Soviet Construction Battalion: the most unremarkable service in the army. Aty-bats, where the construction battalions go

I’ll move a little away from the all-consuming topic of squirrels - I’ll tell you how my friend Dima served in the construction battalion.
I have known Dima for ten years, he is three years older than me. He is an extraordinary person, both externally and, so to speak, internally: whoever communicated with him for more than five minutes, or irrevocably went nuts, or found refuge in own feeling humor. But this is not about that.
At school, he was engaged in classical wrestling, the boy grew up not weak. But in graduation class decided that it was time to take up his mind, sat down to textbooks and abruptly quit sports - as a result, he put on weight. Now, with an increase of about 175, it weighs somewhere 110-115 kg; I think that when he was called, he was the same. And they called him from the first year of the local Polytechnic - it was in 87 or 88, then students were called.
Dima had some health problems (probably metabolism or something like that), so he was assigned to the construction battalion. And before that, he got to the local assembly point. In the second half of the 80s, the gopota was a terrible force in any city (remember the Lyuberians), and in our country the inhabitants of the Leninsky district enjoyed the glory of the frostbitten ones - so, Dima had a close conversation with them at this collection point. Lenin's were mostly boxers, there were several of them, and Dima concluded that, despite the classics, he did not know how to fight. But he was not discouraged - he knew that he would have a lot of practice ahead. He was not wrong.
I warn you - we will talk about rude things, maybe it's better not to read?
I don’t know exactly how he was there - it seemed that he first got into training, where he was offered to become a sergeant (but he refused - he was tired of running ten-kilometer crosses), but in the end they were brought to their final duty station: a construction battalion in the Moscow region. Of the Slavic brothers, Dima was the only one who had no criminal record. But, besides the Slavs, there were representatives of other nationalities: a lot of Uzbeks, as well as Chechens and Dagestanis - for them, service near Moscow was considered super-prestigious, no matter in which troops, they almost gave bribes for this. Chechens and Dagi and other children of the mountains did not work, they were in the position of Zonov thieves (and there were quite a few of them, by the way) - the main labor force were Russians with Ukrainians and the same Uzbeks.
I don't know with whom he quarreled there, but Dima's jaw was soon broken. Treatment? - what treatment ?! will heal by itself! So he went on for a month of almost non-crunchy (and did not lose any weight, as he says), and then another half of his jaw crunched when he ate - unpleasant.
Apparently, his fighting qualities improved. He tells the following episode: three or four idiots came to beat him, they took him into some kind of back room - so he knocked one down, crushed him under him and began to beat him with short blows, while the rest kicked Dima at this time: but nothing, he says, I feel - okay, you can live, only the one below expresses his disapproval of the current situation. So two or three kicked Dima, he beat one, then he was asked sacramental: "Do you understand everything?" - "Of course"; and they scattered, satisfied with the achieved result - only the lower one was dissatisfied.
Such a showdown, by the way, was only between the Russians - God forbid it was to catch a Chechen or a Dag. Then all his fellow tribesmen resorted to, about seventy people, well, they did not get much good. Dima says that they had one guy, from somewhere in Zlatoust or something, so he somehow did not work out with the children of the mountains - they beat him in a black way. Then they made him an offer: give it to the ass, we will stop hitting. In general, the guy agreed. And such things in such a collective do not remain a secret, and here the Russians were already indignant: why, give yourself to be fucked by lumps! As Dima says, they took this guy into Lenin's room at night and beat him, explaining what is good and what is bad. The guy got to the hospital, of course, showed who beat him (about Dima he said that he beat him a little, but very painfully): there was a smell of disbat. But the perpetrators told the officers that at the trial they would tell about the reason for this beating - and at that time, it seems, the officers-commanders would not have thought little for a case of sodomy. In general, the officers limited themselves to the historical phrase: "We looked at his ass - there are no breaks," the case was hushed up, and the guy after the hospital was dismissed from the army.
The children of the mountains were generally quite spontaneous in their manifestations. Often, he says, you go to the toilet, and there they stand in a circle and jerk off, looking at each other. Yeah.
By the way, there were no problems with the bath - because there was no bath. Every few months they were given something similar, with a mug warm water and a piece laundry soap per person, but that's all. So Dima returned from the army - he was still driving boils for six months.
The work was based on the principle of "replacing the excavator". He says that they had to manually drag the floor to the seventh floor with the whole crowd by the foresters - nothing, they dragged it.
In addition to the Russians, I repeat, Uzbeks were also employed at work. Somehow Dima worked with such a frame, like the roof was poured with tar, well, the Uzbek screwed up something - Dimka's clothes burst into flames. Thank God, he instantly extinguished it, and most importantly, he did not let the roof catch fire or whatever it was flooded with. But stress, you understand, almost died. In general, he broke this Uzbek. He broke it so that the next morning his face hung, so to speak. And Dima instilled in him: "If you say that I beat you, I will kill you. Tell him that it was a propane tank that fell on you." A couple of days later, they were gathered and held a lecture on safety, because "recently a propane tank fell on the head of one of the soldiers of your unit ..."
Apparently, if it is not destiny to become a murderer, then it will not work. I don't know what happened there, but he says that he somehow hit one with something like a sharpening - the sharpening broke, even the clothes didn't break through. ... Just don't think that Dima is some kind of villain - the sweetest person, baschmatschkin will confirm. Just God forbid to be in such an environment.
As far as I know, in 1989, a law was passed to return students from the army, and Dima did not have to serve the entire term. I went home, got drunk on the train for the first and last time in my life - he said he didn't like it.
Then he still had a long time off - as he saw an officer on the street, he crossed to the other side: he was afraid not to restrain himself.
He recovered at the institute, graduated, and then received a second education.
Interestingly, some of his friends were also drafted from the student's bench, and also to a construction battalion, only to Siberia. So this guy gained twenty kilograms in the army, became some kind of maniac for exercises on the horizontal bar. There are different construction battalions.

