Our defense industry has been smashing two decades.
Protecting a country from external threats is the basis of any state’s policy. First of all, such as Russia with its vast territory, the longest borders in the world and difficult history relations with neighbors, especially in the west and in the south. For a thousand years of its existence, Russia was forced to fight as a whole for more than one hundred years. And this inevitably left an imprint on the psychology of the people, determined our particular sensitivity to security issues and influenced the fact that the first persons of the state always kept the issues of the country's defense capability at the center of their attention.
We should remember with gratitude Peter the Great, the creator of the regular Russian army. We should not forget about Catherine II, at the time of which, according to the words of her chancellor, Count Alexander Bezborodko, “not a single gun in Europe without daring let us blurt out”. Alexander III said for good reason that "Russia has only two allies: the army and the navy." All of them were well aware that only the presence of powerful Armed Forces is able to guarantee the protection of Russia's interests, to ensure its influence in the world.
But it was not always so. One of the root causes of the overthrow of the monarchy in 1917 year - the defeat in the Russian-Japanese war 1904 – 1905 and even more serious defeat in the First World War. Feudal power was unable to equip the army and navy with modern species. weapons, to prepare their personnel at the proper level.
The real consolidation of the status of a world power for our country happened only after the Great October Revolution of 1917. Communists, relying on thousands of patriotic military experts from among the generals and officers of the tsarist army, created a fundamentally new people's army and modern defense industry, which ensured our country victory in the hardest war against German fascism and its numerous European allies.
After 1945, again "not a single gun in Europe dared to blurt out without our permission". Position changed Mikhail Gorbachev. By his ill will, the collapse of our powerful Armed Forces began. The adventurous ideas of universal values that he advanced suggested such unlimited trust in the West that they actually led to the abandonment of the protection of national interests in view of the alleged absence of an external threat. Accordingly, the Armed Forces became an unnecessary attribute, a relic of the Cold War era.
Strengthening external threats
The overthrown pro-Western forces led by Yeltsin who overthrew Gorbachev and destroyed the USSR began to work harder in our heads that Russia had no enemies. Except perhaps for international terrorism, a new horror story invented by the West to justify its colonial aspirations. The top leaders of Russia, who are directly responsible for the security of the country, exercised in assuring the public that there was no external danger. Obviously, this was done not from ignorance of the situation. In class terms, the Russian elite is part of the world oligarchy, and it put the desire to join the world’s masters club above national security interests.
Now the situation has changed. Even supporters of European values in Russia are reluctant to admit that for some reason the West is not in a hurry to disarm, but on the contrary, it spends huge amounts of money on new weapons programs. And the series of NATO interventions, starting with aggression against Yugoslavia in the 1999 year, shows that war has again become for the alliance an acceptable and even preferred way to advance its global interests.
Can we hope that Western strategists will ignore the attention of their centuries-old geopolitical rival - Russia? It is clear that with the weakening of our economy, the actual collapse of its Armed Forces and the growth of internal conflicts, the temptation to inflict a decisive defeat on the historical adversary is increasingly occupied by the minds of foreign politicians and military.
For many centuries Russia has been the object of constant hostility of the West, and the naive attempts of the forces that came to power in 1991 to join the world elite as a full partner were initially hopeless. But the West skillfully camouflaged their unfriendly plans for Russia. Therefore, the realization that they will not be allowed into the club of the owners of this world and even on the threshold came to the Russian leaders only in recent years. Now it is not clear only to the most rabid pro-Westerners - the unsinkable members of the Yeltsin camarilla. Unfortunately, they still make up the menu of the Kremlin's political cuisine.
Meanwhile, the struggle for natural resources is becoming increasingly acute in the world. Russia, with its two percent of the world's population, has 30 percent of the world's most important mineral resources. Therefore, it is becoming more and more openly the subject of encroachments of our overseas "partners". Some of the American leaders have already stated that, they say, unfairly, when one country has such innumerable wealth. So the real basis for armed intervention remains.
Hence the creation of the concept of a fast global strike and under it — colossal programs for developing new types of weapons and surrounding Russia with a chain of US military bases, including launching sites for antimissiles. Huge funds are invested in this. It is clear that they are not intended to fight against some kind of international terrorism, but with the aim of achieving such a military advantage over Russia, when it can be subjected to impunity for the fate of Iraq, Yugoslavia or Libya.
The situation around Russia continues to deteriorate right before our eyes. The attacks in the south of the country are not the last desperate convulsions of aspiring field commanders. This is all new evidence that a new type of war is being waged against Russia using mercenaries. Although outwardly isolated gangster attacks do not represent a significant threat to the security of our state, the sad experience of Libya and Syria, where everything also began with several terrorist attacks, shows that they can only be the first volleys of a large-scale war.
Actual disarmament of the country
Statements by numerous Western friends in the media and political science centers that Russia has no external enemies (with the exception of, of course, Islam) are built on sand. But this is not a mistake or delusion. This is a purposeful propaganda operation, designed to justify a sharp reduction in the size of the army and a reduction in the combat capability of the Russian Armed Forces. Or rather, the actual disarmament of the country. For American money, the accelerated destruction of strategic nuclear forces was going on, the structure of the army and the military education system was shredded according to American templates.
