USSR REPORT MILITARY AFFAIRS BOOK: TRANSLATED FROM LEGALESE

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• Publication Date: September 12, 1984
• Content Type: REPORT

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JPRS-UMA-84-017-L
12 September 1984
USSR Report
MILITARY AFFAIRS
BOOK: TRANSLATED FROM LEGALESE
IFBISI
FOREIGN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
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12 September 1984
USSR REPORT
MILITARY AFFAIRS
BOOK: TRANSLATED FROM LEGALESE
Moscow V PEREVODE S YURIDICHESKOGD in Russian 1983 (signed to press 29 Apr 83)
pp 1-144
[Book "Translated from Legalese" by Lt Col Just Igor' Mikhaylovich Vashkevich,
Vcyennoye Izdatel'stvo, 65,000 copies, 144 pages]
CONTENTS
Page
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 1. Starting Point . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Full-Fledged Citizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
What Kind of Relations? .., Normal, Service . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
By Right of Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
One Line of the Regulations . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Translated From Legalese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Chapter 2. The Norm Behind the Norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
From the First Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Worthy of Receiving a Rank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
When the Word Does Not Arrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Ruble Punishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Accident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The Case of the Missing Pistol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Secret is in Your Hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 3. Out of the Duty to Do Justice .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Comrade Commanding Officer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Wearing the Insignia of Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
At the Highest Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . ... . . . . 106
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[Text] Title Page
Title: "V perevode s yuridicheskogo" (Translated from Legalese)
Author: Lt Col Just I. Vashkevich
Publisher: Voyennoye Izdatel'stvo
Place and Year of Publication: Moscow, 1983
Annotation
The author explains the role of specific legal norms and their place in the
system of military legal relations in popular form and on the basis of real-
life situations. The book contains examples of the application of legal norms
and methodological material that can be used by commanding officers and
political workers in legal indoctrination of servicemen and instilling in
them an inner need to observe Soviet laws rigorously and to carry out the
requirements of the miltary oath and regulations.
The book is intended for officers of the Soviet Armed Forces and cadets at
military schools.
A Few Words about This Book (By Lt Gen Just S. Maksimov, candidate of
juridical sciences and Honored Jurist of the RSFSR)
Each year Soviet military literature receives many interesting new publications.
I think that the book by Lt Col Just I. Vashkevich will find its proper place
among them. I had occasion to read it in practically the first version, and
I remember how unusual the approach of the author to such a generally well-
known subject appeared.
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Certainly the subject of propaganda for Soviet laws and legal indoctrination
of army and navy personnel has been worked on for a long time. We have had
many successes in this. Nevertheless, discussion of particular requirements
of legal documents, discussion that is generally thorough and scientifically
sound, frequently lacks a journalistically vivid "translation" of the legal
norm into the language of feelings, a language of everyday real-life situa-
tions. This kind of "translation" is precisely the essence of the book I am
recommending here. Such an approach cannot, of course, be considered exhaus-
tive, but the indoctrination impact of the proposed method is obvious.
When. describing particular norms and explaining why they are fixed in the law
and regulations in a particular way and no other, the author aims to show the
reader the social justice, practical purpose, and moral justification of every
law of the socialist all-people's state. That which the book communicates for
each particular legal principle is truly convincing: an action dictated by our
laws and regulations will always be just, purposeful, and highly moral. And
after all, it is from precisely this that individual respect for the law
develops.
I would hope that the book "Translated from Legalese" is read above all by
those who are directly engaged in legal indoctrination of military service-
men. They will find it to be a reliable guide in this very difficult work.
The CPSU and Soviet Government devote constant attention to the development of
socialist democracy and strengthening legality and legal order, Adoption of
the new USSR Constitution, institution of a whole series of new laws that,
make it possible to regulate various aspects of social relations more precisely,
and compilation of the Code of USSR Laws have been the landmarks on the path
of development of our state system in recent years.
The 26th party congress and subsequent documents of the CPSU Central Committee
set forth important challenges in the area of indoctrinating Soviet citizens
and further strengthening discipline and socialist legality. In his speech
at the November 1982 Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, General Secretary
of the CPSU Central Committee Comrade Yu. V. Andropov emphasized: "We must
intensify accountability for observance of all-state, all-people's interests.
We should wage a more resolute struggle against all violations of party, state,
and labor discipline."
Why did this party appeal meet full and unconditional support from all Soviet
people? It was because they themselves are most directly interested in the
observance of socialist legality and establishing order. This is understand-
able. After all, in our country the laws express the will of the people in
a generalized, concentrated form, But each law is alive and effective only
when it is followed, followed by all people in all places.
A person lives in constant interaction with the people around. Their inter-
relations are conditioned on the ideas of good and evil, honor and dishonor,
and nobility and baseness that are accepted in the particular society. Our
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socialist society is not indifferent to how everyday relations among citizens
take shape and what moral goals they have. The Communist Party devotes
constant attention to the ideological-political, labor, moral, and legal
indoctrination of Soviet people. A great deal is being done in the country
so that our relations in production and in everyday life meet the lofty norms
of the moral code of a builder of communism. And a great deal has already
been accomplished in meeting this important challenge.
But a great deal does not mean enough. We still meet people who are guided
in their actions by narrowly personal, selfish motives and do not take the
interests of other citizens into account. But then, among the many invisible
ties that bind the individual to fellow citizens, the collective, and society
as a whole are quite a number that touch the vitally important interests of the
state. Violating them harms practically every member of society. And in this
case we can no longer limit ourselves to persuasion alone; we cannot wait until
the person reforms and becomes filled with responsibility for his actions and
behavior. Therefore, the state protects a large number of relations among
people and between the individual and society with special care, using the
power of authority in addition to public opinion. These relations are
regulated by special legal norms which are contained in the laws and other
normative enactments. Administrative, material, or criminal responsibility
is envisioned for violation of these norms.
Jurists call the relations which are regulated by laws and other legal enact-
ments legal relations. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of
legal relations in military service, a sphere of human activity which is
regulated in special detail. Many things which under other circumstances are
regulated only by moral norms are, for the serviceman, service obligations,
for example, to be honest, truthful, and brave, to improve military and
political knowledge, to value military comradeship,and so on.
The precise, detailed regulation of the behavior of servicemen can be
explained by the specific features of the military way of life, which is
entirely subordinated to performing the missions that face the army. Article
31 of the USSR Constitution states: "It is the duty of the Armed Forces of
the USSR. to the people to reliably defend the socialist Fatherland and be in
constant combat readiness, guaranteeing the immediate repulsion of any
aggressor." Such important missions cannot be performed without a high level
of organization, strong military discipline, a clear system of subordination,
and consistent implementation of the principle of one-man command in the armies
and naval forces.
The principles of Soviet military development were set down in Lenin's doctrine
of defense of the socialist Fatherland and are legally fixed in the USSR
Constitution, the USSR Law on Universal Military Obligation, the military oath,
military regulations, and other documents. Thorough knowledge of the norms
of military law and the ability to apply them in practice help servicemen
structure their relations correctly with fellow servicemen who are superior
and inferior in military rank, follow orders unquestioningly, command subordinates
in the interests of the service, and ultimately handle their service duties
more successfully and perform their duty to the Homeland better.
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The present book is not a popularized commentary on existing law. Although
references are made to particular norms when necessary, the author':s purpose
is not so much to explain them as it is to show the place and significance of
each of them in the overall structure of military legal relations and thus
help instill a respect for the law in general in the reader.
The cases of violation of legal norms given in the essays are not typical of
our army and navy reality. The Soviet Armed Forces are well-known for their
high combat readiness and strong military legal order. It is not for nothing
that our army is referred to as a remarkable school of endurance,,'discipline,
moral purity, and courage. By referring to negative cases and situations
with sharp conflict as well as many positive examples, the author was trying
to explain as clearly as possible and illustrate the principles of Soviet
military law and the harmonious logic and necessity of the legal relations
instituted in our Armed Forces. The author also intended to provide certain
methodological advice and necessary working examples for those readers who
carry on legal indoctrination of military servicemen.
The author is deeply grateful to employees of the Main Political Directorate
of the Soviet Army and Navy, the Main Military Procurator's Office, and the
Directorate of Military Tribunals of the USSR Ministry of Justice for their,
help in work on this book.
Chapter 1. Starting Point
"Military service in the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces is
the honorable obligation of Soviet citizens" -- Article 63
of the USSR Constitution.
"Military servicemen and reservists called up for assemblies...
enjoy all the socioeconomic, political, and personal rights
and freedoms and bear all the duties of citizens of the USSR.
as envisioned by the USSR Constitution" --.From Article 68
of the USSR Law on Universal Military Obligation.
I am sure that everyone who has been in the military preserves in his heart,,
among the many impressions left by the service, a moving memory like the
following.
It is just barely starting to get light, an hour or an hour and a.half until,
reveille, but the barracks are getting more and more lively. The:soldiers
and sergeants get out of bed on their own, wash up, and put their clothing
in order. Today is election day, so neither the duty officer nor the orderly
will criticize them for violating the schedule; they will only ask them not
to be noisy so that they do not wake up those who are still sleeping. This
is how it is every time our people elect deputies to the USSR Supreme Soviet,
to the supreme organs of power of the Union and autonomous republics, and to
local Soviets of Peoples Deputies. No matter where a Soviet fighting man,.
may serve, the election commission will be sure that he is able to perform
his civic duty.
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The members of the commission for elections to the republic Supreme Soviet
were delivered to a remote point in the mountains by helicopter. The passes
had been closed off in the fall, and the small subunit was in fact cut off
from the "big world." I remember the words said that day by Sgt Anatoliy
Zeynalov:
"I didn't even suspect how much this.event, which is generally so ordinary in
our country, means to me and to my comrades. The feeling of being a part of
all the people is especially strong here. And you feel pride that your opin-
ion, your vote is needed. You know, we were out even before it got light
to meet this helicopter."
Yes, it is a great thing, to feel you are a part of the people, to know that
your opinion is respected, that it is needed in deciding state affairs. But
it never even occurs to us that it could be otherwise. However, there are
many countries in which soldiers do not have the right to vote. Bourgeois
ideologists have many "arguments" to justify laws which make all kinds of
difficulties for servicemen participating in elections to representative
bodies, and sometimes prohibit participation outright. They talk about how
the army should be outside of politics and latch on to residence and literacy
requirements. But the reason that millions of people are denied their civil
right is apparent even to the unaided eye: In a society where the state
opposes working people, they try to separate the army from the people and
compel it to carry out the will of the ruling class without a murmur.
One time people at the Novosti Press Agency asked me to answer the questions
of the certain Western reader in the journal MIR I MY. Inquiring about the
rights of Soviet servicemen, he went right to the point: Who protects the
soldier against arbitrary decisions by his leaders? It was apparent that
the man had taken a good look at the ways followed in the barracks of the
bourgeois armies and finally came to believe that no justice would be possible
in relations between leaders and subordinates.
We will have an opportunity later to discuss this subject on a very practical
level. But for now I would like to stop on something else.: Of course, there
is not and cannot be an army without subordination and where leaders cannot
punish subordinates for mistakes in service. The army is the army, and if the
matter were decided otherwise it would simply be incapable of performing the
missions that it faces. The whole point is whose interests the leaders are
pursuing when they use the authority they have been given, that is, how these
interests are combined with the interests of the primary mass of servicemen
and how observance of the legal rights of the soldiers and citizens of one's
country is guaranteed.
Soviet military law is based on principles arising from the nature of our
state system. In our country the military serviceman is a full-fledged
member of socialist society. While performing general civic obligations he
enjoys rights equal to those of all citizens. We find people in military
uniform not only at the voting urns, but also among those elected by the
people. There are about 14,000 military servicemen who serve as deputies
in elected supreme and local agencies of state power. Tens of thousands of
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soldiers, seamen, sergeants, petty officers, warrant officers, and officers
have been elected people's assessors for military tribunals and work in
people's control agencies and various public commissions. Military service
men represent their party comrades at congresses of the CPSU and the
communist parties of the Union republics and belong to party executive bodies.
Young men of the army and navy are joined together under the banner of the
Leninist Komsomol. 'There are also members of various creative unions and other
public organizations among servicemen, even among the.rank and file. By, no
means does every bourgeois state, even those which brag of their "democracy,,"
give: military servicemen even a small part of these rights and opportunities.
I will not forget the hot Moscow summer and mild autumn of 1977. The draft
of new USSR Constitution was published on 4 June and public dicussion of it
began. More than 140 million Soviet citizens took part in working out the
Fundamental Law of the world's first socialist all-people's state, and some
400,000 proposals were received at the Constitutional Commission. ,Special
bodies, an editorial subcommission and a secretariat , were formed by the
commission to review them. The author of these lines chanced to work at that
time in one of the working groups of the secretariat.
Each morning couriers brought suitcases of impressive size packed to the brim
with material on the progress of the dicussion. The information arrived by
all channels, from party and Soviet bodies, from large public organizations,
from labor and military collectives, and from the editorial boards of newspapers,
magazines, radio, and television. Many letters were addressed directly to
the Constitutional Commission. Representatives from literally all strata of
our society -- veterans of the revolution and students, workers and kolkohz
members, famous military leaders and new soldiers, scientists and housewives
-- became involved in a business-like discussion of this most important
document of our day. At that time.I formed the impression that I was, so to
speak, completely enveloped in the most profound popular wisdom.
To make record-keeping of the many statements easier a special form was
established to report them to the constitutional commission. A very strict
rule was followed here; all proposals were presented in the exact form in
which they were written by participants in the discussion. No corrections
or improvements in thought or style were permitted. Profound respect for
each proposal and remark was the working principle of the apparatus of the
'Constitutional Commission, regardless of whether the letter was just one
line or many pages.
Of course, I was especially interested to read the material coming from large
and small garrisons, from military units and ships, and from the military
schools. Feeling themselves to be full-fledged citizens of their native
country, military servicemen like the representatives of other occupations
made their contribution to working out various constitutional points. The
hundreds of thousands of letters that reached the desks of the secretariat
,of the Constitutional Commission were impressive testimony to the true
democracy of our state and the equality and spiritual' freedom of Soviet
citizens, including those who were performing military service and carrying
out their sacred duty to defend the socialist Fatherland.
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Although there was great diversity of nuances, the people were amazingly
unanimous in their statements concerning the principal, basic problems of our
life. For example, out of some 700 different proposals concerning defining
the class essence of our state, practically every one spoke of the necessity
to point out that it expresses the will and interests of the working people.
The first article of the Constitution was put in final form with this
correction. Participants in the national discussion linked their boldest
hopes and most treasured dreams to the guiding and directing force of our
society,,the"nucleus of its political system and state and public organizations,
that is, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. "Everything that our
country has achieved, everything that makes us proud and happy, the things we
treasure endlessly and that make up the foundation and meaning of our life --
we link all this with the name of the Communist Party and its tireless work
on behalf of the people, on behalf of the happiness of the working person,"
wrote Col I. M. Sukhomlin, Hero of the Soviet Union. Millions of other Soviet
citizens who participated in discussion of the draft Basic Law shared his
thoughts and feelings.
The broad outlook and social maturity of Soviet people were also reflected in
their approach to deciding the issue of the role and significance of labor
collectives in socialist society. I remember one of the meetings of our work-
ing-group well. As usual, the comrades were reporting on which problems were
arousing the greatest concern among participants in the debate. I have to say
..at that time the discussion had just gotten underway and the problems which
were attracting attention were those lying, as they say, on the surface:
environmental protection, indoctrination of young people, and the fight against
drinking. Special reports for the Constitutional Commission had already been
prepared on each of them. At this time we also heard that a large number of
interesting proposals were coming in concerning Article 16 of the draft
Constitution, concerning labor collectives of working people.
The proposals were indeed interesting. The comrades proposed, for example,
that the Basic Law reflect participation by labor collectives not just in
management of enterprises and associations as contemplated by the draft, but
also in deciding state and public matters; they suggested things that collec-
tives of working people could do in planning production and social develop-
ment, in training and placement of workers, in developing socialist competition,
and elsewhere. In other words, the authors of many letters and statements
assessed the importance of these primary cells of our society not just from an
economic standpoint, but also from a political standpoint. Beginning with
such an assessment, Colonel Stenin and others proposed, for example, that this
article be moved from the second chapter of the Basic Law to the first, which
is devoted to the political system. On the basis of these proposals, the
article on labor collectives was reformulated in the final text of the USSR
Constitution, and it was indeed put into the chapter on the political system
of our state.
The Basic Law also reflected the thoughts and statements of many other military
servicemen, among the Captain Kiselev, Private Petushkov, Majors Yukhnenko and
Stafis, and Lieutenant Colonel Kadoshnikov. When reading their letters and
their statements at various meetings, I could feel what a responsible and
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thoughtful approach they took to resolving important state problems, how
well they understood the right that had been given to them to participate in
governing the country, and how skillfully they used this right. Surely no
other social system is able to give working people such broad authority. And
against this background how futile the attempts of Western propagandists seem,
when they try to distort the essence of socialist democracy and carry on about
"violations of human rights" in our country.
The rights of Soviet citizens proclaimed by the USSR Constitution are reliably
protected by our entire system of laws. Needless to say, Soviet fighting men
too enjoy this protection. If something happens, the commanding officer,
political organ, military procurator, and finally our Soviet courts, carrying
out the law, will take steps to restore the violated interests of the military
serviceman. We began our discussion by talking about how naturally and freely
fighting men take part in elections of peoples deputies. Perhaps not everyone
remembers, but on this very point Soviet law has established reliable
guarantees: actions aimed at hindering a citizen in exercise of the right to
vote are criminally punished.
It is not just political rights, but also the honor and personal dignity and
labor, property, and other interests of citizens in military uniform that are
reliably protected by Soviet law. On one occasion the officers and warrant
officers of a certain military unit were familiarized with an order that pro-
hibited them from going off the military post in personal means of transporta-
tion on holidays. This order, like any other, was of course followed without
question, especially where many could see in it nothing but concern for the
life and health of subordinates. After all, what might happen? The first
thing you know, some lieutenant would set off for a picnic on his own motorcycle,
and from there it would not be long until the accident. But then the garrison
military procurator arrived in the unit for a regular check on the state of
legality, and he lodged a protest against this order as contradicting the laws
and infringing on the interests of the servicemen.
But what could he see against the law in the actions of a commanding officer
that were obviously aimed at improving order? Here is what. A prohibition
on the use of personal means of transportation contradicts the unconditional
right of any citizen to his own property. If a person has bought some thing
legally, then he can enjoy its use features, which means wear a coat,
play a musical instrument, or drive a car. Of course there are certain
restrictions here. For example, the traffic laws prohibit driving on the left
side of the street, you cannot hold noisy concerts at night even in your own
apartment, while by no means all servicemen are authorized to wear civilian
clothing, and those that can are allowed to do so only in off-duty time away
from the unit location. But only the governmental bodies authorized to do
so establish these restrictions. They organically combine the interests of
society with the interests of individual citizens, and it is easy to see that
there is not a shred of disrespect for the person''s personal dignity.
The principle of respect for each citizen, for his personal dignity and honor,
is inherent in our society and manifests itself fully in the Armed Forces as
well. This is certainly understandable, for military people must be closely
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bound together by military comradeship. The strength of this comradeship is
determined not only by shared goals and interests, but also by mutual respect,
participation, and, if you like, personal sympathy. The moral self-respect of
each member of a military collective is directly linked to the fighting effec-
tiveness of,the subunit, unit, or ship. Indeed, how can one go into battle
without confidence in one's comrades?
In connection with this I cannot help giving one story from the front, told by
Colonel Justice (Reserve) Sirotin, a former military procurator of a marine
brigade. In June 1944 the brigade was given the mission of landing on an enemy-
occupied shore of Lake Ladoga. Everything was ready for the start of the
operation when the brigade commanding officer called in the military procurator.
From his face it was apparent that something absolutely inconceivable had
happened. The words of the brigade commanding officer confirmed this: one of
the brigade officers, Captain Antunevich, had been wounded in the hand by a
shot from his own pistol.
"Could he have shot himself?" the military procurator thought as they headed
for the place of the incident. Such a charge, deliberately wounding oneself
in order to be taken off the front line, is the most shameful thing possible
for a fighting man. But this did not fit at all with the picture he had formed
of Antunevich. He recalled the officer's fiery statement at the party meeting
dedicated to the upcoming fighting and the stories about how he had several
times led the men on the attack by his own example. But, as they say, personal
impressions are not the last word. Actual circumstances decide everything.
And they had to be clarified before the brigade set out on the landing operation.
Yes, it had to be done. After all, landing a landing force is a combat opera-
tion that requires that participants have special confidence in their comrades,
and especially in their commanding officers.
The military lawyer had to do a great deal of work then to discover, among the
many, frequently contradictory facts, those which were truly relevant to the
case, to check and recheck them, and then to draw the only correct conclusion.
And the conclusion did favor the honest and courageous officer. Of course,
he had never even thought of leaving the battle formation. He was resting in
his dugout before the landing operation. The pistol, in his holster as always,
had the. safety on. The only thing was that the safety no longer held the
firing pin back. When an investigative test was made, the hammer went down
regardless of the position of the safety-catch thumbpiece. It turned out that
while Captain Antunevich was sleeping the pistol fell out of his unlatched
holster, slipped through a slot in the bunk and, striking the ground, fired
upward. There was a pit on the ground from the blow of the pistol handle and
a bullet trace on one of the boards.
I would like to draw attention to one circumstance of this story. The word
"samostrel" [one who shoots himself to avoid battle] was not used by the
brigade commanding officer, the military procurator, or anyone else. A
careful hearing was held and many facts were tested, but the trusting
attitude toward the officer remained unshaken. That is what Soviet law
commands: an accusation is made only after the most painstaking investigation
of all circumstances of the case, when the evidence of the crime is irrefutable.
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There is nothing easier than to cast a shadow on a good name, and it is much
more difficult later to remove this shadow. Therefore, it is especially
pleasant to remember those cases from my experience as a journalist when
commanding officers, political workers, and party organizations reviewed the
cases of fighting men with great delicacy. A certain citizen accused one
officer, a teacher at a military school, of drinking and debauchery. In
his letter to the command of the school he insistently recommended, "'Check on
this man who you are preparing to send for graduate studies." This was
supposedly something the author of the "warning" had found out about! We
checked and were convinced once again of the uprightness and moral purity of
the officer. Of course he did not take part in bouts of drinking and debauchery.
.By a curious combination of circumstances he had not been in the city at all on
the days mentioned in the letter; he had gone to the military academy in
connection with his upcoming studies. The result of the examination of the
"warning" was communicated to the letter-writer. The officer was told that he
had a right to bring suit for slander. I will add further that a very small
number of people knew about the investigation that was made following the letter
and, most importantly, all the necessary documents were sent to the academy on
time. Today, incidentally, this officer himself teaches at the academy and
has already done a great deal to train officers. But what might have happened
if the head of the school or the head of the political branch had doubted their
subordinate?
Many examples can. be given where the law has provided timely and unconditional
protection for the rights and interests of Soviet citizens who are serving in
the army and navy. Indeed, it cannot be otherwise, for since the first years
of their existence the Soviet Armed Forces have been the beloved child of our
people. The monolithic unity of the army and the people is a result of the
class homogeneity of our society and the common goals of the state and each
citizen. This unity is also fixed in law, including legal recognition of the
Soviet fighting man as a full-fledged citizen of the USSR.
The atmosphere of strict legality, the immutability of military law and order
in the army and navy, and the confidence of every serviceman that his rights
and interests are reliably. protected create favorable conditions for combat
training, work, and everyday life for personnel, thus promoting successful
performance by the USSR Armed Forces of their constitutional duty -- to
reliably defend the socialist Fatherland and be in constant combat readiness
which guarantees the immediate repulsion of any aggressor.
What Kind of Relations? ... Normal, Service
"High military discipline is achieved by:
-- instilling in military servicemen a communist worldview, lofty
moral-political and fighting qualities, and conscious obedience
to commanding officers (leaders);
-- maintaining regulation order in the unit (ship, subunit);
-- daily high standards by commanding officers (leaders) with
respect to subordinates, respect for their--personal dignity,
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constant concern for them, and a skillful combination and correct
application of measures of persuasion and coercion.". -- Article
4 of the Disciplinary Code of the USSR Armed Forces.
They have laid a railroad to it now, but when I made my.trip to the small
northern post it could only be reached by airplane. Then to make our way to
the place we had to cross two rushing streams in boats and then use an all-
terrain vehicle -- other vehicles cannot withstand the roads there -- to
"float" across the swampy woods to the fence-surrounded hill. The huts of
the radar company stood there, under low pine trees open to the wind on three
sides.
"Our native village!" the company commander Lieutenant Ozharenkov, who had
brought me from the river crossing in the all-terrain vehicle, said. Looking
around in a proprietary way, he jumped down from the high running board first.
He jumped down and somehow seemed immediately to become part of the surrounding
atmosphere, the harsh landscape. The lieutenant had a powerful athlete's
figure and wore the insignia of a first-class sportsman on his jacket. He had
a strong, swarthy face with large gray eyes and wind-blown dark reddish brown
hair.
"Have you finished installation of the station, Sergeant Larionychev?"
"Yes, sir."
The radar station, elevated on a filled mound, hummed as it worked. It appeared
that the lieutenant could not wait to test the equipment; he immediately went
into the shack, and then appeared again, satisfied and smiling. He talked a
bit with the operators, apparently about the work that had been done. And
listening to him, they wiped their sweaty faces and also smiled in satisfaction.
It appeared that what pleased them most was that they were able to finish the
assignment before the commanding officer returned.
From a nearby hut, some 20 meters from the station, the lieutenant's wife
emerged, a pretty woman who, in her colorful "sarafan'; looked like a summer
cottage resident who accidentally found herself in this place. She looked
with alarm at the rotating antenna.
"Is it on, Sasha?"
"Testing."
A horse-drawn wagon with a dark-haired soldier sitting in front appeared in the
gates.
"What film did you bring us, Private Men'shikov?"
"The Nurnberg Trial."
"You know," the lieutenant said, turning to me, "Spencer Tracy, the actor who
plays in this film, died."
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For me, having been on my trip for a week, this was news.
The company commander and I walked around to all the simple buildings of the
tiny military military post. Everywhere in the equipment room, on the
grassy (so that the soldiers' boots did not raise dust) drill area, and at the
control post -- the appearance of the lieutenant proved very welcome. Even
an outsider could see that his appearance made the rythmn of the work more
lively and drew smiles and enthusiasm, Gradually I formed the impression that
this young officer had not, as it seemed at first glance, successfully entered
the life of the small garrison; rather the diverse and unusual life at the
remote point and even the northern elements around them had been smoothly,
in a military fashion, fitted to his rigorous command standards.
As a lawyer I could not help noticing the mutual relations between the company
commander and his subordinate personnel. Their relations were simple and
natural, seemingly carried on without thinking, but at the same time they were
strictly in conformity with regulations. This was promoted by the lieutenant's
amazing ability to live easily and relax in the intensive setting of regulation
control and to pass on this perception of military law and order to his subor-
dinates. Just as a healthy person is not aware of the precise work of his own
heart, so a fighting man who is aware of the full wisdom and necessity of
regulation requirements does not feel that they are imposed. Lieutenant
Ozharenkov's subordinates, who were accustomed to finding that every.order of
the lieutenant was dictated by service interests alone, considered their own
duty to be carrying out these orders exactly and unconditionally, and saw
nothing in this that affronted their personal dignity.
A year and a half earlier Ozharenkov had not expected any changes in his
military service. He had an interesting job in his specialization. His wife
was with him and a son had been born to them. They were happy, But remember
the words of Mikhail Svetlov: "I left my home and went to fight." When it
was suggested that Ozharenkov go to the remote garrison, he did not hesitate:
if it was necessary, that was it. The only thing he had to do was to collect
all'of the books he had loaned to comrades, technical books, books on the
theater and films, and small volumes of poetry. It is true that one friend
said that he would not have accepted this radar company for any position or
rank: the place was completely out of the way, and in addition there had been
some trouble there recently, so the collective was unsettled and it would be
difficult to begin work with the men in such an atmosphere.
Things were just that way, and even more difficult. For the platoon leader at
the point at that time was Lieutenant Putvinskas, a man of Ozharenkov's age, a
friend from military school. How should Ozharenkov have acted toward him so
that neither the work nor their friendship would suffer?
In the very first evening after the arrival of the new company commander they
had a long, man-to-man talk. The two young officers whom the will of fate had
put on different steps of the service ladder sat opposite one another in the
tiny office and, to the mournful howling of the wind that seemed to remind them
that there were no senior officers for hundreds of verstas, they decided how
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they would now work together. The decision certainly was not easy for either
of them. The wounded pride of the one and the firmness of the other which is
sometimes easy to take for vanity, and the songs they sang together when they
were both cadets -- these things did not help much in establishing new relations
between them. But fortunately, both lieutenants rose above personal considera-
tions. They continue to be friends to this day, although on the morning after
this talk the formal form of address ["vy''] became a set part of their everyday
vocabulary.
The new company commander, in this unusual situation, found a reliable support
in the principles of the military regulations. This is natural. Even experi-
enced commanding officers in such situations find their first advice in these
documents. In an interview for the newspaper KRASNAYA ZVEZDA, Col-Gen Just A.
G. Gornyy, Chief Military Procurator, once observed that an officer's legal
sophistication begins precisely with thorough assimilation and unconditional
performance of the requirements of our regulations, which embody long years of
experience and scientific investigation by outstanding military leaders,
pedagogical scientists, psychologists, and jurists. He constantly recommended
that all officers, above all newly appointed commanding officers of units,
ships, or subunits, take more interest in the issues of Soviet law and measure
every decision they make against its norms.
Just for. example take the regulation principle on mutual courtesy among service-
men which requires that they use the formal form "vyl' when addressing one
another on service matters. It is regrettable if some people take it as nothing
more than a reflection of certain conventionalities in our communal living, as
nothing more than a desired situation which can sometimes be disregarded. In
life itself this "conventionality" is most directly relevant to military duty.
The platoon of Senior Lieutenant B. was on guard duty. The company commander
came to check how his subordinates were performing their jobs. Everything was
in order, but the commander did not hurry off; it was Sunday, there was no work
expected in the unit, and no one was waiting for the captain at home that day.
We must say that both officers, the captain and the senior lieutenant, were
friends and at the same time ardent chess players. So they decided to "play a
quick game." The captain won. Contented, he went out on the porch of the
guard shack and, while saying goodbye to the senior lieutenant, remined him of
changes in the signal system, using the familiar form "ty":
"You remember, Vasil', that the supplementary signals at the posts are turned on
at night. So check to see that they are."
"Fine," the officer promised. "But still you have to agree," he could not help
adding, "that you got my queen by chance. Real players would not take the piece
in such a case."
"Real players do not forgive blunders. If you touch a piece, move it; if you
take your hand off, the move is made," the captain retorted and drove off to
the post.
The night passed peacefully. But next morning the guards of the next shift
found a young moose tangled in the wire near the site being guarded. The
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animal had injured himself and it was some job for the men to fix his wounds.
The head of the guard wrote a report about this. The commanding officer of
the unit, when reading it, could not help wondering why this incident had not
become known until daylight. What if instead'of an animal it had'been a
criminal?! Perhaps the signal system was not working? They found that it was
in good condition, but the men had simply forgotten to turn it on.
"When inspecting the guard,'did you remind the chief of the guard about this?"
The unit commanding officer asked the company commander.
"Yes, sir," the captain answered.
Senior Lieutenant B. did not deny'either that he had in fact been told about the-
signal system. He now remembered very well what the company commander had said
to him when leaving the guard shack. But at that time it went,. as they say, in
one ear and out the other.
After reviewing the circumstances of the misdeed (and the officers did not
conceal what had really'happened), the commanding officer of the unit punished
both men for violating the rules of guard duty. That is what a bad trick-was
dealt to the two comrades by their personal relations, when they put service
relations in the background. But surely this could not have happened if they
had followed regulation requirements. When the formal word "vy" is used', you
cannot help feeling that friendship is one thing; but work is -another:
Lieutenant Ozharenkov and I discussed this case. He was sitting on a little
bench in front of his house and trying to knock a blade of 'grass that was stuck,.
to his boot off with a twig. Even in the evening when all the work was done
and no subordinates could be seen nearby, the lieutenant did not permit himself
to loosen his collar or his belt.