Skills. For example, if you are a skydiver, you can count on serving in the Airborne Forces. If you have a driver's license, then there is a very high probability that you will serve as a driver. If you have skills in radio business, you will find yourself in the signal troops, technical units of the Air Force, etc. - that is, where your skills will be in demand.

If you do not want to get into a construction battalion, you should acquire certain skills. At the same time, many of them do not need to be documented, while at the military registration and enlistment office you will simply be asked a few questions. For example, if you were involved in radio business, you may be asked about how a power supply unit or a simple radio receiver works. For any difficulties in answering, these questions will not arise, as a result, you are guaranteed to get into good troops. In modern conditions, computer skills and programming skills are useful.

The primary assignment to a particular branch of the army occurs even at the stage of obtaining a certificate of registration during training c. Here you should be realistic and understand that if, at your request, you are pre-recorded in the Airborne Forces, then this does not mean anything. To get into the elite troops, you must at least have good physical training. On the other hand, if you ask to join the signal troops, your chances will be great enough.

The place of your study also affects getting into certain troops - if before serving in you managed to enter a university or other educational institution. Not all of them have military departments, so after the first year you can be drafted. If you are studying at a technical institute, your chances of getting into a construction battalion tend to zero. On the other hand, you may find yourself in a construction battalion, even while studying at the university at the Faculty of Science or Humanities. In the army, it is precisely the technical skills that are needed, so the humanitarian has a fairly good chance of being in the construction troops.

Be sure to monitor your health. If you have poor eyesight, you must prove that you cannot serve at all, or come to the draft board without. The worst option is when you are considered fit for service, but with restrictions, in this case you are practically provided with a construction battalion.

Kremlin troops

To serve in the Kremlin troops, you must meet certain physical requirements. In particular, you need to be at least 175 cm tall and not higher than 190 cm. It is also worth noting that the weight should be in normal proportion to such a tall figure. In addition, the sharpness of each eye cannot be lower than 0.7 and have an acceptable color perception. There are also restrictions that prevent him from serving in the Kremlin troops. For example, the applicant must not have relatives abroad, have complaints from the police and be registered with a psychiatrist and dermatologist.

Internal troops

Any conscript who has no abnormalities in physical condition can get into service in the internal troops. As a rule, it is enough to voice your desire to an employee of the military registration and enlistment office and him. However, the Internal Troops themselves are not considered elite. Units fall under special purpose such as Vityaz, Alpha, FSB and GRU. It is possible to become an employee of such elite units only after completing military service or graduating from the military department. Only those who pass certain tests will be able to apply for service in these units. Quite complex psychological and physical tests have been developed for applicants to determine readiness for service. Examiners will test both firearm training and the ability to withstand an opponent in hand-to-hand combat, and endurance. In addition, the applicant, his family ties are carefully studied, and consent to the service is taken from his parents and spouses.

External intelligence

Applicants whose age ranges from 22 to 30 years old are suitable for service in foreign intelligence. It is necessary to have a higher technical or humanitarian education, as well as be fluent in one foreign language, the level of which is determined by the employees of the organization. In addition, most final grade marks in higher education must be high. The restrictions on the passage of service are no different from the requirements of other elite units. Compliance with physical and intellectual training is mandatory, as well as the absence of a criminal record and foreign citizenship.

Almost every type of troops in Russia has its own elite unit. To clarify the information that will help you get closer to getting a job, you can ask the military registration and enlistment office or the relevant department.

ATY-BATS, WHERE DO STROYBATS GO?
Notes of a former WZO employee
Over the past five years, many mass media at the official levels have been discussing the possibility of creating a professional army in our country and the related reforms and problems. The possible options for alternative service, which have long existed in civilized states, continue to be debated. However, in practice, every spring and autumn military registration and enlistment offices chase conscripts, among whom the number of those who do not want to serve in the Russian army is increasing. And this, of course, is not accidental. Alas, the conditions of service in the army are such that many young men of military age are looking for any excuse to evade their "honorable duty". In the current autumn draft, according to Defense Minister Pavel Grachev, about 23 percent of recruits are called up. The fact itself is depressing and suggestive ...
There has been talk for a long time about whether we need or not need military construction troops, about their reduction. Will the military construction detachments (VZO), which, in my opinion, be nothing more than a parody of the army, will become a thing of the past? Or is this huge reserve of cheap and unskilled labor, used by the Ministry of Defense anywhere and in any way, we still cannot refuse? After all, now it is no longer a secret for anyone that at the former so-called shock Komsomol construction sites, mainly slave labor of prisoners and military builders was used. In construction battalions, not only forced and low-paid labor is practiced (for example, for every ruble of wages, a coefficient of 0.87 was previously "thrown", as in colonies and camps for those deprived of liberty). Military enlistment offices often sent to serve in military construction units of persons who, for health reasons, were not subject to conscription into combat troops. Persons who had previously been convicted served in them. From my own experience, I know that in construction battalions there is a complete disregard for personality, mockery of young conscripts by "old-timers", there is another bouquet of ugly and shameful phenomena, which, unfortunately, are characteristic of other types of troops as well. With their uniforms, often disheveled by their appearance, the construction battalions often cause fear and even aversion among the civilian population in places where military construction units are deployed. They often commit various offenses and crimes. And the quality of the objects they build is, in general, low, since most of the conscripts master construction specialties already in the course of the so-called service.
So that my statements do not seem unfounded, I obviously cannot do without some personal impressions and memories. In order to somehow systematize them, I will focus on, perhaps, the most absurd, in my opinion, manifestations characteristic of service in the construction battalion and in the army as a whole. Although these notes of mine are, of course, subjective and are based, I repeat, on personal impressions, I cannot deny myself to draw some general conclusions. Now many rightly point out that if sick; our whole society is naturally sick; and the army. That is how it is, but I think that in the army, painful phenomena appear as if in a square, in an exaggerated form, in more ugly forms.

