Here it is necessary to dwell on one feature of the modern army, the meaning of which for me personally remains unclear to this day. The point is that after conscription, not all young people go straight to combat units, some end up in training units; however, such “lucky” ones are in the minority. A logical question immediately arises: why are not all soldiers sent to study? It would seem that universal training in military specialties will improve the level of professional training of soldiers and improve the quality of those transferred to the reserve in case of mobilization. Perhaps the reason is that in ordinary units soldiers are properly trained military specialty? At some level, of course, they teach, but such self-made “training” rarely reaches professional training in the academic department, since it is greatly diluted by the instructions of grandfathers and the drill of the regulations. So the reason is something else.

The most reasonable explanation seems to me to be this: if all soldiers are first trained in a military training unit, then the army will be faced with the need for an extremely large number of such units, as well as with the problem of staffing combat units. Moreover, not at all military positions The military requires trained professionals. In fact, a machine gunner or machine gunner is not necessary long time to train, it’s enough to teach how to disassemble and clean your weapon, and to top it off, send it out for shooting a couple of times. And although such a machine gunner or machine gunner clearly cannot be compared with an analogue from special forces or military intelligence, where they can not only pull the trigger, but also shoot accurately, use the terrain for shelter and organize defense, and much more, however, he will be able to perform the required The minimum will be learned from him, but the maximum will be learned in battle or from an officer. So the authorities took the path of least resistance, making training in military training units the exception rather than the rule.

Training military units are called “training units” in army jargon. Their organizational feature is that at any given time only one conscription is studying here, organized by more experienced sergeants who remained here from previous recruitments of conscripts. Accordingly, in the form of training, we get a CMB extended over the entire training period, distinguished by clearly statutory relations without any admixture of hazing.

In general, relations here are characterized by a high degree of social justice. What is received in the parcels is divided equally between the soldiers, everyone equally participates in the units, and even the entire unit is subject to punishment, in the best traditions of the regulations.

The duration of training is usually 6 months, but in some training units it can be longer, reaching 9 months. I do not undertake to evaluate the quality of training, since it cannot be measured by the feedback of soldiers. Training is assessed by the efficiency and qualifications of graduates, about which experienced officers should be asked. The only thing is that I had a close encounter with the work of the intelligence training unit, which seemed to me to be of very high quality. Also, well-trained sappers came to our unit, who at least knew the structure and parameters of the main mines, unlike civilians who immediately joined the troops.

After completing the training course, some graduates are invited to remain in training as sergeants for the next calls, if, of course, there are vacancies. Most of all, the command suffers from fear when the previous conscription is still waiting to be sent to the troops, and the new one has already begun training. Then sergeants and officers strive to completely isolate the new conscription from the old one, however, this is not always successful. On the other hand, the guys responded that such isolation does not achieve its goal, and the old conscription will still communicate with the young one, no matter how hard they try to discourage him from this. True, in all the cases known to me, communication between an old conscription and a young one never led to dramatic consequences and was usually conducted from the position of a patronizing attitude between the old-timers and the young. Shared with them everyday experience, learned news from the “big” world, fresh stories from life - in general, the old-timers behaved like grandfathers towards the young replenishment in the first days of his arrival. In any case, the period of joint coexistence of old-timers and young people in training is completely insignificant both in time and in terms of mutual influence, because the new and old teams hardly intersect, do not perform a single task and do not form a single community connected by an official or unofficial hierarchy.

So there is simply no organizational basis for hazing in school due to the absence of hazing as a species. The main problem for the command is that the sergeants do not bury themselves and try to use the young people in their own interests. This is ensured, among other things, by a developed system of denunciation, which is maintained here at a more or less acceptable level, as well as frequent contact between soldiers and officers. The latter is associated with the organization of a routine in training, when most of the time is devoted to real learning, and the functions of teachers are performed by officers. Additionally, sergeants are restrained from arbitrariness by their fear of losing their place and going into the army.

Primitive methods of beatings are also rarely practiced in training; work with personnel is done more subtly and is based on a system of collective punishment: the entire unit is responsible for the offense of one. Responsibility comes either in the form large quantity physical exercise(push-ups, squats), or running in full chemical protection with gas masks on, or in the form of additional outfits.

