Was military service in Russia compulsory?

Answer 1

Conscription has become a source of dread for many young Russian men and their families; an estimated 18,000 dodged military service in 2003, usually on health grounds. Given the current state of the Russian army, it's not hard to understand their lack of enthusiasm for the military.

In September 2003 a Ministry of Defence report revealed that some 1,200 military personnel had died in the previous year in non-combat situations. Year on year there are more deaths caused by accidents, negligence, bullying and suicide than by actual combat. Young conscripts are, of course, more likely to be the victims of bullying (that is beatings by other soldiers and officers) than anyone else.

Two months later, the Russian public was scandalised when a TV company showed pictures of conscripts who, rather than learning the arts of war, were working long shifts for no pay in a cardboard box factory. To make matters worse, they had in fact been hired out by their own commander, who was earning a dollar per day for each of them.

The most recent headlines came in January of this year. Fifty soldiers were hospitalised with severe respiratory illnesses after being forced to stand outside at a Siberian railway station without adequate clothing. One eighteen-year old boy died of pneumonia.

Amidst this picture of misery, a law came into effect on the 1 January allowing alternative civil service. A welcome development certainly, though it is unlikely to be of huge comfort to potential conscripts.

Firstly, applicants must make their case at least six months in advance of the call-up, often when they are seventeen years old.

Secondly, civilian service lasts 42 months -three and a half years- rather than the standard 24. The service is reduced to 36 months if it is carried out in a military establishment!

Finally, the jobs on offer to those who object to military service are resolutely harsh and unrewarding: cleaning in hospitals and retirement homes, working on farms in remote villages.

In any case, there can hardly be talk of an end to compulsory military service when a mere 216 people have been granted ACS, out of the total 166,050 called up.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia, military service has been introduced as of 2004. Service is only for three months, and roughly 20% of eighteen year olds -both boys and girls- are selected for the scheme by way of a lottery.