Army-style elections
I was drafted into the army in June 1971, at the age of eighteen, upon reaching which, as you know, Soviet citizens received, according to the Constitution of the USSR, the right to elect and be elected to higher and local authorities. That these so-called elections were, until 1989, a complete profanation, a tragicomic farce, now no one doubts. But in the army, this farce reached its "apofige".
To serve, I first came under the closed at that time the city of Gorky, which was later returned to its historical name - Nizhny Novgorod... There, in the village of S; rmovo, a unit was stationed in which the school of sergeants was located. For six months, it trained junior command personnel for further service in the country's military construction battalions as platoon commanders. Recruits here became cadets.
On the eve of the elections, we were warned that everyone must vote before breakfast: getting up, exercising, washing, morning roll call. And in formation we go to the officer's House of Culture - faster, faster, running, in order to get ahead of other companies, to be among the first - a kind of competition. We didn't really know who we were voting for: either for the unit commander, or for his political officer. By that time we had served no more than a week. And the name of only one candidate was on the ballot papers. The alternatives were not indulged in then.
So for the first time in my life, like many other recruits, I exercised my suffrage.
It remains to add that to this day, in the era of "underdeveloped democracy", the contingents of military units located in a particular constituency, allow manipulating the votes of voters and "collecting" the required number of both military candidates for deputies, and and other henchmen of the new nomenklatura, who are interested in the local and higher authorities.

If sinners go to hell, then the sick and the wretched
to the construction battalion
I was expelled from the sergeant school after the first medical commission for health reasons. While still in high school, I was diagnosed with a heart disease - rheumatic heart disease. In the Moscow regional clinical institute(MONIKI), after an electrocardiogram, a more accurate diagnosis was made: myocardial cardiosclerosis, blockade of the right bundle of His. Before the army, I had to conduct a special two-time course of treatment in the Noginsk Central Regional Hospital.
The medical commission at the Noginsk city military registration and enlistment office recognized me as healthy and determined: fit for military service. Due to the fact that by that time I already had myopia in both eyes, they promised to send me (at my request, by the way) to the ground forces of the Air Force.
And, I must admit, if I had not been drafted into the army, then, probably, I would have felt an inferior person. At a young age, I wanted to serve in the army. I retained a certain touch of romance: I dreamed of night rises on "alarm", marches, military exercises, etc. Yes, and pulled me to new places, I wanted to know my native country, and then I felt myself quite healthy.
The fact that I got into the construction troops surprised me. After all, I didn’t have a specialty in construction, and at that time I naively believed that these troops would take those who "in civilian life" had at least something to do with construction. Only later I became convinced that the WZO is calling not only people far from construction, but also the sick, poor, not only physically, but also with dubious mental abilities. The latter, as a rule, were sent to household platoons, assigned to look after pigs in subsidiary plots that existed in military units. Yes, and there was nothing to be afraid of them: after all, the construction battalions, except for a platoon of guards at the guardhouses, were not given out to anyone. Many of us only when taking the oath could see or hold a carbine or a machine gun in our hands. There was no question of any fire training or training firing for two years of service.
A little later I began to think: why were sick people called to the service? After all, it is not blind people who sit on medical examinations, but specialists. And I came to the conclusion: the military registration and enlistment offices, apparently, first of all, were concerned that one or another percentage of citizens' conscription for military service would not fall or look good. Again competition - now between the military registration and enlistment offices? Again this damned perceptibility is a heavy legacy of planned socialism ... The specific fate of this or that sick conscript could hardly be of interest to anyone then or now - one more person, one less ...

