Caucasians in the army and the idealist Akops. Federal Lezgin national-cultural autonomy Caucasians talk about serving in the army

In the Soviet army, where, unlike the army Russian Empire, everyone was called up, Caucasians also stood out in the general army of military personnel. Some modern experts, for example, Alexander Khramchikhin, call Caucasian soldiers in the SA “representatives of problematic nationalities.” Due to the high birth rate during Soviet Union the number of Caucasians in the construction battalion, railway and motorized rifle troops grew, and fraternities were added to the usual hazing.

Today, the topic of conscripts from the Caucasus, especially from Dagestan, is more relevant than ever; it is one of the hottest and always in demand expert and journalistic topics.

If representatives of the rest of Russia avoid the army in every possible way, then for Caucasian young men service is still considered the most important element of male culture. I was surprised by one of my acquaintances, Jafar, who had just defended his diploma with “excellence” at the Moscow State Law Academy. Good prospects open up for him both in Moscow and at home, but he firmly stated that he wants to serve in the Airborne Forces. “The army is an occupation worthy of a man. I want to join the Airborne Forces because they are elite troops. “I don’t have any fears or doubts,” Jafar told me, answering my question whether the Caucasian phobia that exists in the army worries him. “They don’t like Caucasians in Moscow either, but that didn’t stop me from studying here.”

Fertility in the republics North Caucasus much higher than in the country, which, combined with the factor of perception of service as part of what is called “being a man” in the Caucasus, leads to a constant increase in the proportion of people from the Caucasus in the ranks of the Russian army.

Caucasians, as even the most skeptical military experts admit, are, as a rule, excellent soldiers; they take service more seriously than colleagues of other nationalities.

But if Caucasians form a fraternity in a unit, then the unit very quickly loses controllability and, accordingly, combat effectiveness. However, in fairness, we must remember that several years ago two Dagestani contract soldiers (Sergeant Mukhtar Suleimenov and Sergeant Abdula Kurbanov), who served in the border troops, at the cost of their lives destroyed one of the most famous leaders Chechen militants Ruslana Gelayeva.

IN lately Several conflicts on ethnic grounds erupted in the Russian army. In 2009, an incident occurred in the Baltic Fleet with the participation of Dagestani conscripts - the Dagestanis laid out the word “KAVKAZ” with the bodies of the sailors.

A year later, there was a mass brawl involving immigrants from the Caucasus in a military unit near Moscow. A similar incident happened in Perm region, where 120 military personnel from the North Caucasus republics disobeyed the order. In the military town of the village of Kryazh in the Samara region, a Dagestan demobilizer and his fellow countrymen staged a raid on the barracks of a reconnaissance company. Two dozen Caucasians beat and robbed 18 conscripts. The Muslim clergy was involved in resolving some conflicts.

The number of such episodes can be continued. It got to the point that in March, the head of the military prosecutor’s office, Sergei Fridinsky, directly stated that today “national gangs are establishing their order” in the barracks, meaning primarily soldiers from the Caucasus. And in April the military commissar Chelyabinsk region Nikolai Zakharov made a sensational statement that now people from the North Caucasus republics will not be drafted into the ranks of the Russian army in order to reduce interethnic tension in the army. At the same time, the official referred to the corresponding order from the General Staff. Although the Ministry of Defense has publicly distanced itself from Zakharov's statements, it is clear that the Chelyabinsk military commissar may have reflected echoes of what is being discussed at the top.

It would be ridiculous to deny interethnic conflicts in the Russian army. And today the question of whether the army can become an instrument that forms loyalty among conscripts from the North Caucasus has long been no longer idle, but shouting.

On the one hand, the army is a reflection of what is happening in the state. The conscripts repeat the type of attitude towards Caucasians that already exists - this is either outright Caucasophobia, or the position of “letting everything take its course.” As a result, the power vacuum is filled by compatriot communities that cultivate hazing relationships in which force replaces law.

How to integrate North Caucasian conscripts? How to restore order in the barracks? How can we return to the army the reputation of a social elevator that it had for our fathers in the 1950s and 1960s?

Muslim soldiers of the Russian army at prayer. Photo from the site http://www.islamnews.ru/news-28372.html

Moreover, after the military reform of 2008 and the reduction of military service to one year, experts predict that the main problem of hazing in the army will not be hazing, but fraternities.

