Hunting Academy
Even the name of Peter the Great does not save the rocket men from exile from Moscow
A series of publications in the newspaper "Military Industrial Complex" on the reform of military science and military education proves: administrative itch is not yet moderate. Readers know the intention of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense to redeploy to the Balashikha Moscow Region Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great and the 4 Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, combining them into a military educational and scientific center of the Strategic Missile Forces. This implies the liquidation of the Spetsstroy Military-Technical University based in Balashikha with the transfer of its funds for the placement of the newly formed VUNC.
It is unlikely that an extremely negative reaction of the academy’s staff to such a decision was unexpected for someone. Scientific-pedagogical workers and veterans of the Academy reflected their bewilderment and disagreement in collective appeals to the Minister of Defense, the President, the State Duma and the Security Council. The statutory deadlines for the consideration of these letters have expired or are expiring, but there are still no answers.
Since 20 March, a lively discussion has been launched in the network on this issue, initiated by the appearance of a comment by State Duma deputy (Communist Party faction), Doctor of Technical Sciences Ivan Nikitchuk entitled “Is the Defense Ministry again a real estate trading company?”. Officials of the department did not enter the discussion, an “unnamed source” otdivaetsya for them, which, on the one hand, confirms the intention to redeploy the academy and the 4 Central Research Institute, and on the other hand, makes it clear that this is not the initiative of the Ministry of Defense. Whose? And why did the ministry completely agree with her?
Up to full optimization
The most remarkable thing in the program for the creation of educational and scientific centers that is being promoted is that the fate of being hastily relocated is prepared only for the Strategic Missile Forces Academy. The remaining educational and research organizations involved in the next stage of the reform either do not move anywhere or are relocated only when the necessary infrastructure is ready. What are the rocket men guilty before their native state? And why did it take such an unusual for peacetime emergency relocation method?
The staff of the academy, who for ethical reasons had not previously intended to remove the rubbish from the departmental hut, did not consider it possible to continue to remain silent. We were also pushed to this by the fact that the command of the academy and the Strategic Missile Forces, for a number of reasons, is not free in choosing and defending their position. In this regard, the top goes dosed and retouched information that does not reflect the tragedy of the situation. Perhaps the radical solutions to the academy are partly explained by this. So we consider it our duty to expose the truth in all its glory.
The positive effect of the integration of military universities and specialized research institutes by domestic practice has not yet been confirmed. The experience of such a reorganization has not even been properly analyzed by anyone. To take the word for today's initiators of the next stage of reform, to recklessly rely on foreign practice at least frivolously. And earlier, when there were several universities in each branch of the Armed Forces and the kind of troops (up to nine in the Rocket Forces), the reformist mistakes were painful. Now, when the only institution of higher education has remained in the RVSN, they can have irreparable consequences.
In general, with regard to the concept of VUNC RVSN in the configuration of the Military Academy of the RVSN - 4 Central Research Institute, one thing is certain: it is necessary that at least one of the two components (and better both) be able to fulfill the role of a locomotive. Alas, neither the academy, nor the institute, exhausted by previous organizational experiments, are now incapable of such a role. And the union of the two weakened organizations will only lead to their joint accelerated degradation.
It is necessary to provide an opportunity for the university and the research institute to recover from the shocks in their usual organizational environment for several years. And only after that proceed to the integration.
At present, after the multi-stage “optimization” of the military education system, the Academy has remained the only institution of higher education of the Strategic Missile Forces with a branch in Serpukhov in the Moscow Region and a country training center in the Kaluga Region. Prepares command-engineering and scientific-pedagogical personnel for all types and types of troops of the Armed Forces, the General Staff, the 12-th Main Directorate, other central military bodies of the Ministry of Defense. Until recently, orders for the training of military engineers were placed here by the FSO and the FSB. According to its profile, the Academy is a strictly regime institution where issues of state secret protection and special selection of permanent and variable staff have a high weight.