My dear country is wide ...
From Gorky by rail through Kirov, Perm, Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Omsk we arrived in Novosibirsk. There was a transplant. We were not able to get to know the city, but it turned out to be possible to wander around the station square and the nearest streets. Many recruits who had money managed to buy alcohol in Novosibirsk and were pretty drunk. I remember one of them - a twenty-seven-year-old and already bald Muscovite, similar to ur-ku, who, fooling around, knelt in front of the locomotive, put his head on the rails under the wheel and shouted:
- Mom, give birth to me back! I don’t want to serve in the Red Army! ..
We barely pulled him away from the wheel and pushed him into the door of the carriage, in which a fight soon broke out ...
Now our path was heading south. Outside the train window, Russian cities and beggarly stations sailed past, and we ended up in Kazakhstan. The spaces of unused, empty land were amazed. Through Barnaul, Pavlodar, Tselinograd we arrived in Semipalatinsk. We could not really get to know this notorious city, although there was another transplant waiting for us here. Taking into account the Novosibirsk "drunken revelry", the accompanying officers and sergeants did not dismiss us anymore, and in order to somehow pass the time before the train arrived, they took us to the cinema to watch the Hungarian film "Treasures of the Turkish Aga".
The Semipalatinsk test sites were, of course, far beyond the city limits. We were brought to one of these "points", to a closed garrison with the postal name Semipalatinsk-22 at night. The train to this point, if my memory serves me, arrived only once a day. None of us knew the final point of our journey: the escorts kept it secret.
We slept at night on the floor in the soldiers' wooden club, where we played movies on weekends. In the summer, when, in sunny weather, there was a movie show in it, we languished from the stuffiness and heat. They pulled off their gymnasts, T-shirts, but still doused themselves, and many preferred to escape from the club into the fresh air, although the cinema was practically the only "cultural entertainment" for us.
The next morning a harsh wind blew out. He lifted small pebbles and sand into the air, which painfully whipped in the face, in the back. My heart was dreary and sad - where did fate throw us? We were approached by the "old veins" of the local places from the military, added "fuel to the fire" - they frightened us, they scared us, with stories about scorpions and phalanges, which here, in the sands, "swarm". Someone fired a "bullet" about the fact that recently, they say, a whole company was discharged, - the guys at the facility were irradiated during the next underground nuclear test explosion ... We were frightened by the hardships of future "bullying". They were advised to give a wristwatch “in an amicable way”, to exchange boots, belts, uniforms “peacefully”, and to the obstinate - those who would be stubborn, not to listen to “grandfathers”, they predicted that the service would seem like hell. The system, they say, in the whole army is like this: you obey in everything for a year, endure bullying, and in a year you can scoff at the young recruits yourself - such is the relay race.
But at first we were lucky. After passing the so-called quarantine and taking the military oath, the main group of "Gorky residents" was sent to the training unit of the garrison. There they began to teach us the specialty of a plumber by an accelerated two-month course. The order for specialists of this profession came from some other garrison. We were glad that in two months we would leave from here to any other place in the Union.
It wasn't that scary either - this place. People live everywhere - even where it seems impossible to live. Not far from the mechanical workshops, where we learned the skills of the plumbing craft, the Irtysh flowed, in which, despite the summer, we never bathed ... Civilians also lived in a small military town. However, the town was indeed strictly classified. Even old-timers were not allowed to leave. There was some important institute there, apparently dealing with nuclear issues. At night, behind the deaf fence of the institute, a polyphonic dog barking was heard, as if at that time the dogs were being let out for a walk. The impression was that these dogs were experimental. "Perhaps the effects of radiation on animals are being investigated here?" - I thought. But, one way or another, from such a neighborhood we were somehow uncomfortable and we preferred to get out of here as soon as possible.
They said that in twenty years this town would be declassified and it would receive the name of Kurchatov. But, as far as I know, one of the closed cities of the Chelyabinsk region received such a name recently. How many of them, similar numbered towns, were scattered across our vast and thoroughly militarized power?

Green-green grass
What was especially filled to me from the Semipalatinsk period of service? Perhaps two episodes. The first, rather from the category of absurd-comic. By the way, it is characteristic not only of army life. In the conditions of the command-administrative system, a painful love for rank-worship flourished in our country. What did the party functionaries and zealous officials do when they learned about the visit of some high-ranking person to their patrimony. How much energy they have here in preparation for his meeting, how much playfulness, agility and fuss! Roads along the route of this person are urgently repaired. Products are brought to local shops. Temporary cleanliness is being induced everywhere. The police are on the watch. Flowers, bread and salt, carpet runners, obsequious smiles, trained speakers, workers, students, children, etc. All this remains with us today, by the way ...
The first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU of the Kazakh SSR D. Kunaev was supposed to arrive in our garrison. We, of course, his visit was "give a damn about". We did not know him and did not want to know him. But for the command of the garrison, of course, his visit was important event... And, apparently, there was a command for all the commanders of the units of the Semipalatinsk garrison: so that there was gloss, shine and full openwork everywhere.
The floors and walls were scrubbed in the barracks. In the territories of the units, ideal cleanliness was induced. Benches and gazebos were painted, trees and curbs were whitewashed, bushes were cut. We were forced to pull out the grass that was overlapping on the boron dyres, cut it with scissors and, believe it or not, even paint the grass with green paint in those places where it turned yellow! And we painted! ..
Kunaev, it seems, did not come then. Perhaps he had some urgent party affairs, and he did not make it to our garrison. At least, we did not manage to contemplate it.