This requires difficult, painstaking and tedious work, which alone can overcome the isolation of individual Dagestan, Kabardian, Ingush or Balkar units. It is clear that the topic of creating mono-ethnic Caucasian formations disappears immediately - it will generally call into question the institution of the army as a mechanism that integrates the inhabitants of one country into a single whole. Quite a lot has also been written about the danger of rebellion in such units, even those stationed far from the Caucasus.

It seems to me that two simultaneous areas of work are possible - staffing the army with professional officers and contract soldiers, as well as taking into account the peculiarities of the mentality different nations, whose representatives will serve together. The experience of the Russian Empire, with all its costs, but experience that took into account primarily the confessional (and not national) aspect, in this case would be invaluable... By the way, since the end of 2010, an innovation has been in effect in Adygea - Muslim soldiers of military units stationed in Maykop, it is allowed to visit the Cathedral Mosque in Maykop on Friday to perform collective prayer. An agreement on this was signed between the RA Muslim Spiritual Directorate and the KK and the command of these units.

Now in the top LiveJournal there is an entry with the same name - “Dougie in the Army”. A racially accurate entry that quite naturally soared to first place, because people love hot stuff about the Caucasus. The post contains photographs of natives of the North Caucasian republics and their comments in one of the groups on Odnoklassniki.
90% of photos are like this

With these comments:
When I arrived at the trial I was alone and 70 Russians they looked at me like I was an idiot after I screwed up a jar alone after that we live according to my concept, here we are, the 2nd Dags live like in paradise.

There are also photos like this

So let's talk about why everything is so interesting.

1. I did it not long ago separate article about discipline in the army ten years ago and today (). Read it carefully again.
What are the most common behaviors of Dougs™ in the military? That's right: ignoring orders, doing nothing. And if necessary, you can also strain a colleague.
Why are the Dags™ allowed to do this? Because for a long time, officers in the army have cultivated the principle of “not washing dirty linen in public.” After all, a senior commander won’t pat you on the head for “you can’t cope with some soldier.” To establish discipline, you need to put arrogant soldiers in a guardhouse and send them to a disciplinary battalion. And this is “well, well, well!”, this is damage to reporting, this is the inconvenience of the unit commander in front of high authorities in the district. This is a threat to his career: he will not be promoted. This is a threat to his pocket: they won’t give him a bonus. And we had a division of the officer corps into two sides: on the one hand, commanders from the platoon to the company/battalion, and on the other, from the battalion and above. The former want them to have discipline in their departments, because the lack of it interferes with their work, while the latter want their career to go smoothly without a hitch. No, the latter also understand that discipline is needed, which is why they are sent to the lip and to the disbat, but... carefully and little by little, so that the entrusted military unit does not look like a bunch of delinquents. Here are the Dagis™ themselves writing about plantings in that same group on Odnoklassniki:

And they calmly note that “we are limitless while no one cares about us”

As a result, over decades of nurturing the cult of “not washing dirty linen in public” among officers, amazing changes have occurred in the behavior of people with stars on their epaulets. While he commands a platoon and a company, and even a battalion, he wholeheartedly stands for arrests, imprisonments and the strict establishment of order! But years pass, the position grows and, already in high ranks, the officer completely forgets about his wishes and diligently pretends that the problems of the senior leader subordinate to him are the problems of only the senior leader. And they refuse to help him, not allowing him to restore proper order, because his own shirt is closer to his body and is more expensive. As they say, the mice cried, injected themselves, but chewed the cactus.
This ostrich principle has led to the problem becoming visible to the entire society. It even became habitual.
And it was so clear that the officers themselves could not solve the problem that they decided to help them and, by unspoken political instructions, they changed the conscription from the republics of the North Caucasus. Since the spring of 2011, conscripts from the same Dagestan no longer end up in the troops of the Ministry of Defense, but only go to the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But bad luck, the Dagi™ live not only in Dagestan, but also in the same Stavropol region. Even if it is much less, they still end up in the army. And now they have come up with new way to serve: they are registered somewhere in the central Black Earth region just to be called up for service.
So, comrade officers, maybe stop chewing the usual cactus, and finally spit it out and begin to impose discipline by placing them in the guardhouse and in the disbat? Without regard to reporting, career and inconvenience in front of high authorities? Well, isn’t it obvious that at first there will, of course, be a lot of landings, but then they will quickly decline, because discipline violators will know about the inevitability of punishment, which is not the case now, and will be afraid? The Dags themselves write that there is nothing worse than disbat