"Some people think," he said on this subject, "that using the informal 'ty'
gives a,certain warmth to relations with subordinates, supposedly brings.people
closer together. In my opinion this closeness is illusory. After all, the
subordinate cannot follow the example of the senior man and address him with
'ty' also. And this approach is fundamentally wrong. My closeness with the
men is based on a common mission which we are performing. 'In my opionion the
word 'vy' in speaking to a subordinate emphasizes that he must do something
not for me, Ozharenkov, but for the sake of the work, the service."
Of course, it was not just the form of address that earned unquestioned respect
for the young company commander and helped him establish correct relations with
personnel. Among the other factors in this a significant role was played by his
unpretentious,sincere concern for the soldiers and sergeants, which was just as
natural as everything else in this small garrison. Here are a few examples.
When the men rose on the signal "Assemble," the lieutenant recorded the lost
time with a stopwatch; time was lost when the soldiers"in the small room bumped
into each other around the large standard rifle rack, and a bulky table for
cleaning weapons obstructed passage. Soon a new one which folded into the wall
appeared, and with it came efficiently designed cupboards for various types of '
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run vrr-'..-rti, vac. viol i
gear. The new items not only saved precious seconds, but also enabled the men
to see that the commanding officer's demanding attitude was not simply a matter
of pushing them, but that it was linked to a search for a better solution. After
this many of the men wanted to take an active part in this search.
Another example. It is possible, to saw boards for various needs by hand. And
that is what they did before the new company commander arrived at the point.
But to him this seemed blasphemous, for a soldier who had mastered the wisdom
of electronics to be using a hand saw! They rigged up an electric saw frame.
Everyone understood then that the lieutenant respected a high level of work
sophistication, and they could feel his concern for them.
After that the post got its own bath house. It was a real Russian bath house
with a shelf and birch switches. The lobes of your ears tingle from the steam,
and there are birch twigs of every sort. In the summer they are fresh, with a
particularly acrid odor. And for winter they are steamed in boiling water
following all the rules before being dried out. The bath cult came from the
company commander too. And there was one more way that he distinguished himself
here also: in the winter he would dash out of the steam room into the snow. It
is a somewhat unusual, but engrossing spectacle. The soldiers were infected by
this daredevil behavior, led, as in practically everything, by the company
first sergeant. Later all the other men also followed the lieutenant's example.
And the lieutenant would laugh and quote lines of poetry that fit the occasion:
"Train your muscles, breathing, and body to be useful in military affairs!"
The company began to celebrate the birthdays of soldiers and sergeants; there
would be a commendation before the formation if the person had deserved it, and
always a cake. Once Junior Sergeant Reshetnikov, a tall, thin young man wearing
glasses,approached Ozharenkov. Permit me, he said, to congratulate you, comrade
lieutenant, on your 25th birthday. And he presented him with a miniature
knife blade and case that he had made himself. A gift is, of course, unnecessary,
but still it is pleasant when your subordinates know your birthday. Then a
little bit later they brought him another surprise, an improved circuit for the
loudspeaker communications system of the control post, which had been made "in
secret." Thus, step by step, the moral microclimate at the point was shaped,
and every soldier, sergeant, and officer could work and live calmly, confidently,
and happily in it. For what is the moral welfare of a collective if not a
reflection of the good attitude of all its members? Only in this situation
can all the qualities of the citizen soldier and his activist posture find
their best expression. I will go further and say that it is precisely in such
an atmosphere that the indoctrination role of the Soviet Armed Forces is best
realized.
The company commander used the full arsenal of organizational and indoctrination
means to create a good moral microclimate in the collective. The relations of
the commander and other company officers with the Komsomol organization occupied
an important place here. Everyone knows that according to Article 49 of the
Internal Service Regulations the commanding officer (leader) in his activity
relies on party and Komsomol organizations, making full use of their influence
for successful performance of missions facing the unit, ship, or subunit. But
the question is how to carry this out in each particular case.
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Ozharenkov remembered a certain Komsomol meeting at his previous duty place.
The staff officer who attended it took over, as they say: he evaluated everyone
and told everyone what to do. And the Komsomol members themselves were simply
quiet. It was necessary to hold a new meeting and conduct it more in conformity
with the Komsomol Charter. So then, on one occasion when the radio operators
made a mistake, the company commander deliberately sat silently at the meeting
of the Komsomol bureau in order to avoid adopting a commanding tone and spoiling
the frank discussion. He did this because the members of the bureau already
knew what his attitude toward the incident was and what steps he had taken with
the individuals at fault. On the other hand, when the Komsomol activists
suggested changing the work schedule of the radio operators, the lieutenant
helped them carry out this idea..
A Komsomol meeting called by bureau secretary Private Dizus in connection with
the opening of the navigation season went differently. The navigation season
is when the once-yearly delivery of gear, food, and diesel oil by river is made.
There is an enormous amount of work, and every minute is precious. And in
connection with combat duty every person is closely scheduled.
In his statement Ozharenkov did not impose any. decisions on the Komsomol members.
He just talked about the volume of the upcoming work and how important it was
for the life and activities of the company. The statements of speakers at the
meeting were brief. And yet the men unloaded the barge in 10 hours and moved
four tons of freight per man to the storehouse. Their arms were scratched and
sore and they could hardly stand. They stopped at the doors of the storehouse
and someone suggested having a smoke and then moving the boxes inside after
resting. The company commander, who was working alongside the others, said,
as if it was a question, "What about the weather?" They all looked at the low
sky ready to pour forth rain and quickly completed the job, as if inspired by
their own machismo.
The commanding officer's main tool in leading men is certainly not the order.
But it is strange, is it not, that no document defines the form in which orders
should be given, and orders themselves are given different [Russian] names in
the regulations: "prikaz," "prikazaniye," and "rasporyazheniye." And even
when it is necessary to determine if the order has been correctly understood
by the one to carry it.out, still the tone of the regulations is not categori-
cal. They prescribe demanding that the subordinate repeat the order "when
necessary." Why is this? After all, in other cases the regulations are
rigidly unambiguous. For example they say that the commanding officer's order
is law for his subordinates and must be carried out unquestioningly, precisely,
and on time.
No, such differences in the level of rigidity of words in the regulations is
not accidental. Life itself sometimes does not fit predetermined forms. The
regulations here rely on the knowledge, experience, and initiative of the
commanding officer. And allow him each time to select that method of making
his demand known to the subordinate that will, in the given situation, promote
the most rapid and precise performance of it. That is why the order may be
either written or oral, announced publicly in formation or given in a private
conversation. But it will always be an order, and the serviceman does not have
the right to refuse to carry it out under any circumstances.
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rUK UrrlUTAL USL UINLY
"I order you to proceed to defend the airspace of the Union Soviet Socialist
Republics" -- Lieutenant Ozharenkov speaks these moving words each time
personnel go on combat duty. But an order can also be given in a whisper, or
by telephone. Sometimes it is just one word, a gesture, or the commanding
officer's own action when he is the first to rise and charge or, like
Lieutenant Ozharenkov, he picks up a box with his tired arms. Sometimes it is
possible to command simply by comradely words of send off. How many such cases
we have known from the stores of war veterans and books and films about the war!
"Lets go, friend, move!" And people went to their death in the name of our
Homeland. And the sincere form of the order did not at all dilute its content;
it made it more vivid. No matter how strong and friendly the parting embrace
of the commander and subordinate may have been, both of them knew that at this
instant they were also linked by military relations. However it would be better
to say that differently; it is precisely from military relations that relations
of mutual respect, comradeship, and unselfish manly love arise. Therefore,
relations within the military collective are based on the love each of us has
,for his native region and our lofty feelings of Soviet patriotism and socialist
internationalism, and there are no bonds more sacred than military comradeship.
I am sure that it was precisely such feelings that helped Lieutenant Ozharenkov,
commander of the radar company, and his comrades maintain their constant level
of militance, overcome the feeling of being cut off from the world, and
live in comformity with lofty ideals.
Once we were returning from a rural club. We were walking through a meadow
filled with bluish fog. The antennas could already be made out far away on the
hill against the background of the whitish sky. We were arguing about a subject
that had not been completed at a recent debate, about military honor, and about
a soccer game where the company commander was a member of one team. Then the
lieutenant began to recite poems and everyone was quiet and listened. It was
late, but the northern white night hanging over the area showed the attentive
faces of the soldiers. And it was not really the faces, but rather their
actual personalities that were outlined by the dispersed light of the sun
which had barely slipped below the horizon. They were different, but in some
way amazingly similar. I thought that this community of young people is based
on a common understanding of their duty to their country and their people for
performance of their military duty. They were closely tied to one another by
military comradeship and the bonds of military relations.
"Relations?" -- "Normal, service," this is a frequent answer to questions about
how a person gets along with his comrades at work. But perhaps we military
people are the only ones who, when answering this way, conform to the letter
and spirit of the law. For there is no other sphere of public life where mutual
relations among people are treated in such detail in actual legal documents.
For us normal relations are relations that conform to the principles of.the
military regulations.
By Right of Position
"The commanding officer (leader) is obligated to firmly and consis-
tently implement the policy of the Communist Party and Soviet
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rVll Vrr1l.YHL uar, V1NLI
Government. He must set for his subordinates an example of strict
observance of the USSR Constitution and Soviet laws and the norms
of communist morality and of irreproachable performance of the
requirements of the military oath, military regulations, and his
service duties." -- From Article 48 of the Internal Service
Regulations of the USSR Armed Forces.
One of Major Yurchenko's good qualities is that he loves nature. The officer
arrived in a remote military post in the steppe at a time when there was not yet
a single little tree or bush there. He tried to pass on his enthusiasm to his'
fellow soldiers, encouraged Komsomol members, and organized a number of voluntary
work days to plant greenery on the post. The post now is like an oasis in the
desert. And how offended the major was when he saw a little birch tree broken
off in the new plantings! Yurchenko stood silently over the bent trunk. He even
tried to put it back in upright position, but the crown bent over to the ground
again.
The little tree was growing next to the guard quarters and the break was a fresh
one, so it appeared that the guilty parties should be looked for there.
Yurchenko stormed over to the guard shack at the entrance. The officer inter-
rupted the change of the guard which was taking place and, giving in to the
indignation that had overcome him, gave everyone there a real "dressing down."
Then he demanded that each soldier personally promise him to protect the green
plantings.
They still remember this incident in the unit. They say, some joking and some
serious, that Major Yurchenko used his power correctly -- to develop the law
on environmental protection! But some believe that by intervening for the little
broken tree the officer himself was out of bounds.
Well, if we judge in everyday terms, we can probably agree both with those who
saw a reason to smile in this officer's behavior and with those who justify him.
Certainly any of us, if we were to discover a poacher, would try to stop this
violation of nature. Especially when there is a law on this subject. But that
is the point here, that everyday logic is not relevant. It cannot and must not
guide the actions of a person who is performing official duties. The power
given to an official is for a strictly defined purpose. It is designated
exclusively to carry out service duties and to use it for any other purposes,
even the most noble ones, is to go beyond official authority and become arbi-
trary..
Major Yurchenko could have, within his rights, found and punished the guilty
person. He could have put this behavior by a subordinate up for public
discussion. But in anger he used his power differently, and he sacrificed the
interests of the service to a doubtful indoctrination effort. The main thing
is that the procedure for performance of guard duty was violated, and this of
course is performance of a combat mission. Regulation mutual relations among
servicemen suffered, for military servicemen are not obligated to give any
kind of sworn promises or to listen to crude words. Finally, the regulation
principle of a serviceman's personal responsibility for misdeeds was not
applied. After all, the officer did not find the guilty person. Of course,
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the reputation of Mai Yurchenko himself also suffered gravely here. The gossip
and second-guessing that occurred after the event at the guard shack were a
clear sign of this.
What comes out is that it is not easy, when commanding men, to remember at all
times that you are not commanding them personally, but rather on a mandate
you have been given by the state for strictly defined purposes. It is made
even more difficult when you never seem to separate yourself from the service
and you believe its interests are your own fundamental interests.
All the same, there is a dividing line which separates the individual's wishes
and aspirations from his official powers. I am sure that every leader has at
least once experienced the strange feeling of discomfort when he was forced,
while at home, watching television, with slippers on bare feet, to take a
report from a subordinate about service affairs. In this situation the
authority and firmness which are so ordinary in the office come very hard. On
the other hand, one feels a desire to cut the report short or at least switch
it to something like a comradely talk. And this happens even with people who
are not at all emotional, with what are called "born officials." And it
happens because the moral-legal climate (if we can say it that way) that
reigns at home is entirely different from the one at work. Other norms define
relations among people there. And the discomfort is a consequence of impos-
ing these relations on other, work relations. The only one who does not feel
this is the person who has already begun to equate his individual person with
the job entrusted to him.
Is there any need to say what consequences such confusion can haver Even if
such a leader performs his service duties zealously and the work goes well,
still there will always exist the possibility of a breakdown, at least like
what occurred at deguard shack,. where he goes beyond the permitted limits.
The danger will exist unless the leader, each time while making a decision,
asks himself whether he has the right to this decision, whether he is mixing
work and personal affairs?
It seems to me that the poet and officer Yuriy Belichenko found the right words
about keeping the commander's decision free of subjective influences. In the
poem "The Regulations," he states:
"Precision in the words a commander
put into use swiftly is fine:
The great importance of the order
Does not permit splitting words."
Indeed, the actions of a commanding officer and the decision he makes will only
find moral support among his subordinates when they do not conceal interests
unrelated to the work, bare self-importance, or flaunting of authority. The
cause which we serve is the only and the natural foundation of the indisputable
authority of a commanding officer's words.
A few years ago I had to investigate certain events which nearly brought an
officer before the tribunal. This story began with wounded pride: the driver
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rUK Vrrll.lAL UJL' VINLY
Chernysh commented unflatteringly about the ability of his superior to drive
his own Volga. But at this time Chernysh himself had just passed the tests
for driver 2nd class and his new license was still on the superior's desk
among other documents. Latching on to a certain mistake by Chernysh, the
chief of the motor pool ordered that the license not be given to the driver.
But just a minute! The heads of motor pools are not authorized to deprive
drivers of their professional rights. If such an action is necessary, they
must appeal to the State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate. Having gone outside,
the bounds of his official authority, the officer found himself together
with the confiscated document to be in a certain legal vacuum. What should
he do with the license? It could not be destroyed. If he were to try to
turn it in somewhere they would not accept it, and they would also probably
ask how he got it. So the license sat in the safe while the officer waited
for a reason to return it to the driver. But he did not want to simply give
it back, so the head of the motor pool, seemingly a serious man, hinted. that
it could be gotten as a bribe. Fortunately for him the deal was not made;
the community and the press intervened in the conflict and the license was
returned to the driver. Thus the head of the motor pool, a man clothed with
the trust of the state, almost committed a crime. And the first step toward
it was an abuse of position.
The movie"Chapayev" gives a fine example of the respectful attitude of.an
official, a commanding officer, for the legal status of his own position.
The logic of revolutionary struggle leads the legendary division commander
to understand the critical need to strengthen legality by every means and
to enhance the authority of his orders to a level where he himself, having
given the order, cannot neglect it. And when he announces.that he will
ruthlessly execute anyone caught stealing, Vasiliy Ivanovich adds: "And if
I do it, shoot me! No mercy for Chapayev!" Is this not a manifestation of
the objective essence of official authority, equally compulsory for the one
who carries out the order and the one who gives it?
I recall the respect with which the garrison military procurator spoke about
the working style of officer Savitskiy. Everything in the subunits subordin-
ate to this naval officer was done in strict conformity with the law and
regulations, and as a result the men were very successful in combat and
political training. But Savitskiy had not been put in any special conditions
and he did not have any special legal. education.
"Unlike others," the military procurator said, "this officer is very concerned
to substantiate his own decisions and is very sensitive in defining the
authority which he must use. He has an almost physical sense of the limits
of his authority. As a result he calls the lawyers and consults when he has
the slightest doubt. One time he reported,'One of my officers has simply
collapsed. He permitted a big loss of time when unloading railroad cars.
Now a fine has to be paid to the railroad. Can I, as this officer's ..
superior, hold him financially responsible?' I was smpathetic with.him,
but I answered that the law does not provide for this. Savitskiy simply
sighed, 'That's a shame, it's state money. But if he cannot be punished
with money, I will punish him on a disciplinary basis., So that he will be.
careful will public money in the future..."' .
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"And do you know," the military procurator said, completing his thought,
"Savitskiy's authority among his subordinates is unquestionable. This is
because while he demands order from others, above all he observes this order
himself in the most rigorous way."
Indeed, the norms of the law know no personal exceptions. All people are
equal before the law. This equality, and therefore also the normal develop-
ment of legal. relations in any collective, including military, are possible
only when the right of one is secured by the duty of another and, in turn,
every obligation is linked with some right. To remove just one building
block from this orderly system would be to destroy the system itself.
We have already seen the unenviable-situations certain comrades found them-
selves in when they went beyond the limits of their official authority. Will-
ingly or not they violated the rights of their subordinates, and in doing so
hindered the very work for which they answered. The right to give orders,
however, is closely linked with the obligation of the official to exercise his
authority fully and strive to see that his subordinates carry out all his orders.
"The commanding officer (superior)," we read in Article Seven of the Disciplinary
Code, for example, "who does not take action to restore order and discipline is
responsible for this." This principle is also applicable in other cases.
The people's court was hearing a case on restoring Citizen S.'s job at a mili-
tary institution. She had been discharged for systematic violations of labor
discipline, which had been confirmed once again-by a representative of the
institution in court. But the court did not find this statement to be sound,
and here is why. During her period of work S. had received only favorable
comments from the command. On every holiday her name was listed in the orders
among those deserving of commendation or valuable gifts, and even when she
was discharged the young woman was given a good reference.
"We didn't want to spoil her records," the representative of the institution
admitted honestly in this connection.
.This is nothing else but certain leaders forgetting their obligation to
maintain labor discipline! Such cases illustrate that some of them do not
connect the disciplinary rights they are given with the obligation to use
these rights. This gives rise to their desire, even when discharging an
unreliable employee, not to spoil personal relations with them. But we know
that this "kindness" is at state expense and sometimes amounts to direct
connivance with violators of discipline.
The court restored S. to her work, obligating the institution to pay her for
the forced leave. At the same time the court directed the attention of the
heads of the institution to their standards with respect to subordinate.
So once again we see that a mistake by officials occurred because they did not
understand the objective essence of legal norms. If so-called everyday logic
may have led the above-mentioned Major Yurchenko to exceed his authority, in
the last example the same factor caused the heads of the institution not to
use the rights they were given. Neither the one nor the other can be called
true concern for the work for which these comrades . were responsible.
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There is one other aspect of the subject that it is important to note here.
Every Soviet citizen, and even more a leader, must understand the interests
of the work in the broadest, state-oriented sense of this word. Our
activist posture is life is a result not just of socialist morality, but also
in many cases of legal norms. For example, it is the constitutional duty of
a citizen of the USSR following from Article 65 of the Basic Law to be
absolutely hostile to antisocial actions and to help preserve public order
in every way. For military servicemen there are, additionally, several
regulation requirements: to restrain comrades from unworthy actions and to
help commanding officers and superiors to maintain order and discipline.
When it is a matter of violating especially important social interests, a
person's indifference to what is happening and his failure to take necessary
steps may even be evaluated as a crime. For example, the law provides
punishment of up to three years loss of freedom for failure to help a person
in a life-threatening situation or failure to inform the authorities of
preparations for a murder and various other crimes (to say nothing of state
crime!). Needless to say, some of us may never encounter such crimes in our
entire lives. They must be spoken of because there are people who, in other,
less dangerous situations for society, still take the attitude of an outside
observer. This attitude is especially intolerable for an official person.
The dishonest action of Vladimir F., a cadet at one of the military schools,
agitated everyone. Even the officers and even Vladimir's closest friends
all stated the same thing: a person who cannot be relied on has no place in
the cadet corps. And how can you rely on someone who steals from his comrade?
The subunit commanding officer announced his punishment and the Komsomol
member decreed that he be expelled from the ranks of the Komsomol.
A report about the impossibility of cadet F. continuing at the military school
went to the. desk of the officer serving as acting chief of the school. He
agreed that dishonesty is an unacceptable quality for a future officer. But
his long years of experience working with people also told him that a
personality is not formed all at once and that, after going astray once, the
young man could still straighten out and regain his good name and the trust
and respect of his comrades. It seemed to him that the cadet had been punished
strictly enough. So should extreme means be taken?
While the temporary acting head of the school was weighing all the "pro's"
and "con's," a telegram from the senior officer arrived ordering cadet F. to
go to another military school. And the acting chief was mentally relieved
to carry out this order, believing that the unpleasant episode could not have
ended better.
But this is where he-made his mistake. The action which possibly did not
exactly characterize the cadet fully and possibly was just a chance episode
in his beginning life had, expressed in legal language, all the required
elements of a crime. Article 144 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, for example,
is completely clear that secretly taking the personal property of citizens
(larceny) is punished by loss of freedom for up to two years or by corrective
labor. And where significant damage is caused to the victim the punishment
is increased.
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NUK UNHILIAL UaL UINLY
So the comparatively small amount of damage caused by Vladimir F. still did
not give a right to interpret his actions as an ordinary misdeed. The chief
of the school did not have the authority to adopt a legal decision on this
case. In such a situation the commanding officer must decide the serviceman's
fate together with a representative of the legal service, in other words with
a military procurator. It is very possible that after analyzing all the
"pro's" and "con's," the military procurator would also have considered the
measures taken to be. adequate. But this decision would have come from specific
legal norms, not from the subjective assessments of particular officials. It
would have been just, legal, and would not have led to complications.
But the acting chief of the school did not bring in the procurator and serious
complications arose. With good grounds the military procurator's office
evaluated the fact that senior officers had not been informed of the cadet's
misdeed as an attempt to conceal a crime. The entry made in the cadet's
service card testified to the same thing. It was found that his punishment
was given not for stealing, but for "flagrant violation of the order of the
day"! But what else could he write, the officer who made this entry complained
to me, if his subordinate had not been officially indicted. The members of
the Komsomol committee who received the materials on expelling cadet F. from
the ranks of the Komsomol also found themselves in a difficult situation. If
his misdeed was not that serious, then wasn't the measure of punishment
proposed by the Komsomol too strict? In any case, the committee did not make
a final decision on this matter until my arrival at the school.
These were the. consequences of an incorrect evaluation of a case by a respon-
sible official. The temporary acting chief of the school did not exceed his
authority, as did the head of the motor pool who improperly took away his
subordinate's driving rights. But just as in that story, it became difficult
to realize a whole series of legal relations as a result of the official's
inaction. And when the regular chief of the school returned from his work
trip he had to do a great deal with the help of military lawyers to restore
these legal relations, This required cancelling the order of the senior
officer transferring cadet F. to another military school, reviewing the
decisions of other officials, and setting up a new hearing on the incident.
Finally, the officer who had been temporary chief of the school lost some
authority and respect.
Cadet F. was expelled from the school.
Summarizing this all, only one conclusion can be drawn: correct performance
of assigned duties by a commanding officer or superior results above all from
his attitude toward life and ability to assess any event from a state point
of view, not just from a personal or even departmental point of view. This
attitude makes it possible to carry out these duties in strict conformity
with the letter and the spirit of the law and thus promotes further strengthen-
ing of discipline and organization.
One Line of the Regulations
"Military discipline is exact and rigorous observance by all mili-
tary servicemen of the order and rules established by Soviet
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v._ yr .a.It1L wI: VI\LI
laws and the military regulations." -- Article 1 of the
Disciplinary Code of the USSR Armed Forces.
When you encounter cases where experienced people, not newcomers to military
service, violate the law and regulations, you cannot help asking yourself
whether it could possibly be true that they did not study these documents and
know the rules of military life. It usually turns out that they did study
them, but everyone understands them in.their own way.
I had occasion to talk with many cadets and officers at the military school
already discussed above. I wanted to make a more thorough study of the
situation in which what happened there had been possible. I. also looked at
the servicemen's knowledge in the area of law. Most of the comrades, as
was to be expected, were well aquainted with the legal norms that determined
their everyday life and applied them skillfully in practice.
But they also asked me.questions such as the following: why, right up until
cadet F. was expelled from school, did he attend classes, serve on details,
and go on leave -- in other words, continue on in the service as if nothing
had happened at all? I think that these questions reflected certain gaps
in the legal training of those who asked them. It is also hard to believe
that the officer who was acting chief of the school did not even glance over
the duties defined for him by regulations in the case where a subordinate
commits a crime. But-something prevented him from carrying them out in
strict conformity with the law. Let us try to get at the reasons which
caused such questions to appear suddenly in people who often know many points
of the regulations by memory.
Why did F. keep serving "as if nothing had happened at all"? But how could
it be otherwise? Military service is an honorable obligation imposed on
Soviet citizens by the USSR Constitution. The question of releasing from
military service or postponing conscription into the ranks of the armed
defenders of the Homeland can only be decided by certain specific people
and only in cases envisioned by the law (illness, study at a higher educational
institution, and family circumstances). Incidentally, while performing his
constitutional.duty cadet F. once showed, as is recorded in his service record,
"boldness and determination in restraining violators of public order," and for
this he was commended. Moreover, this happened just one month before his
improper action. Therefore, it is not so simple to answer the question
whether he was worthy of being in the military. Indeed, even after he was.
expelled from military school he continued active military duty and was
discharged into the reserve with a full set of decorations. And if a citizen
is performing the duties of military service, how can he get by without
attending classes and without doing his job on detail and on guard?
"Went on pass..." I then asked those who were indignant that cadet F. had
been given this opportunity what they considered permission to leave the
unit area to be? They told me it was a commendation. And what did they think
refusal of the pass was? They told me it was punishment. So it came out that
every Sunday every cadet at this school was either commended or punished
because for the people I was talking to there was no middle ground. I think
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the absurdity of this situation is obvious. The point is that certain comrades
did not want at all to agree that regular passes for a regular-term serviceman
to leave the unit area are a normal condition of his work, and not some kind
of gift from the superior officer. This is precisely why the Disciplinary
Code considers depriving a serviceman of regular passes to be punishment.
Still my opponents did not give in. What will happen, they said, with main-
taining constant combat readiness in the subunit? Of course, the entire
company or platoon cannot be allowed to disperse on a day off! And if a
pass is the legal right of a serviceman, then why must he ask his immediate
superior for it every time? Once again it was necessary to open up the Inter-
nal Service Regulations and read to the people something they certainly had
already read, probably more than once.
Article 204 reads as follows: "No more than 30 percent of the personnel of a
subunit can be on pass at one time. On Saturday the pass can be allowed for
up to 24 hours, and on Sunday until retreat. Passes are given on an ordered
turn system." Here is the answer to the question about maintaining the
combat readiness of the subunit. At the same time, this is also a recommenda-
tion to commanding officers on how to give passes to subordinates. Suppose
that 30 percent of the company is on pass on Saturday, the same number are out
from morning until the evening meal on Sunday, and then the remainder receive
passes. The pass order is, according to the same statute of the Regulations,
managed by the squad leaders and deputy platoon leaders. Therefore, they are
the ones who must write up a definite schedule and follow it based on the
specific conditions of work and the requests of their subordinates.
Now let us discuss the requests themselves and the response to each one of
them. If a person has prepared for a pass according to his position in order,
only exceptional circumstances such as appointment of the subunit to guard
duty or some other work, a quarantine declared by the garrison medical service,
and the like can interfere. Nonetheless, the serviceman cannot set out on his
own at the appointed hour and leave the unit area; he must receive the pass
document. So it seems that there is some contradiction here.
There is not. The point is that our right to satisfaction of certain needs
may be, as legal scholars say, objective and subjective. Objectively, each
Soviet citizen has the right to education, but only those who are admitted
to particular schools use this right. No one is forbidden to go to the movies,
but the subjective right to see a particular movie at a particular theater
arises for a person only when he buys a ticket for a definite showing. The
objective right of regular-term servicemen to be allowed outside the unit
area should be viewed in exactly the same way. On the one hand it protects
the legal interests of the individual against arbitrary refusal of the pass;
each refusal, as we now understand, is a disciplinary punishment and must be
recorded in the serviceman's service record. On the other hand, the objective
right which requires special confirmation each time insures that precise
regulation order is maintained in the subunit. The commanding officer
always knows who he has released from the unit area and until what hour.
And thus we see how much there sometimes is behind a single point of the
regulations. It is not enough to simply read it to understand its profound
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meaning; it is necessary to compare the points of one article of the regula-
tions with those of another and a third, and with the requirements of other
legal enactments. Moreover, in some cases a regulation principle can only be
understood correctly on the basis of information that seems to be far from
legal science.
In the same Internal Service Regulations we find Article 365. It states: .
"All'military servicemen must wear their hair neatly. Regular-term soldiers,
seamen, sergeants, and petty officers as well as all cadets at military
schools are authorized to wear short haircuts." As a military man I can
easily understand the great practical significance of these requirements.
Extra hair interferes in combat, and not just hand-to-hand fighting; After
putting on a gas mask, a person with a bushy head of hair and beard will not,
I am sure, risk testing it for airtightness in conditions of actually contami-
nated air. The preventive-sanitary importance of the article is also perfectly
obvious; it is by no means accidental that it is in the chapter of the regula-
tions concerning preservation of the health of servicemen. Under field
conditions, for example, there is neither time nor opportunity to fuss about
a haircut styled after certain Western performers and keep it clean.
I also like this article as a lawyer. The terse severity of the words meets
both the interests of the service and the personal interests of the service-
man. Is it really possible to establish specific limits to the barber's
efforts beyond which a person's outward appearance will be unpleasantly
skewed and his pride wounded? For this reason our regulations give no
further instructions about a soldier's haircut than that it must be short and
neat.
But then, even with the application of this article there are misunderstand-
ings. I recall how the cadets of a certain military school were only permitted
to have "boks" cuts (short sides and back), while their comrades from another
military school had various kinds of haircuts. And Major K., chief of staff
of one of the battalions:, expressed his doubts about whether it it permissible
to punish subordinates for wearing mustaches and sideburns.
Well, these are proper doubts. It is not easy to apply this article of the
regulations correctly because it concerns aesthetics as well as certain
aspects of the military service. Different comrades may have very different
ideas about what looks good. And it is hardly possible to change things
here by simply using disciplinary means or trying, literally, to fit everyone
into the same mold. Such methods only harm the authority of the person who
uses them, and the bad taste will make itself known again at the slightest
opportunity. Is is not because certain superiors lack the patience and tact
to indoctrinate their subordinates that we meet young people, discharged after
their regular terms, on the street and they have haircuts that plainly do not
look good on them? Or sometimes you even see a lieutenant with enormous
sideburns or with swatches of hair coming out from under his hat. He inter-
prets the regulation requirement of a neat haircut to suit himself. He simply
has no idea that this is unattractive, when the serive cap is not worn on the
head but rather "floats" on a stack of hair, It is not even practical; at the
first gust of wind the cap will fly off. It is not for nothing that the uniform
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for military women envisions a beret which, when necessary, is secured to her
hair with a pin.
I think that there should be discussion about the outward appearance of a
serviceman even before young men are drafted. Once I was shown a letter from
two girls in Chimkent. They asked, "Why before being drafted into the army
are boys given such short haircuts? It messes them up so much. They walk
around with their caps pulled down over their eyes, ashamed of how they look."
Certainly such attitudes are not useful for future fighting men. Our young
people ought to know that if during the Great Patriotic Was there were no
large-scale infectious diseases in the active army, one of the factors
among others which assured this was the simple technique of requiring everyone
sent to the front to be shaved bald. At the same time we can and should tell
future soldiers about something else. I have in front of me portraits of
Heros of the Soviet Union Guards Captain Yakov Anisimov, Private Aleksandr
Matrosov, Guards PFC Mikhail Abrosimov, and Sergeant Tokubay Taygarayev. They
died heroically and are imprinted in our memory in precisely the form, shaved
"bald," which, according to the words of the two girls from Chimkent, makes
certain draftees today embarrassed. And so I want to ask them, should they
be embarrassed at such an appearance? Everything here probably depends on
who you compare yourself to.