How they die in the construction battalion
The second episode is tragic - the death of a colleague, a person unknown to me, from a neighboring training company. This episode happened in a soldier's canteen.
By the way, we were fed badly, and at the beginning of the service most of the recruits did not leave the feeling of hunger. Although in the second year of service, this feeling completely disappeared. The body, apparently, has adapted and got used to the low-calorie soldier's food. We were charged 38-40 rubles a month for food. Accordingly, the calculation for consumed food products was compiled from this calculated amount. And how could it be enough for a full-fledged nutrition of young 18-27-year-old children?
Tables for 10 people were set in the dining room. We ate the first and second courses from aluminum bowls with spoons. Neither forks, nor, moreover, knives were supposed. The menu was very monotonous. Cabbage soup, soup, borscht - for the first. Various cereals, potatoes, peas - for the second. A small piece of butter was given for breakfast. On the third morning and evening - liquid tea, and at lunch - jelly. Compote or cocoa appeared on tables only in holidays... True, in the summertime, products from the subsidiary farm of the unit - cucumbers, watermelons - also fell on the tables. I remember that a cucumber salad served at the festive table in honor of the Builder's Day in 1972 led to an outbreak of dysentery. At that time I already served in the construction unit of the Emba garrison of the Central Asian Military District. Then more than 1/3 of our entire unit fell ill. The Gos-Pital could not accommodate all the victims. Around him were pitched tents for the maintenance of the sick. The unit was quarantined, which seems to have been lifted only in mid-October.
I did not notice exactly what happened in the canteen in September 1971, when I served in the Semipalatinsk garrison. One disgruntled serviceman hit a young conscript, and he fell, hitting his head on the concrete floor. Either the blow turned out to be too strong, or the neo-scoundrel fell very unsuccessfully, but he could no longer get up. He wheezed, pink foam coming out of his open mouth. While someone was running after the medical instructor, one of the sergeants gave the victim artificial respiration. A breathless instructor came running and turned pale. He gave the recruit some kind of injection, but nothing helped - the soldier died.
And the dead guy was not one of the frail guys. He participated in sports competitions dedicated to the Day of the Builder. One night, it was he, together with other athletes, was raised by the unit on duty in search of the escaped soldier. They were running on railway station look for a deserter. That is, the deceased guy gave the impression of a fairly strong and healthy person. And what was our surprise when we were officially announced that he died of acute heart failure and that he was allegedly a drug addict - he smoked cannabis ...
From our scanty soldier's salary (we were given 3 rubles 80 kopecks a month) we chipped in one ruble for his funeral ...
Here, for the first time, I encountered the monstrous hypocrisy of the official army clerical machine. The state of emergency - the killing of a soldier by assault - was, of course, unprofitable for the unit's superiors. Investigation, accusation, interrogation of witnesses, possible reprimands to officers for the poor state of discipline in the assigned unit, etc. And it is not surprising that they tried to "hush up" such cases, did not give them a go. Much easier: slipped on wet floor, fell and did not wake up, died ... This is no longer an emergency, but just an accident.
Subsequently, while serving in the Emba garrison of the Mugodzhar district of the Aktobe region, I encountered other deaths of military builders. Of course, among them there were also accidents that could occur in civilian life. But, perhaps, two deaths are worth mentioning separately.
December 30, 1972 marked the 50th anniversary of the formation of the USSR. For similar "significant" dates throughout the country, various teams prepared their labor gifts. And our construction part did not remain, as they say, on the sidelines. Someone came up with the idea just for this date to report on the early completion of the construction of one of the DOS (officers' house), being built in the military town of Emba-5.
Work at this construction site was carried out at an accelerated pace. In December, the third shift began to be used - after dinner, builders, mainly plasterers, painters, electricians and plumbers, went to DOS again. And here, apparently, ordinary physical fatigue and, perhaps, lack of sleep, had an effect. One of the builders of the neighboring company, a red-haired Georgian - a joker and a merry fellow - fell from the fifth floor and crashed to death.
DOS, it seems, passed ahead of schedule, reported, although Finishing work there were conducted both in January and in February. Even at that time, I thought: who benefits from such an assault, which is still practiced in our country? Who needs such "labor gifts"? And only in civilian life I realized that such a system is beneficial to the builders themselves (but not to the construction battalions). It turns out that builders and, accordingly, their bosses received substantial monetary bonuses for the early (and even planned) introduction of construction projects into operation. For foremen, heads of construction departments, trusts, this sometimes provided further advancement in the career ladder. And the happy owners of orders for apartments in such new buildings, having moved, often began to immediately make repairs, eliminating the deficiencies of the builders.
I was also struck by another very quiet death. But this "quiet prose" did not make it less scary for me. This time she overtook a beautiful young Armenian with black shining eyes.
Every Sunday in our unit there was a bath day, a change of underwear and footcloths. The bath, in general, is normal - with a steam room, shower cabins, and stainless steel basins. Apparently in the bath I caught a "fungus" - a skin disease that is easy to get infected from another person. It is characterized by the fact that between the toes, the skin melts and bursts with the appearance of narrow blood wounds. To get rid of this "fungus", I turned to the san-unit. I was offered some kind of ointment, and I began to go every other day to the medical unit, where I smeared this ointment on the burning skin between my fingers. By the way, this ointment did not help much, and it took me almost a year after demobilization to get rid of this unpleasant disease.
Once, during my next visit to the medical unit, a curly-haired Armenian boy of an almost icon-painting appearance entered it.
- What do you want? The medical instructor asked him rudely, either a paramedic, or
a nurse by education.
“Everything hurts me,” the Armenian answered in a weak voice.
- What exactly hurts?
- Everything: head, chest, stomach, arms, legs ...
- Don't be stars, it doesn't work that way. You mow, I suppose. Evade service
want? - the medical instructor, apparently, suspected the boy of the simulation, although it was clear with the naked eye that he was really sick.
The two-year lieutenant of the medical service, who could examine the patient, was not in the medical unit that day. He, it seems, was on a business trip and was supposed to return in three days. Perhaps he would have been able to determine the degree of danger of the patient's condition and would have sent him to the hospital, which was located one and a half kilometers from our unit. The hospital was nevertheless equipped with modern diagnostic and other equipment, qualified specialists. The medical officer decided to wait for the arrival of the lieutenant and left the black-eyed boy in the medical unit. Moreover, he arrived from the "point" - the company where he served was engaged in construction work in the steppe, 80-100 kilometers from the military town. At these “points”, missilemen from various military units and even from groups of Soviet troops in Germany and Hungary made firing practice.
In the medical unit there was also a dental office and a ward with four or five beds for inpatients. At that time, one of my comrades-colleagues Zhenya Savrikov was lying in the medical unit, with whom we were subsequently bound by a strong friendship. I brought him his soldier's portion from the dining room, and then I took the dishes and carried them back to the dining room. Next to Zhenya, they put a young Armenian in the ward. It seems that apart from the two of them, there was no one else in the ward.
When two days later I brought Zhenya breakfast, I saw that the Armenian was not on the bed: the mattress on it was rolled up, the linen was taken off.
- And where is this Caucasian angel? - I asked a friend, nodding at
empty bunk. - Have you already been sent to the hospital?
- To the morgue, - Zhenya Savrikov answered. - He died at night ... And died quietly, without
groans ... I am lightly asleep, I would hear ...
I was dumbfounded.
Was it really impossible to save this kid in time? He was not more than 18 years old. What can you die of at this age? How cheaply life is valued in this world and, moreover, in the army. I have no idea how the cause of this strange death was qualified in official documents. But I am sure that there was no investigation into the causes of death of this construction battalion, except for the statement of the fact itself. And no one was punished for her. And there is no one to blame for her. No one? ..