If the increase in external threats to Russia is visible to the naked eye, then you need to ask yourself the question: what is the state of our country's defense capability? We see nothing comforting in this field. A whole series of defense ministers - military and civilian, each of whom enthusiastically took on the “reforms”, brought the Armed Forces to the handle in twenty years. The process of insane destruction was especially accelerated and intensified after Mr. Serdyukov entered the Ministry of Defense. Under the pretext of optimization, a frank sale of everything and everything began.
About a year ago, a man who openly mocked the army was removed from office. The joy of the military knew no bounds. It seemed that the revival of the ruined power of our country would proceed at an accelerated pace. However, even then, in the first weeks of the general euphoria from the Kremlin, there were statements that the course of reforms carried out by Mr. Serdyukov was generally correct and needed only some correction.
And despite the fact that in our army, aviation и the fleet literally drove an asphalt roller. Hundreds of famous military units were destroyed, tens of thousands of the most experienced and educated officers and generals were expelled from the army, dozens of famous military schools and academies were liquidated. One destruction of the world famous Air Force Engineering Academy named after Zhukovsky is worth it. This temple of science and military thought for many decades brought up outstanding personnel of aircraft designers and engineers, creators of engines and weapons. A unique educational institution was slammed with an unshakable hand in order to create a completely American system of supercademia.
Court over Serdyukov for what he has done with the army, navy and air force will not. He was tried to be accused of corruption, but the evidence was allegedly not found. The case was limited to a banal accusation of negligence. It was as if it was an ordinary warrant officer, a warehouse manager, from whom a gasoline canister and a pair of new boots had disappeared.
The final revision of the clearly flawed concept of military construction did not happen. Yes, and the team Serdyukov partially remained in power. The “Women's Battalion” in the Ministry of Defense dispersed, but the key positions of the heads of leading departments are still held by appointees with the sound of a failed minister.
There is, however, a strong contradiction between the attempts to preserve the Serdyuk concept of restructuring the Armed Forces and the enormous funds that are now being invested in the rearmament of the army, navy and air force. Apparently, on the one hand, the military-political leadership does not want to admit the strategic mistakes made in determining the course of development of the Armed Forces. On the other hand, after the brutal murder of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the top, they finally understood that neither friendship with the greats of this world, nor the possession of huge funds in Western banks does not save from reprisals from the "partners".
Gaddafi was overthrown and killed precisely because, having relied on friendship with former French President Sarkozy and others like him, he stopped practicing strengthening his army and refused to buy air defense systems from Russia.
This lesson is clearly learned by Moscow, but half-heartedly. Apparently, they decided that a weapon in itself could avert a potential aggressor, and began to energetically re-equip the army, air force and navy. The question of the state of our military-industrial complex is the topic of a separate article, so we will evaluate it only briefly. Our "defense industry" burned two decades. It would be naive to believe that the cash flow that has poured now in the MIC alone can solve the accumulated problems. Suffice it to recall what enormous efforts were required to create this system. Now the organizers of the military production of the caliber of Dmitry Ustinov, Boris Vannikov, Abraham Zavenyagin, Sergey Korolev, Igor Kurchatov, Mstislav Keldysh simply do not exist.
Man-made army
No fracture can occur also because the fundamentals — fundamental and applied science — have been destroyed. Huge funds continue to be pushed into the useless Skolkovo project, which is frankly oriented to the West, which is useless for Russia. But our famous science cities - the basis of defense research - still live on a very poor ration. Where will the state-of-the-art weapon systems capable of confronting Western offensive systems come from?
And the level of competence of many military customers is such that there is no one even to form and competently draw up tactical and technical requirements for new types of weapons and equipment. Ordering administrations were liquidated, at one time it was considered that there was no need for military acceptance. However, as it turned out, without this, our satellites and the Bulava do not fly, but fall like a meteor shower. Now, however, they came to their senses, began to return the military representatives back.
But even in the presence of breakthrough technologies, there is no one to turn them into metal, because the magnificent systems of training engineering-technical personnel and highly skilled workers have been destroyed, the machine tool park has not been updated for more than years. Let us not forget that the efforts of "reformers" like Chubais, a significant part of our defense enterprises turned out to be in private ownership, including in the ownership of foreigners. It is clear that in the first place among all these gentlemen is the concern for increasing profits. And the defense order with its long-term payback is often contrary to the interests of private traders. With all that it implies.
As a result - a significant part of components for our weapons are purchased abroad. We are almost completely dependent on foreign suppliers of the element base - the basis of modern technology. Apparently, the statements that at some crucial moment our communication and control systems, based on imported components, may fail at once are not without certainty.
Of course, with the change of leadership of the Ministry of Defense, major changes are occurring. Generals with combat experience — Valery Gerasimov and Arkady Bakhin — have been appointed to the key positions of the first deputy ministers. Began to more vigorously engage in combat training. Sudden inspections revealed the real state of combat readiness of the Armed Forces. More often held exercises. Suspended the defeat of the military science system and military education. They turned to face the northern strategic direction, whence the main threat comes from the development of aerospace attack vehicles. Abandoned the most dangerous venture with the tightening of the entire military aviation to several large bases. Much is being done to finally provide housing for officers, as well as to increase their allowances.