In the outstanding old movie about Grigoriy Kotovskiy, the civil war hero,
there is a scene where every member of his famous brigade gets a haircut.
Deeply annoyed by the upcoming procedure one of the men asked the beloved
brigade commander to protect him: just look, he said, Grigoriy Ivanovich, what
"idiots".they are turning us into.
"Idiots?" the brigade commander said in surprise, and uncovered his own shaven
head to the men.
And the soldier (who was excellently played by the actor A. Sorokin), having
assessed the situation, quickly found his feet.
"Cut my hair," he told the barber. "Give me a Kotovskiy cut!"
When studying the regulations it.is usually not necessary, of course, to
resort to additional sources. But this makes it even more important not to
overlook a single word. And if some might reproach the author with exaggerat-
ing the importance of the article just discussed relating to soldiers' hair-
cuts for the combat readiness of the subunit or unit, I would now like to give
an example that is very directly relevant to combat readiness.
"How can you understand this!?" the battalion commander said with indignation
at a service meeting. "We are deciding the question of Private Pukhov's non-
regulation attitude toward a fellow serviceman, and here we read in his service
record that he has been commended for outstanding knowledge of the regulations!"
Nikolay Pukhov really did commit a flagrant violation of discipline and abused
the respectful attitude of a young soldier toward him, an experienced special-
ist. Precisely what privileges Pukhov was trying to get out of this situation
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
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for himself I will say a little later. For now I will note that the battalion
commanders doubts about the soldier's thorough knowledge were not unfounded.
Furthermore, an analysis of what had happened showed that,not just Private
Pukhov, but also various other servicemen in the battalion did not have a clear
idea of a number of very important regulation requirements. And the high
scores in classes and commendations were evidence only that certain commanders
took a formalistic attitude toward testing their subordinates' assimilation of
the material under study.
The matter that later attracted the attention of the battalion commander began
with a small thing. Warrant Officer Petrov once noticed Sergey P., a recently
drafted soldier, standing rigidly at attention in front of Pukhov.
"What's going on? What's the occasion?" the warrant officer inquired, correctly
considering that the sleeping quarters of the barracks were not a place for
practicing drill procedures, and this was not a appropriate time for it at all.
"Nothing, we are simply fooling around," Pukhov said, grinning slightly,
It came out later that things here were not simple at all. Private P., who had
just arrived in the subunit, still had not fully mastered his service duties
and had not adequately watched the technical condition of the. motor vehicle
entrusted to him. So Pukhov was "instructing" the newcomer, having first
given him the command "Attention!" which the young soldier carried out with-
out a word.
We talked with Private Pukhov and explained that according to his service posi-
tion he could when necessary suggest to a comrade the best way to perform his
duties and at a meeting he could reproach and even criticize him for poor work.
But he had no right to give orders to people equal to himself in position and
military rank. The second-year soldier, who had commendations for outstanding
knowledge of the regulations, plainly did not believe these words. After all,
everyone in the platoon respected him and listened to him, and if a team was
sent somewhere, he, Pukhov, was usually put in charge. In the eyes of Sergey P.
I saw the same kind of disbelief of my words that he did not have to carry out
the command of his fellow servicemen. The young soldier sincerely believed
that there in the sleeping quarters Pukhov had commanded him in full conformity
with the regulations.
I had to talk with Warrant Officer Petrov. Had he explained the appropriate
article of the regulations to his subordinates? Yes, he had. Then why had it
been forgotten? Why did the warrant officer himself see nothing except an
out-of-place joke in the strange situation which he witnessed? It apparently
was because he also had a superficial understanding of certain points of this
article.
"So then what did they violate on this occasion?" this still young commanding
officer asked uncertainly.
"To be short, just one point of Article 10 of the Internal Serive Regulations:
'Subordinates must obey superiors without question."'
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rvn vrri' iris var. vt'i.i
"Why, I know that article by memory," the warrant officer said, seeming to be
affended. To prove it he immediately recited the entire article.
Well, it certainly is a memorable article. And it is known not just by
experienced fighting men; both participants in the conflict, Pukhov and Sergey
P., recited it as well as their commanding officer. But they too had the same
incomplete understanding of the essential points of the article. Both soldiers
said that the order of a superior is law for the subordinate, that it must be
carried out precisely, on time, and without question. When they were asked,
the men could even give examples of unselfish performance of orders by both
front-line soldiers and by fellow servicemen. And needless to say, there was
no reason to object to this explanation. But with this the servicemen ended
their explanation.. However, there is more.
After all, one cannot throw out a-single word from the regulations, no more
than from a song, but to this point the soldiers had been talking only about
the words "must obey without question," overlooking the other words. That is
why they still could not understand the full meaning of the regulation
principle. Recognizing that it is essential to obey without question in the
army, the men did not think about whose orders must be carried out at any price.
But this too is discussed in Article 10. Let us open the regulations once more
and read again: "Subordinates must obey superiors without question." This is
the important part of the regulation requirement which the two soldiers did not
assimilate. And Warrant Officer Petrov did not help them do so.
I remember once at the draft point of the military commissariat a little old
gray-haired lady was instructing her draftee-grandson: "You behave yourself
there, in the army. Obey everyone." We can forgive the old lady her lack of
legal knowledge, of course. It would never occur to her that someone would
try to command the young man to do things not in the 'interests of the service.
But the grandson will have to know well that each article of the regulations
was formulated in precisely one way and no other for good reason. Who is
responsible for the service of a fighting man? His commanding officers and
superiors. This means that only they have the right to give him orders and
instructions. And the regulations clearly delineate the group of people who
are superiors for different categories of servicemen. For soldiers and sea-
men these are, in addition to their direct superiors, the sergeants (petty
officer) and warrant officers of the same unit and all officers. A private
may in fact command other privates, but only when he has been appointed by
the commanding officer, even on a temporary basis. Remember-how Pukhov said
that he had to serve as the man in charge of the team of drivers? At that
time he really was a superior for every member of the team and they were all
obligated to obey him. But in the episode to which we drew attention there
were two soldiers who were not in a relationship of subordination and neither
of them could give the command "Attention!" to the other.
I anticipate that-some may wonder whether a brief scene in the sleeping
quarters of the barracks deserves such fixed attention. Possibly also after
everything that has been said Warrant Officer Petrov should not have been
reproached for seeing what happened as just a harmless joke, they might say.
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Further events confirmed once again that in observance of regulation require-
ments nothing should be trivial and any deviation from the regulations
threatens. consequences that are dangerous for military legal order,
The fact that the warrant officer did not attach proper attention to this
incident led. Pukhov to the conviction that he in fact did have the right to
lead his fellow servicemen, They for their part considered it normal that
Pukhov gave them commands; "Do this, do that." Even some of the sergeants
saw nothing to condemn in this; they said., the man is working for the cause;
But after a time Pukhov began to give commands that were not just in the
interests of the work.. Once he ordered the same Sergey P. to bring a bottle
of wine back from a trip, and he carried out this obviously illegal demand.
So the three of us, the battalion commander, the platoon leader, and a military
journalist, investigated the sources of the incident. I will note that the
further our conversation went, the more firmly the participants were convinced
that a thorough knowledge of any legal norm requires more than being able to
recite it without a hitch. It is necessary to clarify the meaning of every
word and to understand the action of this norm in time and space, within the
group of people to which it refers, and in combination with other legal
enactments. The military regulations ratified by Ukase of the Presidium of
the USSR Supreme Soviet are also legal enactments. In concise legal form
they formulate the obligatory rules of our behavior. They are concise because
they cannot become multivolume publications. This should always be remembered
when we look through their pages.
Translated from Legalese
"Respect for the law and the laws should be the personal conviction
of every person" -- from "Materials of the 24th. CPSU Congress"'
"The commander (.superior) must work every day on the political,
legal, and military indoctrination of personnel" -- from Article 49
of the Internal Service Regulations of the USSR Armed Forces.
The head of the club, a young lieutenant just recently appointed to this
position, was plainly happy when he saw an officer with legal insignia in his
office door. But after a while, in his same youthful manner, he was openly
and noticeably unhappy. He was completely displeased by my advice on the best
way to conduct an evening meeting for personnel of the regiment devoted to
friendship and military comradeship. The plans of the club chief indicated
an evening meeting on a legal topic, but I was suggesting to him an ordinary
event in which military lawyers were given a very modest role somewhere near
the end of the program. Where was the "All rise, the court in in session:"
the chilling verdict, and the Criminal Code in general?
I recall the young lieutenant not to take note of his inexperience. Experience
can be acquired. It is more difficult to overcome set opinions of legal
indoctrination as some kind of process of frightening the audience, by which
it supposedly differs from political, military, and moral indoctrination,
But willingly or not this approach. relies on the well-known and mistaken
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principle of breaking up the indoctrination process depending on the missions
of the day; today, they say, the indoctrinator is shaping ideological
convictions in the men, then tomorrow it will be their attitude toward
military duty, and on some other day moral qualities. This is mistaken, for
one, because the personality is indivisible. Of course, at a particular
moment one person nay lack ideological conditioning while another needs
culture or physical improvement. Bait a person of high ideological conviction
will never permit deviations from what he considers to be. his civic duty. Nor
can we imagine a sophisticated person who would affront the personal dignity
of a fellow serviceman. And naturally, criminal punishments are not for
those who have known from childhood that, for example, to steal or swindle
is against the law.
Does this possibly mean that there is a certain conditional quality to the
very concept of legal indoctrination, which according to the military regula-
tions is a duty of all leadership personnel? No it does not; the concept is
entirely specific and definite. As a constituent part of the uniform
indoctrination process, it supplements political and military indoctrination
by explaining the reasons that a particular rule has been formulated in the
law and regulations in one specific way and no other, shows what kind of
real-life phenomena stand behind the terse legal language, and on this basis
instills in military personnel a deeply conscious desire to observe the norms
of military life rigorously. And the essence of this process is the individual's
understanding of the social justice, moral justification, and practical
utility of the legal principles of the socialist all-people's state.
. . . On the street a soldier failed to salute his superior in military rank.
He had been walking toward him and was not distracted in any way, but after-
ward insisted that he had not noticed the other man. Going beyond criticism,,
let us try to dig to the cause of this supposed absentmindedness. It
gradually became clear that the man was having a hard time learning to be a
subordinate. It is possible that the people in his own subunit did not even
suspect this. He performed his duties conscientiously and was respectful
toward the leaders, senior men, and fellow servicemen. He saluted everyone
he was supposed to. But all these things were not a habitual inner need
with him, and this is what came out on the street when he met the unfamiliar
sergeant.
We can say with a high degree of certainty that certain elements of legal
indoctrination were lacking in work with this serviceman. When studying the
corresponding articles of the regulations with his subordinates, it appears
the commanding officer relied on one simple argument -- it is necessary. But
for whom is it necessary, and why? It is possible that these questions were
not even raised, but unquestionably they occurred to the men and continue to
exist concealed today. To fail to answer them is to risk the possibility
that some of the subordinates will be exemplary only in front of their
immediate superiors. But for our work it is important that a person recognize
himself as a fighting man and defender of the Homeland in situations where
neither superior nor junior people are present and only his own conscience
can suggest the correct step.
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I cannot help recalling an episode from K., S monoy's trilogy "The Living and
the Dead," Three Soviet military men, weak and practically unarmed, are try-
ing to escape. from enemy encirclement. Any -meeting with. th.e Nazis threatens
them with death., But they do not even think of taking off their military
uniforms and insignia. it was after noticing the red stars of a political
instructor on Sintsov's sleeves that the owner of the foresters shack where
they stopped became informal and friendly.
"You are brave ones.:'' he said, giving his evaluation of such behavior, Then
a little later he asked Sintsov, referring to his uniform, '''Well, is that
how you plan to travel?"
Sintsov nodded.
"Well, what if you meet the Germans?"
"We'll fight them."
The author, who is very knowledgeable about the psychology of fighting men,
has convincingly shown the link between conscious inner discipline and its
outward manifestations. In this case, it continued to be natural to follow
the regulation about always dressing properly for three servicemen in an
inconceivably difficult situation. And it is possible without any unfounded
assumptions to continue the idea that the uniform was very helpful to the men
in keeping their sense of participation in the combat formation of their
fellow servicemen and their sense of membership in our entire army; it inspired
them to bold, decisive actions and honest performance of their military duty.
The article. about mutual military greetings should be looked at in the same
way at training periods in the regulations. After all, when we raise our hand
to our headgear we are, on the one hand, paying tribute to military comrade-
ship and, on the other, we are -- as it were -- confirming our readiness to
perform our military duty, at that moment and no matter how far we may be from
our native unit.
As we see, legal indoctrination is far from mandatory examination of certain
crimes or memorization of the articles of the Criminal Code, which is what the
above-mentioned young lieutenant and club chief was counting on. Like any
other kind of indoctrination, legal indoctrination must above all be construc-
tive, which means that it focuses on what must be done., not what should not be
done. And one must agree that this is easiest to achieve when examples of
correct performance of the requirements of the laws and regulations are
demonstrated for the men. This will make the meaning of the particular
principle clear and understandable and engender a feeling of respect for,the
wisdom and justice of the legal norm, At the start of this section I was
talking about conducting a topical evening meeting on military comradeship;
it should be conducted in the way that this was done in one of the units of
the Red Banner Ural Military District,
Some time was left until the official start of the evening meeting, but in
reality it was already underway. The men who had gathered at the unit club
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were looking over reproductions of pictures and photographs and paging through
books that told about the remarkable tradition of the Soviet Armed Forces.
Melodies from the days. of the Civil War and Great Patriotic War and songs
about the contemporary army were playing throughout the clubs All these
things put the visitors in the mood.for a frank and serious discussion on the
proposed subject. The meeting was begun by Major Rodin, the political worker,
and carried on by Junior Sergeant Rusanov, Private Tarasov, and Colonel (Ret
Ivanov, former chief of the political branch.
Participants in the meeting read poetry about military friendship and gave
examples of servicemen helping one another which they themselves had witnessed.
Then Lieutenant Colonel Justice K.omel'kov presented some comments on the
documentary film "'The Same as Me,'' which was shown at the meeting, and reminded
the audience of the legal norms that protect regulation mutual relations among
servicemen and the honor and dignity of each. of them regardless of military
rank, service position, or years of service. Numerous questions were asked,
and well-reasoned answers were given to them. It is a cliche, but really,
no one wanted to go home after this event and only a reminder that performance
of the daily routine is also an important obligation of the fighting men put
an end to the interesting and useful discussion.
Of course, it is not simple to organize such an evening meeting. Those who
undertake such a task must have both pedagogical skill and purely legal know-
ledge. But every garrison has skillful propagandists and military lawyers
can always be invited. Incidentally, unit libraries have the necessary
literature to help the organizers of legal indoctrination, and many officers
clubs also have special offices of legal propaganda which have collections of
annotated lists of movies on legal-moral subjects and even activity outlines
of various events.
But of course, legal indoctrination cannot be limited to just mass agitation
work. The skillful indoctrinator finds numerous opportunities to explain the
principles of the laws and regulations right during combat and political
training of the servicemen and while they are preparing to perform specific
combat training missions.
. . . The training period at the guard post was coming to an end. The reports
of the men going on guard duty concerning the duties of a sentry and the
special features of protecting the sites were being heard. The soldiers
showed confidently how they would act if the lights went out at their post or
if a fire broke out. In conclusion the company commander Senior Lieutenant
B.unyayev reminded his subordinates that a few years earlier a criminal had
penetrated to post No 2.
"Why did this happen?" the officer asked, and himself answered{ "Because the
sentry lost his vigilance for a certain time, became distracted from observa-
tion, and right here,"' the officer pointed to a place on the model, "carelessly
approached the corner of a building. The criminal was hiding right there,
behind this corner."
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The company commander spoke just a few sentences. And they were not news to
most of the servicemen. The commanding officers, political workers, and
activists of the unit speak of this old incident when necessary. But on this
occasion the words spoken by Senior Lieutenant Bunyayev fell, as they say, on
well-prepared soil, Each. soldier mentally pictured hi self at that post on
that night. And the familiar lines of the regulation were suddenly filled
with real, tangible meaning, "Serve alertly, not distracted by anything,'''
''observe the approaches to. the post carefully," and "keep the weapon loaded,
always ready for action." It turns out that these words contain long years
of experience with guard duty, experience bought at a high price., including
the most precious thing that we-have - human life.
I was at the regimental guard post at that time and saw how the faces of the
men became serious. It occurred to me then that this too is an element of
legal education, organically involved in the process of preparing guard
personnel to perform their combat mission. Later I had occasion to read in
the post log for this guard: "I note Private Sveshnikov for his good knowledge
of his duties and practical fulfillment of them as sentry at post No 2.
Lieutenant Colonel Perfilov," I should observe that the other men also
performed their duty just as well, and this was a tangible result of purpose-
ful indoctrination work with them.
Now here is how Senior Lieutenant Vorob'yev included one of the legal principles
in the thread of his talk. at political training periods, The training period
was devoted to combat traditions. During an extensive discussion of the
sources of the mass heroism of Soviet fighting men during the Great Patriotic
War the officer traced the connection between military heroism and the desire
of servicemen to carry out the commanding officer's order at any price. He
also noted that the commanding officer's right to. give orders is protected by
the law and that one may be held responsible for failure to carry out an,
order not only when one deliberately avoids carrying it out, but also when
this happens despite. the will of the subordinate, out of carelessness or
misunderstanding of the order.
"After all, it may sometimes happen," the training leader said, "that a soldier
will receive an order, but not be in any hurry to carry it out, thinking that
there is plenty of time. But circumstances can change at any moment, and this
may prevent fulfilling the order on time. So one must keep in mind that the
law does not take account of any excuses for failure to carry out an order.
An order must always be carried out precisely, on time, and without question.''
I want to single out the main thing in the above examples. This is that the
propagandists did not use the norms of the regulations and laws to frighten
their audiences. Rather they showed the possible consequences of failure to
observe them and the social danger that is concealed in violation of these
norms. And in this connection we can understand how naive the question asked
by a certain training leader of a soldier (plainly trying to please the
referees) was. He asked, '''How many years do you get for failure to carry out
the commander's order?" I recall that a heavy silence hung in the air, and I
caught myself thinking that I did not know either. After all, even the judges
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when they withdraw to the conference room to deliver the -verdict after a case
has been heard, still do not know what punishment they will consider sufficient
to reindoctrinate the particular individual for the particular crime.
No, it is not fear of punishment, but rather understanding of the objective
need to act in conformity with the requirements of the laws and regulations
that provides the solid foundation of the legal consciousness of Soviet fight-
ing men.
Nonetheless, we certainly cannot avoid all.mention of criminal punishment or
possible disciplinary or material responsibility for legal violations. A
knowledge of the specific sanctions (.as lawyers call them) for a particular
crime helps to be more deeply aware of its danger to society and the state.
After all, the strictness of the punishment envisioned by law is an indication
of the degree of social danger of the criminal action.
. . The formation was disrupted just for a second, then it evened out and the
subunit continued its precise movement.. Anatoliy would possibly not even have
paid attention to what happened except that he clearly felt that he had tripped
not on a rock, but on someone's foot. The soldier turned around and looked
questioningly at Private Semenov, marching behind him, and he heard the mock-
ing words "Keep marching, keep marching," followed by biting laughter.
The formation was later dismissed and the men began cleaning and oiling their
weapons. But this laughter continued to ring in Private Pan'kov's ears and
tears began to form in his eyes from the realization that they had been mock-
ing him with deliberate malice. Pan'kov's fellow servicemen were generally
good men and he respected many of them deeply. They were the ones who helped
him, when he was a newcomer, get used to the unfamiliar military atmosphere
and taught him to make his bed, smooth out folds with a belt, march in forma-
tion, and handle the automatic weapon skillfully. Against all of this a
simple kick during formation seemed insignificant, a passing incident. But
now, after a difficult day of training, he recalled other "small things,"
which he saw in a new light for perhaps the first time.
A few days earlier, Private Shevtsov was looking for white thread and material
for a collar. It was not for himself, but for Private Semenov, And Private
Shapkin once had carried Semenov's machine gun from the firing range. They said
that Semenov's arm hurt at that time. But for some reason it did not-hurt in
the mess hall. . . Suddenly a familiar voice rang out unexpectedly near him:
"Pan'kov!" He saw the short, powerfully built Semenov, with a pained look on
his face. "Listen, could you clean my machine gun. My arm still hurts a'
little, you know.''
"Clean it yourself," Anatoliy answered.
"You aren't mad at me, are you?" Semenov said in surprise. "So you think I
gave you a kick. What is the big deal? A -military joke. . So, will you
clean it?"
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For a minute Semonov looked questioningly at Pan'koy, then he sighed, picked
up his machine gun with his "sore'' arm, and walked off to another rack;-.
"He's still young and untrained,''", he explained to his friend Sabirov, but in
a loud voice, for everyone to hear. "He still hasn't understood the service."
Anatoliy had heard various things about Sabirov. That he was an outstanding
athlete and had just come back from the latest competition. And that once he
had taken a young soldier''s service cap from him, supposedly to wear, but he
simply "forgot" to return it. Only the intervention of a sergeant put things
right. "All these things should be discussed at a Komsomol meeting,'" Anatoliy
thought. "But what to say? Should I complain like a little kid?"'
The company commander came.up and checked the barrel for cleanliness. He
praised him for his good work and asked how things were going.
"Normal, comrade senior lieutenant,"
That evening Pan'kov, Semonov, Sabirov, and some other soldiers were put on
kitchen patrol. Anatoliy thought that he would not be able to avoid a new
confrontation with the two friends. After all, many times during work they
had attempted to put themselves above the entire detail group. Anatoliy
decided that this would not happen again: let them work on the same level as
everyone else. And later he would still speak at the Komsomol meeting. Just
then he noticed Master Sergeant Extented Service Golik coming into the mess
hall. He called to him and asked him to listen. As the chief of the mess
hall, the master sergeant is also supposed to see that each person appointed
to kitchen patrol performs his duties.
"But have you reported these problems to your commanding officer?" the master
sergeant asked him sternly after listening to Pan'kov's somewhat disjointed
report. "Well, all right, I will report myself."
The chief of the mess hall, a man with considerable experience of. life, could,
of course, have guessed that the young soldier did not report the abnormal
relations with fellow servicemen through the chain of command out of a falsely
understood sense of comradeship and a desire not to be known as a complainer.
But the master sergeant of extended service plainly did not have the pedagog-
ical talent to do more. When the new kitchen patrol shift had formed up in
front of him, Golik called Private Pan'kov out from the ranks.
"This man has reported improper actions by Semenov and Sabirov to me, that
they supposedly make fun of their comrades and do all kinds of malicious
things. I want it to stop right now," the mess hall chief said,, and clarified,
"Today you all do your jobs as equals, without any kind of privileges:`''
Anatoliy stood in front of everyone as if frozen. Golik had not understood
what he said correctly, not correctly at all, The behavior of the two other
soldiers should have been discussed collectively and action taken. on specific
instances. And he could feel the heavy gaze of Semenov on him. Sabirov
listened to Golik, staring at the floor. . .
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In the morning the unit commander received a report that three soldiers had
been in a-fight in the boiler room near the mess hall. A preliminary investi-
gation was- assigned, followed by a regular criminal investigation.
In the criminal proceeding the actions of.Semenov and Sabirov were found to be
malicious hooliganism distinguished by special effrontery. The military
tribunal which heard their casein open court session in the presense of unit
personnel found the accused men guilty and sentenced both to loss of freedom
at a strict-regime corrective labor colony. The military tribunal of the
military district rejected the convicted men's appeals concerning the criminal
finding as to their actions and the severity of the punishment.
The newspaper KRASNAYA ZVEZDA at the time informed its readers of this
exceptional, atypical of our army event so that those involved with the
indoctrination of fighting men could draw the appropriate lesson from it.
The file of this extraordinary event in the military unit was sent to the
archives and gradually began to be forgotten. Private Pan'kov completed his
service successfully.
Then what makes us go back again to what happened? It is primarily the fact
that, as appeared later, not everyone clearly understood everything about the
decisions of the courts. Take the letters from the convicted men, the
records of the meetings that were held in the unit after the session of the
military tribunal, or reader responses to newspaper articles. Alongside
unanimous condemnation of the behavior of former soldiers Semenov and Sabirov,
another feeling breaks through to one degree or another in many of these
documents: "Was all this really so serious that two young men should be
eliminated from military service and sent to jail? So they played bad jokes.
So they challenged people. And finally, they beat up a fellow serviceman.
But they did not kill, and they did not steal! Even the experts did not find
the victim to have bodily injury!" And what about the decision of Master
Sergeant of Extended Service Golik and the behavior of Pan'kov himself? After
all, until the fight itself they also were unable to correctly evaluate the
degree of danger found in the abnormal relations of Semenov and Sabirov in
the military collective. It turns out that not even they thought that it was
all so serious and that they could be criminally responsible!
In fact, if something like this had happened at school where such conflicts
are very commonplace, or on the street near a beer stand where drinkers some-
times get into scraps, the liability of the guilty persons would have been
different. Probably it would have been a matter of calling the parents of
the troublemaker to school and several days of administrative arrest for the
drinkers. But the social danger of a legal offense is determined not just
by the damage caused to a particular person, but also by the social direction
of the criminal actions. In our case the insult and then physical violence
was directed not against Anatoliy Pan'kov as an individual, but against
military legal order. Article 2 of the Internal Service Regulations obligates
a serviceman to "treasure military comradeship, help comrades in word and
deed, keep them from unworthy actions and help them out of danger, even at
the cost of life itself." The regulations were ratified by an Ukase of the
Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet and are, as we have already said, law
for every Soviet fighting man.
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FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
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Of course, the court could not fail to consider this circumstance. '.'It is
established according to the file," the decision of the district military
tribunal stated, "that Seinenov and S'abiroy, following moral rules that are
alien to the Soviet army., mistreated fellow servicemen, In this way they
seriously-violated military order and expressed flagrant disrespect for the
collective of servicemen and an unthinking attitude toward the honor and
dignity of Soviet fighting men. Under army conditions these actions are
much more dangerous."
In this way the court came resolutely to the defense of military comradeship
as one of the foundations of military legal order on which the fighting
effectiveness of the subunit, unit, and all the Armed Forces depends greatly.
No one, not a bunk mate, nor commanding officers and chiefs, has the right
to insult a serviceman or permit actions that infringe on. his human dignity,
for this interferes with performance of assigned missions by the military
collective. This is what the severity of the sentence given in the case of
Semenov and Sabirov forces us to consider. And if a legal propagandist
recalls all, this in a discussion of the necessity of observing regulation
norms that define mutual relations among servicemen, I am sure he will be
understood correctly.
Needless to say, a large majority of Soviet fighting men serve. outstandingly
and never give a thought to the measures of punishment for particular misdeeds
or crimes. As a rule their behavior is defined by categories of a higher
order: communist ideological loyality, love of the Homeland, and lofty moral
qualities. Each day thousands of soldiers go to posts that have never been
attacked and perform combat missions with the highest sense of responsibility.
Songs have been written about Soviet military comradeship and other fine
traditions of the army and navy. So the propagandist certainly does not always
need negative examples.
I want very much to return to the idea that it is not easy for some people to
realize the enormous responsibility that is put on the shoulders of a fighting
man when he takes the military oath. In fact, under peacetime conditions
some young fighting men have the illusion that there is no direct connection
between their behavior and the combat readiness of the subunit or unit. They
may have seen someone dozing on duty, for example, and nothing happened; some-
one may once have gone AWOL, and this did not have a visible effect on the
combat readiness of the company because it was not performing a combat mission
at this time. So he concludes that not every deviation from the regulation
norms threatens serious consequences, Is this naive? Yes, it is, But this
kind of logic sometimes impresses the young, inexperienced mind. And for men
whose consciousness and political and military maturity are still just
taking shape, familiarization with actual experience in the application of
Soviet laws and detailed explanation.of legal--formulations are absolutely
essential. This requires a precise and emotionally-inspiring translation of
legal documents into everyday language.
Needless to say, no matter how well organized it is, propaganda work by itself
cannot accomplish all the missions of legal indoctrination if it is not rein-
forced by the everyday practices of commanding officers, political workers, and
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party and Komsomol activists to maintain regulation order and establish an
atmosphere of legality, If, for example, following a lecture on the inevita-
bility of punishment a serviceman immediately sees how certain sergeants, and
sometimes even officers, overlook so-called petty deviations form the rules of
military life, the indoctrination impact of the lecture will be very small,
Furthermore, a person may form the false belief that a divergence between word
and deed is natural, that the letter of the law is one thing and actual
practice is another. It will take considerable effort to overcome this point
of view later. That is why I want to recall once again the need for a compre-
hensive approach to personnel indoctrination. This requires that it be carried
on regularly, using all available forms and methods, at planned training
periods and during leisure hours, at topical evening meetings, and in individual
talk.
Political workers and party organizations unquestionably have a special role
here. And this primarily means, of course, the deputy commanding officers
for political affairs, whose duties according to the Internal Service
Regulations include indoctrination of personnel in a spirit of absolute
obedience to the USSR Constitution and Soviet laws and irreproachable fulfill-
ment of the military regulations and orders and the norms of communist morality.
I have already talked about how club chiefs in two units took different
approaches to organizing evening meetings on a legal topic. I think that this
comparison also permits us to judge the different approaches of two deputy
commanding officers for political affairs to the work. In the one case the
young club chief was, as they say, on his own; in the other practically every
member of the agitation-propaganda group was involved in preparations for the
evening, and the meeting itself was just one link in a chain of interrelated
activities. Incidentally, the ability of a political workers to use the broad
aktiv of the unit or ship for purposes of legal education is, in my opinion,
one of the main conditions for the effectiveness of this work.
Who are the particular people that the political worker can and should rely
on in a specific case? All officers, the party, Komsomol, and trade union
organizations, the agitation-propaganda group and agitators of the subunits,
members of the comrades courts, peoples control workers, court investigators,
and peoples assessors. As we see, there is a large force. All that is needed
is to direct it to a single goal -- creating an atmosphere of mutual respect,
high standards, and implacable hostility to all deviations from the norms of
our life in the subunit, unit, or ship.
Once I saw a smart-appearing, disciplined young officer enter the office of
the chairman of the military tribunal of the Grodno garrison, He presented
himself :
"Captain Radayev, secretary of the party. organization. I have come to ask the
workers of the military tribunal to take part in a planned topical evening
meeting under the title 'The Soviet Fighting Man is a Model of Fulfillment
of the USSR Constitution and Laws and Regulations,'"
These words aroused general excitement among the officers in the office of
the chairman of the tribunal, We had to explain to the captain, who never
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expected such a reaction, that before he arrived there. had been a discussion
about the inadequate initiative. of commanding officers and political workers.
When lawyers go out to the units, it had been said, that was good, but the
people there were in no hurry to call for help. A justification for this
situation had already been found, that the commanding officers and their
deputies were '"up to their ears" in other work., The appearance of the
secretary of the party organization in the office. put everything in place:
here was the reserve which was not being used fully everywhere yet,
I could not refrain from immediately interviewing Captain Radayev, He told
how study corners for legal knowledge were used in his unit and how communists
participated in work to prevent violations of the law, For example, not long
before Warrant Officer Yezepchik.served as a peoples assessors in one of. the
units of the district during the trial of a criminal case for stealing head-
phones. He told his fellow servicemen about the factors and conditions
discovered by the court which. led to this crime during specially planned
discussion meetings.
Indeed, political workers and party organizations have a great part to play in
such a complex matter as legal indoctrination, Organizing lectures and
discussions and propagandizing legal knowledge is just one aspect of the work
they are doing. Another and equally important aspect is concern for maintaining
firm regulation order in the unit and on the ship and indoctrinating communists,
especially leadership personnel, in a.spirit of precise compliance with the
prescriptions of the laws and regulations. As a rule, party meetings are held
on this topic and communists hear reports by their comrades on performance of
their party and service duties. In those places where a creative approach
is taken to conducting these measures and no elements of formalism are permitted,
the incident that took place in the party organization of one of the military
academies would hardly be possible.