What will the President answer?
These memories, perhaps, will seem outdated, out of date to someone. After all, I served in the construction troops of the Central Asian Military District in 1971-1973, and since then twenty years have passed. But I think that the situation in the army has not changed so dramatically and dramatically for the better in recent years. The state of discipline, the moral and psychological climate in the construction barracks, in my opinion, is quite truthfully described in Sergei Kaledin's novel “Stroibat”, published in No. 4 of the Novy Mir magazine for 1989. It seems that the author was an eyewitness to the events described. I. Loshchilin wrote the script for the feature film "Guard", which was published in 1989 in No. 1 of the anthology "Kinoscenarii", about the consequences of "hazing". And I want to think that he is on his way to the screen.
By the way, the author took real events as a basis for the scenario, which are known to us from newspaper publications, when a recruit shot at night the "grandfathers" who were mocking him. It happened in a compartment of a train that was transporting prisoners. The sharp publications of Veronica Marchenko in the magazine "Youth" also testify to what is happening in our army. Finally, 15 thousand servicemen who died in four years of perestroika! And this is in a peaceful time? It’s even scary to imagine - 15 thousand torn off in the prime of their lives ... Even nine years of the Afghan adventure took, according to official figures, two thousand lives less. But there was a war in Afghanistan. It turns out that on the territory of the USSR he dies in Peaceful time more people than in the war? Incomprehensible ...
In February 1990, the “Society of Parents whose Sons Perished in the Army in Peacetime on the Territory of the USSR” was created in the country. The mothers of the dead and living soldiers appealed to President Gorbachev with a demand for cardinal reforms in the army. This Appeal, in particular, says: “Every year in the army, not in exercises, not in military operations, but as a result of criminal offenses, accidents, unsanitary living conditions, and in general, due to the negligence and dishonesty of the military authorities, soldiers die. The investigation into the death is being conducted by the inquiry units and the military prosecutor's office. Such investigative bodies are interested in concealing the true reasons for what happened in order to preserve the reputation of a particular military unit, the army as a whole. "
The mothers of the dead demand that President Gorbachev create an independent commission under the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to investigate all the facts of the deaths of soldiers in peacetime over the past 10 years. Mothers of pre-conscripts demand to legalize the provision that during the period of service in the army, they are fully responsible for the life and health of soldiers, that social insurance is introduced for conscripts, so that the relatives of dead soldiers or those injured during service are provided with pensions - not - regardless of whether it happened in a combat operation or not. They demand not to call into the construction troops of people who, for health reasons, cannot be called up for combat service. They demand the elimination of all construction parts, the introduction of alternative service, and a deferral from the service of student youth. Their demands are fair. What will the President answer?
(This Appeal was adopted in August 1990. And only on November 1, after repeated demands of the All-Union Committee of the parents of servicemen, the President of the USSR received their representatives in the Kremlin. After talking with them, Gorbachev promised to create a special commission to investigate the facts of He also promised to issue a decree in the near future, which would provide for urgent measures on all issues raised at the meeting.
In the meantime, young guys in soldier uniforms, who are sent to various "hot spots" of the country to eliminate national and other conflicts, continue to die. And not only in hot spots. In October 1990, for example, a soldier Vla-Dimir Krupnov, born in 1970, who was doing military service in one of the construction parts of Volgograd, died (according to official data in a car accident). A week before this tragic incident, his parents, who live in Noginsk near Moscow, received a telegram stating that their son was in unauthorized absence.
As a rule, those who are driven to despair by unbearable conditions of service and "bullying" leave for unauthorized absence. The desperate go to self-murder, self-harm, desertion and, less often, resistance, which often leads to a tragic outcome.
If a unit leaves a soldier for urgent service, taking with him a weapon and ammunition for it, then the group to seize it is instructed approximately as follows: in the event of armed resistance during the detention of an unauthorized absent person, with a threat to the life of members of the capture group or civilians, its destruction at the place of resistance is allowed.
In the meantime, a decision has been made to disband the departmental construction units. But they remain with the USSR Ministry of Defense and can still be employed everywhere and everywhere - not only in the construction of civilian facilities and agricultural work, but also in the construction of dachas for generals and other military ranks. This is still evidenced by publications in the domestic press. And why lose such a cheap labor? Perhaps, military builders will soon be used as gratuitous labor in industrial and agricultural enterprises? After all, there are fewer and fewer people in the country who produce material goods, create gross domestic product.