As a result, the worst thing for young people is not in contact with old-timers and not in the arbitrariness of sergeants, but in subsequent joining the troops. In some parts, the situation of those leaving training is worse than the situation of the spirits. At the same time, the servicemen reason like this: “Since they spent six months..., then now they should get the full amount!” The whole burden of serving their grandfathers and social work in part, so even green spirits would not envy such elephants.

And on the day of their arrival at the troops, they are given a demonstration, a kind of local St. Bartholomew’s Night. Late in the evening, the grandfathers, scoopers and the elephants they organized arm themselves with bedposts, stools and any other available means and carefully look after the new arrivals, simultaneously carrying out edifying suggestions. Newcomers must fully experience the atmosphere of the REAL army, understand who they should respect and fear and what their own social status. This is how training ends and service begins.

The situation described shows the fate of any “exception to the rule” in the army, which includes training in training. On the other hand, this action is aimed at disuniting young people who have recently arrived from training, who in the training unit managed to form a team with their leaders and their own selfish interests. Sometimes the grandfathers fail to destroy such a team, and the new arrivals put up organized resistance, but such cases are not too frequent: usually not the entire training team ends up in the troops, which are distributed to different parts of the country for vacant positions according to the training profile, but only some of its “scraps” " Much more frequent are situations when some of the arrivals offer resistance, and then these fighters are left alone - especially if the resistance is offered not by one frostbitten fighter, but by a small group united during joint training.

And now - the first night in the barracks of my training. We were laid on mats near the toilet, and, of course, it was impossible to fall asleep... The next morning we met with the authorities.

Here we need to make one more digression. The fact is that throughout my second year I regularly attended classes at the military department. There we were taught to read cards, solve some strange logic problems and program in BASIC. At the same time, at least majors, and even colonels, taught us, so I somehow got used to big stars.

In the army everything turned out to be different. Here the lieutenant was a big beast, and the major, the company commander, was generally a celestial being. But the most important thing is that I quickly learned what an ensign is. Naturally, I had never met these animals before - except that I saw them in a film with the idiotic title "In the Zone" special attention", as the cool Mihai Volontir wisely drops with his signature gypsy accent: “I chose the difficult path - the path of the ensign..." And that’s all! And here is the crazy foreman! He yells, wants something from you, but what he wants to understand absolutely impossible. For some reason he doesn’t like your boots, for something he doesn’t like your belt, but what? The boots are like boots, the belt is what you gave him. He can’t explain it properly, he just alternates screaming with obscenities.

The sergeants chose the tactic of verbal mockery of the “dukhans”: “You can grab Masha’s thigh, military man!” At the same time, their murderous irony in my case went over the top - I again could not understand what they were talking about. Then one of my new friends explained to me that in the army you can’t say “you can,” you must say “permit.” This was my first linguistic revelation - but far from the last!

I must say that my dear mother equipped me to go into the army to great effect - neither analgin, nor hand cream, nor nail scissors, nor handkerchiefs. Of course, within a day all this was gone. The sergeants took the medicine (one can only guess why), someone immediately stole the cream and other paraphernalia from the nightstand. Moreover, when I reported this sad fact to the sergeant, he replied that, “If you steal from yourself, figure it out yourself!” This is how I learned the first army truth: a soldier’s nightstand is given to a soldier in order to store the following objects in it: no one needs tooth powder, and also soldier soap- a certain Platonic idea of ​​​​soap, which, apparently, just recently grunted merrily. Well, also a toothbrush and a razor with exactly one (preferably slightly dull) blade. All!

Looking ahead, I can tell you one story from my service in the “combat”. There we had one weird Muscovite who read in the regulations that nowhere is it explicitly forbidden for a soldier to carry an umbrella - and he did. Not for long. Then he decided to put a lock on his bedside table - and the foreman, madly having fun, knocked off the lock. Not because he was a bastard (on the contrary, he was a great guy), but because service is service. You should serve on it, and not fill your bedside tables with all sorts of unnecessary stuff! (Somehow I’m starting to remind myself of the soldier Schweik... I’ll correct myself now...)

There were two weeks before the oath, and these two weeks were just a madhouse. In addition to the obviously necessary things, such as drill and physical training, political studies and cleaning boots and badges, etc., I learned to sew and scraped stools with glass. The point here is this: a soldier’s wardrobe, if anyone doesn’t know, consists of three clothes: cotton, wool and an overcoat. The first is a summer uniform, the second is a winter uniform, and an overcoat, comrades, is a coat without lining. All these, I’m not afraid of this word, garments should have shoulder straps on their shoulders, buttonholes on their lapels, and “birds” in their buttonholes (yes, I was a “flyer”). You have to sew all this on yourself.