2. Let's look at the photo with a crib a la demobilization train. Or with inscriptions in foam on the backs. So answer me, dear readers, why didn’t the “train locomotives”, they are the four soldiers, refuse to wear the “passenger compartment”? Okay, if this is an old photo, when little was known about the prosecutor's office, but now what's the problem?
Let me remind you of my recent article about hazing and hazing () for starters. Read it again carefully. For the last few years, a conscript soldier has had every opportunity to contact the military prosecutor's office with a complaint against his offender. And some people use it, see the screenshot with the story above

Why doesn't everyone do this? Why don't they contact the prosecutor's office? Do you like to endure humiliation? Some kind of masochism? But no, I don’t like it. But there is a great principle: “knock as a bastard.” "Not like a boy." Accordingly, we conclude that it’s boyish to wear a crib with a dag™?!
“Yes, you are a hero, soldier! You can’t drag it, you can’t drag it!”...
Maybe, well, this kind of “heroism” is in the bathhouse, let’s start living according to the law? Will our native state begin to teach schoolchildren the methods of legal protection in the army during life safety lessons? Yes, and parents can raise their children not to be mattresses, to blow away specks of dust, but to educate them in moral qualities. Men's.
And I have a question for our valiant human rights organizations. Could you explain, so concerned about the rights of citizens, why you distribute tons of literature, how not to join the army, but do not explain to those who do go, how to build relationships in a team, what the prosecutor’s office is, how to competently apply to it? in case of problems? But we cherish the softness: “If you have problems, you ran away from the unit, then come to us, kind and good human rights activists, mothers! Come, little one, under your skirt! We’ll scold them already!” Yes, baby, don’t go to the prosecutor’s office, but to your aunts. And it doesn’t matter that the aunts will eventually go to the same prosecutor’s office, the main thing is that you will be spared the need to accept independent decisions, mattress!

3. The topic-starter already has almost 700 comments on the blog, but why, out of this crowd of commentators moaning about the dominance of the Dougs™, am I the only one who asked for links to the pages of the authors whose photos everyone didn’t like so much? Don’t you, several hundred people, want to imprison at least one of those in the photo who is clearly violating the law? Looking for something to press it with? Or is it easier to tap on the keyboard with sweaty fingers, be indignant and ultimately do nothing? But with these fingers you can find incriminating evidence on the authors, and even send it to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office http://gvp.gov.ru/recept/go/? You don’t even need to get up from your chair, and an answer about the measures taken will simply be required. Hey, heroes of the fight against the Caucasus on the Internet, where are your appeals?

And finally. As I already said, most of the photographs are absolutely harmless (see the first photo), and, judging by the form, they were taken before the spring of 2011 (and “before” is an elastic concept, maybe 2005). The comments in which proud horsemen show off to each other who is cooler are infuriating. The nth part of them is empty bravado, as one of the Dougs™ says in the discussion

But the nth part has some basis. Do you want to take it out from under them? Three points above for your attention.

In the section

Against the background of increasingly frequent incidents throughout the country with a pronounced ethnic overtones, in early July a statement was made by the Khanty-Mansiysk Military Commissariat Autonomous Okrug about the growth of Wahhabi sentiments among conscripts from the North Caucasus. While acknowledging numerous problems with conscripts from the region, the military said it had received unspoken instructions to limit conscription from some of the region. national republics. “Our Version” looked into how acute the national issue is in the army.

One of the few decisions for which the army is grateful to the previous Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov is the refusal of conscripts from the North Caucasus. The military department tries to avoid commenting on the fact of the ban on their service, since the Constitution does not allow officially ending conscription in any subject of the Federation. However, the de facto conscription campaign in the Caucasus is somewhat recent years it is only imitated: registration of conscripts is kept at military registration and enlistment offices, commissions operate, but only a few manage to get into the troops. So, last fall, for example, only 179 people were drafted from the most populous southern republic - Dagestan.