What ghosts roam the Union?
Earlier, during my school years, I naively believed that we needed an army to protect the immense borders of the world's first workers 'and peasants' state from a possible attack by imperialist aggressors. After all, at school we were taught that the imperialists allegedly yearn for our destruction and in every possible way prevent us from building a bright communist future. And the working people of these countries are subjected to cruel exploitation, suffocating in the grip of the capitalist system: there, they say, there is unemployment, and all kinds of crises, and depression, and monstrous criminality, and the impoverishment of the masses - in general, economic and spiritual decay.
Now it seems to everyone that it is clear that no one is going to attack us. On the contrary, they were afraid of us in the entire civilized world - with our delusional theory of class struggle, which is high time to be handed over to the archives, with our imposition of pro-communist totalitarian regimes in different regions planets, etc. What, for example, is the bloody communism of Pol Pot in Kampuchea worth? Who are we going to defend against now if communist and imperialist threats are becoming myths? Why should we now maintain such a huge army? Why do we need such exorbitant military spending for the country and the taxpayers? After all, it is absurd to produce so many missiles and tanks, other weapons, when the citizens of the country will soon have nothing to dress, shoe and feed with. The phantom of hunger is wandering around the USSR. Already in many cities of the country, a coupon-card system of food distribution has been introduced. Where next?
And not only the phantom of hunger wanders the country. National armed conflicts in the Union of "indestructible free republics" have already become a reality. Ghosts loom more and more on the horizon civil war... In Armenia and Azerbaijan, they are already filled with blood and flesh.
Rumors and speculations about a possible military coup, the establishment of one or another dictatorship in the country are increasingly being circulated in the press. True, they are trying to assure us that a military coup is not in the traditions of the Soviet army. One way or another, but the longing for "a firm hand" is already present in many. Am I exaggerating and exaggerating? I would like, by God, to be mistaken.
It is alarming that in the pre-election struggle for the mandates of People's Deputies of the USSR and the RSFSR, army officials are actively participating. Many of them became deputies in the Supreme Soviet of the country, republics, regional and city councils. And such of them as, for example, Colonel-General Albert Makashov, do not miss the opportunity to use frightening vocabulary and threaten the deputies who are playing for democracy with a powerful fist. What is worth, for example, Makashov's maniacal speech from the rostrum of the Constituent Congress of the RCP? But in the hands of Makashov is the command of the troops of the Volga-Ural Military District. And it’s not hard, probably, to guess what he will do when receiving the appropriate order ...
One of the candidates for the People's Deputies of the RSFSR in the Noginsk electoral district, a lieutenant colonel of the Navy, during his meetings with voters in 1990, I asked the question: what does he think about the possibility of a civil war and a military coup in the country? And he clearly, as befits a military man, laconically and seriously answered: no sane people, of course, want civil war. However, if the country continues to slide into anarchy and chaos, then the military, if they receive the proper order, will do their job.
And what kind of work the military can do is probably not difficult to guess ...
Are we moving from a barely born democracy, convulsive attempts to create a truly rule-of-law state with civilized forms of the market to anarchy, to a new fratricidal war, to the introduction of a state of emergency, to a military or other dictatorship? Is it really that our long-suffering people still have to go through this? Do we still have to go through a neo-Stalinist type of dictatorship? Then, of course, it makes sense to maintain an army of almost two million and, in addition to it, a cheap labor force of military construction detachments.
"Grani", No. 160, 1991

The word "construction battalion" evokes a smile or slight irony in many, since, officially, this kind of troops no longer exists. The last parts were disbanded in the 90s... But there are still many popular sayings or just anecdotes about the construction battalion.

History of creation

Stroybat is a construction battalion, although in official documents everything was different. The VZO (military construction detachments) take their beginning since 1942, when the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was made to establish the Military Reconstruction Directorate. Under his leadership, all infrastructure facilities destroyed by the German occupiers during the Great Patriotic War... The term "construction battalion" itself was coined by the people and went out of circulation in 1970. It is worth noting that the soldiers themselves called themselves very ironic - the royal troops.

Facts - in 1980, the number of WZO personnel was about 300-400 thousand people, which covers the total number of such units as: Airborne Forces, Marines and Border Troops.

The soldier is asleep - the service is on. Terms of Service

To be honest, not all conscripts wanted to get into the construction battalion. And there are a number of reasons for this:

The soldiers had a formal relationship to military service. They could spend more time not in a trench or shooting, but at a construction site or digging a foundation pit.
National component. The squads were formed from multinational groups. Often, children from disadvantaged families or teenagers who were registered with the police were taken to the construction battalion. This combination different types nationalities and people prone to crime, frightened the young fighter. There were frequent cases of desertions from units.
WZO could be sent to potentially dangerous places, even in peacetime. They were thrown for elimination man-made disasters or to deal with the consequences of natural disasters. Such work was associated with the risk of obtaining dangerous disease or injuries of various complexity.
The very attitude of society towards this type of troops was condescending. There were many jokes about the construction battalion among the people, so it was undignified to serve in this type of troops.

