2RHPZ
05-15-2004, 04:40 PM
May 12, 2004
Forced conscription roils Russians
President Putin promises to phase out the draft by 2007, but
heavy-handed recruitment tactics persist.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
MOSCOW – Olga and Grigory Ossovsky lost one son in military service and
have struggled long and hard to keep their second boy out of the Army.
They blame Russia's system of universal male conscription for
devastating their family and say it's time Kremlin leaders made good on
pledges to create an all-volunteer armed force.
American politicians thinking about reinstating the draft to boost
military manpower might take a cautionary look at Russia, where it has
never ceased to be a painful and divisive issue. Though leaders here
have been promising for a decade to build a US-style professional Army,
the 1.2-million strong Russian armed forces still induct up to half a
million young men annually for compulsory two-year service, many of them
unwilling.
For some people, like the Ossovskys, conscription - even in peacetime -
is evidence that the Russian state remains fundamentally unreformed
despite the long-ago demise of the Soviet Union.
"Our leaders do not care about keeping their promises, and they are
indifferent to public opinion," says Mr. Ossovsky, a theatrical
producer. "They simply do what they want, just as they always did."
The Ossovsky's son Nikolai was drafted out of medical college in 1996.
Two months before the end of his service he died in what the Army called
a suicide. The family has never been able to clear up the facts,
Ossovsky says. The couple has managed to obtain a legal exemption for
their younger son, Stanislav, but they do not feel confident that it
will last.
Official figures show that 337 Russian soldiers suffered noncombat
deaths last year, about 35 percent of them suicides. The Soldiers'
Mothers Committee, a grass-roots antimilitary group, says the actual
number is 2,000 to 3,000 noncombat deaths each year, based on
investigation requests they get from bereaved parents.
"The Army is a dangerous and miserable place for young men," says Yulia
Smirnova, a legal counselor for the group. "People just do not want to
give their children to the generals for two years." She says the deeply
unpopular war in Chechnya is a major factor in the aversion to serving.
In recent years the number of available conscripts has plunged due to
demographic pressures and widespread draft evasion, leading military
recruiters to resort to rough measures. In Moscow there are daily
reports of lightning raids by press gangs on youth hangouts, metro
stations, even schools, to seize eligible young men.
At the Moscow headquarters of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee, the halls
are choked with boys - many accompanied by their mothers - desperately
seeking advice on how to evade the recruiters. "We are seeing
increasingly high-handed methods being used by the military
authorities," says Ms. Smirnova. "They are even scooping students, with
valid exemptions, off the streets and taking them to induction centers.
The idea is, grab them first and sort out the paperwork later."
The Defense Ministry admits that fewer than 10 percent of males ages 18
to 27 are available for service this year, down from 25 percent a decade
ago. The main reasons are an apparently disastrous decline in the health
of Russian youth and the creative use of legal deferments.
"I will try to get my son another student exemption, and if not I'll put
him into a hospital," says Galina Arsenyeva with her son, Ivan, whose
student exemption expires next month. "I will find some way to keep him
out of the Army." Sitting beside her, Ivan looks embarassed. "Some guys
are made to be soldiers, but it's not my thing," he says. "I don't want it."
Several Moscow-area recruitment officials declined to be interviewed for
this story, and a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said it could take
weeks to arrange permission to visit an induction center.
Like most Russians, Mr. Ossovsky is proud of his father's war record in
World War II. He has no complaints about his own service in the Soviet
Army in the 1970s. But, he says, "Today's Army has nothing in common
with the one that defended the country in World War II." The battle
against the Nazis was sacred for Russians, but opinions here about the
role of the military have changed.
One factor could be the decline in family size over the past century. In
the 1920s the average Russian woman had nearly seven children. By the
1980s the rate declined to less than two children per woman. "People
have far fewer children, so it's natural that they're more protective of
them," says Sergei Kazyonnov of the Institute of National Security and
Strategic Research here. He says this may be the best argument for a
professional Army. "We should create good conditions for those with the
predilection to be soldiers."
Former President Boris Yeltsin pledged in 1996 to abolish the draft by
2000. Vladimir Putin, recently reelected in a landslide, has said
conscription will be phased out, with most combat roles being carried
out by paid volunteers by 2007.
The main obstacle to change, experts say, is money. Russia's defense
budget is about $12 billion annually, hardly enough to pay salaries,
much less replace Soviet-era hardware.
Many people had hoped that the Law on Alternative Service, passed last
year, would ease the social strains of conscription by allowing
"conscientious objectors" to perform civilian work in lieu of joining
the Army. But critics say the law is too harsh, setting nearly
impossible criteria for applicants to "prove" their pacifist credentials
and then forcing them to serve three years, often as menial laborers on
military bases. Just 216 young men have been approved for alternative
service this year.
