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Sunday 13 February 2000

Putin to restart military training for schoolboys

By Guy Chazan in Moscow

MILITARY training for Russian schoolboys, including lessons in patriotism, has been ordered by the country's acting president, Vladimir Putin, in a move which analysts see as a worrying return to the Cold War era.

Some military experts view the step as a signal that Mr Putin, the favourite to win next month's presidential election, is less interested in democratic reforms than in restoring the prestige of the Russian army and security services. Earlier this month Mr Putin called up 20,000 reservists and announced a 50 per cent increase on arms spending.

"This is more proof of the militarisation of Russian society under Putin," said Pavel Felgengauer, a defence analyst. "They want to train kids to be Russian patriots and prepare them for war - just like the Nazis did with the Hitler Youth." Mr Putin, a former KGB spy and head of Russia's domestic intelligence agency, signed the decree on military training on December 31, the day Boris Yeltsin resigned and appointed him acting president.

The decree calls for boys from the age of 15 to be taught "the basics of military service" and "civil defence", and receive "a military-patriotic education". An official at the education ministry said they would spend five days training at their local army base where they would be taught how to shoot and march in formation, and learn the essentials of army life. This would be complemented by weekly "professional orientation" lessons in school on the legal and technical aspects of national service.

"They'll also learn about the heroism of our great military commanders, both Russian and Soviet, and be taught to love the fatherland," said Boris Mishin, the ministry's specialist on secondary education. "Some things are still sacred in this country, and our military past is one of them." Girls will also be given combat training and firing practice as well as lessons in first aid and self-defence.

A defence ministry spokesman said the army has long wanted to reintroduce the subject, which will be included in the curriculum from this September. He said the final syllabus will be worked out jointly by the defence and education ministries. "The point is to give boys a clear idea of what to expect from their national service," he said.

Russians over the age of 20 still have vivid memories of NVP, or Primary Military Training. In a typical lesson schoolchildren would be shown how hand grenades and mines worked, and taught to strip and reassemble Kalashnikov rifles. There were also outings to shooting ranges and local army bases. But the lessons were also fiercely ideological, with teachers, usually retired army officers, warning of the ever-present threat to Soviet security posed by the country's capitalist enemies.

The subject was taught from 1968, the year the Soviet army crushed the Prague Spring, to 1991, when the Soviet Union fell apart. NVP was replaced in 1991 by a demilitarised course encompassing lessons in first aid and hygiene, a basic fire drill and the Russian equivalent of the Green Cross Code. But some educationists have welcomed the decision to revive military training.

"Ever since the end of the Komsomol [the Communist Youth League], children have lost their moral compass, some even vandalise military cemeteries," said Olga Maksimovich, editor of the Teacher's Gazette. The church has also joined forces with the defence ministry in organising summer camps for Russian children.

Metropolitan Pitirim, a senior figure in the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate, was recently quoted as saying that children should be taught to love the smell of barracks and soldiers' boots.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), February 13, 2000

Answers

What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not. James Madison, in A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 14, 2000.

Of course it could never happen here......

Go Cub/Boy Scouts... and don't forget the Air Force Aux..... CAP :-)

Training for Guns and Munitions should be taken care of at home.....

-- Casper (c@no.yr), February 14, 2000.