Despite the great losses incurred as a result of the never-ending reforming, especially in 2007 – 2012, the Academy still has an impressive scientific and pedagogical potential, sufficient for the qualitative solution of the tasks assigned to it. It consists of 112 PhDs (92 percent is for civilian personnel) and 412 PhDs (55 percent is civilian personnel), 24 scientific schools, including 5 recognized by the country's leading and supported by grants from the President of Russia. To replenish and build up the scientific potential, 20 dissertation councils of the Higher Attestation Commission with the right to defend closed doctoral and candidate theses in 6 branches of science and 5 scientific specialties have been successfully deployed for about 17 years. The academy employs 15 laureates of state value prizes; about 140 employees are awarded state and departmental honorary titles. As civilian personnel, a dozen or so senior officers in retirement, who held positions from the commander of the missile division, are equal and above, and also more than 90 of yesterday's officers, heads of the main structural divisions of the academy, transfer their invaluable experience to the trainees. A system of spiritual and moral education of rocket officers was created and debugged, which is considered one of the priorities of modern military education in the academy.
Object of special attention
From the first years of the modern period of Russian statehood, the Academy, more precisely, about 13 hectares of land under its buildings and structures in the center of Moscow, has been the subject of close attention of many. Apparently, the official palm in this should be given to the former mayor Yuri Luzhkov. In 1994-1998, he twice appealed to President Boris Yeltsin with a request to agree to study the option of creating a complex of buildings for the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the territory of the academy. In exchange, it was promised to erect up to 50 thousand square meters of premises in the South-Western region of Moscow. Pavel Grachev, who headed the Ministry of Defense in 1994, did not object in principle to the redeployment of the academy under these conditions. Due to the encumbrance of the Academy buildings with the status of a protected facility and the onset of the economic crisis, these plans were not realized, but they were not forgotten. The defense ministers changed, but every two or three years there was another version of the relocation (a structural unit of the General Staff Military Academy to its funds, to Serpukhov, to Vlasikha, to Bolshevo, etc.). Already without the obligation of advance arrangement. Anatoly Serdyukov came especially close to achieving his desired goal. At the end of 2007, he devoted his short stay at the academy only to a cursory inspection of the territory and a careful study of security certificates in historical building. The intervention of the State Duma and personally Communist Deputy Sergei Obukhov did not allow to complete the expulsion of the university from its habitable place at that time. However, the prevailing nervous situation persisted, corrupting people, preventing the allocation of funds for repair and infrastructure development, provoking the outflow of the most valuable, experienced and promising personnel from the academy, complicating the already difficult reception situation. Especially from among civic youth.
The situation around and inside the academy began to noticeably improve with the appointment of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. During his visit to the university at the end of 2012, he publicly expressed the desirability of leaving the academy in a traditional location. And next year, he documented this decision, approving the program for the development of the university to 2020, which includes the necessary measures for the reconstruction and technical re-equipment of the buildings occupied by the academy. People finally breathed a sigh of relief, began to fully engage in their direct responsibilities. Especially since the transition to a new legislative basis of national education, the next reassignment of universities and the resumption of the recruitment of cadets that were interrupted by Serdyukov for three years increased the volume of tasks several times.
Unfortunately and a great disappointment, the respite was short-lived. In 2014, the new chairman of the Supreme National Command of the Armed Forces, Stanislav Suvorov, initiated another round of hysteria around the military-scientific complex. There is a variant of the formation of VUNC RVSN on the funds built from scratch for three to five years in Odintsovo. Note that this proposal at the academy did not cause much criticism. Mainly because it assumed the advance preparation of the entire modern infrastructure, did not create additional difficulties in cooperation with the command of the Strategic Missile Forces and provided the necessary time resource for working out mechanisms to counter possible problems. However, the Academy and the 4 Central Research Institute did not even have time to comprehend this prospect, as in early February the task was set to work out an emergency (until 1 September 2015) September relocation of the Academy to Balashikha for the funds of the Military Technical University. After building the missing buildings, the 2016 Central Research Institute should also move there until the end of 4.