Almost none of us knew how to sew. I knew how to sew on buttons, but the shoulder straps were a real challenge for me! I sewed my first pair of epaulettes (or is it epaulettes?) with this superhuman strength that they creaked when walking. But these were still flowers. I almost cried over the overcoat... it seemed so thick - how can you pierce it with such a small needle?! Well, the mice cried and injected themselves, but continued to sew on their shoulder straps...

About stools. At that time, the army stool industry produced its products painted: generous layers of eye-pleasing lime green paint flowed elegantly in large frozen drops from the seat and legs. When I saw the stool for the first time, it reminded me of Dali's paintings... alas, we had to destroy this beauty. Because according to the regulations, the stool must be unpainted! so in free time we persistently scraped the stools broken glass, adding wounds to our already unhealthy hands.

About foot wraps. Yes, I had to learn how to reel them in. The secret here was to (I see that mostly girls read me, so I’ll tell you) wrap the foot in an improvised cocoon, and make a small mummy from the lower leg, securing it with a knot on the ankle. This is in theory. In practice, the “mummy” tends to quietly slide down to the heel area and rub your foot. Everyone's feet were sore, without exception! Subsequently, our feet really became horny, and we didn’t care, but many months still had to pass before that...

About hygiene. Soviet people generally didn’t like to wash very much, so the last thing that bothered me was that there was a bathhouse once a week (an hour before getting up). Not a real bathhouse, of course - more like a shower. After the shower, they were given foot wraps, shorts and T-shirts - previously worn by generations of Soviet military personnel and boiled until white (bleach, obviously). In the barracks hot water did not have.

Young people of conscription age are quite actively interested in all the nuances of military service in order to at least approximately know what kind of life awaits them after conscription. One of the popular questions they ask is about studying. Our article will tell you what a military training unit is, how it differs from a regular one, and how long the training will last in 2017.

Let's find out what training is

Immediately after conscription, the vast majority of recruits are sent to combat units, where they begin to study army science in the format of a young soldier’s course. Some lucky ones end up in training, from where, after a certain period of time, they emerge as specialists in some military field.

Why aren’t absolutely all conscripts sent to training units? There are several possible answers to this question. Firstly, not all military specialties require such thorough training, which is organized in training. Secondly, the number of such units is limited, and they are simply not able to accommodate the huge number of young people called up for service twice a year. Finally, thirdly, if everyone goes off to training, it means there will be a serious shortage of personnel in combat units. It is for these reasons that referral to training is the exception rather than the rule.

Training in Russian army is a military unit in which recruits are trained in a particular specialty.

It is distinguished from conventional combat units by the following features:

• all recruits entering the training unit belong to one draft, controlled by experienced sergeants. Consequently, even the slightest manifestations of hazing are completely excluded;
• absolutely everything, from military discipline to punishment for its violations, is determined by the Charter of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Similar situation should be in any combat unit, but the mixing of several calls makes this practically impossible, despite the tightening of measures to combat hazing and other manifestations;
• The daily routine in training is somewhat different from the schedule in combat units. The main feature is a significantly larger number of theoretical classes;
• if there are vacancies, graduates can remain to serve in training units as sergeants and train recruits.

The main feature is absolutely equal conditions for everyone, a significantly higher degree of social justice than in combat units. Each cadet of training goes to the outfit in order of priority, and not according to someone’s whim; military personnel equally share the contents of parcels from home, as well as all the hardships and deprivations of military service.

How long does the training last?

More recently, when the duration of military service was 2 years, learning any military wisdom in training units could take 6-9 months. Today the situation has changed somewhat. Depending on the specialty, the duration of training can be only from 3 months to six months. That is, it is only a course extended over time for a young fighter, which is most often only enough to go to shooting range several times and improve physical training, if the recruit did not devote any time to sports before the army.

A year in the army - what is it like? What happens to a soldier during these 365 days? What is he going through and what is he preparing for?

Today I want to tell you about what a year in the army consists of for a conscript soldier. Of course, the sequence of events described in this article is not true for everyone. She is a specific case for me and my comrades in the Training Battalion of junior specialists of the VI Railways and VOSO.