However, the most difficult tasks are not solved. Among them is the restoration of the strength of the Armed Forces. It is clear that an army of a million people is not enough to meet the needs of protecting our vast country. Moreover, according to data from various sources, the real strength of the army, air force and navy is now about 800 thousands of servicemen.
The emphasis on contract soldiers and the reduction in the number of recruits deprive the Armed Forces of a prepared mobilization reserve. The warped structure of the Armed Forces, built according to American patterns, is preserved, from which regiments, divisions, corps and armies have been thrown out. Although all experts agree that the particularities of a country with its colossal spaces require a divisional structure.
Our huge power accounts for only four military districts, which in no way contributes to increasing the controllability of troops. The functions of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces, which should be engaged in the construction of their types, combat training, and ensure the balance of weapons systems, have not been fully restored.
Uncertainty remains as to whether the aerospace defense forces should be a separate type of the Armed Forces or should they be included in the Air Force, as was previously done with the country's Air Defense Forces? Or, in general, to unite under the roof of the air force everything “flying”, including not only the EKR Troops, but also the Strategic Missile Forces. Although it is absolutely clear: given the fact that the main threats to the security of Russia come from the means of an aerospace attack, it is high time to give the aerospace defense the status of the Armed Forces type. And the statements that the share of modern weapons systems in the coming years will reach 60 – 70 percent, so far seem unfounded.
And this is only part of the problems facing the leadership of the Armed Forces of Russia. There is no doubt about the personal patriotic attitude of Sergei Shoigu, his vast experience in dealing with disasters, the consequences of fires, floods, landslides, and transport accidents. However, the scope of man-made damage caused by the Serdyukov team is tens, if not hundreds of times greater than the losses from any natural or man-made disaster.
Material losses in the form of hundreds of plundered military camps, tens of thousands of barbarously destroyed expensive military equipment are incalculable. And the expulsion from the Armed Forces of tens of thousands of the best-trained officers and generals who have combat experience in Afghanistan and the North Caucasus is not only the hardest moral trauma for these people who have dedicated themselves to the defense of the Motherland, but also a huge loss for the army, the armed forces and the fleet. Force The restoration of the destroyed will take at best several years, and the long-term consequences will be affected for many years.
To strengthen the defense power
Russia has always paid great attention to the issues of our country's defense. It was during the Soviet era that the Armed Forces received modern weapons and capabilities for combat training. The military enjoyed a well-deserved respect in society, had a high level of monetary allowance. The Soviet army was such a formidable force that the current adventures of the United States and its allies were simply unthinkable. Our party intends to continue to do everything possible to strengthen the defense power of our Motherland. In this regard, we propose the following.
Tightly control the spending of huge funds allocated to the Armed Forces and the military-industrial complex. We can not allow this money to be stolen or spent on meaningless projects such as the purchase of French amphibious ships "Mistral".
To conduct an accelerated modernization of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex and on this base to carry out intensive re-equipment of the Ground Forces, Navy and Air Force. To sharply increase the importance of the Aerospace Defense Forces, highlighting them as a separate type of Armed Forces. To enhance the role of the commanders-in-chief of the branches of the Armed Forces in the organization of combat training and in other matters of combat readiness. Stop copying the western experience of military construction. Return to the proven structure of centuries in the form of regiments, divisions, armies and military districts. Increase the number of military districts to seven. Revive a mobilization system capable of quickly and powerfully responding to external threats.
Recreate the system of military education and military science. To resume the activities of the military schools and academies that were closed in recent years, abandoning the American-type superacadems.
Restore the prestige of military service. Seriously to increase the monetary support of servicemen, their provision of housing, and the officer families - schools and preschool institutions, houses of officers, sports facilities. To revive the system of military-patriotic education and pre-draft training. Ruthlessly eradicate manifestations of corruption, non-statutory relations and other offenses. To surround the state of war with the families of soldiers who fell in the line of duty. To guarantee a decent life for veterans of the Armed Forces, to abolish the humiliating and unfair reduction factor 0,54 when calculating pensions for servicemen.
In conclusion, I want to emphasize the following. The events around Ukraine and especially in Crimea once again show that only the presence of modern, combat-ready, mobile Armed Forces can ensure the solution of major foreign policy tasks. Conducting large-scale military exercises of the Central and Western districts, providing practical assistance to self-defense detachments in the Crimea, allowed them to sober up the presumptuous Bandera henchmen who seized power in Kiev during the coup d'état, intent on suppressing the will of the peoples of southeast Ukraine and Crimea by means of Nazi violence. Fortunately, Mr. Serdyukov, who was looking for ten hours in August 2008, and his faithful squire General Nikolai Makarov, who did not dare to give a single command without a proprietary minister, were no longer at the head of the Ministry of Defense. It would be desirable to hope that our Armed Forces at last are confidently moving along the path of rebirth. The CPRF will contribute to this in every possible way.
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