Recently, in one of the formations of the Ural Military District, a meeting of the UrVO command with young officers was held, during which a wide range of issues of their official activities and household amenities were discussed. This meeting is far from the only one of the events held in the district to increase the effectiveness of the process of formation of graduates of military and civilian universities who have joined the ranks of the officer corps. This year alone, more than 350 lieutenants have arrived in the district. The first deputy Commander of the UrVO troops, Lieutenant-General Anatoly Mikhailovich SIDYAKIN, told our correspondent about how they were prepared for their meeting, how the process of officer formation of yesterday's graduates is going on.

- Comrade Lieutenant General, allow me to start our conversation with an unconventional question: how did your career as an officer begin? What were your first impressions?

"I think my youth as a lieutenant was a good one. I never chose a place of service, did not look for where it is easier to serve, where it is better... He considered it his duty to follow his officer's destiny. After graduating from the Tashkent Higher School of Economics, he was assigned to the UrVO. I got to serve in Chebarkul. As for direct impressions? This was in early September 1971. I arrived in Chebarkul by train with a huge "lieutenant's" bag (you know that in those years young officers received all their uniforms at once). At the train station, a sergeant and two soldiers approached me. He introduced himself that he was on duty for a meeting of young officers. He offered to escort me to the division headquarters. Since it turned out to be quite difficult to get to the military camp, I was pleased that the command immediately thought about me, a lieutenant, even before my arrival, and showed concern. By the way, I still remember the name of this sergeant today. By coincidence, Sergeant Oleg Retin later turned out to be a deputy commander in my platoon.

- And how was your formation as a young officer?

- We, graduates of military schools, were given really great attention. We, the lieutenants, were under the close attention of the division commander of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Kozlov, the regiment commander, later also Major General Arutyunov, the battalion commander Captain Skuratov, who literally treated us like a father. On the one hand, a lot of instructional and methodical classes were conducted with us in order to familiarize us with the peculiarities of service in our unit. On the other hand, the initiative developed, and trust was reflected. We were told: everything is in your hands. If you want to serve, you will succeed in your career. And so it turned out. Literally in a year or two, many of us became company commanders, in 3 or 4 years - battalion chiefs of staff, in 5-6 years-battalion commanders... And finally, third , in addition to being demanding of us, our senior managers showed real concern for us. I will say frankly, then there were simply no problems with the placement of young officers. Immediately, everyone received comfortable dormitories, and young families-apartments.

- Anatoly Mikhailovich, do you somehow transfer your experience of the first years of service to today's practice?

"Absolutely. I personally, as well as other leaders and supervisors, try to do everything possible to ensure that young officers who come to our district immediately feel like they belong to their own family. So that they can solve their everyday problems as quickly as possible and deal with the issues of their professional growth and officer formation. But, unfortunately, so many changes have taken place in our lives that even with my great personal desire, I am sometimes unable to solve the full range of issues that this category of military personnel faces today. I simply don't have the same opportunities that my superiors had many years ago.

"Still, there's a lot going on around here for young officers...

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- of course. We highlight working with young officers as a priority area, a matter of paramount importance for commanders and superiors of all ranks. In parts of the district, they prepare in advance for the arrival of graduates and their families, provide for their meeting, accommodation and arrangement. The delivery of personal belongings to the garrison, the setting of graduates for all types of allowances are being considered. In remote garrisons, the families of lieutenants are immediately put on medical care in a military unit, and many of the wives of young officers are accepted for military service under contract. Heads of departments and services of the district, commanders of formations and units immediately conduct with the arrivals the established fees for specialties. Traditional events included question-and-answer evenings, meetings with district and garrison commanders, and other events. Administrations of regions and cities in the district provide us with all possible assistance in solving social and everyday issues of young officers. Thus, the administration of Yekaterinburg and its mayor Arkady Chernetsky quickly responded to the request of the command of the compound to accommodate young officers and allocated a significant number of places in workers ' dormitories. There are other examples...

- Comrade Lieutenant-General, in your opinion, how do the current graduates of military schools differ from their predecessors?

- As a starting point in this assessment, we can take the results of a sociological study conducted with graduates of military schools who arrived in the district last year. These results reflect general trends in the moral and psychological state of young officers. 80 percent of the respondents are confident in their ability to perform combat missions, and about the same number of people put the desire for professional growth among the leading life priorities. At the same time, one of the differences between the current generation of lieutenants is that only 50 percent of respondents expressed a desire to serve in the Armed Forces. With a sufficiently high level of understanding of the military danger to Russia (60-70%) and a sufficiently high level of authority of their immediate superiors (81%), only 10% of young officers expressed satisfaction with the prestige of their profession. Consequently, the moral and psychological state of the young officers ' replenishment can be assessed as unstable, and the motivation for service as unsatisfactory. Moreover, the trends of the time, which taught young people commodity-money relations, seriously complicate relations in military collectives. Many young officers do not want to delve into real problems

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They are too pragmatic in demanding that the command exercise all the rights set out in Federal laws. Many people apply to the military courts and are dismissed due to violation of the terms of the contract on military service in relation to a serviceman.

