problems of the transition to a contract army, written by a well-known human rights activist who has been working on this problem for many years, Lyudmila Vakhnina.

How much passion and eloquence was spent on demands for a transition to a contract system of recruiting the army! And then the hour came when military units and even entire divisions began to be completely transferred to contract. The command of permanent combat readiness units received instructions from the Ministry of Defense to switch to a contract method of manning. At the same time, it was reported that part of the funds that rely on the conversion of barracks into dormitories for contract soldiers and other similar needs will be received only if, by the deadline determined by the Federal Targeted Program (Federal Target Program for the transfer of a number of military units and formations to the contract method of manning), part will consist entirely of contract soldiers.

But where can we get so many of them? In the military registration and enlistment offices of crowds of people who want to “endure hardships” for 7-8 thousand rubles a month, something has not been noticed. But there is a provision of the law “On Military Duty and Military Service” (Article 34, paragraph 1, paragraph 3), which allows conscripts who have served for six months to enter into a contract. And the methods of working with conscripts are well known.

In the Perm region, military unit No. 32755 became famous. Since 2005, it began to intensify coercion of conscripted military personnel to sign contracts. Perm human rights activists-memorialists learned about this from a message from the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of the Kurgan Region, where the father of a soldier G., who was serving in the mentioned unit and left the unit without permission, applied. The reason was coercion to sign a contract. Soldiers who served six months of conscription were lined up and kept in the cold for several hours in the winter and in the sun in the summer. Those who agreed to sign the contract were allowed to go to the barracks. And behind those who remained stood a line of old-timers who beat the “young” ones. The commander in his office awarded the most persistent ones with his own “education” with his fist. In confidential conversations with military unit employees, the memorial workers managed to obtain dozens of confirmations of this information.

Similar methods of influence were noted in the village of Totskoye, Orenburg region. In one of the units, soldiers are lined up on the parade ground naked to the waist and kept in the cold until they get consent to sign a contract. In another, they used such measures as keeping them in the basement for several days.

And there is nothing to say about such a simple means as beatings. Serviceman Yu, serving in the Volgograd region, was beaten by officers for his unwillingness to sign a contract, and only after his mother arrived at the unit he was admitted to the hospital with a broken nose and numerous bruises. When the mother asked about the reason for the beating, the commander, as usual, began to tell how bad this soldier was, then the relatives were asked to leave the unit, and upon arriving home the mother received a phone call and threatened that their son would be imprisoned.

Apparently, this way of implementing the Federal Target Program seems natural to the command. The 20th division, located in the Volgograd region, is completely switching to a contract. Deputy The division commander for educational work at a meeting in the presence of leaders of organizations of soldiers’ mothers said that this would require forcing about 4,500 conscripted servicemen to sign a contract.

However, not everyone relies on brute force. You can simply, without any pretense, declare a “conscript” a contract soldier, without bothering with any formalities. Mikhail K., along with 40 other soldiers, was sent to a contract regiment stationed in the city of Bikin (Khabarovsk Territory). The company commander explained that the contracts had already been signed, and all new arrivals were already serving under a contract. Mikhail managed to see only from afar the folder with these documents. No other acquaintance with them was intended.

Often, conscripts fall for promises to terminate their contracts at the end of two years of service - due to non-compliance with the contract by the Ministry of Defense.

It ends in different ways. It happens that the contract termination report is torn up and the guy is beaten. (“Hazing was used on the part of the battery commander” - in these terms, serviceman D., who served in the Chelyabinsk region, reported the results of his attempt to terminate the contract).

It happens that they will remind you about the law - a year of contract service is equal to six months of conscription. If you want to terminate the contract, you will serve through conscription.

It turned out to be especially interesting in the Kaliningrad region with a battalion of marines. There, to confirm the promises, the brigade commander signed the following note on the back of the contracts and sealed it with the seal of the military unit: “I guarantee dismissal from the armed forces in accordance with the period of conscription service.”

A year later, having learned that this record had no legal force and they had to serve for another year, seven contract soldiers, with the assistance of the KSM of the Kaliningrad region, went to the court of the Baltic military garrison.

We must pay tribute to the officers who honestly confirmed at the trial that the guys were promised dismissal after completing their conscription service. “Conscripts cannot serve in our battalion, since the battalion is in constant readiness and can be sent to a hot spot within 24 hours... They are good specialists, drivers of combat vehicles,” this is how the officers argued for issuing “guarantees.” In the end, the leadership of the Marine Brigade signed a settlement agreement with the seven Marines, under which it agreed to terminate their contracts.