But I assure you that after communicating with many comrades, friends and acquaintances who have already served or are currently serving, the sequence described in this article is as close to the truth as possible. To what we actually go through during 1 year in the army.

Right now about what we have already gone through, what we are doing now, and what lies ahead of us.

KMB or Young Soldier Course

When I learned about the meaning of this concept for the first time in my life, this picture appeared before my eyes.

Over there, in the distance on the left, that’s me!

Me with all the ammunition, weapons, body armor and full equipment I run 10/20/30 km with my friends. We run through the fields, jump over obstacles, crawl under barbed wire in the rain. Our clothes are dirty, like pigs in a pen, and so on... In general, everything is like in American films about fur seals.

I was probably even partially prepared for this. But that was until I found out that in the army there is a quiet hour, and in the canteen they give you 2 dishes to choose from. After that, my expectations from the army changed significantly. Including about the KMB.

Until recently, I didn’t believe at all that we would have it. However, my friends and I had to take this course.

In my case it lasted 5 weeks. Some have less, some have more. Maximum term My colleagues, who were drafted on June 2, had a young fighter course.

The whole point is that the KMB goes to the oath. We took the oath on August 1st. Therefore, some KMB were not 1, but 2 months.

So what is this course for a young fighter like now?

To be honest, it's not at all what I expected. We didn't have any forced marches or anything like that.

Our KMB consisted of the following elements:

• Drill.

Where would we be without her? The basis of army life is drill training. It's like deadlifting for bodybuilders. All free time in the first month was spent on drill. And rightly so. We still didn’t know how to walk. But practice makes wonders!

• Cramming the Charters.

By the way. For those who don't know. There are more than one charters in the RF Armed Forces. A lot more! That is why in our KMB special attention was paid to the introduction and analysis of individual chapters of the charters. General military, combat, disciplinary and others.

• General military disciplines.

As I said in one of my articles, our studies began on the third day of service. And even on the second.

• Shooting.

My favorite day of the first month. It was incredibly cool! They shot from an AK-74. I got a combat machine gun and 6 rounds of ammunition. Out of 60 possible points, I scored 56. I’m waiting for the next shooting to understand whether this figure was an accident...

In general, I don’t remember anything else special. Studying took up most of the time. This was the case before the oath, and after taking the oath, our life changed somewhat.

Training

Someone calls “training” exactly the period when we had the KMB - the first month of service before the oath. Perhaps this is true. But I can’t call the current period of service any other way. All because now there is even more studying!

Couples go every day, except Sunday, from 09.00 to 16.30 minimum. With a lunch break, of course. But still!

This is real training in literally this word. There has been much less combat, and instead of Rules, in the evenings we now read to each other books with poems by foreign poets.

All because someone swore during the day, and the officer in charge heard it.

Yesterday, by the way, that’s what happened. As many as 4 offenders took turns reading 3 verses each in front of the whole company. With such intonation, so soulful! You should have heard this...

In addition to more study, there was more work. The guys are now actively used in the canteen, in warehouses, at individual facilities of the institute, and in general for small things. For example, paint the parade ground. It's a responsible occupation. It seems simple, but it takes all day.

As the officers told us: “Until you have taken the oath, we cannot demand practically anything from you. But how do you accept..."

That's how it works. Now the soldiers here constitute free labor.

Exams

I'm telling you. This is a real university, school and army together. All in one. Exams will be held for each discipline around the end of October - beginning of November 2015. By November 5, I think, 3 out of 4 companies will have passed all the exams. And after that awaits us all...

High school graduation

This event is more like an oath. At least in that it takes place on a large parade ground and in the presence of parents.

Only instead of the sacred words of the oath, we will receive diplomas of mastery of a specialty, and some will receive the shoulder straps of junior sergeants.

Here, for example, is how it went half a year ago.

Distribution

Literally the next day after graduation, distribution to the troops will begin.

The scheme is approximately the same as I described in my article about the first day in the army with the “purchase” of conscripts in a unit. Only here will buyers come to our unit and take it from here. The rest is the same.

Immediately after distribution, or even during it, recruits will arrive at our unit. From the very first day of their arrival, we will all become And the real one will begin. Just not the one you thought about, but the real one, described in my article.