- But not only the young officers themselves have changed, but also the conditions of service...

"That's right. Today, if we talk about problems, the military has a significant lag in computerization issues. If" in civilian life " the Internet and computer networks are no longer a rarity, then at the level of a company - battalion, this is only a dream. As we have already said, the solution of social and domestic problems has also become more complicated. However, there is another side. Today, graduates of military schools and institutes have good prospects for career growth. 40 percent of low-level officers are so-called two-year students, graduates of civilian universities, called up for two years. With the arrival of a new lieutenant replenishment, we hope to reduce this percentage to 25. As a rule, only career officers are appointed to higher-level vacant positions. Already this year, we plan to appoint some graduates immediately as company and battery commanders, since they will be the only career officers in their units, while all the others are temporary workers and do not want to link their future with the army. As you can see, 12 or 14 lieutenants - graduates of military schools - used to apply for the position of company commander. The best one was chosen! Today's graduate is much easier to get both captain and major positions.

- Anatoly Mikhailovich, what do you think should be done on the scale of the Armed Forces and the state in order to increase the prestige of officer service?

- I am deeply convinced that in order for an officer to perform his professional tasks calmly and with concentration, it is necessary to solve his everyday problems. First of all, a complex of social problems - housing, kindergarten, school for children, work for the wife. And, of course, the issues of financing the Armed Forces must be resolved. A young man who enters life and receives such a meager salary as today's lieutenant has, feels inferior. He has no confidence in the future. He is afraid to start a family if he does not have the support of his parents. Therefore, a young officer who already has a family tries by all means to get to serve at the place of residence of relatives, which de facto leads to the territorial principle of recruiting troops. It is no secret that because of the inability to provide even themselves with basic amenities, to arrange their life, young people have a desire to leave the army, a low social status causes a feeling of error in choosing a profession. Moreover, young officers see their civilian peers who earn enough and are able to earn money for a decent life for themselves and their loved ones. This situation is further aggravated by the fact that in recent years the gap between the requirements for an officer on the part of the state (which in fact remained unchanged and even increased) and the attitude of the state towards its serving people has grown significantly. Look, an officer is required to improve professionally, to be a model of morality and spirituality, and at the same time he constantly feels the burden of material problems, the fetters of economic dependence. Today, there is nothing surprising in the fact that students of military academies earn extra money at night somewhere on the side: they guard offices, unload wagons. They just have to do it - after all, the family needs to be fed! I'm not talking about other benefits - cars, dachas...

- How perfect, in your opinion, is the existing system of military education? Maybe this is the root of many problems in the education of future officers?

- I think so: without solving the problems of financing, there is no point in talking about any other ones. After all, we have come to a situation where the teaching profession in a military university has ceased to be prestigious. If in previous years the best regimental commanders and deputy commanders of formations were appointed to teach at military schools, now, due to these problems, officers simply do not want to go to higher education institutions, do not want to improve themselves, defend their dissertations. The teaching potential decreases, while at the same time the cadets ' interest in learning decreases. Direct and feedback communication is disrupted, without which the learning process is unthinkable. Previously, this connection was very pronounced. To this day, I am grateful to our teacher at the Frunze Academy, Colonel Alexander V. Kharitonov, whose every word we, the audience, literally absorbed. He was a competent, intelligent, highly moral person. A mentor in essence...

- You correctly noticed, Anatoly Mikhailovich, that in the Russian army, traditionally mentoring, the transfer of spiritual and moral values in all ages was placed above material goods...

"Absolutely. All I can explain is that even in such difficult conditions, many young officers serve with dignity and do not complain. They performed well in the combat situation in Chechnya. We have a lot of yesterday's graduates who were awarded orders and medals, who are taking an active life position. They are the future of the Russian Army, the foundation of our country's Armed Forces in the 21st century. We want to preserve and strengthen this foundation by all means.

- Comrade Lieutenant General, what would you like to wish today's lieutenants?

- I wish you all good health, high professionalism and faith that with the new leadership of the country, the position of the army in our society and the situation in the Armed Forces themselves will improve. In this regard, the spiritual and moral principles that are historically characteristic of our officer corps will increasingly come to the fore in the military service.

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