The plot of this story resembles one which I related earlier, The academy
received a warning of the supposedly unworthy behavior of an officer. But
the officer was on leave and the persons who gave the statements were given
this preliminary answer: the amoral behavior of the communist would be
reviewed upon his return to work. And then the bureau met. It was explained
there that the accusations against the officer were unfounded, and the
satisfied bureau members put an end to the case. However, it. was not the end;
things continued. This was because the very same slander had already flown
to a higher party level, and now it also included criticism of the communists
of the academy. How could this be, they asked? First they acknowledged the.,
behavior of their fellow serviceman to.be amoral, and then they turned on the
witness. This, they said, is like throwing out a friend. So there were more
hearings, and once again the good name of an officer and communist hung in
the balance, although. there was little pubiieity. And why did this happen? --
because at the very start the secretary of the party organization gave the
complainant an answer that did not correspond to the norms of Soviet law,
specifically he acknowledged the amoral behavior as a fact before it. had been
officially confirmed.
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When organizing legal indoctrination of fighting men, political workers and
party organizations strive above all to see that communists set an example
of observance of military legal order. The personal example of the communist,
especially the communist officer, is the best propaganda for the idea that
every serviceman must act entirely according to the law and the regulations.
Chapter 2. The Norm Behind the Norm
"The law is a political measure, it is politics. the laws and
prescriptions of Soviet power must be observed as a sacred duty
and all people should watch. to see that they are followed"
V.I. Lenin
"The beginning and end of regular-term active military duty for
servicemen are determined by the appropriate points on service
of regular-term active military duty"' from Article 14 of the
USSR Law on Universal Military Obligation
Anna Alekseyevna opened the austere, stampless envelope with fingers fumbling
from excitement. She glanced over the printed text and could not hold back
the tears.
No, it was not the crudeness or indifference of the official paper that pained
the mother's heart. On the contrary, Anna Alekseyevna would possibly even
have been happy to receive an empty, formal letter which would at least leave
some hope for a favorable solution to her problem at other levels. After all,
that does happen: the answer says that the matter was not reviewed, but sent
to another place. However, it could be seen by everything that the people
who signed this letter had studied the case carefully and explained the
impropriety of her request thoroughly, with references to particular points.
And could such a thing be possible -- requesting a military pension for a son
who did not spend a single day in the army?.
But that is how it really was. In late August of last year engineer Yevgeniy
Izmaylov was drafted into the army as a reserve officer for a term of two years.
The military commissariat gave him his documents, the engineer was discharged
from the plant where he worked, and on the prescribed day he set off. But the
young man began to feel sick in the railroad car. He was taken off the train
and put in a hospital. There they learned who he was and where he was going,
and reported to the unit where the lieutenant was already awaited.
When he was a little better Yevgeniy was delivered to his place of service in
an ambulance. On 4 September the commanding--officer of the unit issued this
order; 91.Consider Lieutenant Ye. Izmaylov to have arrived to perform active
military duty. ?2. Consider Lieutenant Ye. I.zmaylov to have departed for
treatment at the hospital," At the hospital the doctors determined that
Lieutenant Izmaylov was unfit for military service.
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Gravely ill and unable to work, Yevgeniy returned home. At the same time his
papers reached the military commissariat. It followed from them that if things
had happened this way, if a person was unable to perform his military duty
because of illness, then the.:order drafting him for military service should
be cancelled as unexecuted,. This, they felt, would make citizen Izmaylov's
documents correspond exactly to .the actual state of affairs and to his status
relative to military service., that is, not under obligation.
Of course, he was granted a pension on general principles.
Was Yevgeniy''s mother aware of all this when she submitted petitions to various
organizations? Of course she was, although she also complained bitterly of
her only son's unhappy fate. At the plant she was told that they could not
help in any way with the question of modifying the pension. The misfortune
did not happen at work, after all, and not even on the road to the plant.
The son had been discharged from the plant, And they showed her the official
document from the military commissariat and her son's statement and read her
the law on the procedure for granting a disability pension.
Anna Alekseyevna also understood these comrades from the plant bookkeeping
office very well. Nonetheless, in her heart she could not accept such
flagrant injustice. It was not on his own chance desire that the son set out
on this trip which ended so tragically for him, but rather to perform his
sacred duty to the Homeland. Was he to blame that things turned out as they
did? In short, the elderly woman wrote one more letter. It was not a
complaint this time, nor a request; rather it was the outpouring of a mother's
heart.
The letter went from the receiving office of the USSR Supreme Soviet to the
Main Military Procurator's Office because, as the receiving office correctly
determined, there was no need for any new law to apply to this -- let us say
frankly -- extremely unusual situation. What had to be decided was whether
already existing legal norms had been applied correctly. And who could check
this more ably than the body which carries out the highest state supervision
of observance of laws in the Armed Forces?
"It appears that everything relies on the interpretation of the initial
moment of active military duty," said a department chief in the Main Military
Procurator's Office and put Anna Alekseyevna's letter on the desk of Colonel
Justice Zakharov.
. . .The beginning or end of an event, a state, or legal relations, To some
people this matter which the military lawyers began to ponder may seem need-
lessly trivial. However, a principled solution to the problem depends on
precisely what the circumstances were when.-the misfortune occurred. And
challenges of this kind are not that unusual for lawyers,
"Today is my daughter's birthday,'?' my neighbor informs me happily. "She is
eighteen, an adult already!"
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Well, one can certainly congratulate the. happy father. But to be absolutely
precise, the moment that the girl becomes an adult will be slightly later= at
the conclusion of the day given as her date of birth. in her documents. And
until this precise moment, the interests of the girl will continue to be pro-
tected in criminal law as a minor, If something were to happen, the law would
intervene on the. side of physically immature youth., inexperienced in the affairs
of life,
The Regulations on Garrison and Guard-Duty are concerned.with something else.
It is extremely important that military and other sites be under the protection
of guards in all situations. The most vulnerable time in this is during the
changing of the guard when they turn over and accept sites. The regulations
say that guards come under the subordination of the corresponding officials
"from the moment during the mounting of the guard that the command "At ease'
is given to meet the duty officer in charge of guards." And the moment that
the guard leaves subordination to this. person is defined as the "moment that
the chief of the guard gives him the command ''Forward march'' to go to his own
military unit." In other words, at the most important moment there are in
.fact two guards, the old and the new, protecting the sites. If any mistakes
are made both chiefs will be held responsible.
So the beginning and end of legal relations are important elements for deciding
many legal issues. That is why Colonel Justice Zakharov listened very carefully
to the words of senior officers when beginning work on Anna Alekseyevna's letter.
First of all he established the moment of her son's illness and its cause.
Yevgeniy had, it turned out, a latent brain defect which might not have
manifested itself for years and which the military commissariat''s medical
commission, which considered, engineer Izmaylov fit for active military duty,
could never have discovered. Therefore, there could be no question at all of
unconscientious work or of any claims by a person who knew of his illness
beforehand. But if this. were so, then Lieutenant (Retired) Izmaylov became
sick while he was already in the service, and should get a military pension.
The colonel justice reported this to the Main Military Procurator. The order
cancelling the lieutanant's conscription into the army was cancelled, with all
the conseqences that followed from that.
But what was behind the reasoning that completely overturned everything that
had gone earlier? It came from the principle of the law that the initial
moment of active military duty for an officer called up from the reserve is
the day of departure for the place of service as given in the order of the
military commissariat. It is from this moment that the command has a right to
demand that the officer carry out the duties assigned to him, while he for his
part can call on commanding officers to defend his legal interests. This
applies, needless to say, only if he_ has ip._iact departed for the place of
service atthe scheduled time or done everything he could to do so.
As we already know, Lieutenant Izmaylov left for the unit at the right time,
In this way he performed the first service action in his activity as an
officer, From this moment also he became a full-fledged military man, full-
fledged and responsible. If he had comitted some violation of public order,
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he would have been held responsible as a military man. But a misfortune
happened to him, and he has a right to all the benefits established by law.
This is what lay at the basis,of the Main Military I'rocurator'`s Office's
assertion that the. order drafting?Izmaylov was in fact carried out, even
though because of circumstances the lieutenant was not able to accept the
position assigned to him,
Unfortunately, we still meet people who are capable of "forgetting'" particular
points of the law if they do not fit within their idea of what happened, This
is what occurred when Izmaylov''s. case first appeared on the desk of the person
who incorrectly interpreted the very concept of being on active military duty.
This person thought that being on duty necessarily 'involved performance of
service duties at the location of the military unit, And it seemed to him
that he was pursuing state interests exclusively. But we already know what
this "concern" led to.
But it is precisely the norm which. was violated out of good intentions that
provides the best protection of state interests. And it is not just that
concern for a person is also a state interest. By defining the initial
moment of active military duty as it is defined today, the law is primarily
guarding the combat readiness of units to which the draftees sent by military
commissariats are.obliged to go.
When talking about the fact that the right of an officer called up from the
reserve to certain benefits (including a military pension) arose on the day
of his departure for the unit, we deliberately also mentioned that he has
duties related to military service. Unfortunately, we sometimes witness how
certain young people are unprepared for this turn of events. Some draftees
mistakenly believe that they will become soldiers. later, upon arrival in the
unit when they take the oath and receive their weapon, But this is not the
case. For a draftee service begins from the moment that he appears at the
military commissariat to be sent to the military unit. It is from this
moment, as in the case of Lieutenant Izmaylov also, that the state takes on
its concern for the man, his everyday life, and health. But at the same
moment it also demands something back: a conscious attitude toward his
military duty. And just as.it is not possible to make any exceptions like.
those which were proposed in establishing the pension support for the above-
mentioned officer who honestly fulfilled his duties, neither is it possible
to overlook any case of failure by a draftee to perform the duties assigned
to him.
I once had occasion to talk with Anatoliy Uvarov, a likeable young man who
had been a leading agricultural machine operator, but now was the subject of
a criminal investigation in the unit. The thing was that Anatoliy had been
late for the train which brought the draftees-'"and then spent a whole week
''catching up with" his comrades. Moreover, it was learned that he had
managed to stop by a girl friend'`s home to say goodbye and visited relatives
who lived along the route of the train, The young soldier could not under-
stand why the investigator was asking him questions which, in another
situation, he would have considered deeply insulting. "Weren''t you intending
to evade the service?"' But Anatoliy's father had been at the front' He
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himself from childhood had dreamed of moving from a tractor to a combat vehicle,
And here he was under investigation, with-all these suspicions. Furthermore,
he felt, he was still a civilian and knew nothing about military ways: Of
course, his father had told hilu.somethings, and the military instructor at
school taught him to fire the automatic weapon. But still; nothing had
happened! He was not there, in the unit, and ready to do everything and obey
everyone,
Private Uvarov remembered this lesson for a long time. They trusted him and
did not turn the case over to the military tribunals and in fact he did prove
to be an outstanding soldier who returned home with a certificate, But what
happened to him illustrates once again how important it is for a young man to
know that his.military service starts at the doors of the military commissar-
iat. It is from precisely this moment that he assumes the responsibility of
a soldier, which he must bear until the very end of regular-term active duty.
Since we have examined the question of when military service begins so
thoroughly, it is reasonable to immediately look into when it ends also. This
moment is also very important both. for maintaining combat readiness and for
-the servicemen being discharged into the reserve after their established
terms. After all,.when some soldiers and sergeants learn of the order of the
USSR Minister of Defense, which is usually published in the central newspapers,
they are ready to believe that it is the end, they have done their duty com-
pletely, and they are now civilians. They are seriously mistaken in this.
I am not talking about the moral duty of every Soviet citizen, whether he is
in the military today or not, to be ready for armed defense of Homeland, nor
of the natural desire of a young man to conduct himself in an exemplary manner
and follow the rules of military courtesy as long as he wears the military
uniform (regular-term servicemen being discharged into the reserve are
authorized to wear it until they are enrolled in the records at the military
commissariat). I am referring to the fact that the order of the USSR Minister
of Defense discharging a contingent of servicemen into the reserve is
addressed primarily to the appropriate commanding officers and chiefs and by
itself does not put an end to the active military duty of soldiers, seamen,
sergeants, and petty officers. Their service will continue on the day that
the order is published and on following days until each of them personally
receives documents on discharge into the reserve from the military unit.
This may happen'at the unit area or at the railroad terminal. Sometimes
documents may even be given when the train carrying men being discharged into
the reserve arrives at the station closest to the soldier's home. But until
this moment his service will continue.
. . .PFC (Reserve) Vasiliy B. works today in his hometown of Kharkov. He
works conscientiously, which is how he served _.his military duty, But neither
he himself nor his comrades and commanding officers will forget how the PFC's
last days in the regiment were darkened,
By unknown paths the news that the regimental commander had signed the order
discharging men who had served their regulation term into the reserve escaped
from headquarters and quickly spread through the barracks, Of course it is a
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sad thing to part with your fellow servicemen. But at the same time, the
young men were lonely for their homes and some had girlfriends waiting for
them. The future workers and farmers could already hear the hum of the
machinery at their native enterprises and the rustle of the birch. trees at
home. They turned in their books to the regimental library, prepared their
dress uniforms, packed their bags, and gave their home addresses to their
friends. The feeling of having performed their duty to the Homeland and the
prospects of a new life, work, and study caused their young heads to swirl.
But at the same time the life of the military unit continued its course and
the future reserve fighting men were assigned to guard duty., operated
machinery, and performed administrative jobs.
Vasiliy B. too was performing a regular assignment. But the easy confidence
he had developed during his service time in handling his vehicle now bordered
on bravado, and his self-confidence began to.become overconfidence. Some-
thing irreversible happened. He made a careless turn with the vehicle, and
the expensive machinery which the PFC was operating was ruined. Seeing what
he had done, Vasiliy dropped to the ground and for what seemed like the first
time in his adult life, began to cry. And he was trying to perform his
assignment as well and as quickly as possible;
The unit commander took, as it seemed to him, an understanding and sympathic
attitude toward the fate of the PFC, who was threatened with criminal punish-
ment., He decided not to bring a criminal case, but rather to collect the value
of the damage from him. But wait, he thought, can a soldier be charged for
damages without a trial? Then send it to people's court, and let that court
determine how much he should pay. He is a young man, the officer reasoned,
and he will work it out; moreover, his fellow servicemen will help.
The military lawyers who learned of what was happening did not want to "ruin
the young man's life" either. Certainly they could not help warning that
the verdict of the people's court in relation to a regular-term serviceman
would hardly be proper in this case, But they were ignored.
"PFC B. was already discharged into the reserve at the moment of the accident,"
the unit chief of staff said and showed the commanding officer's order, which
in fact had been signed before the accident. The trial was held and brought
back the verdict which everyone expected: citizen B. was ordered to pay for
the damage caused, in installment payments. But very quickly this verdict was
appealed by the Main Military Procurator. The appeal stated, "The assertion
that PFC B. was not a military serviceman on the day of the court hearing is
mistaken. Although the order concerning him had been published and the
command had made up travel documents in his name, this does not change the
essence of the matter."
Indeed, it did not change the essence of the matter. If PFC B., had been dis-
charged into the reserve, then why had the discharge documents not been issued
to him? They were not issued to him for the simple reason that in that case
it would not have been possible to assign the PFC and his comrades to guard duty,
send them out to work, and feed them and keep them in. the barracks at a time
when the interests of maintaining the combat readiness of the regiment demanded
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that they continue to perform their military duties. And the. regimental
commander simply could not do otherwise, that is immediately release all the
discharged men into the reserve. But if this is true, then the. damage to the
state was caused by PFC B. in performance of his ;military duties, and the
people's court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter as a civil suit.
Agreeing with the opinion of the xlain Military Procurator, the military
collegium of the USSR Supreme. Soviet ordered that 'Vasliy B.-must answer for
his actions as a military serviceman,, and gave the case of the accident over
for hearing by the military tribunal of the garrison. The military judges
studied the circumstances of the case thoroughly, took the outstandingreference
given by the command to the.PFC into account, and decided to limit themselves
to a suspended penalty in relation to B.
Many people with whom I later talked about all these events correctly saw the
cause of them in a certain lowering of vigilance among some servicemen. They
correctly linked this to the news that the soldiers and sergeants would soon
be discharged into the reserve. But concerning the question of how to prevent
such situations different opinions were given. Some mentioned the careless-
ness of the headquarters clerks who let out the news of the order ahead of
time,. while others mentioned shortcomings in indoctrination work with personnel
and the great psychological pressure which military men experience during their
service and which was suddenly relieved with the news that the commanding
officer's order had been made up.
All these factors evidently deserve attention. At the same time, I do not
think I will be mistaken to say that one of the principal factors that fostered
the commission of this violation was that personnel did not know the legal
norm that determines the final moment of regular-term active military duty.
If the soldiers and sergeants being discharged into the reserve had known this
legal principle -- and this means not by rumor, but from the mouths of the
commanding officer, political worker, and military lawyer -- they probably
would have been able to control the emotions that prevented themfrom perform-
ing their service duties with their former zeal.
Worthy of Receivinga Rank.
"Every military serviceman and reservist is given an appropriate
military rank" -- from Article 9 of the-,USSR Law on Universal
Military Obligation.
"The military serviceman should carry with dignity.the rank of
citizen of the USSR and treasure the honor and combat glory of
the USSR Armed Forces, his unit, and the honor ofhis military
rank" -- from Article 3 of the Internal Service Regulations
of the USSR Armed Forces'.
A person who lives by a beautiful dream is beautiful. On the day we met
Senior Lieutenant Zygmond Gurskiy told me confidentially that he dreamed of
serving, in the Far East. Even before this I thought well of him. I knew of
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the successes achieved by the company which the young officer commanded, and I
also knew about his personal merits.. I admired the tan, wind--blown face and
well-built figure of the senior lieutenant even from the door of the unit duty
officer's room where our meeting took place. But the confidential words about
his desire to test his strength.. in that harsh region added something to my
opinion of him which you do not often read in the personnel file.
And I did read his personnel file. That is why I came, to find out whether
their had been any troubles in his service which were not recorded in the
documents. It turned out that there had been.
The only thing was that the senior lieutenant told about his problem in a
cheerful, somehow optimistic manner, because it was also linked to his dream.
Two vacancies had opened up a short time before, one in a garrison that was
well known for its order and organization, and the other in the Far East.
They suggested that Gurskiy.go to the "wonder-garrison" and his. comrade go
east. Then Gurskiy suggested to his comrade that they switch assignments.
Headquarters respected their. request, and his comrade set off very pleased
with the situation. But Gurskiy remained where he was, in the Carpathian
region where he had lived from. childhood, and his dream was not realized. A
command came to, as they, say in such cases, keep him because the opening in
the Far East had closed. This was the trouble that had occurred, the problem,
and it was the only one in five years of duty as an officer.
But this answer did not clarify anything in the matter which I came to talk
about with the senior lieutenant. So I asked him directly why there had been
a delay of almost four months before Lieutenant Gurskiy received his next,
current military rank. After all, I found nothing compromising in the young
officer's personnel file, nothing but commendations and outstanding references.
He was set back by this question, even appeared to be confused. Then he began
asserting with heat and conviction. that he was happy with his service as it
was -- with alerts and deprivations, with failures and hurting, because all
the same there were many more successes and victories. But the main thing
that he valued in it was that it generated optimism and satisfaction -- and
an awareness of being needed by people, society, and the country and an aware-
ness of duty performed.
"But the rank," Zygmond smiled. "You know, people don't ask for it. The
commander knows best when to give it."
I must admit that I did not expect any other answer. The senior lieutenant
was right, right about everything. Each of us performs his military duty out
of conscience, not out of fear. We are ready to come to the defense of the
Land of Soviets from filial devotion, not for the sake of rewards and ranks.
And we consider the acquisition of a higher military rank to be recognition
that the missions assigned'to us'for strengthening the combat readiness of
the subunit, unit or ship are being successfully performed. And of course,
the senior lieutenant was also right when he said the only one who can
evaluate the usefulness of a serviceman's labor is the commanding officer who,
in addition to other things, is responsible for seeing that those whom he sub-
mits for the next highest military rank are deserving.
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Incidentally, there is also another aspect of this responsibility of the one-
man commanding officer; responsibility for the military fate of his subordinates,
for the growth. and maturation of new generations of our officers. It is very
important that other concerns not overshadow this state challenge.' It is very
important that insensitive hands.not clip the wings of a dream, not deprive a
talented officer of prospects for growth.. And from this point of view the
youthful carefreeness with which Zygmond Gurskiy mentioned the four months he
was delayed with the rank of lieutenant was already out of place.
So what had happened then? Here is what happened. Like most of the graduates
of military schools he had been made an officer and after serving the estab-
lished time in the rank of lieutenant could become a senior lieutenant. (Let
us recall that years of service is one of three conditions for an officer to
receive the next higher rank; the second condition is that the new rank be
appropriate to the position he occupies, and the third is a good reference.)
But when the established time had run out they simply forgot to put Lieutenant
Gurskiy in for the new rank. And then the regiment where he was serving began
preparing for the fall inspection.
At a meeting sometime in September the commanding officer announced that all
who met the time requirement would be. put in for the next military rank, on
the condition that they perform the fire exercises with outstanding scores.
Gurskiy's subordinates (and at this time he had already commanded the company
for 18 months) fired very well and the official paper was signed. In October
the officer added a third star to his shoulder-boards. But the four months
continued to hang there like a suggestion of possible mistakes in his work,
although in reality the reason for the delay was the unconcealed indifference
of senior officers to the military fate of the young officer, their cavalier
attitude toward performing the mission of developing personnel.
A word should be said about the doubtful character of the "indoctrination
measure" undertaken in the regiment at that time. Actually they were trying
to turn the acquisition of the next military rank into an incentive not
envisioned by the regulations following the principle: you give us an out-
standing fire exercise and we will give you the stars. But is it possible
for an officer who has not distinguished himself for many months to convince
the commanding officer in one day that he is worthy of being promoted? And
the main problem here is the disrespect shown them by certain officials for
the legal norms which define procedures for promotion of officers in the
service. Because exact service times in military ranks are given, it is pre-
cisely at these times that the decision must be made whether to. grant the
next military rank or delay granting it, if there are legal grounds for this.
Incidentally, the decision to delay a rank is not made by any superior of the
officer, but only by the commanding officer of the regiment (or corresponding
officer) or a higher official. This legal principle is based on many years of
experience working with personnel and is permeated with concern for officer
growth. The law, so to speak, insures men in junior positions, which also
means less experienced commanding officers, against hasty steps in such an
important matter and entrusts. the fate of their subordinates to senior officers
with the wisdom of experience.
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. . . On the very day when the order promoting Lieutenant U, to the next military
rank was to have been signed an assembly was announced in the subunit. But as
fate would have it, one vehicle in the platoon commanded by the lieutenant would
not start. Understandably, this was a disaster for the company, In connection
with it the company commander told the lieutenant "exactly what-he thought of ,
him," including his opinion about.the promotion order; "You still haven't grown
up enough to be a senior lieutenant;" With'this conviction in mind the officer
went to Colonel Zakharov, who had called him in concerning questions of certifi-
cation.
The incident was still, as they say, fresh in mind and when I was sitting in
the colonel's small office he began talking of this very matter.
"Was the company commander correct to evaluate the lieutenant's mistake so
harshly? Of course he was-right, Without one vehicle it is not a full
platoon. And there are only three platoons in a company. But I emphasize.,
that he was right as a company commander. I talked with. him for a long
time then. I asked him, directly like Pet'ka Chapayev, 'Well, and what about
the big picture?' And.in the''big picture' his lieutenant was an. intelligent,
and enterprising officer. To be honest, I had already seen him myself in the
company and considered him a promising comrade. And now he had made a mis-
take. Incidentally, he himself suffered most of all because of this mistake.,
And notice that it was a mistake, and not.from factors arising from him
personally. Later I had a good talk with him in this very office. I could
see that he conducted himself properly in an unpleasant situation. He under-
stood the mistake and had a clear idea of ways to raise'the combat readiness
of the platoon. So I determined, using the authority given to me, that he
was worthy of promotion to the next military rank, I signed the order, and
notified him of this.".
Colonel Zakharov spoke slowly, weighing each word, It was apparent that he
had also decided the matters which we were discussing in this way, There was.
very little of the "kind uncle" in his reasoning; it showed strict fatherly
concern for the future of those to whom he was giving a ticket for growth
today. Indeed., I heard another story in this office too. It was about an
officer whose portrait today hangs in the vestibule of the garrison Officers
Club. This officer spent almost a year correcting his mistakes before the
commanding officer could in all responsibility vouch for him and put him in
for promotion to the next higher rank.
But here is what is noteworthy. His high standards were not replaced by
subjective factors in this. case either. The delay in granting the rank did
not, as sometimes happens, give rise to misunderstanding and personal
hostility of his subordinate toward him. This is because on the day when the
regular service time for'promotion came the commanding officer called in the..
officer, announced his well-reasoned decision, and set a time for eliminating.
the problems.
It is no accident.that I have many times already had to use the words "call
in and announce"' about commanding officers, Once in a while you hear about
misunderstandings in the service of certain officers. "The unit command cannot
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give a well-founded answer concerning the reasons for holding up my military
. rank," a certain comrade told me, "Don't think that I am complaining," another
wrote. "Simply explain tome if after the time of service in rank I have to
inform my superior officer that the time has passed." I can imagine how diffi--
cult it-would be for a young officer to talk with his commanding officer on
this delicate matter. But he is tortured by doubts, saying to himself "Maybe
you are not handling your duties well enough if they will not talk directly
about the reasons for this situation."
No, upon completion of the time of service in rank it is not necessary to
appeal to anyone. The appropriate legal enactment states directly that the
factors which are the grounds for the decision to delay receipt of the rank
will be announced to the officer, I think that the purpose of this require-
ment is clear. After all, if specific shortcomings in work have not been
pointed out, we cannot expect they will soon be eliminated. Therefore, where
these misunderstandings arise it means simply that this principle of the law
is not being followed.
. . . More than a year after his arrival at his new duty post, for some reason
the senior officers had not found time to talk with Lieutenant L, about the
question that concerned him deeply. An it did not promise to be a pleasant
talk, because when the lieutenant arrived he had quite a backround of past
mistakes. Then when the lieutenant finally was invited in for the talk, it
turned out that. the commanding officer did not have any well-founded reasons
for further delay in awarding him the next military rank. Judge for yourself,
could he rely on reprimands received in the past if after them the lieutenant
had'been awarded a medal?! This means that the inertia of the former opinion
about the young officer and subjective assessments of his performance of
military duty were prevailing in deciding the question.
Promotion to the next military rank is an important milepost in the life of a
serviceman. Any mistake made here is traumatic to people and hinders them in
performance of their duties. Therefore, the law clearly regulates the
procedures for deciding this matter and determines who has a right to decide
it, when, and in what circumstances. Once the commanding officer of a detached
subunit decided to encourage his good soldiers and granted them the rank "junior
sergeant." But this commanding officer did not have the right to.do this. The
initial sergeant rank is granted only after the final training subunit or, as
an exception, by the authority of a commanding officer of at least the division
level. We can imagine what the men went through when, following the protest
of the military procurator, the order granting them the rank was cancelled.
A thoughtful commanding officer not only will not take such a careless step,
but also will try to.use the moment of granting the next military rank to a
subordinate effectively for indoctrination purposes. He will consider it
essential to talk with the man both where there are complicating circumstances
and when he signs the order without the slightest doubt. He will talk about
new challenges and the broader opportunities for continued professional growth
that are opening up,
But once I asked a large group of officers how they learned that the order
granting them the next military rank had been signed? The answers were some-
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times amazing; from a clerk, from a friend who was a headquarters officer, and
even from a wife; And only a few answered with dignity that the. commanding
officer had announced it to them. This is probably why norzual human meticu-
lousness with. respect to one's own growth sometimes turns into self-contempt,
pride becomes shame, and this very natural process for the military service
becomes overgrown with rumors.and fabrications which do not at all help
strengthen discipline and improve the moral climate. in the military collective.
In such a situation, one must agree, it is difficult to instill respect for
the military rank. And yet the. regulations call on every serviceman to
treasure his rank and, not by accident I think, mention the honor of the
military rank on a par with the honor and military glory of the armed forces.
I- recall the vivid example of respect for the military rank of the young officer
which was demonstrated by the commander of troops of one of the military
districts. A petition from the comrades court of officers honor was placed on
his desk asking that Senior Lieutenant M., leader of a vehicle platoon, be
demoted one grade in military rank. The commanding officer spent a long time
questioning employees of the personnel agency about the young officer and read
his personnel file carefully, but not even this satisfied him. He called the
senior lieutenant in for a talk. They say that after this talk the senior
lieutenant left, white as a sheet and smiling. It was a difficult conversation
for him in the office and the general imposed a strict punishment on the senior
lieutenant; but he kept his military rank.
And once again, I am not talking about any kind of unnecessary "softness" by
the senior officer. This is fatherly participation in a person's fate. Indeed,
when he recalled his entire period of service before this event, the senior
lieutenant, no matter how strange it may seem, could not find any cases where
senior comrades had given this kind of attention to his development. He was
only penalized for mistakes. And even the comrades court of honor did not
play the role which it is obliged to play. They did reason things out
correctly; the man himself had gotten into his current situation. But every-
thing had taken place before their eyes. If they had met a year earlier it is
possible that their decision would not have been so harsh. We must say also
that the commanding officer of the unit, who turned the senior lieutenant's
offense over for review by this officers body, did not expect that the comrades
would, as the saying goes, "shoot from the hip." But after a short period of
vacillation, he nonetheless ratified the decision of the court of honor. And
it may be that for any other decision what he lacked was precisely a clear
idea of what it means to a young officer to have a star taken off his shoulder-
boards.
All that remains to add is that the former vehicle platoon leader now heads a
unit vehicle service. There has not been a single new punishment in his
personnel file since that disturbing time for him. His immediate superior
considers M. a very promising officer. .
Yes, it is good when we find attentive, thoughtful, concerned senior comrades
along our service path. In fact, this is usually the case. And if someone
lacks breadth-of vision and a party approach to work with personnel, he should
check his decisions against the appropriate documents more frequently. Then
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it will be more clear to him, for. example, that granting an officer the next
military rank where the requirements established for this have been complied
with is not, from a legal point of view, incentive. Incentive is when the
rank is granted ahead of schedule. And therefore, this event should not be
handled as some kind of "secret," but rather should be done openly, in a
business-like manner, and in strict conformity with legal norms. This will
benefit above all the cause which we serve.
"The interests of protecting the Homeland oblige the commanding
officer (superior) to demand observance of military discipline
and order firmly and determinedly -- from Article 6 of the
Disciplinary Regulations of the USSR Armed Forces.
"The commanding officer (superior) is obliged to combine high
standards and principles and intolerance of shortcomings with
trust and respect for the men and constant concern for them"
-- from Article 48 of the Internal Service Regulations of the
USSR Armed Forces.
Private Nikolay Plastyuk was in no hurry to catch up with the formation. He
was walking lazily along the shoulder of the road leading to the firing range,
snapping off flowers with a stick. His service cap was under his belt, his
collar was unbuttoned, and he had a blade of grass in his mouth. This is
exactly how unkempt he appeared to officer Rusakov, whose vehicle stopped
alongside the soldier. Their conversation was brief:
"Report to your commanding officer that I reprimanded you for sloppy appearance,"
the officer said and drove off.
When he arrived at the firing range Plastyuk carried out this order, and one
more notice of punishment appeared in his service record.
Yes, it was another one, so the company commander Captain Semenov's opinion of
his subordinate was not upset by this intervention in disciplinary practice
by a senior officer from a neighboring unit. Moreover, there was no question
that officer Rusakov's evaluation of the soldier's behavior on the way to the
firing range was correct. The company commander himself was planning to
punish Plastyuk for being late to arrive at the training period and did not
do so only because it would have duplicated the punishment already imposed.
This made Captain Semenov even more surprised when the assistant military
procurator of the garrison, after checking the company service records, raised
the question of canceling the last punishment.
"Officer Rusakov is not a direct superior of Private Plastyuk," the lawyer
stated. "Therefore, he does not have the right to impose disciplinary punish-
ment on him."
"How can that be?" the company commander said in surprise. "After all, any
officer is superior to any soldier or sergeant."