You can probably sympathize with the officers - this federal target program fell on them. But alas, a considerable part of them quickly got their bearings and learned to turn the “headache” to their benefit.

It happens that commanders let unlucky contract soldiers go home after two years of service... not for free. Serviceman Sergei K., who served in Khabarovsk, was sent home, having been persuaded to leave his military ID on the word of honor of an officer, who promised to draw up documents and send them to his place of residence, and received financial “gratitude.” Then for 4 months the family called the unit, they came up with various excuses. Eventually, K. learned that a criminal case had been opened against him for desertion. Let us note that all this time K. was receiving a salary, which he, naturally, did not see.

Sometimes such conflicts are resolved more peacefully: the guy lives as best he can for a year without documents (the main thing is not to get caught by the patrol). A year later he receives the documents, but, naturally, does not mention his salary. There is reason to think that this happens quite often, so how many real contract soldiers we have and how many “virtual” ones is a big question.

In the daily life of military units, the already considerable scale of extortion has sharply increased. In the mentioned unit No. 32755 (Perm Territory), with the advent of “involuntarily contract soldiers,” extortionists intensified from among the officers and contract soldiers who arrived in the unit voluntarily following directions from the military registration and enlistment offices. These are, as a rule, men 25-30 years old who have already completed military service. Of course, there were extortionists in the unit before, but now that the “young” began to receive several thousand rubles, the commanders’ appetites have grown significantly. In great secrecy, human rights activists were told that when servicemen return from two-month field exercises at the Totsky training ground, contract soldiers who received a large salary are taken away by unit officers. Recently, even junior lieutenants with their small salaries began to buy foreign cars.

Complaints about extortion are increasingly coming from officers. Although, when “grandfathers” appear as extortionists, there is also no need to be deceived.

The story of contract soldier S. contains a description of the mechanism by which officer crime can be attributed to “hazing.”

Contract service private S. in September 2005 voluntarily left his place of service, which at that time was the garrison military hospital in Pskov. Having appeared at the military prosecutor's office at his place of residence, he cited extortion by the deputy company commander for educational work, senior lieutenant P., as the reason for his action, as well as his senior colleagues.

According to the person who confessed, in June 2004 he received about 9,000 rubles from the cash register. Immediately, Sergeant-Major D. offered to transfer the money to him for safekeeping. The 6,000 rubles handed over in an envelope the next day ended up in the custody of Senior Lieutenant P., who, despite repeated requests, did not give the money, explaining that he needed it in case “if problems arise.” Under threat of physical harm, S. handed over 2,000 rubles to another “grandfather” “to buy a car for the needs of the company.”

However, the lieutenant did without intermediaries. “For the needs” of the company, he collected 300-400 rubles monthly from each serviceman. According to Private S., the “educator” did not hide the fact that with the money collected he intended to purchase a BMW car of the seventh series. In the fall of 2004, he took 1,000 rubles from S., allegedly to prepare him for a business trip to the Chechen Republic. It turned out that there would be no business trip, but the lieutenant did not return the money.

A good reason for extortion is the provision of vacation. Roman G. served in the Rostov region. “Voluntarily-compulsorily” signed a contract and was sent to the Chechen Republic. When accruing money, it was systematically shortchanged, and most of what was given out was taken “for the needs of the unit.” Roman's health deteriorated and treatment was required. To be sent on leave, he arrived at his unit in the Rostov region, asking his parents to come pick him up. He was granted leave and given 51 thousand rubles. But... he had to give 17 thousand as a bribe. The mother, who arrived at the request of her son, tried not to comply with these demands, but she was told that then he would not receive a vacation ticket.

Where officers began to enjoy commanding contract soldiers, the situation in the units worsened sharply. This is not surprising: to get more money you need more pressure. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of those who leave their unit without permission due to the threat of physical violence and those who do not return from vacation. This is the telegram that came in December addressed to the head of Perm Memorial from the mother of one “defector”. “I ask you to protect my son (last name, first name, patronymic), serving under a contract in military unit 32755. He is afraid to return to his unit after leave. No matter how he killed himself. Help". The telegram arrived just after two suicides of contract soldiers occurred in this unit one after another in the first week of December 2006.

