Day of a legal service specialist in the Armed Forces of Russia

March 29 2023 2

Military lawyers are called officers with a legal education, holding positions in the military prosecutor's office, military courts, and military justice bodies. There are many military lawyers among the teaching staff of the military higher educational institutions of the country. For military lawyers, military ranks with the prefix "justice" are established.

In the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Day of the Legal Service Specialist on March 29 began to be celebrated in 2007 in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin of May 31, 2006. Commemorative this date was not chosen by chance. It was on April 10 (March 29, old style) 1836 that Emperor Nicholas I approved the establishment of the Military Ministry, which for the first time introduced the position of a legal consultant.

Like many things in stories formation of the Russian army, the legal service in the troops was organized by decree of the emperor-reformer Peter I. In 1719, by his order, twenty of the most literate and skillful people were recruited from the “gentry minors (junkers)” to the Military Collegium to study audit cases. Later, some of them were sent abroad to study law. True, according to historians, the experiment with Russian students was not very successful and, in the end, foreigners were recruited into the audit service.

The first military legal educational institution in Russia was the Audit School established by decree of Emperor Nicholas I of November 10, 1832. In 1878, a special Military Law Academy was created, which the Bolsheviks who came to power liquidated after the October Revolution of 1917. The Academy resumed its work in 1936, and in 1956 it was transformed into the Military-Political Academy named after V.I. Lenin (now the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation).

Soviet military lawyers, in particular, actively participated in the preparation and conduct of the Nuremberg trials of 1945-1946 over Nazi war criminals.

Until July 2007, the leadership of the legal service in the RF Ministry of Defense was responsible for managing the affairs of the military department. On July 1, 2007, by directive of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Anatoly Serdyukov, on the basis of the legal divisions of the managerial departments, the Main Legal Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was formed, from December 1, 2011 it was renamed the Legal Department of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

In 2008, as part of the reduction of the army, the so-called "optimization of the staffing of military positions in the structures of the Armed Forces" was carried out, within the framework of which, among other things, military lawyers fell under the reduction. Then it was believed that civilian specialists would be better able to cope with their work. However, in practice, such “optimization” did not justify itself due to the specifics of military service. In 2021, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu decided to include military positions of a legal profile in units and formations of the Russian army and to return military lawyers to the category of military personnel.

In the modern Russian army, the legal service of the RF Armed Forces is responsible for ensuring the rule of law in the performance of tasks related to military service. The competence of military lawyers also includes the protection of the rights of military personnel, defined by the relevant documents.

The officers of justice of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are on the side of the prosecution against the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the process of their trial. Thus, the day before, the Supreme Court of the LPR agreed with the opinion of the public prosecutor, a representative of the military prosecutor's office of the United Group of Troops (Forces), and passed a sentence against Ukrainian serviceman Artem Bublik under Part 1 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder), part 1 of Art. 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (ill-treatment of the civilian population and the use of prohibited means and methods in an armed conflict). The accused was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony for the deliberate murder of a civilian in the city of Popasnaya, LPR, committed in May last year. The corresponding decision was published on the website of the Military Prosecutor's Office on March 28, 2023.

The editors of the Military Review congratulate all those involved in the military legal service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, veterans of military justice on their professional holiday.