The mountaineers openly refused to obey the officers

Meanwhile, in recent years the problem with the shortage of conscripts has sharply worsened. Today, even in permanent readiness units, the shortage of soldiers is up to one third. The new leadership of the Ministry of Defense is feverishly looking for ways to correct the situation. One of the options is the resumption of mass conscription from the republics of the North Caucasus. A huge conscription resource is truly concentrated there. Until 2010, 15–20 thousand people were drafted into the army every year from Dagestan alone. However, the necessity of the presence of these conscripts in the troops was then strongly doubted. Such a strong concentration of Caucasians in the troops led to an incredible aggravation of the crime situation; the army was agitated by a number of hazing incidents. The mountaineers openly refused to obey the officers and actually kept entire garrisons in fear.

As Alexander Perendzhiev, an expert at the Association of Military Political Scientists, told Our Version, it is fundamentally wrong to restrict the right of Caucasians to serve in the army, especially in a situation where the country has a huge shortage of conscription resources, and they even want to attract women and foreigners to serve. According to the expert, it is unacceptable to create a precedent when people are not drafted based on their nationality.

Apparently, I partially agree with this new minister defense Sergei Shoigu. At the end of last year, the leadership of Dagestan reported that they had managed to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Defense that the number of conscripts from the republic would be sharply increased. According to some reports, it was planned to conscript about 5 thousand people this spring. A trend towards an increase in the number of Dagestani conscripts in the Russian army is indeed visible, but on a much smaller scale. This year the republic received an order for 800 people.

In other North Caucasian republics the situation is even worse: about 400 people are being drafted from Ingushetia, and the last large-scale draft in Chechnya was carried out more than 20 years ago. Most likely, the military has not yet fully decided on this issue. For comparison: from neighboring Russian regions the number of conscripts is an order of magnitude greater - from the Krasnodar Territory this year more than 5 thousand people are preparing to be sent to the army, from Stavropol - more than 2 thousand.

Dzhigits are eager to join the troops

It should be noted that the leadership of the Caucasian republics is concerned about the opportunity to serve for their conscripts, although not only and not so much out of patriotic motives. For example, after the actual end of conscription in the republic, Dagestan youth began to have problems finding employment in law enforcement agencies (where almost every young horseman strives to get into) and where they are not hired without military experience.

On topic

As a result, today there is a unique desire of young people from the Caucasus to join the army. For the last few years, there has been a tendency for people to pay a bribe of 20-150 thousand rubles for conscription in Dagestan. Some conscripts move to other regions and register there so that they can be called up at the place of new registration.

In order to achieve an additional quota for conscripts, local military commissars promise that they will send only the best to the army, most of whom will be from higher education, and also intend to introduce a guarantee system into the work of military commissions, in which diaspora leaders will be personally responsible for each soldier.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the North Caucasian republics self-critically admits that their youth are unsuitable for military service: a considerable part of the hot-blooded Caucasian guys are poorly managed. Moreover, the situation is aggravated by modern realities in society: if earlier the younger generation in the family was taught by elders that in the army it is necessary to unquestioningly obey commanders, now the main emphasis in the instructions is the need, first of all, to observe religious canons.

You can’t argue with the facts - there are far from isolated cases of open disobedience to the orders of commanders and opposition to national customs military regulations. True Muslims refuse to participate in household work, dumping the hard work on their fellow workers. Sometimes it reaches the point of absurdity: Caucasians refuse to shave their beards, undergo examination at a psychoneurological dispensary and examination by a surgeon. All these whims lead to the erosion of discipline, aggravation of contradictions and become the cause of conflicts. In addition to this, some have a craving for the dangerous ideas of radical Islamism (Wahhabism).

What affects the hotheads of the southerners?

As the commander of one of the military units of the Southern Military District told Our Version, commanders at all levels prefer not to accept people from the North Caucasus into their units and, under any pretext, try to get rid of their presence in the units. The officer notes that today, when conscription service has been reduced to a year, commanders literally do not have time to understand the worldview of each soldier.

It must be said that in the Soviet army the situation with Caucasians was not completely cloudless. The main way to fight the compatriots was to distribute the highlanders evenly across all parts of the large army; their “critical concentration” was not allowed. But the main instrument of influence on southern hotheads was public associations, such as the Komsomol, and strict control over sentiment among military personnel.

Unfortunately, the optimal levers for ideological and propaganda work in Russian Armed Forces has not yet been invented. The situation became even more complicated with the collapse of the institute of political workers and was aggravated by the abolition of the guardhouse.