A contract soldier, like a conscript, is dust under his feet for his “father-commanders”. Everything remained as it was: disregard for health, labor exploitation, intimidation, beatings.

Contract soldier N., serving in the Pskov division, writes in a statement to human rights activists: “Having signed the contract, I made a mistake by believing the promises of the officers that there would be professional training, there would be no hazing with old-timers... When the time came to receive a salary, the old-timers began to hint that they need money. As a result, after receiving my salary, my money ran out in four days, and so that everyone would remain silent and no one would tell me that they were taking money, they began to threaten and beat me for nothing, just passing by. Relations in the company are like in prison, the officer hit me on the head with a shovel twice, inflicting a deep chopped wound. Having sobered up a little, I wanted to send me to the medical unit for a bandage, but the old-timers, realizing how this could end, somehow bandaged my head, hid me for four days, not allowing me to go to the medical unit, and took me to construction work. Only when the wound began to fester and the forehead was swollen and the temperature rose, they were sent to the hospital at the regiment for dressing. ..."

It is probably clear without further explanation that the above does not contribute to increasing the combat effectiveness of fully contracted units. Often in the explanations of fugitive contract soldiers it flashes: they don’t teach anything, there’s nothing to do there, the officers “don’t dry out.”

Or here is the story of Dmitry T., a serviceman of a military unit located in the city of Bikin, Khabarovsk Territory. Before being drafted into the army, he suffered two brain injuries. The first time I fell from the fourth floor of a building under construction, the second time I was hit on the head with a brick.

The survey was not carried out either before the call-up or at the conclusion of the contract. T. is whiny, unkempt, with an ever-smiling face, illiterate, does not immediately understand what is required of him, and cannot put on paper information about what is happening to him. Having signed a contract, he was beaten several times and never received any money. Having left his unit without permission, he lived at the railway station in Khabarovsk. The prosecutor's office of the Bikinsky garrison, which opened a criminal case on the fact of unauthorized abandonment of the unit, offered every possible resistance to the examination of the serviceman for suitability for military service. Only after contacting the district prosecutor's office, Khabarovsk human rights activists managed to get him hospitalized, but the issue of his dismissal from military service has still not been resolved.

Does an officer who cares about the combat effectiveness of his unit need such a soldier? But it’s even easier to extract money from him than from others.

Soldiers' mothers, in response to indignation at such a “reform,” sometimes hear: “You yourself wanted contract service.” However, it was the soldiers’ mothers who, 4 years ago, gave assessments that went unnoticed, but turned out to be prophetic.

According to Ida Kuklina, Doctor of Political Science, member of the Coordination Council of the Union of KSM of Russia, “the increase in the number of more or less adequately paid contract soldiers... is being integrated into the existing, that is, left over from the past, system of relations between the Armed Forces and society. ...It may well turn out that by 2010, as a result of the planned measures, Russia will receive an army that is even more backward than it is now. ...Contract soldiers...by this time will “slide” to the level of current conscripts, ...whose sole purpose is not to ensure the security of the country, but to ensure the functioning and self-reproduction of a cumbersome military corporation closed from society. Military reform in Russia most of all needs not money, but civilian control” (Human Rights Defender. - 2003. - No. 2. - P. 72).

Let us add to this that the army also needs a significant change in legislation, which enshrines the powerless position of the soldier. This is what is at the heart of what is happening.

Materials used in the article were provided by:

Valentina Afanasyeva. Pskov Regional Council of Soldiers' Mothers.

Valentina Babynina. Regional public organization of soldiers’ mothers “For Sons”, Krymsk, Krasnodar Territory.

Maria Bonzler. Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of the Kaliningrad Region.

Elena Burmitskaya. South Siberian Human Rights Center, Kemerovo region, Novokuznetsk.

Lyubov Garlivanova. Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of the Astrakhan Region.

Lyudmila Zinchenko. Association of Soldiers' Mothers of the Chelyabinsk Region.

Elena Kalinina. Kirov Regional Human Rights Center, Kirov.

Irina Kizilova. Perm regional branch of the Memorial Society.

Tatiana Mikhailova. Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of the Oryol Region, Livny.

Nina Ponomareva. Volgograd regional human rights public organization of parents of military personnel “Mother’s Right”.

Valentina Reshetkina. Khabarovsk Regional Committee of Soldiers' Mothers.

Pavel Shmakov. Khabarovsk Regional Human Rights Center.

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