On the basis of inconvenience
The planned redeployment of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces cannot be considered in isolation, outside the context of the ongoing reforms of military education and science. Dozens of educational institutions were liquidated, ostensibly as unnecessary. Many are reformatted and / or relocated. Among them are the Academy: Military Engineering named after V.V. Kuybyshev, armored forces named after R.Ya. Malinovsky, radiation, chemical and biological protection named after S.K. Tymoshenko, Air Force named after Yu.A. Gagarin, Military-air engineering behalf of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky. Now, this sad series should replenish the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great. The destructive process continues.
Why in general is our military leadership so disposed towards the redeployment of universities? Having stepped on a rake once, it still has not bothered to instruct an independent expert commission to identify the positive and negative consequences and present them to the public on a public display.
It is well known that the university environment, in contrast to the purely military one, is rather conservative. It is precisely this that makes it possible to parry continuous local destabilization in the form of a change of generations of teachers and scholars, educational paradigms and technologies, changes in the requirements for the content of student training, reduction of quantitative and qualitative parameters of their recruitment, etc., provides the possibility of steady progressive development. Of course, until the intensity of destabilization reaches the threshold of irreversible destruction.
Certain losses, primarily personnel, are inevitable with any redeployment. And even in the most benign options, it will take some time (years) to restore the university to its former condition. However, what is scheduled to be done with the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces, otherwise it is impossible to qualify as a deliberate defeat. Even if the initiators and performers are not aware of this.
Balashikha is near, but it is extremely inconvenient to get from Moscow. On average, two to three hours one way with several transfers (including by taxi) and additional transport costs. In addition, when relocating outside the Moscow Ring Road, both military and civilian personnel will lose in remuneration. Plus, the problems of employment, study, medical care for family members, etc. Due to the combination of these simple human inconveniences, the majority of qualified civilian personnel (and these are mostly aged people) will not go to Balashikha until 15 – 20. According to preliminary estimates, this will entail the loss of up to 70 percent of the existing human resources, including almost all scientific schools, and the self-disintegration of most dissertation councils. It is impossible to quickly compensate for such terrible losses by equivalent specialized specialists with appropriate tolerances. That is, a collapse in the quality of educational activities at the university is inevitable for at least the next five to ten years. This will especially affect the professional training of commanders and engineers for military units of the level of a rocket regiment - a rocket division - an object of the 12-th GU MO. Nowhere, except for the academy, such specialists are not being prepared now and the transfer of this function to another university is excluded in the foreseeable future. After all, it is these people who should later play a key role in solving the tasks of maintaining alertness and nuclear safety. The undermining of the scientific potential and the destruction of part of dissertation councils will make it impossible for qualified reproduction of certified scientists to replace lost ones, not to mention ensuring the improvement of the quality of graduates' training claimed by the initiators of the redeployment.
Currently available buildings and facilities of the university are able to satisfy the needs of the academy in training, laboratory and other premises by no more than 30 – 40 percent. These and reconstructed premises of the WTU are completely unsuitable and cannot be used for the placement and storage of especially sensitive special items, conducting classes and performing research projects on the subject matter prevailing in the academy. Additional equipment and inspection of premises, construction of new ones for specific storage requirements for special products require new investments and are not carried out at the most rapid pace for three to four months. That is, if we exclude the authorized admissibility of absolute disregard for the protection of state secrets, it turns out that it is impossible to conduct classes and research on a closed subject at a new place. The duration of this period will be significantly affected by budget financing resources. They are known to be very limited now and are unlikely to expand in the future. We can not exclude the fact that the level of arrangement of the academy in a new place, which was urgently achieved by 1 in September of 2015, will remain so for a long time.
A blow to prestige and patriotism
A direct consequence of the everyday disorder and deterioration of the quality parameters of a permanent composition (albeit temporarily) will be a decrease in the prestige of the academy. This is definitely a negative impact on the acquisition. No one can guarantee that all customers of specialists (for example, the General Staff units) will put up with a decrease in their level of preparation, patiently waiting for the Academy to “recover” slowly. And without a stable order, any university loses the right to exist.