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"That is absolutely correct, superior in military rank and possessing the right
to give orders to any soldier or sergeant, But only direct superiors can
punish subordinates. For a soldier this means the leader of the squad in which
he serves, the platoon leader and his deputy, the company commander and first.
sergeant, the battalion. commander, regimental commander, and so on. Officer
Rusakov is not one of these people, which means that he is not a direct superior
to Plastyuk..
The captain simply shook his head, as if to say his memory had let him down.
But I do not.think memory alone was at fault. When studying the regulations it.
appears that the officer did not adequately clarify the reasons for which the
group of officials who have the right to reward and punish servicemen is
considerably restricted. But these reasons are quite important, Disciplinary
punishment is a very powerful tool-of indoctrination in the hands of .the
commanding officer. It must be used carefully, taking account of the specific
circumstances of the offense, the degree of fault on the part of the violator
of discipline and his previous service record. Who if not the commanding
officer is the best one. to know these special characteristics of his subordin-
ate? So he is the only one to decide the question of punishment. Certainly
it is easy to imagine how the indoctrination process would be disrupted if
everyone who was a superior to a certain soldier began to give him rewards and
punishment.
Incidentally, the restrictions on people who.have the right to punish service-
men are established not just in the Disciplinary Regulations, but also by a
number of other legal enactments. Here are just two examples.
Lieutenant K., traveling on his motorcycle,. committed a flagrant violation of
traffic rules. A whistle blew, and a GAI.[State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate]
inspector came up to the offender.
"I'm wrong," the lieutenant admitted. "I'm ready to pay my fine."
But the inspector did not take a fine; he informed the unit where the lieutenant
served of what had happened. And he was following the law exactly; fines
charged on an administrative basis cannot be imposed on military servicemen;
by decision of the commander they are replaced with disciplinary punishment.
This is very important for the indoctrination of servicemen because it gives
the commanding officer an opportunity to judge the behavior of his subordin-
ates not only at work, but also outside the unit area.
The commanding officer who received the GAI inspector's report was very grate-
ful for it. Lieutenant K. had given a good account of himself at work, but
then off-duty he was capable.of crude behavior and appearing in a public
place in an intoxicated condition. They had already spoken with him about this
a number of times. This new violation of public order illustrated that the
lieutenant still had not drawn the proper conclusions. The commanding
officer imposed a disciplinary punishment on the .guilty.. lieutenant. And this
was unquestionably beneficial to the young officer, He was made to feel what
had happened much more sharply than if the inspector had been more agreeable
and limited things to a fine.
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Now here is an example of the other kind, Warrant Officer Yu, received an
order to deliver documents to the headquarters of a neighboring unit on an
urgent basis. The last electric train in that direction was already approach-
ing the platform when the warrant officer jumped out of his car. There was no
time to buy a ticket, so he headed for the train without one, Half an hour
later the controllers approached him, A report in proper form was drawn up
showing he was traveling without a ticket, When this document arrived in the
unit, the commanding officer wrote out his decision: "The reason for traveling
without a ticket was a proper one. I do not view this as a violation of
discipline and public order,"
All this showed that.only the commanding.officer can correctly evaluate the
.degree of a subordinate's guilt. After all, the controllers and the GAI
inspector observed only the external aspect of the event and could characterize
it only within the limits of their own competence, But the commanding officers
were able to relate what happened to the previous behavior of the men and the
interests of the service and to make decisions that met these interests. That
is why in such cases the law refers the employees of various state institutions
to the power of. the one-man military commander to impose order..
The cases of Lieutenant K. and Warrant Officer Yu, were not given here, however,
only to clarify this truth. They also remind us that military servicemen are
obligated to be disciplined and conduct themselves with dignity away from their
unit and garrison also. But how can we check the behavior of people who are on
long work trips or on leave? And how-can we respond to misdeeds if the direct
superior is many kilometers from the guilty fighting man? In such circumstances
the regulations assign control over the behavior of servicemen to senior officers
and military commandants of garrisons and camp assemblies, to military comman-
dants on means of transportation, and to military commissars at the place where
servicemen are spending their leave. All of these people, in addition to
direct superiors, are also given the right to impose disciplinary punishment on
violators of military discipline and public order.
Now let us return again to the punishment which officer Rusakov announced
against Private Plastyuk. In fact, the cancellation of this punishment
following protest by the military procurator drew objections from some people
in the garrison. The comrades said that every superior in military rank has
the right to demand observation of military discipline, public order, and
proper uniform from junior personnel, and that the regulations give superiors
specific power for this, namely the right to give orders to subordinates and
in case of open disobedience to take coercive steps all the way to arrest.
Well, all these statements are entirely proper, For example, if a PFC sees
a violation of public order by a private, he must make a critical remark to
him, and if this is not done he should take the violator to the military
provost or to the nearest military unit. This is how any military serviceman,
and even more so an officer, should act in relation to a junior in military
rank. So naturally officer Rusakov could stop Private Plastyuk's behavior.
But as the reader recalls, there was no need for this: the soldier carried
out his order conscientiously even without this. The officer's mistake was
that he tried to determine the measure of punishment for the misdeed. But
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even after arresting aserviceman guilty of disobedience, a superior in
military rank cannot determine the time that he remains under arrest. This
is established by either the chief or commandant of the garrison or by the
serviceman's direct superior, in other words, a person who is given the right
to impose disciplinary punishment.
Why is it necessary to discuss this so thoroughly? It is because disciplinary
punishment involves the honor, dignity, and sometimes the personal freedom of
the serviceman and.these are rights guaranteed by the USSR Constitution to
every Soviet citizen. There is only one fact that supports the use of punish-
ment -- violation of the procedures and rules established by Soviet laws and
the military regulations. At the-same time the regulations obligate commanding
officers to use persuasive means first of all for indoctrination purposes,
leaving coercion for. the most extreme cases. But even then,. when, as they say,
the good word does not reach a person, it takes a great deal of wisdom, pedagog-
ical experience and tact to use disciplinary rights with maximum benefit. And
above all one must know the regulation requirements on procedures for use of
disciplinary punishments precisely.
I want to call attention to'the fact that the Disciplinary Regulations broaden
the rights of commanding officers and chiefs to hold subordinates responsible
depending on their official position. For example, the jurisdication of a
regimental commander is, broader than the authority given to a commanding
officer of a battalion, company, or a platoon. And this is not just a matter
of the need to bolster the authority of the senior officer who has greater
responsibility. It is also because the higher positions are usually occupied
by people who have gained wisdom from military and life experience and this
permits them to use their power with greater caution, taking all circumstances
into account.
There is a curious pattern: the more experienced and pedagogically knowledgable
a leader is, the more rarely you will hear him complain that the disciplinary
rights given to him by the regulation are inadequate. Furtlermore,_this kind
of commanding officer uses his rights with great restraint,. usually leaving
the decision on incentive or,punishment.of servicemen to the discretion of
their immediate superiors., This bolsters the reputation of both junior and
senior command personnel and'enhances their influence on subordinates; it also
increases the significance of the commanding officer's words. And on the
other hand, it is difficult to expect success in indoctrination of the men
when the leader when angry is capable of imposing punishment, as they say,
"with both barrels."
The military procurator of a. certain large garrison told of the impression he
gathered from an inspection of the book.of arrested persons held in the guard-
room. The book showed clearly that the most frequent "guests" were men of the
N. detached battalion.. The records in the book even suggested one of the
reasons for this: a large majority of the serivicemen had been arrested by
the commanding officer of this unit personally.
The military procurator went to the battalion and studied the entries in the
service records of the soldiers. It, was true: in the preceeding six months
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not a single sergeant had made use of his right to commend or punish subordi-
ates. Even the platoon leaders rarely announced punishments or incentives.
In essence, the leaders closest to the soldiers were completely removed (or
had removed themselves) from disciplinary practices, and the battalion
commander had assumed it all himself. And, of course, this had a negative
effect on the level of military discipline.
Experience suggests that disciplinary punishment achieves the maximum effect
when it is imposed not in anger, not under the influence of emotions aroused
by the incorrect behavior of a subordinate, but rather when it is a logical
continuation of the indoctrination process. Out regulations do not use the
term "military tact." But the regulation-requirements for mutual courtesy
among servicemen and the duty of the commanding officer or chief.to combine
high standards and principles with trust and respect for the men, prevent
rudeness, and not infringe on their personal dignity are linked with precisely
this concept.
Unfortunately, we occasionaly encounter cases where an official is, as they
say, under the sway of his own emotions. I recall how a company commander,
observing the incorrect actions of a tank crew, said in anger, "I'll show.
them!" Despite all instructions the tank was returning after a fire exer-
cise with its cannon pointed not at the "enemy," but toward the firing line
where the next crews were getting ready. It is not difficult to understand
the company commander's irritation at such a blunder. But really, what could
he "show them"? He has the right to punish guilty persons within the limits
of the authority given to him. But this must be a regulation act by an
official, certainly not an outburst by an angry man. The officer from
regimental headquarters who was at the command post reminded the company
commander of this, very reasonably observing that an emotional outburst by
a commanding officer can only harm the indoctrination of subordinates.
Yes, the concepts of "dressing down," "chewing out," and so on still exist in
some military subunits. What document are they found in? Most likely these
"methods" of work with personnel come out-in those leaders who have forgotten
that subordinates have the right to protest non-regulation actions that
affront the dignity of a Soviet fighting man and citizen, and this can be
done not only through the chain of command but in court.
I was once in the office of the military tribunal of a certain remote garrison
on business. My talk with the chairman was coming to an end when there was a
knock at the door and a messenger reported that the comrades whom the major
of justice had summoned had arrived.
"Send them in," the man said, giving me a sign that I too would be interested
to hear the upcoming conversation.
A captain and a warrant officer came in, presented themselves, and sat on
chairs in front of the chairman's desk,
"I invited you here on the following question," the chairman of the military
tribunal said. "I have received a statement from Warrant Officer Skokov
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which says that you, comrade captain, insulted him in the presence of company
personnel in the evening of 27 December, in other words two days ago, I am
obligated to accept this statement and review it according to the law,- But
perhaps this matter should not reach court?"
The captain apparently expected this to be the subject, and stated firmly-that
he did not consider his actions incorrect., The warrant officer, he said, had
violated discipline by failing to carry out his, the captain's, order at the
right time, and for this he was severely reprimanded in front of a formation.
And if during this something unpleasant was said to him, he should only blame
himself. If he would serve conscientiously, no one would say a bad word to
him.
"If I have understood you correctly, you do not deny the fact of the insult?"
the chairman asked.
"I do not deny it, but . . .
The lawyer stopped him and continued, "Of course, there are more than enough
witnesses. Now I have to tell you that no one disputes your right to demand
that Warrant Officer Skokov carry out his duties. And the warrant officer.-
is not complaining about the severity of the reprimand. But the fact that
the punishment was announced to him in the presence of subordinates is a
serious mistake by you. I will inform the unit commanding officer of this so
that he can take necessary steps. As for the insult which you delivered,
this action is punished under Article 243 of the RSFSR Criminal Code by loss
of freedom for a period of three to six months, but in mitigating circum-
stances it brings in the rules of the Disciplinary Regulations. The decision
on this matter will also depend on your behavior. So it is in your interests
to give Warrant Officer Skokov an apology."
The captain's face turned red.
"I certainly never thought that the question would be put that way," he said,
lowering his head. "You know, I didn't do it out of evil intention. I
simply could not control myself. After all, I care a lot about the work."
He was quiet for a minute, thinking, then resolutely got up and extended his
hand to the warrant officer:
"Well all right, Viktor Sergeyevich, I'm sorry. But you sure were something,
and got me raging mad!"
The warrant officer also stood up. It seemed to me that his voice trembled
as he said, "All right, Andrey Ivanovich, I don't hold it against you, But
you know, it hurts when I am reprimanded in front of the men."
Fortunately for the captain, this unpleasant matter ended with a strict
disciplinary punishment. The unit commander took his sincere repentance
into account, as well as the fact that the offense committed by him followed
improper actions by the warrant officer. But the officer remembered this
lesson forever after.
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I must say that in many years of service I have only heard of a few such cases,
As a rule, mutual relations among servicemen are structured according to the
regulations. And if the preconditions for such conflicts occur, the party
organization, collective, or ultimately the comrades court helped the command-
ing officer eliminate them in time. But I want to observe that if such an
.offense has already happened, the case must be decided in strict conformity
with the law and requirements of the regulations.
As we know; 'the regulations oblige commanding officers and leaders to respond
to every misdeed by subordinates. And this response does not involve punish-
ment only. Article 43 of the Disciplinary Regulations states directly that
first of all the commanding officer should remind the subordinate of his
service duties, and only subject him to disciplinary punishment when necessary.
Soviet law begins from the idea that what is important for indoctrination
purposes is not so much the severity of society's response to a misdeed by a
citizen as it is the inevitability of a response. It is relevant to recall
the V. I. Lenin demanded that cases of violations of the law be brought to
public court "not so much for the sake of strict punishment (it may be that
a reprimand will be enough), but for the sake of publicity and to eliminate
the general conviction that guilty people go unpunished." So the commanding
officer has a right to limit himself to a brief critical remark in relation
.to a serviceman who has done wrong, but at the same time he may also, within
the limits of the rights given to him, employ any punishment which, as Article
43 of the regulations states, he believes will have the greatest indoctrination
effect on the guilty person.
But how can the influence be measured? The Disciplinary Regulations give only
general principles: the gravity of the offense, the degree of guilt, and so
on. Unlike the Criminal Code, these regulations do not contain any specific
dispositions and penalities. Therefore, it is extremely important that the
commanding officer be able to make a correct evaluation of both the character
,of the offender and the social significance of the offense he committed.
. . . PFC Zemskov found a watch within the borders of the military post. He
went to the company area and announced his find. No one responded. The PFC
began to wear the watch himself, and then seemed to lose it. After this it
became known that a soldier in the neighboring company had lost his watch.
Major Yakovlev did not report what had happened to anyone, but simply ordered
-that.Zemskov should pay the owner of the watch its value. This was done. The
PFC did not receive any punishment for his behavior, and the matter was not
discussed at either a Komsomol meeting or a general meeting of the company.
People may ask, "Punishment? Komsomol discussion? What for? In connection
with what misdeed?" The answer here is clear: in connection with a violation
of military discipline.
What is our military discipline? The regulations define it as "strict and
precise compliance by all servicemen with the procedures and rules established
by Soviet law and the military regulations." Unfortunately, people sometimes
overlook the words "Soviet law" in this clear formulation, and PFC Zemskov had
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violated civil law, in particular Article 144 of the RSFSR Civil Code. This
article obligates anyone who finds a lost object to turn it in, if the owner
is unknown, to the executive committee of the local Soviet, the militia or
the lost and found desk or administration of the institution where the object
was found. In our case, the watch should have been turned over to the unit
.commander. Certainly this would have made it easier for the owner to find it,
and Major Yakovlev would not have. had to adopt the legally questionable
decision on repayment of the value of the watch. In fact, the law envisions
such compensation only if the object found is taken by the finder as his own.
But if, as Zemskov asserted, he really lost the watch, is he guilty of this?
However, the main thing in this story is not that disciplinary measures were
not taken with respect to the guilty person. Let me repeat that the command-
ing officer knows best how to respond to a violation of discipline. The
problem is that the commanding officer of the subunit did not attach the
proper significance to what happened. Because of his narrow understanding
of the concept "military discipline" and ignorance of the norms of civil law
he limited himself to a superficial review of the conflict. But if he had
looked into it more carefully, he probably would have identified certain
details of this incident which were important for understanding the situation
that had developed in the subunit.
It appears that before "losing" the watch that he found, Zemskov started to
demand a material reward for the find from the owner. If the owner had been
a soldier drafted at the same time as him, he would hardly have done this.
But the watch was lost by a new soldier, who had just arrived in the subunit.
And this by itself indicated that it was not just a matter of Zemskov's moral
make-up.
Unfortunately, it was only after another legal offense which required inter-
vention by military lawyers that they began serviously working on indoctri-
nating personnel in a spirit of collectivism and military comradeship. They
certainly could have seen the need for this much earlier, immediately after
the case of the watch. That is the price of a commanding officer's mistake
in determining the social significance of a subordinate's misdeed.
The Soviet one-man commander is given broad authority to strengthen regula-
tion order in the subunit and unit. Skillful use of this authority, combin-
ing high standards with tact and concern for the men, and involving the
community in indoctrination of subordinates will shorten the path to success.
"The military serviceman is obligated to know and preserve the
weapons and combat and other equipment entrusted to him perfectly,
and to preserve military and public property'" -- from Article 2
of the Internal Service Regulations of the USSR Armed Forces.
"Military servicemen and reservists called up for assemblies are
liable for material. damage they cause under the procedures
established by the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet" --
Article 84 of the USSR Law on Universal Military Obligation.
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rUK UrrlLIAL UAL UINLY
One morning while going to work the residents of a certain building at.a
military, post saw that the walls of the entry had been elaborately decorated
with "graffiti" pictures. It did not take long to find the person who did
the drawings, the sixth-grader Kostya, an officer's son. Of course the
entry was soon cleaned up. This took both materials and working time. Then
they suggested that the father of the minor "artist" pay for the job. Unfortu-
nately, he refused to do so, and then the proper, demand was put in the form
of an order for the military unit where the officer served.
The necessary amount was withheld from this officer, Later, however, the
money had to be returned. The withholding order was protested by the garrison
military procurator as illegal. Why? Could it be that the lawyers did not
see the damage to the building as a violation of the rules of residence there
for which there should be strict punishment, including ruble punishment? They
did see this. And according to our law parents can in fact be materially
responsible for their minor children if they cause damage to the state or to
individuals. They can be, but a dispute on this matter (and indeed there
was a dispute) can only be decided by a people's court.
"What does the court have to do here, when we are talking about a serviceman,
an officer?" the commanding officer who gave the order to withhold the money
asked, shrugging his shoulders. He opened the Statute on Material Responsibil-
ity of Servicemen for Damage Caused to the State and began reading the articles
which seemed to him to apply to this situation.
But what does the Statute have to do with this? It regulates legal relations
that arise in the performance of official duties by servicemen, and that is
all. But if the damage is caused under other circumstances, the norms of
general USSR law apply. This is stipulated in the very first article of the
Statute, for as we have already observed, the commanding officer's power is
directed exclusively to specific purposes and is applicable only in matters
that are completely military. And here, really, no one but the commanding
officer will try to determine how much the combat readiness of the subunit
or unit suffered from the legal offense. Furthermore, the rights of a command-
ing officer to determine the damage to be compensated are very limited. For
example,.not more than three months' monetary allowance can be taken from an
officer. He is materially responsible to the full extent of the damage caused
only in cases rigorously defined by the.law (for example, where valuables
received under report are missing). And with a regular-term soldier the
commanding officer can only take action for the damage caused according to
the rules of disciplinary regulations, which means declare the punishment for
the soldier.
As we see, the complaints of the employees of the military procurator's office
against the commanding officer of the unit who gave the order to withhold
money to fix up the entry were proper, Incidentally, when the peoples court
heard the case they decided to charge the parents of the sixth-grader an
amount that was more than the commanding officer had established earlier.
And they obligated both the officer-father and the mother of the unhappy
"artist" to pay it. It is clear that the commanding officer of the unit
could not have done this, because the woman worked in an entirely different
place.
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MK OFFKlAL UJL UINLY
To prevent such mistakes, a leader must have a clear idea of the limits of his
authority and, of course, order an investigation of the event in every case
where subordinates cause material damage. If this is not done, how can it be
established whether the serviceman was performing military duties or not? And
this is just the first condition which leads to material responsibility. The
other, equally important conditions are the existence of a causal relation
between the material damage and the action (or inaction) of the particular
individual, and the illegality and culpability of such actions. We should
note that a careful analysis is required to clarify these circumstances, and
it this is not done the superficial appearance of things may be taken as guilt
for causing the damage.
. . .Two problems came one after the other in the tank regiment, During a
long march Private Knysh, driver of a combat vehicle, became careless and
allowed the engine to overheat. The vehicle was down for some time, and
considerable resources were required to repair it, Then just a little later
another driver failed to see a snow-covered trench at a tactical-drill
exercise. He went into it and the combat vehicle became stuck. During his
efforts to get out of the trench by driving the vehicle, the driver also
allowed the engine to overheat. At the regiment they applied the same
measure to both these very.similar (externally) situations: they held both
subunit commanding officers materially responsible, And this was incorrect.
After all, the similarity between the two situations is entirely external.
The guilt of the subunit commanding officer was established only in the case
which occurred at the tactical-drill exercise, What was his guilt? The
appropriate documents prescribe that during the organization of such exercises
particular care should be taken to mark off dangerous places and means should
be available to rescue stuck vehicles. If, as is required, a special tractor
had been near the stuck vehicle the driver would not have had to gun the .
engine uselessly on the officer's command., and of course, if things had been
proper, he would have tried to drive around the marked trench. But at this
exercise, of course, dangerous places were not marked and there was no tractor.
Furthermore, the officer himself, who was conducting the training period,
directed the effort to get the combat vehicle out of the trench by ordering
over and over, "C'mon, step on it!" Even though he, as a specialist, could
have seen immediately that this would not work. So we can see that this
officer was guilty. And where there is guilt, material responsibility is proper.
The case during the march is different. Did the commanding officer of the
subunit that was making the march show any carelessness that led to the over-
heating of one of the vehicle's engines? No, he did not. The officer care-
fully examined the equipment before.they left the motor pool, instructed the
drivers, and monitored the traveling speed of the column. And he had no
guilt for what happened. The only one at fault was the driver of this vehicle,
Private Knysh. He did not carry out his professional duty, to keep track of
the instrument readings. Therefore, there is nothing for which the commanding
officer of the subunit could be punished, and so the senior officer canceled
this decision.
Indeed, only a careful administrative investigation makes it possible to avoid
such mistakes. It is regrettable that this is not always done. After all,
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such mistakes result in more than just a tangible shortage in the family budget
of the serviceman. Like any other illegal decision, incorrect application of
measures of material responsibility has a bad effect on the reputation of the
commanding officer or leader. In addition, unjustified charges, if they become
systematic, may give the military collective a certain fear of using the
equipment to full capacity. Some of the officers in the regiment where the
above-described events occurred stated directly that at training periods they
sometimes think less about the quality of personnel training than about the
.possibility of something being damaged,
Precise compliance with the rules for compensation of material damage protects
against such extremes. These rules envision, for example, that only material
damage which is a direct consequence of specific actions or inaction by a
particular person is subject to compensation, It was incorrect, for example,
of a certain military institution to charge an officer a certain amount because
he did not investigate a shortage of property that occurred there at the right
time. We cannot deny that, as a result of his inexperience or even careless-
ness, the investigator permitted unforgiveable delay. This made it difficult
to clarify the circumstances under which the property disappeared, But by
itself the carelessness of this officer did not cause material damage to the
state, and therefore there can be no question of his material responsibility
here.
Warrant Officer S. was sent to the nearest rayon center to get paint for a
military construction detachment. When he returned he reported that he had
carried out the order, but that he had lost the railroad tickets which he
received according to the travel documents written up for the trip, The
commanding officer of the military construction detachment was all ready to
charge him the cost of the trip in both directions, but he was not sure that
this would be legal. And it was good that he questioned it. Indeed, what
should the warrant officer have to pay for? He did not cause damage to the
state or the unit. He did not sell the documents he had been given, but
rather used them for their assigned purpose: he went to the rayon center and
brought back the paint. But he had been careless in preserving the documents.
He should be responsible for this, but what kind of responsibility is it? It
is disciplinary responsibility.
Incidentally, holding a serviceman materially responsible is not a disciplinary
punishment. Therefore, it is possible to employ disciplinary measures against
a guilty person in addition to charging him. for damages, Those who consider
this to be repeated punishment for the same misdeed and attempt to appeal it
are mistaken.
The military regulations obligate commanders and leaders to demand strict
compliance with administrative and financial discipline from their subordinates
and to teach them in a spirit of conservation of public wealth. Both improperly
holding people materially responsible and failure to take necessary steps
against those who have caused damage to the state are harmful to such indoc-
trination.
. . .To judge by everything, even while reporting his enlistment for extended
service, Junior Sergeant Sarychev thought very little of his future obligations.
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But he had a very clear idea of his rights and privileges, In any case, when
the time came to summarize some results of his activity in his new capacity,
it could be seen that the extended serviceman received everything that he
should have in proper order, but his performance on the job was terrible. And
it was entirely correct for his senior officer to decide to discharge Sarychev
from the army. The order for this stated that the man was being discharged
for lack of discipline and bringing discredit on the lofty title of service-
man.
But then, according to existing rules persons discharged for such reasons are
to be charged the amount of the outright (re-enlistment) payment and the
amount of free clothing issued to them, proportional to the time remaining
until the end of their service (the wearing time of the clothing). For
Sarychev this meant he would have to repay 572 rubles and 78 kopecks to the
state. But the unit did not take care of this, and needless to say, he
himself was not going to remind them of his debt. The violation of the law
was not discovered until the next procurator's audit. I believe that the
military procurator was correct to note in his report that people are
generous with state funds mainly where another principle of the law is not
applied, the principle that officials who do not take steps to reimburse the
state for material.damage are themselves subject to material responsibility.
Incidentally, it is by no means forgetfulness that causes some leaders to let
debtors off. I have even heard complaints about the "'laxity" of our laws.
People say how can we preserve public wealth if regular-term servicemen can
only be charged for damage they cause in cases where they are held criminally
liable.
Yes, that is the only case! I recall a situation where they in fact tried to
withhold 114 rubles 69 kopecks from a soldier "for squandering technical gear,"
more precisely .for losing driver's tools at field exercises. This decision
was canceled following a protest by the military procurator, whose investiga-
tion did not find evidence of a crime, that is, of the very "squandering"
indicated in the document on withholding the money. It was simply that the
appropriate leaders had not organized the work so that the tools would not
be lost. But in those cases where a regular-term serviceman causes damage
outside the framework of his service activities, which means outside the
control of his superiors, there can be no indulgence.
Private Nazarov took the wheel of a vehicle without authorization and had an
accident. It is true that the consequences of the accident, including
material damage, were not serious enough to bring criminal charges against
the soldier. But Major Nefedov, the commanding officer of his subunit,
correctly thought that the person guilty for damage to the vehicle should
himself pay for repair work. The officer conducted an investigation of the
accident and -'-` the materials to the peoples court to charge the guilty
man the cost of repair based on a civil suit, The court upheld the complaint,
issued a writ of execution to the military unit, and ordered that the amount
be recovered under this writ after Private Nazarov was discharged into the
reserve, when he went back to work,
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So our law is by no means lax; it reliably protects socialist property against
damage, squandering, and theft. But in doing so it does not leave the interests
of the individual out. For example, in a number of cases the law establishes
a ceiling on possible charges and prohibits finding a person guilty for inex-
perience. Moreover, when a citizen must pay for damage he has caused, even
where the obligation is unconditional, the payment procedure still takes his
interests into account. For example, if a guilty person can take care of the
problem caused by his actions and eliminate it, there will be no material
responsibility. Damage in amounts of less than ten rubles are recovered under
the so-called uncontested procedure, based on a notarized certificate of judg-
ment, which means that the guilty person may not be taken to court. This
protects his self-respect.
I think that these facts are adequate arguments for the need to have a good
knowledge of the procedure for compensation of material damage. Realizing
his right to employ this measure, the commanding officer or leader must do
everything he can to see that the interests of combat readiness do not suffer
and that the requirements of the law with respect to the rights of the defen-
dant are observed.
Ultimately, the law would appear to lead the commanding officer or leader to
the idea that it is necessary to concentrate his efforts on preventing any
possible losses of and damage to state and military property. There are two
proven ways to do this: establish reliable conditions for correct storage and
use of property, and teach subordinates a proprietary attitude toward such
property. Where these things are done and where work with personnel is
strictly monitored, there is no need to punish people, which includes ruble
punishment.
"The commanding officer or leader must constantly improve his
military and political knowledge and know combat and other
equipment and weapons and how they are used" -- from Article
50 of the Internal Service Regulations of the USSR Armed
Forces.
"Violation of the rules for driving or operating a combat,
specialized, or transportation vehicle which leads to an
.accident with injury to human beings or to other serious
consequences is punished by loss of freedom for a period of
2-10 years" -- from Article 16 of the Law on Criminal
Responsibility for Military Crimes.
A long time ago there was a movie which had the following sequence. A Pobeda
car was flying through the city; recognizing it the traffic control militiamen
would only look fondly at its disappearing form. What would you expect, when
a famous test pilot was behind the wheel. Would you think that he, who had
conquered theskies, could not handle speed on the ground?:
In our day daredevil driving does not amuse anyone. It is common knowledge
that many more people die on the highways than in the skies. In certain
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Western countries the number of victims, of motor vehicles is comparable to
losses during the war years. And this is not surprisingp for there are hundreds
of millions of motor vehicles on the planet and this enormous fleet is constantly
growing. In our country as well the transportation flows grow thicker by hours,
not by days. Modern trunk highways and interchanges are built in the interests
of traffic safety, the road surveillance service is supplied with sophisticated
equipment, and traffic rules are refined. But the main figure in this multi-
faceted work remains the person behind the wheel, the driver, for ultimately
the statistics on motor vehicle accidents depend on the driver, on the driver's
discipline, knowledge, and experience.
Under army conditions the problem of road traffic safety is closely linked to
maintaining the constant combat readiness of units and subunits. After all,
practically everything there is on the move and can and must move. Tanks and
infantry combat vehicles may race through the unbroken snow on the attack,
Behind them come tractors with artillery systems on trailers. Next are various
specialized vehicles, and all-terrain vehicles. Missile launchers lay a path
through forest cuttings. And somewhere "in the rear" trucks carrying ammunition
and gear, tankers, refrigerator trucks, and truck kitchens are constantly driv-
ing about. It is clear from this how important the labor of those who are
entrusted to drive military vehicles is, how important it is that every trip
be successful..
But consider this circumstance. The challenge of controlling accidents under
Armed Forces conditions, which by itself is not simple, is further complicated
by the fact that we find here the youngest drivers in the country driving the
most powerful vehicles. And unfortunately, it is not possible to avoid this
combination: the power of the equipment is a result of the requirements of
contemporary battle, while the youth of the drivers results from the draft age.
There remains just one way to eliminate this contradiction, namely to see that
military drivers acquire the necessary skills at an accelerated rate and that
their youth does not mean inexperience. A special training system has been
worked out for military drivers. For example, every young person who has com-
pleted a DOSAAF school or in some other way become a driver before going into
the army must, after being drafted, go through-so-called supplementary train-
ing. Many instructions and manuals are devoted to organizing reliable opera-
tion of the equipment. These questions are a constant focus of attention for
commanding officers, political organs, and the appropriate services. In short,
practically everything possible has been done to avoid accidents and, as
experience shows, they occur only when people forget the established rules or
are not guided by them.
. . . Ile did everything he could, everything that his driver's memory recalled
about actions in such situations: he cut the gas, stepped on the brake pedal,
and tried to control the wheel. But it was as if the reliable connection
between the driver and the enormous truck had been broken. Like in a slow
motion film, the Ural vehicle continued its smooth, unnatural turn on its axis
and soon the left wheels were already in the right (by direction of travel)
ditch.
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Later they would say that the driver had not been able to control the vehicle,
And they would be right, because there would be irrefutable evidence to confirm
his guilt: excessive speed, inattention to warning signs in the road situation,
sharp braking on a slippery segment of the road, and incorrect attempts to stop
the vehicle's skidding. But behind each. of these points there would be a series
of sometimes very unexpected circumstances, and it would be clear to the criminal
investigation that the accident on the snowy highway had much deeper causes than
those established by the motor vehicle investigating team.
Yes, he did everything that he knew how to do. And Private Kuznetsov knew how
to drive Gaziks (vehicles from the Gorky Automotive Plant), whether it was a
truck like in the DOSAAF vehicle club, or a car, which he was entrusted with
in the army. In these vehicles he handled his assignments under the most
difficult conditions. Probably that is why his name was listed among the
most experienced drivers when the question of an unforeseen trip by the motor
vehicle column. came up. But this time he had to drive a heavy-duty Ural. The
difference between driving a Ural and the lighter vehicles which Kuznetsov had
mastered in his time should be explained for those who are not to familiar
with the machinery. In light vehicles the driver has a good feel for the road,
for example, he can feel how the wheels grip the ground when braking. This
feedback is weakened in vehicles with larger load capacities. After all, in
them braking is done with special boosters so that if you just touch the pedal
the wheels stop completely. If it were otherwise the driver would simply not
have enough strength to restrain this enormous machine. But special techniques
are needed for a smooth stop, That is why it is categorically forbidden for
drivers who have not had appropriate training to drive such vehicles.