POINT OF VIEW

Alexander PErendzhiev, expert of the Association of Military Political Scientists:

– Emerging critical situation with representatives of the Caucasus shows the weakness of the military command and control system, especially its educational component. Essentially, the Armed Forces lack mechanisms that can influence this category military personnel. No matter how offensive it is to admit it, today the state ideology and the system of military-patriotic education cannot counteract the very ideas of Wahhabism, which are actively spreading among Muslim youth. There is a feeling that the army is giving in to this problem rather than trying to solve it. Perhaps the leadership of the Ministry of Defense does not even know how to do this. I myself commanded a construction company, in which 60 immigrants from the North Caucasus served. Of course, managing such personnel was difficult, but possible. In my opinion, conscripts from these republics have not changed, they have become neither better nor worse, but the methods of working with them have been forgotten. For example, previously Muslims were drafted mainly into construction or railway units, where they served without weapons. Officers were purposefully trained to work with problematic national minorities. And today, to work with Caucasians, it is also necessary to select the most prepared, strong-willed, knowledgeable of national characteristics and better trained officers and sergeants. At the same time, it does not hurt to closely interact with Muslim religious organizations - for example, contact was previously established with the Council of Muftis of Russia.

The fraternities among immigrants from the Caucasus - “Caucasians” in the terminology of the Soviet army - stand apart. Nowadays, in the army they are usually united under the common name “Dagestans” or “Dags”. It is fundamentally important that people from the Caucasus unite under any conditions and can even organize resistance to their grandfathers, as well as to the actual and official leaders of the unit. Moreover, Caucasians unite not only within one unit, but throughout the unit as a whole. At the same time, in any conditions, they rush to help their own, which is a manifestation of the national mentality (you can read more about it in the chapter “Army in the Caucasus”).

With a small number, Caucasians are relatively harmless, at least they do not violate the unity of the team, do not destroy the existing hierarchy of hazing or regulations. Their grandfathers are afraid of them and keep them at some distance, or include them among the privileged members of the unit. In any case, whether they are among the chosen ones or simply left to their own devices, Caucasians are distinguished by excessive and often senseless cruelty towards others. They have only two psychological models of behavior: they either recognize others as superior to themselves in status, or inferior; In principle, they do not consider representatives of other nationalities as equals.

When there are too many Caucasians in a unit, the situation gets completely out of control. Caucasians completely crush hazing under themselves, ceasing to maintain relative neutrality with grandfathers, and deal a serious blow to the regulations, introducing their excessive cruelty into relations in the unit. Needless to say, they completely replace their grandfathers in the worst sense of the word and turn young people into personal slaves. And if with hazing such slavery is based to a large extent on a voluntary basis, on the understanding that the oppression will pass with service, then with the dominance of Caucasians, all representatives of other nationalities are doomed to a subordinate position until the very end of their service. Inequality thus takes on especially striking forms, without any admixture of social justice, when respect comes with service.

It gets to the point that the officers themselves treat Caucasians with fear, avoid them and do not take any measures to restore order. There is a strong belief in the army that a Caucasian is capable of any extreme, including simply stabbing an offender with a knife, regardless of his status. This belief did not arise out of nowhere; it is connected with the general “recklessness” in the extreme situation of the Caucasians, especially the Chechens. They are simply blown away, and they stop being guided by reason, completely surrendering to the instincts of a fighter. So, in principle, Slavic patience is not characteristic of the Caucasians, and they turn out to be foreign inclusions in the basically Slavic army.

The only control over Caucasians can be found only if the unit has a Caucasian grandfather, a contract soldier or an officer, who will immediately build a strict hierarchy among his own. Also, among Caucasians, a strong de facto leader may stand out, who will also build a rigid hierarchy, but it will be even more difficult to introduce him into the official hierarchy than grandfathers.

Now they say a lot of flattering words about the white movement and the officers of the times of the Russian Empire, however, they forget one interesting moment in the social practice of our feudal ancestors: balanced nationalism. The overwhelming majority of officers of the Russian Empire were of Slavic nationality; the inclusion of Jews among them was an exceptional phenomenon. There were special qualifications for educational institutions on a national basis, moreover, these qualifications were aimed at limiting penetration into Slavic educational institutions foreigners, while the Soviet qualification, on the contrary, aimed to place immigrants from national republics in a privileged position.