Military service

I have little information on this point yet. There are only a few acquaintances who have already left for the troops. They talk about how they now spend the entire day at work.

That is, they paint, repair, clean, clean, build. What they don’t do. After all, we are soldiers. We must be able to do everything!

Military unit in Krasnoye Selo considered top for our guys. It is actively promoted by officers, sergeants, and the servicemen themselves. Everyone wants to go there. But when I ask what to do there and why it’s good, I don’t get a reasoned answer.

A good friend and colleague of mine once said that there was an opportunity in that unit to serve at a checkpoint. Like a security guard. And what, a good place, In my opinion. You sit quietly, looking at the cameras. Or even more on a computer with the Internet. Coffee/tea/water. Everything a soldier needs to be happy!

I also know a little information about a military unit 40 km from Moscow. Called 2nd Guards Taman Motorized Rifle Division. If you don’t go into details, “Guards” means that its soldiers, at one time, distinguished themselves for the better in battles for their Motherland.

As for the service there, I have an impression of it good impression. I even consider it an elite part.

The impression was formed based on communication with three officers from there. Everything there is completely different from here.

I would say that we have here kindergarten compared to what's happening there. They have real anxiety attacks. With running around, withdrawing equipment, and so on. This event takes half a night, not 1 hour, as we had here.

Plus, 29 people from ours were taken to this division. They say it's better there than here. Better is a loose concept, of course.

For example, I like it here too! ;-)

By the way, about me. The last point about distribution will not affect me as much as it will affect my friends. They will disperse to different parts of the country, to different branches and types of troops.

And I will stay here to continue my service until demobilization. And guess what? I'm glad about this!

Of course, everything has its pros and cons. But here I found more advantages for myself than I could find for serving in the military.

However, there are still several weeks before distribution. So you can think it over.

By the way, my predecessor himself expressed his desire and left to be assigned to the troops, no matter how my commanders asked him to stay here. And on the second day he sent an SMS to my boss with the text: “I shouldn’t have done this.”

Quite an instructive story, don't you think? But he took the place of the one who was eager to get there with all his might!

This is what happens in our lives. Friends, I once again want to remind you of one of the laws of our life, which I understood precisely thanks to the army: “Everything that is done is for the better!”

I wish you every day better than the previous one, see you soon!

(Do not eat while reading; for those who are squeamish, do not read)

How many training military units do we have in Russia? How many were there in the Soviet Union? Can't count! They are all similar to each other, and they are all different. I am writing this not because I know everything and am very smart - there is simply always some similarity in everything military. Sometimes it’s just crazy - remember how in the movie “Brother 2” the hero asked a taxi driver in America about his brother in Moscow? That's it, and it's the same here. It seems that the titles are different, and they are not very similar in appearance, but the habits of the bastards are terribly the same! Well, the difference is natural. Types of troops, geographic location, climate... Lots of things.

My school was located on the shore of a lake. As soon as they brought it, they explained: here, they say, Peter the Great built his amusing fleet. So it's a great honor to serve here and all that. No one began to explain what the connection was between the royal toys and our army profile. But from the first day we were accustomed to this simple military logic, and we didn’t cry - we would have had to serve in the navy a year longer! But, what can we not take away, there is beauty all around: the lake itself, the churches from the barracks you can see...

However, these were almost all the advantages.

How does every army day begin? From cross and charging. It was only later, in the combat unit, after a year of service, that I was sometimes, at will, “supposed” to freeload and not go for a run, having said I was on cleaning duty. And in studies - not a damn thing! Run three kilometers! And on the very first morning, I kindly remembered my coach Vladislav Vasilyevich, who a year before at the sports camp also drove us six kame through the forest in the mornings. Because handsome and brave men were running next to me... uh, no, that’s wrong - at first we all ran together, and then our platoon stretched out to an indecent distance, and the sergeant, without false modesty, kicked those very handsome and brave men who were running somewhere behind in the butt, as if politely explaining: “Be patient, dear, there’s still a little left...” And so it was on the first day... on the second, fifth, tenth... The biggest one of us was grieving the most. As often happens, he bore the nickname Baby. It was Baby who suffered the most; because of him, we most often stopped to do push-ups or jog in place. There was no anger at him: firstly, he was not the only one - the same Fisa, thin as a worm, almost as tall as the Kid and inexplicably called upon with his scoliosis, did not always walk normally, but here he could run..! And secondly, it was clear that the Kid was trying as hard as he could. Anyone else would have been kicked at night for all these push-ups together, but the Kid? No, this is not the case. Yes, and he was a bit big, in general...