Our political and military leadership undoubtedly knows that in the present conditions of informational, political and economic aggression against Russia, the patriotism of the officer corps and the confidence of its command should not be doubted in the least. The unprepared redeployment of the Academy will destroy the system of spiritual-moral and military-patriotic education successfully fulfilling its mission for many years. In 90-s of the last century, this system was completely dismantled. The consequences are the spread in the military environment of pessimism, acquisitiveness and corruption, neglect of official duties and property separation, reduction of professionalism and the breakdown of successive ties between generations of rocket men.
A long search for new forms of spiritual and moral influence on people led to the creation of the Faculty of Orthodox Culture at the Academy in 1996 as a non-governmental institution of additional education. The initiative of the rocket engineers was supported by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II and approved by the Military Council of the Strategic Missile Forces. At the end of the past and the beginning of the 21st century, the veteran movement began to flourish in the Strategic Missile Forces. Recognizing its enormous spiritual, moral and pedagogical potential, the command of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Academy contributed to the consolidation of veteran movements. As a result, in the 2003, the Moscow City Organization of Veterans of the Strategic Missile Forces was formed, numbering about 12 thousands of rocket men. The academy also became its base. An important element of the educational system is the academic museum. It is based in 1968 and is currently a research and educational unit, whose funds include about 10 thousands of storage units, more than 600 sculptures and paintings. The academic library plays an exceptional role in the intellectual development and personality formation of rocket officers - more than 825 thousands of storage units. Only a collection of rarities, including books of the XV century, has about 70 thousands of volumes.
The listed elements of the intellectual and material basis of the system of spiritual-moral and patriotic education cannot be placed on the supposed new place of the academy due to the lack of space. Thus, the educational work in it will be overwhelmed.
Eclipses national security
The above list of the destructive consequences of a voluntarist decision on the Academy is far from complete. Obviously, problems will arise with the implementation of plans to eliminate the Military-Technical University. In particular, with the fulfillment of contractual obligations to students enrolled on a fee basis, the employment of reduced officers and civilian personnel, the release of official housing.
Recently there have been hints that the redeployment of the academy, taking into account the identified problem issues, can be carried out in stages. At the beginning, the departments (or their part) and the variable composition, with which the classes begin with 1 September of the current year, move. The remaining units are relocated until the summer of 2016. This compromise, without changing anything on the merits, only strengthens the doubts about the validity of the whole undertaking with the redeployment at the appointed time of its commencement. After all, if part of the institution can still remain in the same place, why do you need to drive another part of it to the unfinished premises and imitate the supposedly successful start of the school year? Need to report to someone?
What is all this done for? They say that only for the benefit of the Academy. Say, on its current territory in Moscow, the university has no development prospects. We will try to clarify what kind of development we are talking about. Buildings and facilities at the Academy is enough. All the necessary infrastructure and training facilities have long been established either on the Moscow site or in the suburban training center and branch office. Only moderate and timely funds are required for their maintenance, repair and modernization. Moreover, if the academy’s area of its academic building was returned to the units of the Ministry of Defense’s apparatus, it would be quite possible for them to accommodate today's 4 Central Research Institute, since its integration with the Academy in the framework of the VUNC is the main driving idea. In any case, the cost of developing the academy, including the option of creating VUNC RVSN in its present territory, would be incomparably smaller than that required for the infrastructure in Balashikha. And most importantly, all the unacceptable relocation costs would be practically nullified.
The point, apparently, is different. Most likely, as was the case with previous attempts to expel the academy from the capital, at the end of a personal or corporate financial interest. It seems so big that it overshadows even national security issues.
In our deep conviction, the planned redeployment of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces to Balashikha, it is unclear than motivated and unprepared, objectively lead to the destruction of one of the leading military universities in Russia. With all the attendant additional and extremely inappropriate problems now ensuring the security of the country.
The authors hope that this article will be considered as an additional open reference to the leadership of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defense.