Despite all the shortcomings, there were also distinctive advantages among other types of troops. For example, a soldier received a salary for his service, and its size was about 120-180 rubles... From this amount, you need to subtract 30 rubles for serving the soldier and his food. But even in this case, a decent amount remains. This money was deposited into the personal account of the soldier, and only in case of urgent need the soldier could use it. The salary could reach up to 250 rubles per month... Everything depended on the specialty that the young fighter possessed. Specialists of a narrow profile related to machines and equipment were appreciated, such as bulldozer drivers, crane operators, excavator operators and others. Sometimes a demobilized soldier brought home from service up to 5,000 rubles.

Official criticism

The construction battalion was often criticized by state officials. So, in 1956, the chief of staff and the minister of defense criticized the places of service of the fighters in their report. The content of the document referred to the constitution, according to which a private must serve in the ranks of the armed forces of the USSR, and not in the construction organizations of the country.

There were other cases as well. In 1955 one of construction crews sent to the still unfinished building for construction and installation work. As the commission later found out, the sanitary and hygienic conditions here did not meet the standards and in some places were grossly violated. Many soldiers were sent to hospital with serious illnesses such as tuberculosis. Some of the privates were found to have lice.

Despite all the unflattering statements about the WZO, one cannot deny their huge role in the formation and construction of the country. Factories and large enterprises, infrastructure facilities and communication routes - everywhere you could see fighters working for the good of the homeland. Schools, hospitals, and sometimes entire settlements were built with the help of construction battalions. Thanks to military discipline and well-oiled logistics, facilities were handed over on time, sometimes overfulfilling construction plans.

"Royal troops" or construction battalion were a real legend in the USSR. True, rather in a bad sense of the word - many conscripts shunned this kind of troops, and the military leadership generally opposed its existence.

"Royal troops"

Military construction detachments (VSO), or in common parlance - "construction battalion", date back to February 13, 1942, when the Military Reconstruction Directorate was formed by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, which was engaged in the repair and construction of facilities in the territories liberated from German occupiers.

The term "construction battalion" was officially withdrawn from circulation in the 1970s, but it has not completely disappeared from the lexicon, remaining as part of the military and civil jargon. Also, the phrase "construction battalion" continued to be used in relation to some groups of foreign troops. The "Stroybatovites" ironically called themselves "royal troops".

According to one version, due to the large number of personnel: in the 1980s, it numbered approximately 300 to 400 thousand people, which exceeded the number of military personnel in the Airborne Forces (60,000), the Marines (15,000) and the Border Troops (220,000) put together. According to another version, the self-name was associated with the name of the designer Sergei Korolev (all the cosmodromes of the USSR were built by construction detachments).

Terms of Service

For Soviet youth, the construction battalion was considered not the most prestigious place for military service. His unpopularity was largely due to the fact that he had only a formal relationship directly to military affairs.

Nevertheless, the recruits who replenished the composition of the construction detachments had certain advantages over those drafted into other types of troops. According to order No. 175 of the Minister of Defense of the USSR of May 30, 1977, a military builder was charged for work wage, from which, however, the cost of food, uniforms, bath and laundry services, cultural events and other types of security was deducted - those that were united by the concept of "material debt". As one of the employees of the construction battalion recalled, about 30 rubles were deducted from him monthly for household services - “washing, washing, uniform”.

Salaries in the construction troops (for the period of the 1980s) ranged from 110 to 180 rubles, but in some cases even reached 250 rubles. Everything depended on the specialty. Most of the others received, as a rule, those who worked on tower cranes and excavators. The money was deposited into the account of the employee and given out upon transfer to the reserve. True, in case of urgent need, they were allowed to send money to relatives.

At the end of the service, the "construction battalions" sometimes exported up to 5 thousand rubles.

The "construction battalions" also had additional sources of income, in particular, on the so-called "trash work", where they paid in the region of 10-15 rubles for one working day. Benefits were also relied on them. They were received by warrant officers and officers who had the opportunity to quickly solve their housing problems.

Personnel

VSO were recruited mainly from conscripts who graduated from construction educational establishments... Construction brigades were often replenished by people from rural areas who "know how to hold a tool in their hands." Dysfunctional youth were also sent there, sometimes with a criminal record.

Although it was not accepted to talk about it, the nationality was another criterion for selection to the construction battalion. So, the share of the Caucasian and Central Asian peoples in some construction battalions reached 90% of the personnel. It is widely believed that the reason why immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus were allowed mainly to construction work was their poor knowledge of the Russian language. The ethnic composition of the construction brigades frightened off many conscripts.

Another category of conscripts for whom the road to the construction battalion was "ordered" are young men with health limitations. Their parents, by hook or by crook, looked for all sorts of workarounds to protect children from labor service.

Criticism of the construction battalion

The very fact of the existence of military construction detachments was repeatedly criticized by the top military leadership, which considered such formations ineffective and even "illegal." In 1956, Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff Vasily Sokolovsky reported that “the use of military personnel in the industry is a violation of the USSR Constitution, since according to Article 132 of the Constitution, military service ... should take place in the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces, and not in construction organizations of civilian ministries. THE USSR".

Experts drew attention to the fact that the production activities of the military construction units were poorly organized, and their material and household support was at an extremely low level.