On paper Kuznetsov had had such training. When he arrived in the unit they
organized supplementary training for all graduates of DOSAAF schools. But in
violation of existing rules, they were trained on two brands of vehicles at
the same time so that, as they said, they could be put in any vehicle later.
We cannot object, mutual replaceability of specialists is an important factor,
in combat readiness. But in this case Private Kuznetsov spent just a few hours
behind the wheel of a Ural during the entire period of training. And he made
the long trip planned at the end of the program in a completely different
vehicle. That is why his assignment as a Ural driver on the fatal trip cannot
be considered anything but criminal carelessness by officials of the unit.
But Lieutenant Litvinov, who signed the requisition sheet for the trip, had no
idea of Kuznetsov's driving skills. As a temporary deputy commander of the
motor vehicle company in charge of technical affairs he was only interested in
the readiness of the vehicles, and they were always in good condition. After
turning the requisition over to the dispatcher, the lieutenant did not even
consider it necessary to inform the company commander of his decision.
Incidentally, this practice where the company commander Senior Lieutenant
Mironov did not know that drivers subordinate to him were going out on the
line had existed in the subunit for a long time. They thought that it stimu-
lated company officers to take initiative.
The requisition named four drivers. Three were experienced drivers who had
driver Urals for a long time; the other was Kuznetsov. None of the senior
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officers even looked at the requisition, But even without knowing Kuznetsov's
capabilities, any senior officer would have been obligated to take him off the
trip, if for no other reason than he was ordered to drive a vehicle not assigned
to him. The slightest familiarity with the candidate's documents would also
have shown that Kuznetsov's military record did not indicate what kind of
vehicles he was authorized to drive, because no order on this had been published
in the unit.
Nonetheless, it appeared that fate itself offered the unfortunate organizers
of this trip one more chance to avoid the mishap, At the last minute it became
unnecessary to send four vehicles from the company; only two were needed.
Unfortunately, this time too the responsible officials did not take part in
selecting the drivers. This was done by a clerk (.!), who set aside the first
two road logs that came to hand. They were in fact the logs of the most
experienced soldiers.
When asked why he personally did not monitor preparations for the trip, the
former commanding officer of the unit. responded that he considered the trip
an "elementary" one, just a few dozen kilometers both ways on asphalt!
"But you knew that the weather forecast said snow."
"I did not consider that important,"
Snow began in the morning when the roadway, which had been wet since the even-
ing before, was already covered by a film of ice. I should note that braking
under these conditions is like balancing, except not on a wire, but rather with
the brake pedal. Just a little too sharply and the wheels, stopped by the brake
shoes, push the layer of snow across the ice and the vehicle skids; if the
pedal is pushed a little more softly the free wheel starts rolling. The
optimal pressure (so that the vehicle is stopped and does not skid) is found
literally by feel for each specific situation. Experienced drivers find it
more quickly, and newcomers do so after many attempts. But after all, the
time given by the road situation to stop the vehicle is also a limit. And it
depends mainly on traveling speed.
The chief of the column announced, "I set the speed at 20 kilometers an hour.
That is how Kuznetsov drove his vehicle. But after a short stop (the load
shifted in the bed and he had to secure it) he had to catch up with the others,
who had gone ahead. And the road log which the head of the column, unfortunately,
had not checked said "40," the figure Kuznetsov was used to. As he brought the
speedometer arrow up to this speed, the driver did not at all think that he was
flagrantly violating an order. Officer Danilov, senior man in charge of the
vehicle, did not mention this to him either. The officer considered himself
more of a chance passenger than a commander on this trip. He was not familiar
with the duties of officer in charge of a vehicle, and no one checked his
knowledge before they left. Therefore, Danilov did not monitor the driver's
actions. Only one time he said ambiguously, "Take it easy." But even later
he could not say specifically what he meant by this "Take it easy."
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Now the warning signs were racing by one after another, "winding road," "inter-
section with second degree road," "steep hill." Then they came to a 1.5-meter
high sign saying "Driver, reduce speed" The. vehicle officer did not consider
it necessary to demand that Kuznetsov carry out these orders or to warn him to be
especially cautious. But they could easily see that now and again the vehicle
traveling in front of them would begin to slide on the slippery road.
A driver who has never brought a vehicle out of a skid is like a person who
knows how to swim only from words, It is difficult to say whether he will
swim or not when he is in over his head. Therefore, the units prepare people
in advance for a possible test. During the winter whole segments are covered
with water at motor vehicle training areas and become ice obstacles. Even
during the summer they look for ways to teach people to handle ice. After all,
a driver can only acquire the skills of controlling a vehicle, when it seems
that nothing can turn it in the necessary direction or stop it, by learning in
a real situation.
No such training periods were conducted with Kuznetsov and his comrades.
Nothing of the sort was even envisioned in the plans; they said that there was
no place for it, and no such orders had been received. Each driver used
techniques that he had worked out independently.
When he put on the brakes the next time and the Ural began to slip to the left
with its rear wheels the driver acted as if he were still at the wheel of a
Gazik. Slightly releasing the brake pedal he tried to catch the minute when
the wheels began rolling and the machine could be evened out. But the wheels,
held,by the boosters, remained immobile. The Ural turned almost 180 degrees,
one side went into the ditch, and it turned over, It was lucky that neither
the driver nor the vehicle officer was injured.
This is how a sequence of major and minor deviations from regulation norms led
to a situation where the driver got into trouble with his vehicle in a place
that was in fact level. Furthermore, the impression is formed that the
officials on whom traffic safety depended surmounted all the obstacles which
the law put in the path of an accident one after the other with a stubbornness
and persistence worthy of better use. But of course, this is not true. The
people sincerely wanted to do their best. The commanding officer of the unit
who included driver training in different vehicles in the training program so
that they would become masters of all vehicles wanted this, as did the company
commander who entrusted his deputy for technical affairs to handle ongoing work.
But where people are not ultimately aware that the best and most rational step
is that which is done in conformity with the requirements of manuals, instruc-
tions, and orders -- in those places the best motives lead to unfortunate
results.
I think that the story of the norms that regulate procedures for operating
vehicles with military license plates would be incomplete if I did not mention
the preventive work of the military motor vehicle inspectorate. They are well
informed concerning the problems of combating motor vehicle accidents, both
general and specific army problems, and they try to help the commanding officers
and the drivers themselves avoid trouble.
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"Of course, it would be much easier for us if the army received driver personnel
who were already experienced," I was told by Major Gagrov, head of the military
motor vehicle inspectorate of the Moscow garrison, '''But the law does not allow
you to drive until you are 18, and that is the draft age. Suggestions have been
made, and even published in the press, that young people be permitted to drive
transport vehicles at a younger age, at least 17. But medical people are
categorically against it.
The major and I went to one of the military motor vehicle inspectorates; he
ordered that the first passing military vehicle be stopped randomly. The
driver was Private Bacherikoy, also a graduate of a DOSAAF school who had
received supplementary training in the unit. In his 18 months of service he
had not committed a single violation of the traffic rules, and his GAZ-66 was
in perfect order. Next to him in the cab was the senior man of the vehicle.
He knew the route of travel well and was taking the characteristics of the
current road situation -- a light rain was falling -- into consideration. All
the documents for the trip were correctly filled out. Well, all we could say
was "Bon voyage!"
Then the military vehicle inspector gave a gesture to stop one more vehicle by
the sidewalk. It was driven by Private Ivanov. He was an experienced driver
who had worked as a driver for two years before joining the army (he had had
a deferment). But on the empty street he had permitted himself to exceed the
speed limit. Had the senior man in the vehicle failed to notice this? And
where was he?
"Here I am," we heard a voice, from the bed of the truck.
The comrade was transporting club furniture and holding onto it so that it
would not be scratched. But what if the vehicle "got scratched"? Captain
Volkov had not thought about this. And in fact, he was not the senior man in
the vehicle; the trip log gave another name. The military vehicle inspectors
had to look into the causes of this potential vehicle accident situation,
The investigations also reveal complex situations, Once a vehicle whose driver
did not have one coupon on his technical passport was brought to the yard for
holding vehicles stopped by the inspectorate. It was found that five days
earlier the coupon, which attested that the vehicle was in good technical
condition, had been taken away by a military vehicle inspector. But instead
of appearing for the case to be heard, the subunit commander again sent the
improperly working vehicle on a trip, and furthermore he complained to his
senior officer of the "arbitrary, illegal actions" of the inspectors,
Indeed, little good comes of it when someone intrudes into an area outside his
jurisdiction. Incidentally, this also applies to the activity of the military
inspectors themselves, who are obligated to work strictly within the frame-
work of the rights they have been given. But we know of cases where some of
them have taken on the functions of the State Motor Vehicle Inspectorate. For
example, they take away drivers' licenses, Only the State Motor Vehicle
Inspectorate has this power. The military vehicle inspectorate can only raise
the question in the established procedure.
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Vehicles are racing along the roads throughout the country. Some of them are
driven by people in military uniform. Legal norms make the traffic orderly
and insure the safety of pedestrians, passengers, and the drivers themselves.
And if the need arises, the law will also intervene on behalf of the vehicle
driver if he has not violated the corresponding legal rules.
Private Yuriy Dubinin was controlled and alert behind the wheel. Nonetheless,
when a person unexpectedly appeared in front of the vehicle neither his
experience nor his reaction speed could help. He hit the brakes sharply and
the truck began skidding, slid forward along the asphalt, and the man went
under a wheel. At the hospital where the victim was delivered with a serious
injury they found that he was not only in a state of shock, but also in a
state of strong alcoholic intoxication. This, of course, became known to
Captain Justice Nalivayko, the military investigator who received the case of
the auto accident for work. He also established from the testimony of
witnesses that on the fatal day the victim had been drinking with friends and
drank so much that he lost all orientation. He was not only unable to
observe elementary rules for pedestrians, but could not even respond to the
approaching truck. In the stream of vehicles the drunken man could have
fallen under the wheels of any one, and it was a matter of chance that Private
Dubinin's vehicle was the one.
At the same time the investigator, with the help of experts, established that
Private Dubinin's vehicle was in good technical condition and traveling 30
kilometers an hour, which would have completely insured the safety of people
in this segment of the highway. As the vehicle investigation showed, the
driver was physically healthy and alert, and he took all necessary steps to
avoid hitting the pedestrian. Based on these facts the criminal proceeding
against Private Dubinin was stopped "in view of the fact that his actions do
not contain the elements of a crime." In other words, there was no crime. A
tragedy occurred because of the victim himself's fatal passion for alcohol.
The Case of the Missing Pistol
"The commanding officer or chief should always have precise and
detailed information on the presence of weapons, combat and
other equipment, ammunition, fuel, and other material resources''
-- from Article 58 of the Internal Service Regulations of the
USSR Armed Forces.
Pavel woke up and saw Yurchenko standing directly in front of him. Yurchenko
stood in the middle of the balcony, extending a trembling right hand in front
of him, and grinned evilly. His drunken eyes indicated intoxication with
power. Waving the barrel of the pistol in uneven circles he demanded: "Get
on your knees'."
"What a louse you are," Pavel said, His wife and children were in the yard
of the building and he did not want to frighten them by shouting for help. He
thought he would get up in a minute and disarm the no-good.
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But yet they had once been friends. Even the fact that Yurchenko had been in
prison changed their relations very little. So the man had deviated; he should
be helped to raise himself up. But not long before there had been a frank
conversation about his friend's. bad past. It came out that Yurchenko himself
did not consider his past to be bad or that it was past. "So, you are a fool,"
Pavel said, evaluating this, The other man leaped up from his. chair and
roared that his "buddy" 'would pay for those words. Then he smashed his glass
on the floor, as a sign of a kind of vow. A small, fidgety, man and drunk as
always, he and his threat seemed silly to the big, healthy Pavel at that time.
Now the ratio of forces was different. But never mind, in a minute Pavel
would get up and . . . but right here the fatal shot sounded.
The killer was caught two days later. No matter how he tried to cover up his
tracks, he was caught, exposed, and sentenced by the court to execution by
firing squad. This just sentence was carried out. But the organs of justice
could not stop here, they did not have the right to do so, Someone else's
crime had made this ordinary drunkard strong in front of a kind and honest
man. How did the criminal get the weapon? How was a combat pistol brought
to the balcony of a little home, and from where? Military investigators
officers Kovalev and Moroz answered these questions. Using evidence that was
almost unnoticeable at first glance, they found the source of the tragedy at the doors of a warehouse, covered with steel, supplied with signal
equipment as required, and constantly under guard. The tracks led to
Veretennikov, the chief of the warehouse of a certain military unit who had
worked there almost 20 years as a freely hired employee,
It is not impossible that it was the truly impressive period of service of
this older man which had a calming effect on those who managed the clothing
gear warehouse. The warehouse supplied uniforms for officers and operated
well. There had been no signs of any kind of abuses by the chief for many
years. And as time passed they began to monitor his work less rigorously,
Internal inspection commissions even stopped visiting there. The signal
system on the steel doors had gone out long before, and they had not even
guessed it. Departing on his regular leave, the chief turned the keys over
to the person he wanted to have them without any kind of formalities. And
his immediate superior did not consider this important. But what does
"without formalities" mean? It means that no transfer commission was set up,
no audit of the property was made, and that the warehouse transfer document
had not been written up.
The subunit commanding officer in charge of the warehouse had not conducted
either surprise or planned inspections there, as the regulations require.
During a long time in this position he had not inspected the warehouse a
single time.
"It was because I was busy with other matters," the officer explained later,
"Besides, inspectors from the artillery weapons service came regularly!" he
said, presenting what seemed to him to be a "weighty" argument in his-favor.
It was as if inspections from above released him from performance of his own
duties.
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Indeed, the inspectors which the officer mentioned did visit the warehouse,
because in addition to clothing the personal weapons of unit officers were
also stored there, But it was as if none of them noticed the flagrant
violation of the regulation requirement that systematic inspections be made
to see that weapons are present and stored correctly, To be more accurate,
they "got into a difficult situation' with the warehouse areas in this unit
and did not point out this violation in their documents; moreover, the place
in the storehouse where the pistols and shells for them were stored was
separated off from the other area and the inspectors agreed that, in priniple,
the procedures for storage of weapons were being followed,
What phrases these are: "in principle," "generally," and "on the whole"! They
are precisely what creates the situation in which it become possible to steal
and lose military gear, including the most important thing weapons and
ammunition. It is precisely "going easy on small things" that explains the
fact, for example, that the inspectors paid no attention to piles of other
gear in the part of the warehouse separated off for storage of weapons, But
this meant that people working with this other gear were also entering the
place where the boxes of pistols were kept!
The report of the commission which was formed in connection. with the investi-
gation of the criminal case testified to the poor quality of inspections, It
pointed out, specifically, that "no record of weapons by number was kept in
the warehouse," that entries in the books "were messy and had corrections,"
and that the results of earlier inspections were not analyzed and work done
following them was not recorded. Earlier pseudo-inspectors had not discovered
any of this. But how could they if, in their own words, when they arrived at
the warehouse they did not even know the quantities of particular articles
that were supposed to be there. And one of the inspectors admitted that
during the inspection he did not even take the boxes of pistols in his hands;
he simply counted them on the shelf. But at this time one of the boxes was
already empty.
Such carelessness by inspectors arouses justified indignation today, But --
and this is by no means to justify them -- let us observe that there is such
a thing as inertia in the evaluation. In their long years of service, neither
of the inspectors had ever encountered cases of stealing weapons. That is
certainly understandable; units exercise the greatest vigilance in taking
care of them.. Therefore the inspectors were accustomed to simply noting so-
called "minor" violations of the existing procedures. And that is all they
saw at this warehouse. This kind of carelessness is based on lack of
discipline and lack of desire to follow the rules for conducting inspections
rigorously in every case, literally every case without exception, These
shortcomings usually arise from an inability to understand. that these rules
bring together many years of experience, experience which a single person
could not accumulate during his entire term of service.
The same thing can be said about the subunit officials. Because no dangerous
incidents had been noted in the work of the warehouse manager earlier, they
thought that none would occur in the future, sometimes turning their eyes away
from obvious messes. And there were messes. For example, once officer
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Khisamutdinov, happening to be at the warehouse, noticed that the doors were
wide open and the manager was, not around, Surprised at such carelessness,
nonetheless he was not upset and did not report what had happened to anyone.
He simply locked the warehouse with. his own key, A little later the tele-
phone in his office rang, and the warehouse manager complained that someone
had "locked him up during performance of his duties." It turned out that he
was drunk, and has simply fallen asleep in a dark corner of the warehouse;
Unfortunately, Khisamutdinov did not consider it necessary then to remove the
manager from his job or even to check on the condition of the warehouse en-
trusted to him.
And the warehouse manager, feeling the lack of punishment, committed more
and more violations. He brought liquor to the warehouse and drank it there.
Sometimes he invited other servicemen in for company. Later some of his
drinking companions would be surprised at the moral decline of the warehouse
manager. But it had begun right before their eyes. And again it is relevant
to recall the strange attitude of officer Khisamutdinov, who "did not notice"
that several of his subordinates appeared for work with an unhealthy glimmer
in the eyes and a very definite odor about them,
The criminal file contains a glossy postcard-calendar which advertises
passenger airlines. There is a check by almost every date. Only one month
is without any marks; on it there is an entry, "Leave -- didn't drink" the
calendar belonged to the warehouse manager; the marks for daily bouts of
drinking were made by his hand. It is easy to picture the moral make-up of
a person who not only poisons himself with alcohol regularly, but even finds
pleasure in recording each day of his life that he has drunk up.
Naturally, his regular pay was not enough for systematic drunkenness. He
needed additional means, and more and more often Veretennikov began putting
his hand into the state's pocket. How did all this begin? Here we must
note several more circumstances. Those who received clothing from the ware-
house did not always adhere strictly to rules established for this. Once
officer Ikon'yev demanded that he receive uniforms a week ahead of schedule.
They explained.to him in the clothing department that although a week is a
short time, it could not be done. "It can," the warehouse manager said and
gave him what he asked for. The daughter of a certain serviceman was going
to go harvesting potatoes with her class. Of course she could not get by
without good shoes. And so a pair of size 37 soldier's boots were taken
from the warehouse by the "kindness" of Veretennikov. Temporarily, of
course, and later they would be returned. And the fact that after this they
could not be classified as first category was not important.
These facts may seem far from the subject of our narrative, but I think they
throw light on how Veretennikov gradually became used to using the property
entrusted to him as if it were his own. Later he became bolder and started
selling, or sometimes giving to his friends, such objects as short coats,
fabric, and sheets. And it was just at this time that an old friend of
Veretennikov appeared and asked him to sell him a pistol.
One cannot help being stuck by the everyday nature of the situation in which
the criminal deal was made. You would think that the warehouse manager would
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have wondered, at least for a second, why this person needed a weapon? Unfor-
tuately, this cautionary thought did not even. occur in his alcohol-clouded
consciousness:. It seemed important to him to sober up after the night before,
and the-money was rustling pleasantly in his old friend''s hand, Veretennikov
did not even bargain: he simply took 200, He went to the warehouse, opened
a case, and then a cardboard box. Then he wrapped a pistol and a package of
shells for it in a newspaper and carried them out of the unit area.
This is how the theft was accomplished. As soon as it got outside the gates
the pistol began its turbulent history. Shady individuals, who are named in
the criminal file, sold and resold it, exchanged it for rugs and rings, for
stolen earings and . . .bags of feathers! In a drunken fight the pistol
killed a hardened criminal nicknamed Zaika, and still later the pistol was
used to pay for the wedding expenses of another crook.
About a year later the weapon reached Yurchenko. Hundreds of kilometers from
the clothing warehouse from which it was stolen, a shot rang out in the morning
sun on the porch of a little house and Pavel -- a hard-working and vigorous
man and the father of three children -- was the victum of the last crime in
the sequence which was begun by the careless attitude of a number of officials
toward the performance of their immediate service duties.
At a certain time fear of possible exposure began to torment Veretennikov
more and more. And when the investigation, following the entire travels of
the stolen weapon in reverse order, finally led to the unhappy warehouse,
he was ready to end it and confessed to the crime at the very first interro-
gation. But he was not brave enough to himself go to the military procurator's
office and tell everything. Yet if he had done so, the time saved would
certainly had enabled law enforcement agencies to prevent Yurchenko's crime.
But bravery was a quality that was far from the decadent character that was
the warehouse manager. And the murder committed using the pistol stolen by
Veretennikov was an additional factor in determining his guilt.
The investigation identified all the participants in the crime and they all
received their just deserts. At the same time the circumstances that fostered
commission of the crime were clarified. Based on the report of the military
procurator's office, several officials were punished for a careless attitude
toward their service duties and the officers in charge of the warehouse were
discharged from the Armed Forces. Proper order was re-established at the
warehouse.
This is certainly a lawful result. But as we close the last chapter of this
criminal file, we think not only of the inevitability of punishment and the
triumph of justice. There is also a bitter taste remaining: what a great
price was paid to learn once again something that we all know is true: nothing
is trivial with respect to insuring the storage of weapons, and any deviation
from the established rules here threatens grave consequences!
"I, a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, upon
entering the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces take this oath and
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solumnly swear to be an honest, courageous, disciplined, and
vigilant fighting man and to strictly perserve military and
state secrets" -_ from the military oath,
Vigilance is our weapon. This popular saying takes on real meaning for every-
one who joins the military, From this day forward the defense of our Homeland
depends to a significant degree on him personally. As a rule young fighting
men, when taking, the oath., are deeply aware of the significance of the words
quoted above. They also understand that with the development of military
affairs and the improvement of weapons and combat equipment, the requirements
for the moral and fighting qualities of the defenders of the Homeland are
rising.
Among the most important qualities of a serviceman, the ability to keep infor-
mation entrusted to him which is a military or state secret is becoming more
and more important. This is natural. After all, in recent years there has
been an enormous increase in the amount of information that is available even
to rank-and-file fighting men and is of interest to our enemies. At the same
time, specialized equipment sometimes enables the intelligence agencies. of
the imperialist countries to draw far-reaching conclusions from the simple
mention of a particular model of weapon or the structure or missions of a
subunit. Therefore, it is extremely important not only to avoid all unneces-
sary talk about the military service, but also to be vigilant in even the
most seemingly harmless situations.
I will now tell one old story. Possibly it will even seem naive to some,
because it has no ultramodern methods of getting the information that
interests enemy agents. But in my opinion, this story continues to be
instructive precisely because it enables us to see that something important
to the enemy can be put together from scattered bits of information -- bits
which definite people by their own foolishness did not protect.
Thus, a spy sat in front of the investigator. He had been caught red-handed
as he tried to photograph a military site. There was no point in keeping
silent, so he told them everything he knew. But let us deal with just one
part of this story, how he found his way to this site, which is reliably
concealed from outsiders.
. . .Before being called up into the army Viktor was a student at a pedagog-
ical institute and lived in the oblast center. His parents regularly subsi-
dized him, and never refused him anything, Perhaps that is why he had such
trouble getting used to military service. For one reason or another the
young soldier did not establish contact with his comrades, and instead of
dealing with them wrote letters to his own friends. However, he soon found
that even the letters of a girl he had known very well were becoming colder.
Then in one of them she wrote that some friends who were visiting her saw the
postmark on the letter "Military mail. Free of charge." They laughed and
said, "Hey, your Viktor is poor. He can't even buy a stamp;" "What idiots!"
Viktor thought. "They don't even understand simple things." Nonetheless,
he tried to spare his friend the occasion for new jokes. He arranged with
the mail clerk so that his letters would not be officially stamped and then,
sticking on a stamp, he would put them in the mailbox at the city post office.
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But the stamps did not help. The correspondence soon ended. The girl., as
she later explained, got tired of his long-distance complaining and Viktor's
letter were thrown in the wastebasket. I would like to believe that there
was nothing in those letters that should not have been public information.
But even without that they did carry some information for the person who
collected them at the city dump: the return address gave the number of the
military unit, and the cancellation marking of the city communications
division from which the letter was sent could be clearly seen on the stamp.
Because there was a whole packet of these letters, it was not difficult to
conclude that this-particular unit was located in this very city or somewhere
near by.
People came to this small city for ,many different reasons. Construction
workers, geologists, railroad specialists, and fur farmers came. Military
people appeared on the streets also, but very rarely. It was late in the
fall when an elderly man stopped at the local hotel. By all appearances
he was on vacation, a tourist.. He went around to the museums and exhibitions,
did not miss a single store, and ate at the restaurant at the railroad
terminal. Each day he bought a whole pack of newspapers; he took everything
they had, but he would frown when KRASNAYA ZVEZDA was late. He appeared
possibly to be an old soldier, because one time he asked the kiosk clerk to
get the district newspaper for him also. Possibly the elderly man was look-
ing for his former comrades-in-arms? But no one noticed him talking with
military servicemen.
Although they did not, he once met two soldiers at the entrance to the
terminal lunchroom. In line they also turned up next to him. The soldiers
were arguing. One suggested having a big meal, but the other objected that
after eating he always felt sick in the helicopter. "Just 20 minutes of
flying," he added, "and I still feel all upset. It's better to go to the
movies."
"You absolutely should go to the movies, fellows," the man advised. "A
Bulgarian detective movie is on. What is it about? I don't want to reveal
the plot ahead of time."
While exchanging these phrases the three of them were sitting at one table.
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of vodka. But both
soldiers firmly refused to "celebrate" this meeting with a "former front-line
soldier," as their chance table companion introduced himself. Indeed, the
entire conversation somehow broke off immediately. The soldiers ate quickly
and, to the disappointment of the elderly man, left.
But this brief acquantance was not entirely unproductive. When he returned
to the hotel the man opened up a map of the region around the city, put
the point of a compass on the mark designating the local airport and drew a
circle. The hole from the compass point remained on the map which was
submitted to the court as material evidence. Twenty minutes after leaving
the airport a helicopter would have to land somewhere in the region designated
on the map by this circle. Of course, helicopters on regular runs would
hardly land in the place that interested him, but one of them might fly near
it.
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Our stranger spent several days at the airport and in the air, buying tickets
for flights in various directions. Pressed against the window of the cabin,
he would observe the landscape stretching below without stopping, and in the
communities where they landed he would look for people in military uniform.
And he managed to see some of the things he needed: in one place soldiers
were pulling out a stuck vehicle, while in another they were buying cigarettis
at the rural store. The man did not talk with. any of them, but the range of
his search was markedly narrowed. Finally he turned up along an unpaved road,
now and then holding out his thumb to passing vehicles. One of them stopped.
Anatoliy, for he was the man behind the wheel, was not considered a top
driver in the subunit. He had no conserved fuel to his credit. After a trip
he might not wash his vehicle if a special order to do so was not given. Why
wash it, he would reason, if it is going to get dirty again tomorrow. But
he drove his ZIL with spirit; he had been a taxi driver before being drafted.
"That was some job!" he told his unexpected traveling companion. "You could
always take four or five, and sometimes even .10 rubles for yourself in a day!"
"Five rubles is good money," the other agreed.
"I'll tell you what," Anatoliy continued. "They say if you can conserve fuel,
you will get a leave. But how can you do it, conserve fuel, when you just go
back and forth, five kilometers there and five kilometers back. You can't
get up any speed."
"Yes, you can't conserve fuel on these roads," his companion agreed. But the
soldier objected:
"I'm not talking about roads. We have good roads too! Asphalt-concrete. But
the trips are short. You just get the motor going, and you have to shut it
off. Of course, there is Nikolay, he is my friend, He gets to go to the
city for meat or fish, 150 kilometers round trip. Now there is a chance for
conservation. But they don't let everybody drive the refrigerator truck!"
The vehicle stopped.
"We're here," the soldier said. "Your village."
"I'm glad you didn't pass it."
"You can't go further anyway. They don't let outsiders into our place," the
driver said with a cunning look and winked significantly.
It would have been foolish to walk after the vehicle; probably it would lead
directly to a checkpoint. But in order to go around it, one would have to
know the direction to travel. Therefore, the man only memorized the number
of the disappearing vehicle. It was not like those used in city transporta-
tion, and therefore it would not be hard to recognize the refrigerator truck
which came from the garrison to the city.
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The stranger returned to the city and began standing watch by the gates of the
meat combine. Finally he saw what he was waiting for.
Returning to the unit, the driver of the refrigerator truck was already well
beyond the outskirts of the city when he saw a man with his hand raised on the
shoulder of the road. His other arm was in a sling and bandaged. The truck
stopped.
"Give me a ride," the man asked. "I'm not going far. I thought I could walk,
but my arm started to hurt."
The driver was not talkative, and it seemed that the passenger dozed off. The
truck hit a pothole and lurched, and the man woke up and leaned against the
back panel. He felt under his fingers a postcard showing a coastal city.
"Careful that you don't crash," the passenger warned, and held the postcard up
against the windshield, turning it over. Yes, the number of the military unit
was the very one that interested him. Then the elderly man again dozed off.
He woke up when the driver touched him and said it was time to get out.
When the man was left alone on the road, he took a map of the area out of his
pocket. On it the route traveled earlier in Anatoliy's truck was marked. Then
the site had been northeast from them. But today the refrigerator truck had
gone off to the northwest. The man drew this route in also. The lines on the
map intersected at a place in the forest beyond some swampy areas. The man
left the road and moved determinedly- toward the desired point from a third
direction, where there were no roads and there was less likelihood of running
into a checkpoint.
Right at the edge of the woods he had to take cover in the bushes. A formation
of soldiers with weapons and targets was marching along a dirt road. They must
be going to a firing range. Sneaking along behind the formation, the man in
fact reached the firing range and waited until the training period was over.
Then he came down off the embankment that surrounded the range and carefully
searched everything there, stooping over to pick up each piece of paper and
hiding some in his pockets.
An.hour later he could quietly study his findings. And here is what attracted
his attention. A fragment of a combat sheet he had found talked about the
successes of fighting men in different military specializations. The presence
of several specialists indicated both the type of subunit and its size. A
crumpled draft of an evaluation report gave him the last name of the platoon
leader, as well as his initials. And a sheet of notebook paper covered with
numbers still needed to be studied specially.
Well, not a bad "catch," the stranger decided as he headed back. On one of the
following days he decided to return to this place, and brought his camera. That
is when he was arrested.
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The final line of this entire story had already been written. The investiga-
tion established that neither Viktor, who out of false shame sent his letters
in violation of the regulations., nor Anatoliy, who took an outsider into a
military vehicle, nor the other participants in the events even thought of
giving out information about the unit in which they served. But without
thinking they spread around bits of information known to them which enabled
the spy to identify the location of a military. site. He listened carefully
to every word on the street, on the train, and in the movie theater; he
captured seemingly harmless phrases, and compared and analyzed scattered frag-
ments of talk. The lack of internal discipline, carelessness, and lack of
circumspection of certain-military servicemen was very helpful to him.
So we see that vigilance is not just the ability to hold your tongue when the
question of information containing military or state secrets is being discussed.
In our story no one formally spoke of forbidden things, but nonetheless the
enemy turned up in the immediate vacinity of the site. And how often people
do not attach significance to things that are much more important than informa-
tion about the type of transportation by which they get to the subunit. Some-
times a customer at a civilian public catering enterprise considers it possible
to leave the complete address of the unit or institution where he serves in
the comment book. Sometimes a soldier on leave tells his traveling companions
in the railroad car all the details of why he won the right to travel home.
And sometimes more serious "revelations" can be heard from a tipsy customer at
a restaurant.
Sometimes carelessness is also a result of incomplete work by officials.
. . . The bus was crowded and noisy,, as usual after a working day. But in
the front of the bus one voice especially rang out. It was a young man who
was telling his traveling companion that he had been working at a military
enterprise for a year now and that he liked repairing combat equipment (here
he listed the makes of vehicles) very much.