Forced conscription roils Russians
President Putin promises to phase out the draft by 2007, but
heavy-handed recruitment tactics persist.
By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
MOSCOW – Olga and Grigory Ossovsky lost one son in military service and
have struggled long and hard to keep their second boy out of the Army.
They blame Russia's system of universal male conscription for
devastating their family and say it's time Kremlin leaders made good on
pledges to create an all-volunteer armed force.
American politicians thinking about reinstating the draft to boost
military manpower might take a cautionary look at Russia, where it has
never ceased to be a painful and divisive issue. Though leaders here
have been promising for a decade to build a US-style professional Army,
the 1.2-million strong Russian armed forces still induct up to half a
million young men annually for compulsory two-year service, many of them
unwilling.
For some people, like the Ossovskys, conscription - even in peacetime -
is evidence that the Russian state remains fundamentally unreformed
despite the long-ago demise of the Soviet Union.
"Our leaders do not care about keeping their promises, and they are
indifferent to public opinion," says Mr. Ossovsky, a theatrical
producer. "They simply do what they want, just as they always did."
The Ossovsky's son Nikolai was drafted out of medical college in 1996.
Two months before the end of his service he died in what the Army called
a suicide. The family has never been able to clear up the facts,
Ossovsky says. The couple has managed to obtain a legal exemption for
their younger son, Stanislav, but they do not feel confident that it
will last.
Official figures show that 337 Russian soldiers suffered noncombat
deaths last year, about 35 percent of them suicides. The Soldiers'
Mothers Committee, a grass-roots antimilitary group, says the actual
number is 2,000 to 3,000 noncombat deaths each year, based on
investigation requests they get from bereaved parents.
"The Army is a dangerous and miserable place for young men," says Yulia
Smirnova, a legal counselor for the group. "People just do not want to
give their children to the generals for two years." She says the deeply
unpopular war in Chechnya is a major factor in the aversion to serving.
In recent years the number of available conscripts has plunged due to
demographic pressures and widespread draft evasion, leading military
recruiters to resort to rough measures. In Moscow there are daily
reports of lightning raids by press gangs on youth hangouts, metro
stations, even schools, to seize eligible young men.
At the Moscow headquarters of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee, the halls
are choked with boys - many accompanied by their mothers - desperately
seeking advice on how to evade the recruiters. "We are seeing
increasingly high-handed methods being used by the military
authorities," says Ms. Smirnova. "They are even scooping students, with
valid exemptions, off the streets and taking them to induction centers.
The idea is, grab them first and sort out the paperwork later."
The Defense Ministry admits that fewer than 10 percent of males ages 18
to 27 are available for service this year, down from 25 percent a decade
ago. The main reasons are an apparently disastrous decline in the health
of Russian youth and the creative use of legal deferments.
"I will try to get my son another student exemption, and if not I'll put
him into a hospital," says Galina Arsenyeva with her son, Ivan, whose
student exemption expires next month. "I will find some way to keep him
out of the Army." Sitting beside her, Ivan looks embarassed. "Some guys
are made to be soldiers, but it's not my thing," he says. "I don't want it."
Several Moscow-area recruitment officials declined to be interviewed for
this story, and a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said it could take
weeks to arrange permission to visit an induction center.
Like most Russians, Mr. Ossovsky is proud of his father's war record in
World War II. He has no complaints about his own service in the Soviet
Army in the 1970s. But, he says, "Today's Army has nothing in common
with the one that defended the country in World War II." The battle
against the Nazis was sacred for Russians, but opinions here about the
role of the military have changed.
One factor could be the decline in family size over the past century. In
the 1920s the average Russian woman had nearly seven children. By the
1980s the rate declined to less than two children per woman. "People
have far fewer children, so it's natural that they're more protective of
them," says Sergei Kazyonnov of the Institute of National Security and
Strategic Research here. He says this may be the best argument for a
professional Army. "We should create good conditions for those with the
predilection to be soldiers."
Former President Boris Yeltsin pledged in 1996 to abolish the draft by
2000. Vladimir Putin, recently reelected in a landslide, has said
conscription will be phased out, with most combat roles being carried
out by paid volunteers by 2007.
The main obstacle to change, experts say, is money. Russia's defense
budget is about $12 billion annually, hardly enough to pay salaries,
much less replace Soviet-era hardware.
Many people had hoped that the Law on Alternative Service, passed last
year, would ease the social strains of conscription by allowing
"conscientious objectors" to perform civilian work in lieu of joining
the Army. But critics say the law is too harsh, setting nearly
impossible criteria for applicants to "prove" their pacifist credentials
and then forcing them to serve three years, often as menial laborers on
military bases. Just 216 young men have been approved for alternative
service this year.