This happened not only in our platoon, of course. Everywhere there were Kids and other Pencils. That's why it's training, that's why the sergeants are here. We could only hope that the breathing apparatus would gradually get used to it and begin to produce desired result. But! As they say, there would be no happiness, but you know what helped.

The majority of conscripted cadets - well, 50 percent, and, as a rule, urban ones - did not know how to wind footcloths. How's it been this morning? “Company, 45 seconds – rise!” In the evening, some put footcloths on top of the tops of their boots and then simply stuck their feet there - and so they ran! Again, I understand, if it was at least after a year of service, then the leg turns into a kind of crutch, nothing is scary for it, I remember it from myself. And then - after all, almost babies from the city arrived! Here is the result: calluses, bloody, and sometimes scary, all over the foot. And the climate here was... and who the hell knows how scientific it is, but the humidity because of this very lake was simply amazing! As a result: the legs began to rot. And hands. Someone will gnaw on a hangnail (I confess, I was one of them), someone will scratch it - this is where suppuration appears.

As a result, almost the same half of the class in the morning walked around the parade ground in slippers - yes, the most natural dermantine slippers. What to do if your legs are all sore? The doctor ordered! They also went to the canteen, to various studies and events. This would be funny if it weren’t sad, because, for example, you can’t walk around the utility yard in slippers, the pigs there are almost knee-deep (not the pigs - the humans) in shit, and you have to run around and clean it all up quickly. Or a guard - you can’t climb the tower with a machine gun in slippers. Our company was once on guard duty when they got caught in a downpour, and the roof of one of the towers fell off - I mean, on him, not on the tower. He started shooting - it seemed that the enemy was coming. It’s good that it was not far from the duty room, they heard and quickly replaced the dude. But at least he wasn’t cold, he was wearing boots...

In general, we began to squabble among ourselves, and the authorities at the top realized that this time - and this has always been the case, as long as training lasted - there were too many orphans and wretched people. A local served in our company, straight from the city that was nearby, he told us a lot - he got here through connections, went on leave almost every weekend, some news reached him. Naturally, he did not suffer from any purulent issues - this only concerned new arrivals, and as the sergeants explained, for the first couple of months, then the body rebuilt itself and got used to it. So the local said: the authorities came to the medical unit - there’s no point in waiting for “perestroika”, smear everyone with whatever you can smear, but in a week!..

But I must say that the medical unit had another, rare plus for training. SHE was there. Over the years, I don’t remember what her name was, like Natasha, or who she was – a nurse or a doctor. I remember that working with her was a doctor who was as young as she, also like an Apollo himself, but he was only interested in us cadets in the sense that it wouldn’t be too painful to perform a procedure - anoint a wound, do a bandage, if it’s bleeding, or no one eats? exactly? - remove the skin if the outer phalanx of the fingers is swollen from pus, and, after treating it all, wrap it up. Now I’m writing and remember... brr, on one hand it happened on all the fingers. Horror, blood is flowing, my head is spinning!

So what am I talking about? A! SHE was there. And let Natasha come up to you, speak to you in her angelic voice, look at you tenderly - and that’s it, there is no pain, no dizziness. Only a beautiful face in front of you... And there’s already a knock on the door: hey, bro, don’t stay too long, you’ve already got everything screwed up there, and everyone wants to let Natasha see it again.

By the way, I won’t exclude the possibility that someone deliberately picked something out for themselves, just to once again come to the medical unit and look at our Madonna. But for the main part, to which I include myself, what was available was enough - and this despite the fact that I had no problems with my legs. But his fingers let him down, he was a sinner, he liked to bite hangnails before the army. Since then there has been no such habit.

It is curious that in addition to us cadets, some students of the ensign school, which was located on the same territory, also wore slippers. It was not a sin to laugh at them: the future “pieces”, grown-up (for us at that time) guys, some of them even idiots, mucking around in slippers like boys!