But another aspect of imperial national policy is important for us. From general conscription conscription, in effect since 1874, the indigenous peoples (including Samoyeds) of the Urals and Siberia, residents of Turkestan, foreigners of the Trans-Caspian region, Muslim peoples of the North Caucasus (paid a tax instead of service), residents of Finland (the state itself paid a fixed contribution to the treasury for them) were completely liberated Russian Empire). Cossacks, close in spirit to the Caucasians, served only in special Cossack troops. And this is not the whole list. Here we can say that the Russian top leadership did not trust some of the conquered and constantly rebellious Caucasian peoples, but how then can we explain the exemption from conscription of a number of foreigners and Samoyeds? It can only be explained by a historically developed clear understanding that people who undermine the combat effectiveness of the Russian army have no place here. Too much at that time depended on the army (see the chapter “Some interesting features of the organization of the army of the Russian Empire”).

Thus, in the policy of the Russian Empire, which did not accept representatives of a number of Caucasian, Asian and Trans-Ural nationalities into the army, even in the conditions of universal conscription, there was a sober calculation and a balanced national policy. Now all this is gone, and army personnel officers are forced to proceed from the officially accepted ideological postulate about the need to create all conditions for national republics to the detriment of national Russian interests. According to the official position of those in power, a people like the Russians with a special mentality does not exist in our country. In this regard, the government continues the policies of the USSR, which partly led to its defeat in the Cold War.

Many soldiers and officers testify: it is very difficult to serve together with Caucasians. Highlanders, as a rule, do not obey orders and mock anyone who cannot stand up for themselves. The military department prefers to remain silent about the “Caucasian yoke” in the Russian Armed Forces until the next emergency.

The Chelyabinsk court recently sentenced private Zainalabid Gimbatov, a serviceman of military unit 69806 (Ural Military District). The private is accused of hazing with fellow soldiers. In addition, the native of the Caucasus is charged with Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, part 2, paragraph “a” (“Inciting hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity, committed with the use of violence”).

The military investigation department for the Chelyabinsk garrison established the following. In February 2011, Gimbatov arrived at the medical isolation ward of his unit. At the checkpoint, Gimbatov said that he was going to visit his colleagues. Several soldiers from his company were indeed being treated in the medical battalion. The serviceman named their names and ranks and was allowed into the detention center.

Gimbatov went into the isolation ward where the sick soldiers were lying. The private immediately felt superior to them. Firstly, because he was absolutely healthy, and secondly, because he was from Dagestan. Gimbatov guessed that the “Dags” in his unit were secretly disliked, and decided to get even for it. Gimbatov's gaze scanned the beds and stopped at three soldiers of Slavic appearance.

The private ordered the sick soldiers to stand up. They initially refused, but the Dagestani used force. The soldiers reluctantly obeyed. Then Gimbatov took out mobile phone and turned on one of the melodies, a fighting lezginka. On the recording, the melody of a Caucasian dance alternated with machine gun shots, the howling of wolves and the roar of cannonade. Perhaps the hot-blooded Caucasian felt proud while listening to her, but a Russian person will not listen to such things. Moreover, the entry began with the words: “In the name of Allah! Dedicated to the warriors of jihad in the Caucasus.”

Gimbatov ordered the sick soldiers to dance. The soldiers refused. Then the Dagestani began to beat them. The sick servicemen obeyed and began to clumsily imitate a Caucasian dance. Gimbatov, sitting on a stool, watched the soldiers. He insulted them in every possible way, and if the soldiers lost their rhythm or moved incorrectly, he beat them.

The mockery of their colleagues was silently observed by the other soldiers undergoing treatment in the medical battalion. It seemed that the actions of the arrogant Caucasian and the suffering of their comrades did not concern them.

For bullying sick soldiers, Gimbatov received a year in a disciplinary battalion. Disbat in the army is a cruel thing, but it is unknown whether it will “cure” Gimbatov. Such measures certainly cannot correct the situation as a whole. Because in the Russian armed forces there are hundreds, if not thousands, of such unpunished gimbatas. Against the backdrop of arrogant Caucasians, the universally reviled “hazing” seems like an innocent prank.