"Young man," a citizen standing near him said, "this is not the place for such
conversations."
"So what?" the young man said in surprise.
This "So what?" stood out later too, during the preliminary investigation
conducted at the repair enterprise. Fortunately for the young fellow, the
incident in the bus ended favorably. The investigator did not find that he
had divulged a military secret in his statements. But what might have
happened if the outside comrade had not intervened them?
Someone might say, how would the young worker know what he can and cannot talk
about? It turns out that he was cautioned about this when he was hired, but
in his own .las he considered this warning a simple formality and did not
attach importance to it.
"But you took a sworn oath."
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"I did?" the young man's eyes showed amazement, "No, I did not,"
In fact, the young an was right, It appears that the administration also
considered the document a formality and simply forgot about it, It is a -very
unusual case, but illustrates the attitude of some officials :toward the legal
requirement that all citizens who go to work in units, institutions, and
establishments of the USSR Armed Forces as civilian workers and employees
must take a solumn and sworn promise, regardless of whether they have served
in.the Armed Forces earlier or not,
The text of the promise and the procedure for giving it are established by an
Ukase of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. Each line of it is
permeated with concern for strengthening the defense capability of our Home-
land. It contains the following words also: "I solemnly swear that I will
rigorously preserve military and state secrets." And of course, if the young
worker from the repair enterprise had thought about these words he would not
have made the mistakes he made in the conversation on the bus.
But the first thing that is necessary if every person is really to think deeply
about the text of the solemn and sworn promise is to rigorously observe the
procedures for administering the promise. As soon as notice of hiring is
received the command of the unit or administration of the enterprise must
inform the future employee of the need to sign this important document. The
time for this is set at not earlier than one month and not later than two
months after the person goes to work. It is considered that by this time the
new employee will already have mastered his service obligations well and will
be instilled with a sense of responsibility for conscientious performance of
them. The text of the promise is read aloud in the presence of other persons
who have been hired, and then the person who is making the promise signs
a special document in his own hand. At the same time a note is made in his
labor booklet:"Solemn and sworn promise given (date, month, year)." This
action in fact completes the procedure for acceptance on the job, because the
refusal of a person being voluntarily hired for service at units, institutions,
and establishments of the Armed Forces to give the promise makes it impossible
for the administration to use his services further.
As we see, our laws do not only impose on us an obligation to keep military
and state secrets. They in a way insure us against a thoughtless step by
precisely regulating the procedures which authorize a person to receive such
information. Unfortunately, some people do not understand the importance of
the established procedure. Whereas men drafted for military service always
take the military oath precisely according to the regulations (not later than
one and one-half months from arrival in the unit after mastering the young
soldier or seaman's program) and it is usually in a ceremonial situation,
with civilian workers and employees. in the same units the solemn and sworn
promise is sometimes taken at times that violate the established procedure.
The text is not always read aloud to them, and sometimes all they. do is give
them the document to sign, believing that its content is common knowledge.
In a number of place this event takes place on the first day that the person
goes to work, when many aspects of the upcoming activity are still not clear,
Sometimes commanding officers and leaders do not participate in this important
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measure, Records of it in the labor booklet are careless or incorrect. Need-
less to say, all these things diminish the indoctrination significance of the
solemn and sworn promise,
Another thing that persons who have access to ;military or state secrets and
to information that cannot be divulged must know is this; our law tries to
stop the divulging of secrets in the earliest possible stages of this offense.
Criminal responsibility can ensue not only where the secret has become known
to the enemy, but also when preconditions for this were created, that is,
when a person responsible for keeping a secret has given outsiders access to
it or, even if he has not given access, has by a -violation of established
rules offered an objective opportunity for such persons to become familiar
with. secret information. For example, if someone were to write information
taken from a secret document in his personal notebook, there is no guarantee
that this notebook would not fall into alien hands.
Another effective way to prevent this kind of offense alongside explanatory
work is use of the disciplinary rights given to commanding officers. Suppose
that a serviceman has reported to an outsider that his unit is going to travel
to an exercise or that some other important event in the life of the unit will
take place. Possibly this information does not contain a military secret
(exercises can be very different). But the behavior of the person who divulged
this information cannot help but put the commanding officer on guard. It is a
shame that disciplinary measures are not always-taken in such cases; even in
the service records of flagrant blabbermouths I have not seen records of punish-
ment for lowering vigilance. Certainly this kind of indifference by certain
leaders can result in serious offenses by their subordinates.
Our country has been living at peace for many years now. But as we see, this
does not at all mean that our enemies have given up their aggressive intentions
relative to the Soviet State or their attempts to undermine its defensive might.
They appropriate a great deal of money for this purpose and to organize espio-
nage. The interests of defending the Homeland obligate us to always be on
guard and to maintain vigilance at the highest level.
Chapter 3. Out of the Duty to Do Justice
"The Soviet State and all its organs operate on the basis of
socialist legality and insure the protection of law and order,
the interests of society, and the rights and freedorr.s of
citizens" -- from Article 4 of the USSR Constitution
Comrade Commanding Officer
"The commanding officer (leader) must operate independently
within. the authority given to him, demand that his subordin-
ates comply with the USSR Constitution and Soviet laws and
fulfill the military regulations and their service duties
and orders precisely and promptly, encourage subordinates
for intelligent initiative, diligence, heroic actions, and
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distinction in the service, and hold those who are not diligent
strictly accountable'" -_ Article 52 of the internal Service
Regulations of the USSR Armed Forces
The brass of the band were playing. The Battle Colors waved against the back-
ground of the autumn sky. Stepping sharply, the men of the regiment passed
'before their commanding officer. On his left stood the men who had already
performed the honorable duty of a Soviet citizen and, having completed their
regular term of active military duty, would in a few minutes receive the
documents on discharge into the reserve. Among them were Sergeants Butin and
Areshidze, Privates Izmaylov and Naksudov, and their comrades. The faces of
the men showed joy and sadness, pride, and a certain uneasiness -- the full
range of feelings which people experience when they have completed one impor-
tant stage of their life and are entering another.
I glanced at Colonel Semak and saw that Vladimir Iosifovich was also moved. At
the same time his whole appearance expressed a restrained satisfaction with
the results of his labor. I should add it was justified satisfaction. The
commanding officer was able to see that this year too the regiment kept the
title of leader in socialist competition. The subunits never receive evalua-
tions below "good". There is more: the officers had brought every single
soldier and sergeant who came to them two years earlier through to today's
solemn parting, and they brought them through matured, physically and mentally
stronger, and ready to perform important missions.
This could not have been easy when combat weapons and complicated machinery
were in the hands of such fuzzy-cheeked young fellows. When sometimes it was
necessary to work with them not only on the field of battle (training battle
of course), but also to participate with them in controlling natural disasters
(forest fires and land and rock slides, which are ordinary phenomena there).
When, finally, at first some of them were not yet used to an orderly way . . .
It is not hard for me to imagine, for example, what Vladimir losifovich went
through on a certain night, already long before the present ceremony. When-he
picked up the telephone, of course, he had an idea what the reaction on the
other end of the line would be to his disturbing report. I should think so.
His subordinate had violated the oath, left the regiment without leave, and
traveled home to arrange his personal affairs. What leader would not be upset
by such news? "Did you know that this might happen?" the colonel could already
hear the blunt question. He would answer, yes he had not considered it
impossible. A few days earlier the soldier had received a letter from the
girl he considered his fiance; she had married someone else. You could sense
from everything that his youthful extremism and hot temper might play a dirty
trick on the young man. "'Then why did you permit it?" They tried to prevent
it. They talked with him, explained that nothing could be changed now and
only time would put everything in its place, "Its obvious that more than talk
was needed." But you cannot lead an adult person by the hand!' Ultimately,
he himself must understand the degree of his responsibility for his actions.
And they had done everything they could in the regiment to make him understand.
However, this imagined conversation never took place, After he gave his re-
port there was a long pause. Then the general drily ordered that they proceed
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as is proper in such cases -- begin a preliminary investigation and inform the
military procurator. And Colone.l.$emak.was left alone with. his unstated words
about what they had done in the regiment so that each serviceman would become
permeated with a high sense of responsibility and measure his every action
against the measure of .military duty and the norms of the regulations and law.
But did they do everything?
While still in his young days as a lieutenant Vladimir Ios-ifovich came to the
idea that in order to answer this question affirmatively a commanding officer
must indoctrinate his subordinates in three interrelated areas: political, moral,
and professional. Not everything came out right; the young officer was not
able to achieve all the fine points. Then in 1975 he read with great satis-
faction the new line in the Internal Service Regulations concerning the duties
of a commanding officer (leader): "He must engage in political, legal, and
military indoctrination of personnel on a daily basis." Indeed, from that
time onward a third area of work with the. men was added to the two recognized
officially. The third area was legal indoctrination, which supplements and
deepens the process of shaping the politically mature personality of the
Soviet citizen-fighting man.
What did regimental commander Semak do in this respect? Together with the
political workers and party organization he took care to improve propaganda
for Soviet laws and the military regulations. Each company has a study corner
for legal knowledge. The club sponsors a series of morning movies and evening
question and answer meetings. There are special training periods for sergeants,
warrant officers, and officers. Movies and television and radio broadcasts
concerned with legal and ethical questions are discussed regularly in the
subunits and there are selections of literature and clippings from newspapers
and magazines. Military lawyers speak to the heads of political training
groups and officers who conduct training periods in the regulations. We
should note particularly that measures related to legal indoctrination are
worked out for each period of training within the framework of planning party
political work, and these measures are conducted jointly with military lawyers
of the garrison. The military procurator's office even made a joke on this
subject once:
"If all commanding officers gave us such frequent invitations, they would not
have to come to us without invitations nearly so often."
However, as Vladimir Iosifovich correctly believes, legal propaganda will only
be effective when it is reinforced by everyday work to maintain regulation
order in the regiment and by all personnel acting strictly within the frame-
work of the law. The soldier should see that the regulations are not only
proclaimed, but also carried out by everyone at all times. Therefore the
commanding officer applied the rule -- act only in the proper manner -- to
himself first of all. During my talk with him, I recall, a major came in the
office: a fishing trip was being organized on Sunday, and he wanted the colonel
to sign the trip log for the vehicle to be used.
"There has to be a report by the chairman of the hunting collective on this,
the colonel said, returning the paper to the major unsigned. "And then, based
on the report, have the chief of staff include the vehicle trip in a order. I
will sign it."
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In 10 minutes everything was done, But just by the fact that the major appeared
more collected in the office and the tone in which.he spoke of the upcoming trip,
I could sense. that this small lesson in a responsible attitude toward the work
had made its mark on him,
Colonel Semak demands similar high standards of every officer, warrant officer,
and sergeant in relation to everything that concerns regulation organization
of the work and everyday life of subordinates-.
. Senior Lieutenant Markhabulin, arriving at the company, was once pleasantly
surprised.. It was still early morning, but the orderlies had already managed
to put the barracks in order. Company orderly Sergeant Dudnik explained that
the orderlies, of course, could never. have managed it in such a time. Therefore
they had to wake up two soldiers before reveille, and they had helped.
"The officer evaluated the sergeant's action as an abuse of service position,
an arbitrary action," Colonel Semak told me, "And isn't it from such 'minor
things' that disrespect for the individual soldiers sometimes begins, and later
what we call nonregulation mutual relations among, servicemen develop? There-
fore Sergeant Dudnik was punished. The company commander pointed out what had
happened to all the sergeants, and we also talked about it at a regimental
meeting of junior command personnel."
Yes, he did a great deal to see that his subordinates deeply understood the
state significance of military service. This made it that much harder to
answer the question "Why?" on that night when it became known that the soldier
had left to see his former fiance. Why had all his work and that of the other
indoctrinators proved ineffective when confronted with a real-life situation?
Or perhaps there are no formulas for all cases in life? But he could not agree
with such a statement.
It appears that he did not even sleep that night. His thoughts about his
failure as an indoctrinator were interrupted by an early-morning telephone call;
apparently, new input. But the tone of voice in which the regimental duty
officer addressed him was somehow too unusual. Vladimir Iosifovich did not
immediately understand what was being reported.
"He returned, comrade colonel! He turned around in mid-trip. At the station
he called on the militia to help him get back to the regiment quickly, before
24 hours was up. He is here now, with me."
I saw this young man too in the formation of those on the colonel's left when
their fellow servicemen marched before them. The brass of the band were play-
ing. The soldiers and sergeants who had honestly performed their duty were
saying goodbye to their native regiment. For them this was the conclusion of
a large and important stage in their lives, But for the colonel? It was his
ordinary work.
Indeed, no matter how moving this story may have been for me, for example, to
the commanding. officer it and dozens of others like it are just ordinary events.
Every day he decides so many different questions that it is useless to even
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try to write them down (I tried once). It seems to me that it is even more
important for a person in such a, position not to lose his sense.of self-
criticism in evaluating his own capabilities and to always remember the purpose
for which. such broad power was given,
. . . We listen to a mother's words with special attention, And one could
not help being sympathetic in this case; Yelizaveta Arkhipovna was getting up
in years, but she lived all by herself, She appeared to have everything, her
own little house, a garden next to it, and a pension, but this abundance did
not make her happy when her son was far away. Yelizaveta Arkhipovna's only
son was an officer, a captain, In fact he was stationed far from his home, and
he liked his work. Understanding his mother '-s attitude, he wrote that she
should move to where he was. The commanding officer, he said, promised she
could have an apartment in a new building. But the elderly woman was not
tempted by this prospect, and in fact complained of the callousness of the
commanding officer and other leaders. Why could they not, she thought, do the
opposite and transfer her son closer to home. After all, there were service-
men stationed in the rayon center.
I will observe that we do not have to explain such matters frequently, but it
still happens. It makes-me want to ask the persons who write such complaints
whether they looked into what a commanding officer can and cannot do before
they wrote the complaint.
Of course, the range of a commanding officer's authority is very broad, for
he is given all the rights necessary to insure the combat and political train-
ing of his subordinates and to maintain the combat weapons and equipment in
readiness. He is responsible for heat in the barracks, for nourishing rations,
and for promotion of his subordinates in the service and their comprehensive
development. I have visited the post where Yelizaveta Arkhipovna's son serves,
and I know the housing problems they had there. But the commanding officer
promised the captain an apartment in a new building. He can do this, and is
even obligated to, because his position also requires him to look after the
living arrangements of his subordinates. The only thing is, as we have already
had occasion to say in this book, that all the commanding officer's rights and
capacites are directed to a single, definite goal: to keep the subunit, unit,
or ship entrusted to the commanding officer in constant combat readiness. But
where matters are unrelated to this objective the commanding officer is just
another citizen like each of us. And for this reason he could not answer
Yelizaveta Arkhipovna's request in the way she wanted.
One time while I was in the office of the commanding officer of a certain
regiment a man on crutches came in. The commanding officer immediately
recognized him as a well known war veteran of the town who lived next to the
regiment's location. It was apparent that they had already talked earlier,
because the commanding officer said he was sorry for his forgetfulness and
summoned the secretary Komsomol committee by telephone, Before he arrived the
veteran observed with a smile:
"Its just a simple matter, Konstantin Ivanovich, Why get everybody up? Just
give the order to two soldiers, and they will handle things easily."
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"I know," the regimental commander said. "But the thing is, Petr Danilovich,
I cannot order them to do that, It is not part of their duties. We will do
everything on a sponsorship basis, And the Komsomol secretary is the moving
force in that matter. He will talk with. the men and organize everything."
I was interested to observe the veteran's face. He understood that he had
suggested an incorrect step to the commanding officer, and it was apparent
that the fact that the regimental commander refused it made the veteran
respect him even more.
Yes, every decision by the commanding officer should be conditioned on the
missions facing the subunit, unit, and Armed Forces. Concerning these missions
Article 31 of the USSR Constitution states: "The USSR Armed Forces are formed
and the universal military obligation is instituted for the purposes of
defending the gains of socialism, the peaceful labor of the Soviet people,
and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state." And what is out-
side the limits of this article cannot be considered-military duty, and
therefore it cannot be the subject of a commanding officer's decision.
On the other hand, within the limits of his authority the commanding officer
is truly powerful. What other official position gives one the right to order
another person to get up and go into mortal danger? The commanding officer
is given this right, the right to send the men into an attack.
. . . Serious fires were burning in the woods around the location of the N.
military unit during that dry summer. The commanding officer of the combat
engineer company was ordered to join the fight against the natural disaster.
The fighting men with their powerful machinery crossed a broad wheat field
to reach the river beyond which the smoking forest began -- they stopped.
The little bridge over the river looked very unreliable. But next to it
stood a cowshed built of logs. The company commander ordered that part of
the cowshed be taken apart and the logs used to reinforce the bridge. This
was done. The men successfully moved their machinery to the other bank and
began fighting the fire. The assignment was fulfilled and the fire was
brought under control. And I have to mention that the commanding officer of
the combat engineer company, when making his decision, intended to restore the
cowshed after performing the primary mission. But he was not able to do this,
because the company was transferred to another area.
"What are we going to do?" the director of the sovkhoz whose property was
damaged by the combat engineers asked a legal consultant.
"Nothing, Pavel Andreyevich," the lawyer answered. "We will repair the cow-
shed ourselves, and write the losses off as a natural disaster."
"But is that permitted? Maybe we can go to court and collect from those who
destroyed it?"
"Well, the army never lets things disappear needlessly, They can help us on
a sponsorship basis," the lawyer explained. "But the court, Pavel Andreyevich,
is no help here. The commanding officer was operating, as we say, under
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conditions of extreme necessity. This means, that to save something important
and valuable you can sacrifice little things.''
"You think the cowshed is a little thing!"
"After all, the forest was burning,"
That is where it ended. It is true that later the commander of the combat
engineer company wrote a letter to the sovkhoz director. He apologized and
advised him where to go for help, I had a chance to read the director's
answer: "I do not think there is anything to apologize for. During the war
three soldiers took apart houses in our town to get their tanks-through a
swamp. The soldiers did not say thank you, it was the inhabitants who thanked
their liberators for the fact that they drove the Nazi scum away."
As we see, in this case the law was ready to protect even the order of a commander
who inflicted a certain damage on a state enterprise, because the order itself
protected higher state interests. But for subordinates any order by the command-
ing officer is law. It.must be carried out without question, exactly and on
time. The authority of the order is protected by a whole series of legal norms.
For example, if a serviceman who is carrying out an order receives a new order
from a different., higher-ranking superior and the new order prevents him from
carrying out the first, he must immediately report this and if the senior
officer confirms the new order, he must carry it out. But the senior officer
who has given the new order must notify the one who gave the first order of
this.
The law is very strict with those who do.not obey the demands of leaders and
deliberately or out of thoughtlessness do not carry out their orders. In a
case of flagrant disobedience or resistance by a subordinate, the commanding
officer or superior is obligated to take all possible steps to restore order,
going so far as to arrest the guilty person and bring him to criminal account-
ability. In a combat situation, in exceptional cases that do not tolerate any
delay, and in peacetime when the actions of the person who is disobeying are
plainly directed at treason against the Homeland or disrupting a combat mission
or create a real threat to the life of the commanding officer, leader, and
other servicemen or civilians, weapons may also be used. Every serviceman
must assist the commanding officer (leader) to restore military discipline and
order. He is accountable if he evades this duty.
Our military regulations also protect the commanding officer's authority against
improper actions by senior officers. Orders are usually given by the chain of
command. Only in a case of extreme necessity can a senior officer bypass the
immediate commanding officer and give an order to a subordinate. Commanding
officers and leaders are prohibited from announcing disciplinary punishments
in the presence of their subordinates.. The senior officer does not have the
right to cancel or reduce disciplinary punishment imposed by junior officers
because it is too strict if the junior officer has not exceeded the power
granted to him. He can only substitute a stricter punishment if he finds that
the punishment imposed is not appropriate to the gravity of the offense
committed..
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Failure to comply with all these regulation requirements, and this is true of
any others too, has a negative effect on the state of military discipline and
the level of leadership of the subunit and unit,
. . . In the office of a certain company I directed.my attention to a curious
document called "Schedule of Duty Time of Officer Personnel.'" According to
this document company officers were present at reveille and at the evening
inspection. Noticing my curiosity, the company commander proudly stated that
he himself had written the schedule and that it had been done "in the interests
of further strengthening discipline in the company." I could not help but
smile. In fact, as I was told at regimental headquarters, this company had
indeed been outstanding for firm regulation order and high discipline among
its men in the past. But recently it had begun to lose ground. Just a few
days earlier, for example, Private Andreyev had gone absent without leave. As
a matter of fact, I had come to the company at this time to look for the reasons
for this turn of events.
There were many reasons. And the main one was the decline in regulation stand-
ards applied by platoon leaders to their subordinates. And the schedule
instituted by the company commander despite the regulations to some degree
promoted this.
"What do you mean,despite the regulations?!" the captain actually stood up from
his chair. "It is to further the regulation requirement,"
For the umpteenth time I had to repeat that not a single clause of a legal
document can be interpreted except as it is formulated. Article 132 of the
Internal Service Regulations clearly states that the platoon leader is
obligated "to be present periodically at reveille and evening inspection in
the platoon." Let us notice the apparent vagueness of this wording: not once
or twice a week, but "periodically" the platoon leader must spend the morning
and evening hours with his subordinates. Why is it this way? And why could
the company commander's innovation only be defined as a violation of the
regulation requirements? It is because only the platoon leader himself, who
knows his own personnel better than others, can determine when he must be in
the barracks. He can select any day to inspect and see how the sergeants
organize reveille or taps in his platoon. Why should personnel always know
this day and hour in advance? It is clear that to institute some kind of
regulation here only means to hinder indoctrination work. The case of Private
Andreyev's going AWOL is another confirmation of this.
"I could feel that he would cause trouble that evening," the leader of the
platoon where Andreyev frankly admitted to me. "I understood that my presence
in the barracks until taps itself was necessary to avoid a violation of
discipline. But you will also understand . . ."
It is not surprising that the senior lieutenant's intuition was triggered.
According to the regulations he is supposed to know a great deal about his
subordinates and, judging by everything, he knew them well. I think that
even if we cannot justify the officer's behavior on that unfortunate evening,
we can understand it. He could hardly pass on to someone else what he himself
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could do to prevent a subordinate from going AWOL. And it was really hard for
him to stay in the company until taps just because he had a bad feeling, After
all, the company commander had substituted performance of the duties of the
so-called duty officer under the schedule for his duty to be in the company in
the late and early hours periodically, that is, at his own discretion. And
then on the day before the senior lieutenant in fact spent the entire day from
reveille to taps in the company "insuring order,' but in fact replacing members
of the daily detail. The next day he was supposed to serve as head of the
garrison patrol. But when could he prepare for training periods, or simply
read a book or spend time with. his family? And so he did not go to the platoon
that night, which he now is sorry for. But he is not the only one that should
be sorry; certainly the. company commander should also feel that way because he,
out of falsely understood service interests, violated the regulations and
limited the official authority of the platoon leaders subordinate to him.
There is no question that a leader must monitor his subordinates and demand
that they fulfill regulation. duties. In every specific case he also has the
right to decide whether a particular officer should stay in the barracks. But
all this is done only within the framework of the regulations,
Because much is asked of the commanding officer, much must also be given to
him. I think that this is exactly the meaning of a whole series of norms of
the criminal law which include in the jurisdiction of the one-man commander
questions which under civilian conditions are decided only by representatives
of state authority -- the militia, procurator's office, and court.
. . . Private S. received. an unpleasant letter from home. He read it, lit up
a "papirosa" (Russian cigarette), and set off to.visit his friend from home in
the neighboring barracks. At the entrance to the barracks he was stopped by
a sergeant with the armband of company duty officer.
"Throw the 'papirosa' in the urn," the sergeant ordered.
"I'm just coming in for a minute," S. said,
"I said, throw it away, comrade soldier. No smoking is allowed in the barracks."
Private S. obeyed but he also did something he had never done before --. loudly
expressed his displeasure at this "petty nagging." The servicemen in the
smoking area near the entrance to the barracks clearly heard his words about
the "long-legged giraffe with the armband." This exhausted the incident, but
that same evening a report submitted through the chain of command by the
sergeant telling what had happened lay on the desk of the regimental commander.
The lieutenant colonel telephoned the military procurator's office and
assigned a preliminary investigation.
"Will you be the judge?" I inquired.
The commanding officer dropped his arms heavily on the desk (we were sitting
in his office) and looked at the door, ''I don't know. I don't like this story."
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Obviously no one likes such a thing. But I did not ask my question of the
commanding officer in particular without a reason. After all, in a number of
cases related to military offens-es the commanding officer has the deciding
word. This is understandable. For example, only the commanding officer can
determine exactly how much. influence particular actions by a subordinate had
on the quality of performance of combat duty or the fulfillment of its mission
by a guard detail, and how significant the consequences of a serviceman's
failure to carry out a superior's. order or his AWOL might be. This refers to
those cases when according to all legal characteristics the offense committed
can be defined as a military crime.
The incident with Private S. was: precisely such a case, This was a military
crime against the order of subordination established in the Armed Forces,
specifically a verbal insult by a subordinate of a superior in performance of
his military duties. According to Point (a) of Article 7 of the Law on
Criminal Responsibility for Military Crimes (Article 243 of the RSFSR Criminal
Code), punishment in the form of deprivation of freedom may be given for this,
as we have said. Then Point (b) of this article provides that where there are
circumstances that mitigate guilt the same action will entail use of the rules
of the Disciplinary Regulations. And it is the unit commander above all who
must figure out which of them should be applied in the particular case.
I could imagine what a difficult problem the regimental commander was deciding.
With just one stroke of his pen the fate of a young man could be turned over
to the military tribunal. On the other hand, if the commanding officer were
easy on the soldier, some might think that the law was not written for every-
one, that junior men can insult senior men and subordinates can insult superiors.
Nonetheless, Private S. was not taken to court. The commanding officer
considered it possible to apply Point (b). The military procurator agreed
with him. Leaping ahead, I will reveal that the lieutenant colonel was not
mistaken. Private S. continued to do a good job, as he had done before, and
became a rated specialist. But I remember the silence in the regimental
square when the commanding officer, an officer from the military procurator's
office, and the guilty soldier appeared before a formation.
"Private S. committed a crime; he insulted a superior during performance of
his military duties," the regimental commander said at that time. "This even-
ing a representative of the garrison military procurator's office will speak
at the club and give a detailed account of how this crime is viewed by Soviet
law and what punishment can be given for it. But in view of the fact that
until now Private S. has performed his duty conscientiously, that he sincerely
regrets his misdeed, and that he has apologized to the sergeant who is
satisfied. with this, and in light of other mitigating circumstances, I have
decided," here the lieutenant colonel paused as if measuring his decision for
the last time, "not to turn the case over to the military tribunal. But for
a flagrant violation of military discipline I announce a disciplinary punish"
ment of Private S. -- five days under arrest kept in the guardhouse. At the
same time I expect that the collective and the Komsomol organization of the
company will also give principled evaluations of this incident."
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One can imagine the impression which. his words made on the men standing in
formation then. Private S., greeted them with tears of gratitude. The men saw
how great the commanding officer''s- power was and how he was, attempting to use
it in the most useful way for the work, and for the fate of each individual.
And what is stronger than a foundation based on a soldier's absolute belief
in the commanding officer's fairness,'
Colonel Justice Petelin, a military lawyer and psychologist, was talking to me
once about the truly vast indoctrination potential which the position of
commander gives. In the first place, military service begins "from zero" for
every young man; it is a new situation, a new collective, new relations, and
new assignments. It is easier to restructure a person's personality in such
a situation. In the second place, no other pedagogue has such an opportunity
to influence all aspects of the life and activity of the one being indoctrinated
as the one-man commander has. Moreover, the time of contact between the teacher
and the subordinate under conditions of military service is not limited, as is
true in other circumstances-, by classes or hours of out-of-class work, working
time in production, or visits to the place of residence. Then add on the
responsibility which is immediately placed on the shoulders of the young
soldiers or seamen, plus the need to work with the most sophisticated combat
equipment. All this in combination with a carefully thoughtout system of polit-
ical, military, moral and legal indoctrination of personnel is what creates
those objective conditions which make it possible to evaluate military service
as a school of labor and military training, moral purity, courage, patriotism,
and comradeship. And the first teacher in this school is the commanding officer.
How many remarkable teachers with a subtle knowledge of the soldier's soul have
grown up in the Soviet Armed Forces! They have at their disposal the recommenda-
tions of science and the experience of progressive practice. Directing their
efforts to shaping the conscious-willed activity of their, subordinates, they
constantly bear in mind such complex facets of the individual as feelings,
emotion, and temperament. It is impossible to get along without this today.
In work with subordinates the experienced commander must also take account of
their natural anxiety before fire exercises, the uplifting feeling after success-
ful performance of a mission, the aspiration of each individual to be victorious
in competition, and a certain fear of being laughed at in case of failure. A
knowledge of traits of the personality and temperament sometimes helps the
commanding officer lead men in ways they do not notice, which is extremely
important for indoctrination, in particular instilling the quality of obedience.
I recall a night I spent by the campfire in the platoon commanded by Senior
Lieutenant Yershov. The officer told all about his subordinates. He knew
exactly who it would be wise to send on reconnaissance, who could be a messenger
with an urgent report, who could handle the assignment on his own, and who would
be better used as part of a group. In this the senior lieutenant was naturally,
without drawing the attention of personnel, demonstrating his skill at commanding
and, I must admit, he did.not err once in the tone he used to give his orders,
or in his gestures or even his facial expressions.
The fire was burning down. The senior lieutenant softly called to a certain
soldier. In a business-like manner, very thoroughly, he explained to the
soldier that they needed dry sticks. He suggested the best place to find them,
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on the other side of a marshy meadow across the road, In short, he instructec`
the young man as if it were a highly complex mission, When the soldier set
off for the firewood, Yershov explained something that in fact was already
quite clear, that the soldier had a sluggish temperament, Unlike the energetic
type of personality, a person with this type of nerve pattern needs ''psychologi-
cal boosting" before the performance of any assignment, But if he is unsuccess-
ful, if the commander simply shakes his. head the person will be deeply aware of
his error. On the other hand, it is best to commend him for successes in.a
public situation.
"Naturally," the senior lieutenant added, "'it is necessary to work more with.
such soldiers so that by the end of their service they are just as good as
their comrades with respect to military qualities, And generally we are
successful in this. Providing, of course, that their direct superiors, the
sergeants,, also make the appropriate effort, For example, there have already
been substantial changes in the character of the soldier we were talking about.
It takes less and less time to 'boost' him up, which means that his nervious
system is becoming more and more stable."
It occurred to me then that the soldiers and sergeants were receiving very
useful education from this officer. They are given excellent preparation for
battle and other life situations where the commander does not have time to
take the individual traits of his subordinates into account and each of them
must operate at full strength without delay.
Such concern by commanding officers and superiors for subordinates and their
future is only possible in the army which , in addition to its primary
mission of reliably defending the socialist Fatherland and staying in constant
readiness to repulse any aggressor, is also performing an important social
mission -- indoctrination of the fighting man as a true citizen of his Homeland,
a patriot and internationalist, and an active builder of the communist society.
The armies of the bourgeois countries have never posed and cannot pose such a
noble objective because if a commanding officer is to be the soldier's senior
comrade and friend who thinks like him, there must be class unity among all
members of society, sharing of their ideological, political, social, and moral
viewpoints, and deep awareness by all citizens of their common responsibility
for the fate of our country.
Wearing the Insignia of Justice
"The organs of justice, the court, the procurator's office, and the
Soviet militia have a great responsibility for strengthening socialist
legality and legal order. Employees of these organs should combine
professional knowledge with civic courage., incorruptibility, and a
sense of fairness" -- from the "Materials of the 26th.CPSU Congress"
In this book we have already mentioned several. times how important it is to
show a person who is entering the military how important his military position
is to the state, no matter how-unremarkable it may seem, and how important his
service duties are, even if at first glance they seem ordinary, This is
important to maintain high combat readiness,, which. is inconceivable without
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conscious military discipline. It is also needed by the person himself who,
after going through the school of army conditioning, carries away to his
subsequent life a heightened sense of personal responsibility for assigned work
and for his every step in s.oc.iety.
Military discipline, as we know, is above all a political and moral category.