Someone, having read the above, will probably think the wrong thing: yeah, they went to stare at a young girl, and then did it at night or somewhere quieter, whatever happened, God forgive me? I risk disappointing. Because, firstly, there are no quiet places in school. The commanders will not leave you alone for long. And at night, the cadet, tired during the day, usually sleeps. And even if he wanted to... Personally, we had bunk iron beds, placed two in a row, and if someone moved rhythmically in the middle of the night, he would instantly wake up all his neighbors. But this is not the main thing. Because, and this is secondly, there is bromine in the army.

Much later, I read a lot about how bromine is a poison, that this cannot happen, because this can never happen. I will not argue. I’ll just say that the jelly that we were given at least once a day had some kind of metallic taste - that’s it. The officers (not sergeants, no!) told us that in order to avoid any nonsense, bromine is added to our food and drink - that's two. During my entire training - and I’m talking only about the period of service in the training unit - nothing happened to me that should happen to me. young man who does not have regular sexual intercourse – that’s three. And not only for me. At the same time, I - and again not only - saw beautiful girls and women, wrote letters to his beloved, who remained in civilian life. And nothing! Thank God, this did not affect anything. Because I felt the first signs of returning male power already on the train, when we were traveling from school to combat unit, and still – pah-pah-pah! – she doesn’t leave me. So, let everyone decide for themselves whether to believe in bromine or not.

However, everything passes eventually. So our illnesses gradually healed. And to the cross-country events, forced marches, on-site training sessions, and field training were added. Sometimes even my trained body couldn’t stand it. In our platoon there were few people like me who were involved in sports in civilian life - all athletes were immediately selected for sergeant platoons. I was “lucky”: when I was being escorted into the army, at the station my son-in-law came into contact with a senior sergeant, who picked us up together with an officer. Like, so and so, normal guy, keep it for yourself... something like that. So I stayed in his platoon. And the “old one,” as the sergeant senior in rank and conscription was called, treated me quite normally, even suggested to the platoon commander not to take anyone from the platoon of sergeants, but to leave me in training. The platoon commander was not against it, and made this proposal to the company commander. He called me in for a conversation, tormented me for ten minutes, and gave the go-ahead. After that, the local foreman began to court me. At first I could not understand what the old “piece” needed - purely male interest disappeared, in my opinion, for sure, and to be in charge of the capter, that is, the company warehousing, which is subordinate to the company sergeant major, in the future, as a future sergeant, I could not. Everything turned out to be prosaic: the old warrant officer, having found out how much I had a handle on the situation regarding the relations between the cadets in the company - and I had acquaintances or fellow countrymen in all the platoons - suggested that I make a list of “commands”! For those who have not served, let me explain: teams are groups of soldiers leaving training for one or another military unit. So the foreman, with the blessing of the company commander, suggested: draw “teams” of several people - according to interests, community, friendship, etc., etc. So that it would be convenient for the cadets to travel further along their assignment with their loved ones. But everything is a secret, otherwise...

Naturally, I spilled the secret to my buddies that same evening. And I compiled the first lists quite quickly. And then the problems began. Some people didn’t want to offend, in some places the group turned out to be too large, and some were lonely and unfriendly. And sometimes there was not enough time - “army politics” intervened.

The second sergeant in our platoon, the younger one, was not at all happy that I was under such tutelage from the “old” and the command. He was from Odessa, but not funny at all, rather shitty. They said that his fellow countrymen, with whom he was called up for this training, gave him a final beating for some offense before leaving. And so he began to spread rot on me. Finding reasons in the army is like two fingers...then you know. For example, he put me on guard duty - this is when he separated and collected the guards. Don't get enough sleep, don't rest. It became a little sad, but there was no point in complaining - everything was according to the Charter, and it’s not customary to complain again in the army. I had to mow down. One great way to do this was discovered when each platoon began issuing a “Combat Leaflet.” It listed all sorts of different news in the platoon that had happened over a period of time—like a week. At first, I appointed the platoon commander to write the BC himself, but it all turned out somehow poorly. And then one day the release was entrusted to me and my sidekick Sanya from Vyatka. Seeing the result - and we took first place, even the company commander was amazed! - the platoon commander decided: “That’s it, from this time on only you do all the BC!” Sanya was a great drawer, and my major in technical school was drawing, thanks to which I wrote in a chic font (thank you, Natalya Nikolaevna!). Good! Everything is for an on-site ultrasound examination - and we write a BL. Or the platoon is sent on an extra cross-country course - and we do it!