The author of one of the online books, who served as a conscript in the mid-90s, wrote about military personnel from the Caucasus as a “problem for the army.” According to the author, Caucasians, in particular natives of Dagestan, join the army in order to integrate into the army hierarchy in any way and establish military units their own rules:

“It all starts with “warming up” the “grandfathers”: vodka, a guitar, a promise to identify informers, keep order. They approach officers in the same way. The Dagestanis quickly manage to understand that it’s a waste to wash floors in the army, and they try in this regard take on the role of commanders in cleaning the barracks, so as not to wash themselves. They also argue for refusing to wash floors in the army by saying that their faith does not allow it, they must perform namaz (prayer) five times a day, this can only be done with them. clean hands, I have never noticed that they prayed in the army.

If Dagestanis are hampered by officers and regulations, then they try to get to the part where the power of the officers is not very strong. And here they immediately take everything into their own hands. Dagestanis often try to become sergeants and take control of such vitally important facilities in the army as the quarters and canteen. They usually manage to establish their own rules in military units where there is no clear authority of officers."

According to the author, gangster chaos begins here. When the unit commander had a summer vacation, the servicemen from the Caucasus felt like they were the only authorities. Some of the “Dags” were commissioned, having agreed in advance with the medical unit, while others simply went on permanent AWOL. Those who remained immediately got used to the situation and realized that anarchy was to their advantage: “Some were destroyed and plundered, there was no bathhouse for three weeks, unauthorized absence was the norm. (...) The Dagestanis got so comfortable that they used the soldiers for their own purposes, forced work in dachas, steal. Some of the officers gave up command, and also recklessly used soldiers in construction work.”

When the ill-fated unit 52386 was finally disbanded, many soldiers were transferred to military unit 41692. This unit was already “half under the control of the Dagestanis.” Despite the fact that there were at most 15 highlanders. The Dagestanis managed to “build” a unit due to the weakness of the officer’s power: “The Dagestanis imposed tribute on everyone they could: for example, for every four people, ten dollars a day. Whether they steal from objects or go shooting money is their business. The command was unable to take any measures against them. It is worth noting that everyone used this type of extortion, only the Dagestanis knew how to do it in a more organized manner.”

Where the entire personnel was staffed by Caucasians, the officers also began to suffer: “Starley Budko said that when he served in a military unit, the entire personnel of which consisted of Dagestanis, the first thing he saw in the morning, opening the door from the office, - this is a mop flying at him."

This was in the 1990s. But this is what is happening in our time.

Not so long ago, the Chelyabinsk military commissar (when he was there) Nikolai Zakharov announced that there would no longer be conscription of Caucasians in his garrison. The military commissar said that this was not his personal decision, but an order of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces concerning all military districts of the country. Colonel Zakharov then said that the Ministry of Defense was concerned about the dominance of national gangs that terrorize military units. Therefore, in the spring of 2011, all natives of the Caucasus and Transcaucasian republics will not join the Russian army. In the Central Military District of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Chelyabinsk journalists received the following comment: “There are no and cannot be any oral orders from the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces regarding whether or not to conscript a certain contingent of persons. Perhaps the military commissar at the meeting in Moscow misunderstood something, with an appropriate conversation will be held with him." Subsequently, Colonel Zakharov was relieved of his post as military commissar. And news appeared in the media that was exactly the opposite of the words of the Chelyabinsk colonel. According to a number of media outlets, the Russian military department has decided to sharply increase the recruitment of Dagestanis into the army. The media believed that this decision was caused by a shortage of conscripts from other regions and the Ministry of Defense decided to plug the gap in the last mass recruitment into the army with Dagestanis.

Pravda.Ru has repeatedly written about how natives of the Caucasus behave in military units. Let us recall only the most high-profile incidents that have occurred in recent years.

In the Baltic Fleet, Dagestani conscripts bullied their colleagues in every possible way. According to the case file, in August 2009, sailors Vitaly Shah, Gadzhibakhmud Kurbanov, Arag Eminov, Sirazhutdin Cheriev, Naib Taigibov, Islam Khamurzov, Jamal Temirbulatov beat about 15 fellow soldiers, and then forced them to lie on the ground so that the word KAVKAZ came out of their bodies . Before this crime, the “grandfathers” repeatedly robbed and beat conscripts.