A series of publications in the newspaper "Military Industrial Complex" on the reform of military science and military education proves: administrative itch is not yet moderate. Readers know the intention of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense to redeploy to the Balashikha Moscow Region Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great and the 4 Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, combining them into a military educational and scientific center of the Strategic Missile Forces. This implies the liquidation of the Spetsstroy Military-Technical University based in Balashikha with the transfer of its funds for the placement of the newly formed VUNC.
It is unlikely that an extremely negative reaction of the academy’s staff to such a decision was unexpected for someone. Scientific-pedagogical workers and veterans of the Academy reflected their bewilderment and disagreement in collective appeals to the Minister of Defense, the President, the State Duma and the Security Council. The statutory deadlines for the consideration of these letters have expired or are expiring, but there are still no answers.
Since 20 March, a lively discussion has been launched in the network on this issue, initiated by the appearance of a comment by State Duma deputy (Communist Party faction), Doctor of Technical Sciences Ivan Nikitchuk entitled “Is the Defense Ministry again a real estate trading company?”. Officials of the department did not enter the discussion, an “unnamed source” otdivaetsya for them, which, on the one hand, confirms the intention to redeploy the academy and the 4 Central Research Institute, and on the other hand, makes it clear that this is not the initiative of the Ministry of Defense. Whose? And why did the ministry completely agree with her?
Up to full optimization
The most remarkable thing in the program for the creation of educational and scientific centers that is being promoted is that the fate of being hastily relocated is prepared only for the Strategic Missile Forces Academy. The remaining educational and research organizations involved in the next stage of the reform either do not move anywhere or are relocated only when the necessary infrastructure is ready. What are the rocket men guilty before their native state? And why did it take such an unusual for peacetime emergency relocation method?
The staff of the academy, who for ethical reasons had not previously intended to remove the rubbish from the departmental hut, did not consider it possible to continue to remain silent. We were also pushed to this by the fact that the command of the academy and the Strategic Missile Forces, for a number of reasons, is not free in choosing and defending their position. In this regard, the top goes dosed and retouched information that does not reflect the tragedy of the situation. Perhaps the radical solutions to the academy are partly explained by this. So we consider it our duty to expose the truth in all its glory.
The positive effect of the integration of military universities and specialized research institutes by domestic practice has not yet been confirmed. The experience of such a reorganization has not even been properly analyzed by anyone. To take the word for today's initiators of the next stage of reform, to recklessly rely on foreign practice at least frivolously. And earlier, when there were several universities in each branch of the Armed Forces and the kind of troops (up to nine in the Rocket Forces), the reformist mistakes were painful. Now, when the only institution of higher education has remained in the RVSN, they can have irreparable consequences.
In general, with regard to the concept of VUNC RVSN in the configuration of the Military Academy of the RVSN - 4 Central Research Institute, one thing is certain: it is necessary that at least one of the two components (and better both) be able to fulfill the role of a locomotive. Alas, neither the academy, nor the institute, exhausted by previous organizational experiments, are now incapable of such a role. And the union of the two weakened organizations will only lead to their joint accelerated degradation.
Photo: RIA NEWS
It is necessary to provide an opportunity for the university and the research institute to recover from the shocks in their usual organizational environment for several years. And only after that proceed to the integration.
At present, after the multi-stage “optimization” of the military education system, the Academy has remained the only institution of higher education of the Strategic Missile Forces with a branch in Serpukhov in the Moscow Region and a country training center in the Kaluga Region. Prepares command-engineering and scientific-pedagogical personnel for all types and types of troops of the Armed Forces, the General Staff, the 12-th Main Directorate, other central military bodies of the Ministry of Defense. Until recently, orders for the training of military engineers were placed here by the FSO and the FSB. According to its profile, the Academy is a strictly regime institution where issues of state secret protection and special selection of permanent and variable staff have a high weight.