But the sergeant from Odessa, of course, didn’t like it. And he urged me to dress up - be healthy! Standing “on the nightstand” or being on duty in the company at night, I imagined how I would serve for six months with this freak. It is clear that, having become “old,” he will blame everything on me. And all the mistakes will be mine. I'll grab grief, it's a fact. But refusing to become a sergeant was also fraught with danger. I had almost all formed the “teams” by that time, and if I had refused the perspective voiced to me by management, what would they have told me then?

This is how we stood in one of the autumn nights with a cadet from another platoon. He was the orderly “on the bedside table”, I was the company duty officer. For some reason we decided to look into this nightstand itself. Usually the letters that came to the cadets were placed on it or in it. “What if there’s something there?” - we decided and opened the box. There were indeed several letters there. Most of the postmarks were old and with surnames unknown to us in the “To” lines - apparently, their recipients had already left school. And one was relatively fresh. It also interested us because it was addressed to “A Soldier I Don’t Know” and was very plump.

Photo? – we cried out together in the night.

Walking closer to the standby lamp, I opened the envelope. Leaving the letter for later, I took out the photograph. I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry! The girl depicted there was... how can I put it mildly? - not very beautiful.

Well, what's there? – a co-worker asked lustfully.

Look for yourself,” I handed him the photo. While he was horrified, I glanced at the letter. Blah blah blah, I don’t know you, but I want to get to know you, that’s all I am, from somewhere, such and such interests and other things. I'm attaching a photo. “It would be better not to enclose it yet...” I gave the letter to the orderly.

“Women have nothing to do,” he said after reading the letter. And more attentively than me. - What are we going to do, tear it up and throw it away?

Tear them up. And give me this with the photo for now.

Perhaps he misunderstood me. Or thought something bad. But I got an idea.

Sometimes we had so-called “free time”. You could hem a fresh collar, write a letter home or to your beloved. I approached the platoon commander, a young senior officer with sly eyes and a hussar mustache, and suggested by order that he occupy his “free time” differently. He liked the idea. The platoon, as always, sat down on stools in their nook, and the platoon commander, calling me over, said:

In short, this is what we do now. And how - he will explain.

I showed everyone a photo of the girl and explained that she was lonely and unhappy. After waiting until the wave of immodest laughter and similar remarks subsided, I read her letter aloud and invited everyone - and there were 30 of us, if I'm not mistaken - to write her a response. With any words, any wishes, politely and correctly, so that the lady is pleased. Not necessarily on my own behalf - let the author be anyone in your dreams!

Here you are, our little thing,” I turned to our two smallest cadets, whose overall height was slightly higher than the Kid’s, “be giants in your letters, why not?”

The “Giants” blushed and nodded in unison.

A sergeant from Odessa watched everything that was happening from afar. He obviously didn’t like all this, but what could he do when, together with everyone else, he wrote letters to the platoon commander, scratching his mustache with a pen, and the “old” one, coming from somewhere on the street, lamented for a long time that he had not found this letter earlier and had not answered the unknown "Belladonna."

Everyone wrote letters, I even managed two. Very slowly, carefully, everyone wrote the correct delivery address on the envelopes. I really wanted to know what the girl felt when she received all our correspondence...

And after the next outfit, I realized that it would be very difficult for me in training. Perhaps someone will accuse me of being afraid of difficulties, but both then and now, after years have passed, I believe that I did the right thing. And when I, with a heavy heart, approached the old ensign and told him that I did not want to remain a sergeant in the company, and was ready to tell this to the company commander (the “old” and platoon commander, I had already said everything before), he looked at me tiredly, sighed and answered:

You yourself chose this path. And for this I will throw you among the polar bears...

Thanks to him, I ended up on that very “team” that included all the lonely and unfriendly people. They picked us up and drove us for several days, with a transfer. But the old “piece” was mistaken about something, and I never saw any polar bears. Just as a week later I didn’t see my fellow travelers, whom fate had scattered to different parts. I saw... Ukraine. And he served in the army for only 645 days instead of the required 732, which is included in the full two years.

And that training, as far as I know, no longer exists. Everything has been demolished, and cottages stand in place of the barracks. Otherwise! Place on the shore of the lake, churches around. Beauty…

P.S. Training is in place! And the cottages are nearby. What to do - XXI century))) Thanks for the information