It is based on the ideological conviction of the fighting-men. Therefore, in
work to strengthen it the primary emphasis must be on ideological-political,
moral, and military. indoctrination of the servicemen and developing in them a
heightened sense of responsibility for the security of our country and the
defense of socialism.
The whole way of life of the Soviet Armed Forces and all the activities of
commanding officers, political workers, party and Komsomol organizations are
directed to performance of this important mission; instilling a heightened
sense of personal responsibility. Military lawyers also make their contribu-
tion here. I have already had numerous opportunities to show their work. But
just as you seldom encounter people with the insignia of justice on their
lapels among servicemen generally, so these episodes in our story are only
hurried brushstrokes in portraying military justice personnel. But I would
like to talk about these people in a little more detail.
In the first place, there is the military procurator. It is strange, but even
today I meet people who picture an employee of the military procurator's office
as some kind of embodiment of unflinching severity. But this notion is nothing
but a result of lack of elementary information about the everyday work of this
official.
Unflinching? Yes, that is true if we are talking about violations of socialist
legality. Severe? Yes, the military procurator cannot be otherwise with those
who by their illegal actions hinder the Armed Forces in performance of.its duty
to the people of defending the socialist Fatherland. But at the same time,
surely he is showing enormous human concern for all the citizens of our country!
And who but the military procurator will come resolutely to the defense of any
serviceman if his legal rights and interests are threatened.
. . . The young woman, her face covered in tears and her dress torn, ran into
the guard shack despite the cries of the sentry. From her disconnected words
the sergeant, head of the guard, realized that the girl and two of her friends
had been attacked by hooligans. The decision was made instantly to send two
armed soldiers not on duty at guard posts at the moment to the site of the
incident. And so, accompanied by the sobbing girl, the two soldiers found
themselves face to face with four rapists.
"Stop immediately! Let the girls go!"
In response the men threw stones at them. In the dark of the southern night
the soldiers made out a figure with. an upraised mallet. Then the hand of one
of the soldiers trembled, without thinking he pressed the trigger, and a short
round rang out . Later the soldier would say that he simply wanted to
frighten them in the interests of self-defense. But the gun went off and the
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rapist fell, wounded by an automatic round. The soldier did not even hear the
words of gratitude spoken by the girls he had saved. For the first time in his
life he had fired at a living person.
Lieutenant Colonel Justice Kryshtal', military procurator of the garrison, sent
his most experienced investigator to investigate this incident. And Major Jus-
ttice Figeyev,investigated all the circumstances as carefully as possible. His
investigation resulted in the conclusion that the criminal case against the
guard who used his weapon be stopped because the elements of a crime were not
present in his actions. The soldier did not violate anything, As a Soviet
military man should, he hurried to help citizens and stopped a vile crime by
the only means possible in that situation, On the other hand, a criminal case
was begun against the real criminals; they faced the people's court and were
given their deserved punishment.
I have also heard many good things about Major Justice Bigulov, another military
procurator. No, he has not had any situations like the one just described, But
in,fact, each time he has acted as the defender of someone's rights, and his
everyday duties have also demanded precise knowledge of the law, understanding
of the true interests of. the work, and an unflinching attitude in defense of
military legal order. Yes, an unflinching attitude. When someone somewhere
has committed a crime, everyone has the same opinion. But if the temperature
in the barracks is below the norm set by the regulations, some leaders are
capable of laying out dozens of the most telling excuses before the procurator.
This was precisely the situation that once developed in a certain subunit. The
garrison military procurator learned of it from a report which said that the
number of men in this subunit suffering from colds.was much higher than the
average. There were different ways that he could have responded to this fact.
For example, he could have picked up the telephone and called-:.the chief of
the garrison. But would have that helped; probably they would have, as the
saying goes, "talked and then forgotten it." No, Major Justice Bigulov
decided, everything had to be made right. In the end, what is the difference
between an injury received in an auto accident and a cold received in the
barracks? There is.no difference. Both have a equal impact on the health of
personnel and on combat readiness.
So there was a procurator's inspection. Based on its results the garrison
military procurator sent an official report to the senior officer. And an
appropriate response under the law was taken. The proper temperature began to be
strictly maintained in the barracks. Formerly the appropriate officials had
not taken a hand in this; they always had more important things to do. But
now. every leader, from the company first sergeant to the unit commanding
officer and chief of the garrison billeting service, seemed to take a new
attitude toward their duties with respect to protecting the health of service-
men. Each of them determined the specific measures entirely under their
charge and began to carry them out together with their other regulation duties,
not afterwards.
In the well-known movie "The Bonus," brigade leader Potapov speaks words that
are especially resounding to lawyers, He says that people start to think after
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a question is raised vividly and resolutely, Every military procurator is
obliged to raise any question related to compliance with legal norms in pre-
cisely this way. After all, his -Yuission, like the mission of any procurator,
is, as V. I. Lenin stated, "to see that a truly.uniform understanding of
legality is established everywhere in the republic, despite any local differences
and any local influences,'
I want to tell readers about another representative of Soviet justice in our
Armed Forces as well, the military court, Unfortunately, its role is not
always understood correctly, There are still people, even among regular
military personnel, who for some reason. forget that questions of indoctrination
and preventive work are parmount in the activity of the judge. Some also think
that military tribunals and military judges have some kind of exceptional power.
No, military tribunals operate strictly within the framework of uniform Soviet
law. Just as in the people's court, each. case is heard by two, people's
assessors selected from the servicemen at meetings in military collectives in
addition to the military judge. The only thing is that the military judges
themselves, because of the specific features of their work in the army and
navy, are selected not by public voting but by the Presidium of the USSR Supreme
Soviet. There is one other difference. No matter what case the military
tribunal may hear, it delivers its verdict in the name of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics.
But this lofty phrase which begins every verdict of amilitary tribunal also
has other significance. No matter how minor the offense of a fellow service-
man may seem to some in the military unit or ship, the military judges will
evaluate it from a state point of view, And this means that both the defendant
and the representatives of the military collective will have a clearer idea of
their role in defending the Fatherland and of their personal responsibility
for its security.
. . . The trial was held long ago,.but Colonel Justice Ulyanov, the repre-
sentative of the garrison military tribunal, still remembers it today. It
seems only yesterday that he and the people's assessors rose before the
hushed courtroom and announced the verdict, Afterward the commanding officer
of the battalion in which the crime was committed came up to him and said that
he had been wrong. in his earlier evaluation of the incident. Only now did he
understand the essense of the case, and it seemed to strange to him that it
took the present session of court to reveal this to him.
How different the officer was at this minute from the earlier time when he had
argued heatedly, first to the commanding officer of the.unit and then to the
military lawyers, that everything was taken care of without court., that the
guilty parties had. been punished by. his command authority and would draw
correct conclusions for themselves, So. why, he had said, did the incident
require the intervention of a military tribunal? So two hot-tempered men got
in a fight; i..:y were young fellows! They had already been told that the
military service is no.place to clarify relations in such. an unworthy manner.
As for the company orderly, he had continued, that man was not involved in the
incident at all: he was at his desk., doing his job conscientiously as always
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rvic Vrril.iHL UJr, VINLY
Yes, this trial was memorable to Colonel Justice Ul"yanoy precisely because it
so clearly revealed the inability,o,f certain servicemen to realize the state
importance of their everyday affairs and actions, Such people, for the most
part outstanding military specialists internally prepared to defend the Home-
land just like their comrades, sometimes`do not link their lofty duty with the
necessity of performing everyday obligations, which seem so simple and insignifi-
cant to them, properly. In a combat situation, they say, they would dash to the
rescue of a fellow serviceman. without thinking, but here they were saying it
was allowable to be flagrantly disrespectful. On a combat alert they would of
course be in formation on time., it appeared, but in the meantime they might
also be absent without leave. But who knows when the combat alert will sound?
On that ill-fated evening the'company orderly in fact did not take part in the
"clarification of relations" between servicemen. Following his habit which, had
developed even before he was drafted into the army, he considered himself
uninvolved in'the situation. He remained quietly at his desk (a telephone was
right there) and "did not notice" what was happening nearby. When he was
indicted, he was surprised and said, "How am I involved here?" During the
court session the military judge opened the Internal Service Regulations and
read the duties of a orderly: "Immediately report all incidents in the company
to the company duty officer." Then he read the corresponding article of the
criminal law: "Violation of regulation rules of internal service by a person
who is a member of the unit daily detail is punished by loss of freedom."
"Defendant, are you familiar with the requirements of the regulations?"
"Yes.
"
"Did you report this incident in the company to the duty officer?"
"No."
This brief dialog between the judge and the defendant seemed to open the eyes
of many people sitting in the courtroom to the commonplace truth that the
prescriptions of the law must be observed unconditionally in all cases, even
if they seem insignificant'at first glance. Perhaps some of them were surprised
to learn that sometimes all that is necessary to perform your service duty is
to pick up the telephone at the right time. And many of them looked at their
everyday work in a new way. It was then that the battalion commander we are
already familiar with realized with special sharpness that he too was to blame
for the offense committed by the orderly because he had not taught him or
monitored him. Later he went up to the judge and looked for the right words
to assure him that such a thing would never be repeated in his battalion. And
indeed, after this the only reasons that military lawyers had to go to this
battalion were to give lectures and answer questions of interest to personnel.
Leaping ahead, I want to mention that 18 months after these events when Colonel
Justice U1'yanov received a new assignment, during their parting the garrison
commander made the following remarks.
"You know, the commanding officers and political workers are still using
materials from that memorable trial for indoctrination purposes, They think
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it is useful to occasionally remind people how important their jobs are.
Incidentally, that orderly," he added, t'has already returned from the discipli-
nary battalion to his unit, He is doing a good job, We will probably consider
the months he spent there as part of his regular-term military service. The
young man received a good lesson. And he was not the only one."'
Military lawyer Ulyanov is tall and heavy, with large facial features and a
thick. head of graying hair. His voice matches his impressive appearance; dur-
ing a trial he can be heard easily without a microphone, He speaks clearly,
and his words are precisely formulated as they should be for a lawyer. He
speaks of his profession with so much respect that you can tell without any
additional questions why his oldest son has also chosen his father's speciali-
zation. And the younger one too is already showing an interest in books about
the state and law. . .
Ul'yanov himself was already a mature man when he came to military justice. It
was 15 years after Victory Day, which he celebrated in Vienna as the first
sergeant of a battery of self-propelled artillery launchers. I think that it
was precisely his considerable experience of life, at the front and later in
command and staff positions, that largely shaped his approach to reviewing the
fates of others. It is noteworthy that military judge Ul'yanov's ability to
get to the essence of the matter and reach the only correct verdict was noted
in the press at a time. when the graduate of the military law faculty had not
even finished his first year in the specialization.
I can understand Colonel Justice Ul'yanov's intolerance of every violation of
military order, for example of the two soldiers who once fought and the orderly
who did not stop the incident. In a military collective people must be bound
by the closest ties of military comradeship; only then will they be able to
handle the missions of the subunit and unit. How many times during the war
automatic rifleman and gunner Ul'yanov experienced the great strength of
soldiers friendship! How many times his friends helped him out of trouble!
And in the summer of 1943 Sergeant Ul'yanov swam across the Severnyy Donets
to an enemy-occupied bank to rescue a fellow serviceman. He still remembers
this man's name, although they had never met before and have never met since.
Military judge Ul'yanov's experience and knowledge are closely linked to his
party maturity and profound understanding of the role of judicial organs in
our society and in the Armed Forces. He considers it his party and civic duty
to strengthen socialist legality among the troops, to help commanding officers
and political workers instill respect for laws and the law in subordinates,
and to protect the legal rights and interests of military servicemen, who are
full-fledged citizens of our country.
Paging through the records of court sessions, special orders of the court and
answers received to them, informational letters to commanding officers, and
other documents, I could see that establishing the causes of each offense and
a concern for eliminating them play a very large place in the work of the
chairmen and-members of the garrison military tribunal,
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"The court finds that the coal dump has not had a fence for three years, that
coal is being delivered. by volume,.not by weight because the scale system has
not been set up, and that residue has not been removed from the dump for, five
years. Under the law, you are obligated to inform the military tribunal of
measures taken within one month's time."' (From a special order directed to
the chief of a railroad junction.)
"I report as follows: personnel. have made additional study of the rules for
handling weapons, and pamphlets have been published; the performance of guard
duty in all subunits is being monitored in conformity with regulation:- require-
ments; Lieutenant Shul'ga and. Junior Sergeant Zaprudnyy have been punished."
(From the report of a unit commander.)
To identify the causes of offenses and the conditions that fostered them means
to teach people to avoid such offenses in the future and to insure normal combat
training and service by the fighting men. Officers Kozlovtsev, Kostyuchenko,
and many other commanding officers and political workers have told me with plea-
sure about the considerable preventive work done by the chairmen and members of
the military tribunal of this garrison (and they work with different categories
of servicemen). Speeches.by military lawyers, who have been given the right
on behalf of the socialist state to judge cases and people's actions,
especially impress the audience. They talk mostly about how to defend against
criminal violations of military legal order and insure observation of socialist
legality in the army and the navy. And guilty verdicts are not the only thing
that promotes this objective.
. The sentry was accused of improper use of his weapon. The man killed,
who proved to be a hardened criminal, was discovered 24 meters from the site
being guarded. On this basis the investigation concluded that there could be
no question of an attack on the post. The sentry, they said, did not under-
stand his mission and fired at a distant passer-by, for which he should be
held responsible.
But during the court investigation the judge and assessors did not become
convinced of the defendant's guilt. On the contrary, the idea formed that the
sentry's actions were correct. So Ulvyanov, chairman of the proceedings, posed
a new question for the experts: could a person wounded in the heart have run
these 24 meters? And the conclusion of the expert commission was that, yes,
he indeed had run this distance. New witnesses were called to the court, and
one of them stated that when the shot rang out the criminal was climbing up
the fence at the site.
In the name of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the military tribunal
delivered a verdict of not guilty, thus defending both the interests of the
state and the good name of a soldier who performed his duty irreproachably.
Needless. to say, each. court proceeding. is an extraordinary event under the
conditions of our Armed Forces. The set of persuasive measures which our
commanding officers. and political workers have at their disposal and those
disciplinary rights which army and navy leaders are given are entirely suffi-
cient to indoctrinate a large majority of Soviet fighting men in a spirit
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of great personal responsibility for defense of the Homeland, But we do not
have the right to let a single instance of criminal negligence, carelessness,
or irresponsibility pass without legal action. We must, as the Communist party
demands, use all means at our disposal -- both persuasion by the word and the
stern force of the law r-- to strengthen military discipline and legal order,
without which the combat readiness of our army and navy forces cannot be main-
tained at the necessary level,
The story of those who wear the insignia of justice on their lapels would be
incomplete if we did not mention also the officers of the juridical service
(ltYuridicheskaya Sluzhba"). The range of duties of these officers, many of
whom formerly served in procurator''s offices and court positions, includes
legal monitoring of documents being published, systematization.of these
documents, delivery and contract discipline, and legal indoctrination work.
We have spoken a number of times of the serious repercussions of each legal
mistake. Of course, they are found and eliminated after a while. But is is
very important to preclude the very possibility of them occurring in an
official paper. This is the significance of the juridical service: it must
see that every decision is not only made, but even conceived in precise con-.
formity with the law and regulations,
At the Highest Level
"If a serviceman in any place discovers theft or destruction of
military property, illegal expenditure of money, abuses in troop
supply, shortcomings in the condition of equipment, or other
things that harm the USSR Armed Forces, he must report this
through the chain of command and may also send a written proposal
or statement on eliminating these shortcomings to a superior, all
the way to the USSR Minister of Defense" -- Article 110 of the
Disciplinary Regulations of the USSR Armed Forces.
"Please inform the chairman of the executive committee that this letter has
been taken under control by the Receiving Office of.the USSR Minister of
Defense. The family of the veteran needs to receive an apartment as quickly
as possible."
While the head of the Receiving Office talked on the telephone with someone in
.a distant Siberian city, I could not help comparing him with the young man
shown in the 1945 newspaper photograph. There he was among the participants
in Victory Parade on Red Square, at that time Senior Lieutenant Nikolay
Shchipanov. He had a fervent youthful look, and the star of a Hero of the
Soviet Union on his chest.
Of course, the years have left their mark. But when Nikolay Konstantinovich
talks about what he has been able to do about a certain letter that came.to
the receiving office, how problems of great state importance are sometimes
discovered behind what appear to be specific cases, his face grows younger
and under his thick, dark brows again burns that youthful fervor that was
once captured by the news photographer's lens.
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The head of the receiving office remembers hundreds of letters with their very
complex stories, the decisions. made on them, and the.names of the authors.
And yet he once complained that he confuses dates in his own family history
and forgets relatives' birthdays. I am-sure that such. selective memory is not
just a result of the specific character of his work. It is also a result of
his awareness of his great responsibility for the assigned work and, of course,
from his personality make-up, his ability to feel other people's pain more
sharply than his own.
Some inexplicable association makes me recall that the Russian word
"yustitsiya," taken from Latin, is equivalent to the native Russian
"spravedlivost'," and this makes everything that I know about this man
soldier, military lawyer, and head of an important office -- it makes all the
amazing turns of his fate organize themselves unexpectedly in a natural logical
order.
A young man with a dashing and sympathetic heart grew up in the large family
of a worker and kolkhoz member in the town of Golovchino near-Belgorod. He
modeled himself after the cinema image of Chapayev and revered his older
brother, a commanding officer in the Red. Army, His dream was to save people
from disease. In June 1941 after graduating from a 10-year school he sent
his documents to the admissions commission of the Military Medical Academy,
but it was too late for a response.
The military commissariat refused outright to send him to the front immediately
because he was not of draft age.. So he simply joined a certain military unit
passing through the town, then another, and wound up at the Tambov Cavalry
School. In December 1942 Lieutenant Shchipanov became the leader of a machine
gun platoon in a cavalry squadron. He and his machine gun wagons went through
the entire war as part of the 14th Guards Cavalry Division, ending up beyond
Berlin.
"He has shown himself to be an officer capable of maintaining high discipline
and order, able to organize battle under exceptionally difficult conditions,"
the regimental commander wrote of Shchipanov in May 1944. "Surrounded for
14 days without food or adequate ammunition, he repulsed seven enemy attacks
with the fire of medium machine guns.. Breaking through the first ring of
encirclement near the village of Mosur, he organized his system of fire so
that all enemy.attempts to split up the battle formations of the regiment
failed."
Their squadron had to cross the Oder as the division's forward detachment.
The machine gunners were the first in the squadron to move onto the unstable
ice. They reached the west bank in the darkness and there drank a full cup
of torment, repulsing about 20 counterattacks. His combat comrades were falling,
The platoon leader himself several times replaced wounded gunners on the
machine guns. Nonetheless, the squadron crossing was secured, The forward
detachment broke through. the enemy defense and raced ahead. Three machine
gunners --- Vasiliy Kaykin (posthumously), Tagay Bayramurdyyev, and Yuriy
Kardashenko and their couragous-commander officer N. Shchipanov were awarded
the title Hero of the Soviet Union for this battle,
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Nikolay Shchipanov was disabledthree times. during the war, But you cannot find
documents, about this. By hook or.by crook, the platoon leader avoided being
sent to the rear and healed on the front line.
The picture of this front-line soldier would be incomplete, however, without
these lines which were read by the chief of the receiving office in the line
of duty, but are preserved as. a reminder of the brotherhood at the front: "I
have heard that Colonel Nikolay Konstantinovich Shchipanov, Hero of the Soviet
Union, works in the receiving office of the USSR Minister of Defense. He is
my former commanding officer who shared his last crumbs of bread with us, the
soldiers, and saved us from certain death, Please convey to him my warmest
greeting, and if he is able to come and visit, I will do everything for him --
former cavalryman T. N. Mironenko.~'
What commanding officer does not dream of such evidence of the soldier's love?
It is not true that war inevitably makes the heart harder. The Great Patriotic
War, a just people's war, reinforced the former schoolboy in his best aspirations.
It is true that his youthful idea of becoming a doctor gave way to a confirmed
desire to strengthen his native army by serving in the organs of military justice.
After study at a military academy Shchipanov was appointed a military investi-
gator. He did not tell me about the treachery of evildoers, of the human
vices and weaknesses with which he, of course, met many times. On this occasion
too his memory suggested an incident that characterizes not the external aspect,
of the fight against that which interferes with our society, but rather the
clear and noble goal of this fight: a fight on behalf of people, for the triumph
of socialist legality.
A motorcycle rider was hit by an unknown vehicle on a deserted highway.
The driver of a truck who was traveling that same route at the same time was
soon arrested. Signs were found that the driver had been drinking. Then
when facing the military investigator, he simply spread his hands, admitting
that it was entirely possible that he could have hit the motorcycle rider with
his rear wheels or the body of the truck while passing. Captain Justice
Shchipanov had every reason to turn the case over to the court, but he did not
do so.
Nikolay Konstantinovich outlined an intricate figure on paper in front of me.
He had found a dent in this shape on the front-fender of the motorcycle. But
the truck did not have any part which could have made such an imprint upon
collision. The investigator began to search for this part on other vehicles.
And he found it. In addition he found the one truly at fault for the highway
accident. The serious charge against the innocent person was dismissed.
I could see that even now it pleased Shchipanov to -recall this. And at that
time the material from his investigation was presented at an all-Union confer-
ence of investigative workers as an instructive example.
Documents from that period indicate that Shchipanov did not have a single un-
solved crime, that he did a great deal of preventive work, and was an ardent
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propagandist for laws and regulations among the fighting men. This thoughtful
lawyer and principled party member was sent to the receiving office of the USSR
Minister of Defense to continue his service. And he has now-been heading this
office for several years.. On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Great October
he was given the military rank of .major general justice.
"Our party has always devoted enormous attention to work with the letters of
working people. It sees them as an inexhaustible source of new ideas and
thoughts," Nikolay Konstantinovich says. "Today the right to appeal to any
state organ has become one of the constitutional guarantees of active, creative
participation by every citizen in the affairs of society. It is our party and
service duty to understand people and see state issues in their personal requests."
. . . Citizen Vdovichenko appealed to the receiving officei-because she had not
had any news of her son for three months. Even the commanding officer of the
unit where her son was serving was silent. It was possible to-dispel the mother's
alarm in one day. "Sergeant Extended Service Vdovichenko," the unit reported,
is healthy and working well." But why had they not responded so promptly to
the mother's appeal before there was intervention from above? The chief of the
receiving office suggested that service correspondence in this particular mili-
tary district be monitored and that a report about shortcomings in this important
work be sent to the political directorate.
.Military construction worker Voronin wrote that after graduating from a school
for young specialists he found himself in a subunit where his specialization
was not needed. "Why was I trained, and state money spent on me?" he asked.
Next to a copy of this letter attached to the file I saw an impressive list of
steps that had been taken in the military districts and fleets in this connection
to use servicemen with special training more efficiently.
Then there were a series of letters about difficulties encountered by fighting
men discharged into the reserve and by officers and warrant officers upon enter-
ing the preparatory divisions of higher educational institutions. "One of the
reasons for this phenomenon," the chief of the receiving office reported through
the chain.of command, "is the imperfection of the present statute on procedures
for servicemen entering these divisions. I believe it would be wise to prepare
a new document."
"As you know, such a document was prepared," Nikolay Konstantinovich said.
"KRASNAYA ZVEZDA gave its readers detailed information about it at the time."
We followed the fate of proposals expressed by Colonel-Engineer Zimin, Captain
Slesarev, Senior Lieutenant Dyusenov, and others whose implementation promoted
a further rise in the combat readiness of units and stronger military discipline.
We recalled other documents, including some of national importance, which were
conceived from these very proposals expressed in letters. We recalled the
atmosphere of universal political enthusiasm during discussion of the USSR
Constitution. The collective of the receiving office of the USSR Minister of
Defense did a share of the work in analyzing letters and proposals on the draft
of this very important document.
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Shchipanov is very concerned that the work of the receiving office be improved
steadily, that not a single proposal that is useful for the Armed Forces go
unrealized and that not a single legal request go unsatisfied..
Our conversation was interrupted. over and over again by telephone calls and
reports by employees of the receiving office. I.guessed that the unhurried
manner in which Major General Shchipanov responded to questions and gave
instructions concealed intensive mental work and enormous responsibility for
each-decision. He does not have the right to be mistaken. It is his duty as
a fighting man and communist, his duty under the justice inherent in our Soviet
laws. . .
Even now, however, I think it is too soon-to put an end to the discussion of the
legal foundations.of military service. Law enforcement and legal indoctrination
work in the Armed Forces has significance that goes far beyond the specific
situation, no matter how important it may be in itself. The organizational
and indoctrination work of commanding officers, political workers, and other
officials in the army and navy is directed to accomplishing current missions,
but at the same time it is also directed to the future, to carrying out the
program objectives of our party in the field-of military development and insur-
ing the reliable defense of our socialist Fatherland against any aggressor.
The decisions of the Communist Party and Soviet Government underline the exceptional
importance of observance of socialist legality and strengthening discipline, order,
and organization for the successful development of our society. As far back as
December 1921 V. I. Lenin stated: "The further we go into conditions of firm and
stable power and the further the development of civil circulation proceeds, the
more urgent it becomes to advance the firm slogan of instituting greater revolu-
tionary legality." Yes, it must be that way. This is because legality and legal
order strengthen the foundations of state power, and a strong. socialist state
has been and remains the indispensable implement for building a new society and
defending and multiplying its achievements.
From the first historical decrees of Soviet power -- on peace, land and the
worker-peasant government -- the new proletarian law, unlike age-old traditions
typical of earlier state systems, began to serve working people. It became the
regulator of social relations in which (for the first time in history) class
antagonism was bound to give way to the class unity of the entire people. In
this way the law, for the first time in its existence, was finally able to
reveal its objective essence: to meet the natural need of people for rules of
communal labor and living that are understandable and fair to all.
High legal sophistication is one of the visible characteristics of the spiritual
make-up of the Soviet fighting man, who is a patriot, internationalist, and
reliable defender of his Fatherland and the cause of peace and socialism. In
the last analysis this is the objective of the work of the commanding officer,
political worker, and military lawyer who engage in legal indoctrination of
personnel and establishing a situation of socialist legality in units, on ships,
and in subunits.
Performance of this mission is made easier by the fact that our laws and mili-
tary regulations establish historical achievements of the Soviet people,
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characteristic features pf the socialist way of life, and rights and duties of
citizens following from them which are familiar to every person. The right to
work and the obligation to work conscientiously, The right to participate in
management of state and social affairs and the obligation to protect the inter-
ests of the Soviet state and strengthen its might and auth.oxity. The right to
personal integrity and the sacred duty to defend the socialist Fatherland. A
harmonious combination of the interests of each individual and all persons
together is the outstanding feature and most important strength of socialist
law. It has in fact given legal embodiment to the ancient dream of happiness,
peace, kindness, and justice. Therefore, the indoctrinator must always convince
people of the social justice, moral justification, and practical wisdom of the
norms of Soviet law and convince them that an action dictated by the law and
regulations will always be just, highly moral, and the only wise path.
The high legal sophistication of the men and precise activity by officials
foster a situation where the norms of the law and regulations are increasingly
realized by themselves, so to speak. Lawyers call this "the automatic action
of the law." Here is one example.
Once just before New Year's an apartment-dweller, trying to open a tin can with
a kitchen knife, seriously (it seemed to him) injured a guest when the knife
slipped off the top. The first aid vehicle came and, after giving help, in-
formed the militia of the incident, as is proper. Checking the documents the
inspector realized that the person at fault was a military serviceman, and
reported this to the garrison military commandant. An employee at the
commandant's office, finding evidence of a crime of carelessness in the
serviceman's actions, turned the question of his responsibility over for
decision by the military procurator. Happily, there were no unpleasant conse-
quences of this careless handling of the knife (the injury was not a dangerous
one), and the case ended with a reminder to the guilty person of the need to
be more careful. But this is what is remarkable here. Without any complaint
by the victim a number of officials became involved in the investigation of
this incident automatically and they carried out their duties to protect the
life and health of citizens precisely.
Here is one more case. A woman divorced her husband. He paid alimony correctly
and took part in raising his son, who remained with the mother. But when the
boy entered a Suvorov school the father decided that he would no longer have to
take such a considerable amount of money out of the budget of his new family.
His former wife did not object to his stopping the payment of alimony either;
after all, the son was now on full state support. And the court thought the
same way, adopting a decision which apparently suited everyone. It was only
after the court hearing, on the way home, that the woman thought bitterly:
"How easily the father has dispensed with all future concern for his son:" We
can imagine her surprise when she found out that this pain, which she had not
expressed, had been heard. A week after the hearing the woman received a notice
that the decision had been protested by the rayon procurator, then a short time
later she was informed that a new decision had been made and the former husband
would be obligated to pay 25 percent of the former alimony in the future.
That is how it should always be, in everything. The law should operate automati-
cally. Citizens should carry out all its prescriptions easily and naturally.
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This book itself has been dictated by a concern that things be this way, that
the legal consciousness of Soviet people operate in the interests of society,
in the interests of us all, in the name of strengthening our Homeland,
Once again I recall the question of a reader of the journal MIR I MY who lives
in one. of the Western countries. I have already spoken of this at the beginning
of the book. This citizen was interested to know who protects the rights of the
Soviet soldier. In one way or another.I have answered this question, which
seems strange to our understanding of the world, in each one of the preceeding
chapters. After all, in a society where there are no antagonistic class contro-
dictions, where everyone is equal regardless of social or property status,
affiliation with a particular nationality, race, or belief, in such a society
no legal relations, and this includes military relations, can infringe on the
personal dignity and legal rights and interests. of people, For each of us,
no matter where we may stand on the service ladder, is performing a part of the
common work, working for others, just as they are working for us. And this is
the essential point of the answer to the question raised by the Western reader,
I could have answered on this level earlier, of course,. without waiting for the
concluding chapter of the book. But when I was in the receiving office of the
Minister of Defense I realized that such an answer would be incomplete. When
speaking of the objective conditions of the civil equality of Soviet service-
men, we cannot forget the actual people who protect the established procedure
for performance of military service against any infringements,.and protect the
rights and liberties of the fighting men. These are the commanding officers,
political workers, and officers of the legal organs in the Soviet Armed Forces.
You have read the last chapter of this book about military law, dear reader.
Possibly it raised.more questions than it gave clear answers about practical
application of specific norms of the laws and regulations. Well, if that is
so the author can consider his job done. For doubt always serves the truth,
and aroused interest is the first step toward knowledge, especially when it is
hardly possible to tell everything about military legal relations. Each day
brings us many new situations and the most detailed reference book cannot
suggest the correct decision for each one of them. Therefore, it is much more
important to realize and feel that relations among military servicemen are
structured and should be structured according to definite principles. When
you know these principles you will certainly chose the correct path to the
planned goal.
The most important goal for us, military people, is the high fighting effective-
ness and combat readiness of the. Soviet Armed Forces. It is inconceivable to
achieve it without conscious discipline, insuring percise order in all elements
of this complex organism. On the other hand, the level of military discipline
is a derivative of all the forms and areas of indoctrination work in the army
and navy. And the key question in strengthening military discipline is to
maintain firm regulation order by means of organizational measures along with
ideological conditioning.
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USSR Minister of Defense Mar SU D. F. Ustinoy again directed our attention to
the need to continue strengthening regulation order among the troops in his
report at the 6th. all-Army meeting of secretaries of primary party organizations.
He pointed out that some people are inclined to equate this with. nothing more
than internal order in the barracks. and the outward appearance of the unit,
But this is far from the truth.. Regulation order presupposes exemplary perfor-
mance of combat duty, guard duty, and internal service. It includes precise.
organization of combat and political training and operation and maintenance of
equipment. Regulation order presupposes correct mutual relations among service-
men, rigorous observance of the daily schedule, intelligent organization of the
leisure time of personnel, and a high level of conscious internal discipline
among personnel.
When military servicemen have a correct idea of the essential requirements of
Soviet laws and military regulations this will help establish such regulation
order in each unit, ship, and subunit. It has been the author's goal to help
form such ideas.
COPYRIGHT: Voyenizdat 1983
11,176
CSO: 8044/1373
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