Despite the great losses incurred as a result of the never-ending reforming, especially in 2007 – 2012, the Academy still has an impressive scientific and pedagogical potential, sufficient for the qualitative solution of the tasks assigned to it. It consists of 112 PhDs (92 percent is for civilian personnel) and 412 PhDs (55 percent is civilian personnel), 24 scientific schools, including 5 recognized by the country's leading and supported by grants from the President of Russia. To replenish and build up the scientific potential, 20 dissertation councils of the Higher Attestation Commission with the right to defend closed doctoral and candidate theses in 6 branches of science and 5 scientific specialties have been successfully deployed for about 17 years. The academy employs 15 laureates of state value prizes; about 140 employees are awarded state and departmental honorary titles. As civilian personnel, a dozen or so senior officers in retirement, who held positions from the commander of the missile division, are equal and above, and also more than 90 of yesterday's officers, heads of the main structural divisions of the academy, transfer their invaluable experience to the trainees. A system of spiritual and moral education of rocket officers was created and debugged, which is considered one of the priorities of modern military education in the academy.
Object of special attention
From the first years of the modern period of Russian statehood, the Academy, more precisely, about 13 hectares of land under its buildings and structures in the center of Moscow, has been the subject of close attention of many. Apparently, the official palm in this should be given to the former mayor Yuri Luzhkov. In 1994-1998, he twice appealed to President Boris Yeltsin with a request to agree to study the option of creating a complex of buildings for the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the territory of the academy. In exchange, it was promised to erect up to 50 thousand square meters of premises in the South-Western region of Moscow. Pavel Grachev, who headed the Ministry of Defense in 1994, did not object in principle to the redeployment of the academy under these conditions. Due to the encumbrance of the Academy buildings with the status of a protected facility and the onset of the economic crisis, these plans were not realized, but they were not forgotten. The defense ministers changed, but every two or three years there was another version of the relocation (a structural unit of the General Staff Military Academy to its funds, to Serpukhov, to Vlasikha, to Bolshevo, etc.). Already without the obligation of advance arrangement. Anatoly Serdyukov came especially close to achieving his desired goal. At the end of 2007, he devoted his short stay at the academy only to a cursory inspection of the territory and a careful study of security certificates in historical building. The intervention of the State Duma and personally Communist Deputy Sergei Obukhov did not allow to complete the expulsion of the university from its habitable place at that time. However, the prevailing nervous situation persisted, corrupting people, preventing the allocation of funds for repair and infrastructure development, provoking the outflow of the most valuable, experienced and promising personnel from the academy, complicating the already difficult reception situation. Especially from among civic youth.
The situation around and inside the academy began to noticeably improve with the appointment of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. During his visit to the university at the end of 2012, he publicly expressed the desirability of leaving the academy in a traditional location. And next year, he documented this decision, approving the program for the development of the university to 2020, which includes the necessary measures for the reconstruction and technical re-equipment of the buildings occupied by the academy. People finally breathed a sigh of relief, began to fully engage in their direct responsibilities. Especially since the transition to a new legislative basis of national education, the next reassignment of universities and the resumption of the recruitment of cadets that were interrupted by Serdyukov for three years increased the volume of tasks several times.
Unfortunately and a great disappointment, the respite was short-lived. In 2014, the new chairman of the Supreme National Command of the Armed Forces, Stanislav Suvorov, initiated another round of hysteria around the military-scientific complex. There is a variant of the formation of VUNC RVSN on the funds built from scratch for three to five years in Odintsovo. Note that this proposal at the academy did not cause much criticism. Mainly because it assumed the advance preparation of the entire modern infrastructure, did not create additional difficulties in cooperation with the command of the Strategic Missile Forces and provided the necessary time resource for working out mechanisms to counter possible problems. However, the Academy and the 4 Central Research Institute did not even have time to comprehend this prospect, as in early February the task was set to work out an emergency (until 1 September 2015) September relocation of the Academy to Balashikha for the funds of the Military Technical University. After building the missing buildings, the 2016 Central Research Institute should also move there until the end of 4.
On the basis of inconvenience
The planned redeployment of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces cannot be considered in isolation, outside the context of the ongoing reforms of military education and science. Dozens of educational institutions were liquidated, ostensibly as unnecessary. Many are reformatted and / or relocated. Among them are the Academy: Military Engineering named after V.V. Kuybyshev, armored forces named after R.Ya. Malinovsky, radiation, chemical and biological protection named after S.K. Tymoshenko, Air Force named after Yu.A. Gagarin, Military-air engineering behalf of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky. Now, this sad series should replenish the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great. The destructive process continues.
Why in general is our military leadership so disposed towards the redeployment of universities? Having stepped on a rake once, it still has not bothered to instruct an independent expert commission to identify the positive and negative consequences and present them to the public on a public display.
It is well known that the university environment, in contrast to the purely military one, is rather conservative. It is precisely this that makes it possible to parry continuous local destabilization in the form of a change of generations of teachers and scholars, educational paradigms and technologies, changes in the requirements for the content of student training, reduction of quantitative and qualitative parameters of their recruitment, etc., provides the possibility of steady progressive development. Of course, until the intensity of destabilization reaches the threshold of irreversible destruction.
Certain losses, primarily personnel, are inevitable with any redeployment. And even in the most benign options, it will take some time (years) to restore the university to its former condition. However, what is scheduled to be done with the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces, otherwise it is impossible to qualify as a deliberate defeat. Even if the initiators and performers are not aware of this.
Balashikha is near, but it is extremely inconvenient to get from Moscow. On average, two to three hours one way with several transfers (including by taxi) and additional transport costs. In addition, when relocating outside the Moscow Ring Road, both military and civilian personnel will lose in remuneration. Plus, the problems of employment, study, medical care for family members, etc. Due to the combination of these simple human inconveniences, the majority of qualified civilian personnel (and these are mostly aged people) will not go to Balashikha until 15 – 20. According to preliminary estimates, this will entail the loss of up to 70 percent of the existing human resources, including almost all scientific schools, and the self-disintegration of most dissertation councils. It is impossible to quickly compensate for such terrible losses by equivalent specialized specialists with appropriate tolerances. That is, a collapse in the quality of educational activities at the university is inevitable for at least the next five to ten years. This will especially affect the professional training of commanders and engineers for military units of the level of a rocket regiment - a rocket division - an object of the 12-th GU MO. Nowhere, except for the academy, such specialists are not being prepared now and the transfer of this function to another university is excluded in the foreseeable future. After all, it is these people who should later play a key role in solving the tasks of maintaining alertness and nuclear safety. The undermining of the scientific potential and the destruction of part of dissertation councils will make it impossible for qualified reproduction of certified scientists to replace lost ones, not to mention ensuring the improvement of the quality of graduates' training claimed by the initiators of the redeployment.
Currently available buildings and facilities of the university are able to satisfy the needs of the academy in training, laboratory and other premises by no more than 30 – 40 percent. These and reconstructed premises of the WTU are completely unsuitable and cannot be used for the placement and storage of especially sensitive special items, conducting classes and performing research projects on the subject matter prevailing in the academy. Additional equipment and inspection of premises, construction of new ones for specific storage requirements for special products require new investments and are not carried out at the most rapid pace for three to four months. That is, if we exclude the authorized admissibility of absolute disregard for the protection of state secrets, it turns out that it is impossible to conduct classes and research on a closed subject at a new place. The duration of this period will be significantly affected by budget financing resources. They are known to be very limited now and are unlikely to expand in the future. We can not exclude the fact that the level of arrangement of the academy in a new place, which was urgently achieved by 1 in September of 2015, will remain so for a long time.
A blow to prestige and patriotism
A direct consequence of the everyday disorder and deterioration of the quality parameters of a permanent composition (albeit temporarily) will be a decrease in the prestige of the academy. This is definitely a negative impact on the acquisition. No one can guarantee that all customers of specialists (for example, the General Staff units) will put up with a decrease in their level of preparation, patiently waiting for the Academy to “recover” slowly. And without a stable order, any university loses the right to exist.
Our political and military leadership undoubtedly knows that in the present conditions of informational, political and economic aggression against Russia, the patriotism of the officer corps and the confidence of its command should not be doubted in the least. The unprepared redeployment of the Academy will destroy the system of spiritual-moral and military-patriotic education successfully fulfilling its mission for many years. In 90-s of the last century, this system was completely dismantled. The consequences are the spread in the military environment of pessimism, acquisitiveness and corruption, neglect of official duties and property separation, reduction of professionalism and the breakdown of successive ties between generations of rocket men.
A long search for new forms of spiritual and moral influence on people led to the creation of the Faculty of Orthodox Culture at the Academy in 1996 as a non-governmental institution of additional education. The initiative of the rocket engineers was supported by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II and approved by the Military Council of the Strategic Missile Forces. At the end of the past and the beginning of the 21st century, the veteran movement began to flourish in the Strategic Missile Forces. Recognizing its enormous spiritual, moral and pedagogical potential, the command of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Academy contributed to the consolidation of veteran movements. As a result, in the 2003, the Moscow City Organization of Veterans of the Strategic Missile Forces was formed, numbering about 12 thousands of rocket men. The academy also became its base. An important element of the educational system is the academic museum. It is based in 1968 and is currently a research and educational unit, whose funds include about 10 thousands of storage units, more than 600 sculptures and paintings. The academic library plays an exceptional role in the intellectual development and personality formation of rocket officers - more than 825 thousands of storage units. Only a collection of rarities, including books of the XV century, has about 70 thousands of volumes.
The listed elements of the intellectual and material basis of the system of spiritual-moral and patriotic education cannot be placed on the supposed new place of the academy due to the lack of space. Thus, the educational work in it will be overwhelmed.
Eclipses national security
The above list of the destructive consequences of a voluntarist decision on the Academy is far from complete. Obviously, problems will arise with the implementation of plans to eliminate the Military-Technical University. In particular, with the fulfillment of contractual obligations to students enrolled on a fee basis, the employment of reduced officers and civilian personnel, the release of official housing.
Recently there have been hints that the redeployment of the academy, taking into account the identified problem issues, can be carried out in stages. At the beginning, the departments (or their part) and the variable composition, with which the classes begin with 1 September of the current year, move. The remaining units are relocated until the summer of 2016. This compromise, without changing anything on the merits, only strengthens the doubts about the validity of the whole undertaking with the redeployment at the appointed time of its commencement. After all, if part of the institution can still remain in the same place, why do you need to drive another part of it to the unfinished premises and imitate the supposedly successful start of the school year? Need to report to someone?
What is all this done for? They say that only for the benefit of the Academy. Say, on its current territory in Moscow, the university has no development prospects. We will try to clarify what kind of development we are talking about. Buildings and facilities at the Academy is enough. All the necessary infrastructure and training facilities have long been established either on the Moscow site or in the suburban training center and branch office. Only moderate and timely funds are required for their maintenance, repair and modernization. Moreover, if the academy’s area of its academic building was returned to the units of the Ministry of Defense’s apparatus, it would be quite possible for them to accommodate today's 4 Central Research Institute, since its integration with the Academy in the framework of the VUNC is the main driving idea. In any case, the cost of developing the academy, including the option of creating VUNC RVSN in its present territory, would be incomparably smaller than that required for the infrastructure in Balashikha. And most importantly, all the unacceptable relocation costs would be practically nullified.
The point, apparently, is different. Most likely, as was the case with previous attempts to expel the academy from the capital, at the end of a personal or corporate financial interest. It seems so big that it overshadows even national security issues.
In our deep conviction, the planned redeployment of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces to Balashikha, it is unclear than motivated and unprepared, objectively lead to the destruction of one of the leading military universities in Russia. With all the attendant additional and extremely inappropriate problems now ensuring the security of the country.
The authors hope that this article will be considered as an additional open reference to the leadership of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defense.
- Nikolay Kotlovtsev, Remus Markitan, Victor Sredin, Alexander Rassolov
- http://vpk-news.ru/articles/24776
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