|
Soviet Union [USSR] Officers
The profession of officer in the armed forces has been
prestigious and well respected in the Soviet Union. The number of
officers was very large, in part because the armed forces have
contained a large number of conscripts and relatively few NCOs. The
presence of a political officer, or zampolit, in every
company or battery also has significantly raised the total number
of officers.
As of 1989, the Soviet Union had the world's largest officer
training system. At the secondary level, it had eight Suvorov
military schools and one Nakhimov Naval Secondary School to prepare
fifteen- and sixteen-year-old cadets, who were often sons of
officers, for direct admission into higher military education
institutions.
In 1989 the Soviet Union had about 140 higher military schools,
which trained officers for each armed service or combat arm. Young
men between seventeen and twenty-one, who had a secondary
education, could apply for admission into higher military schools.
Servicemen under the age of twenty-three could also apply.
Admission was based on a competitive examination in Russian
language and literature, Soviet history, physics, and mathematics,
as well as a thorough review of an applicant's political and
educational background.
Each higher military school had over 1,000 cadets and trained
either command, engineering, or political officers for a particular
combat arm (see
table 55, Appendix A). The four- or five-year
curriculum of command schools included about 60 percent military
science, weapons, and tactics instruction and 40 percent general
sciences education and political training. Cadets in political or
engineering schools received correspondingly more political or
technical instruction. Upon graduation cadets received university
diplomas and were commissioned as junior lieutenants. The higher
military schools and reserve officer training programs in about 900
civilian higher education institutions produced about 60,000 new
officers for the armed forces each year.
Junior officers remained in their assignments for long periods
and were evaluated for promotion every four years based on their
professional knowledge, performance, and
moral-political capabilities (see Glossary). Some junior
officer promotions were
almost automatic because the time-in-grade requirement for
advancement in rank was only two years. Officers' monthly pay
ranged between 150 rubles for lieutenants and 2,000 rubles for
generals, which was considerably more than the salary of most
managers in the civilian sector.
Officers had greater opportunities to commit infractions of
military law than ordinary servicemen, and their most common
criminal offense was bribery. Officers inspecting units accepted
bribes in return for overlooking training deficiencies, accidents,
or disciplinary breaches. The misuse of state property, and
vehicles in particular, was also widespread. According to the Law
on Universal Military Service, however, officers could be
discharged for committing acts that disgraced their titles.
Upon reaching the rank of senior lieutenant or captain, many
officers began to prepare for competitive examinations to enter one
of seventeen military academies. Candidates for admission must have
held a regimental command position and received excellent ratings
and have been endorsed by the political directorate of their
command or service. The two- or three-year program of a Soviet
military academy was similar to command and staff training or war
colleges in Western countries. Each armed service and combat arm
had its own academy. The Frunze Military Academy, the most
prestigious at its level, specialized in combined arms training but
was attended predominantly by Ground Forces officers. Advanced
study in military academies involved major military science
research projects that were frequently published in books or
articles. Military academies awarded diplomas equivalent to
master's or doctoral degrees in the West. They also conducted
correspondence courses leading to similar degrees.
Graduation from a military academy was practically a
requirement for advancement to higher rank. In particular,
graduation from the Voroshilov General Staff Academy, the highestlevel academy, was a prerequisite for appointment to important
Ministry of Defense and General Staff positions. Among its
graduates have been the ministers of defense of the Warsaw Pact
countries. High rank has brought a salary of as much as 2,000
rubles monthly and other perquisites that come with being part of
the elite. For example, many generals had summer homes reportedly
built with government construction materials and military manpower.
Officers were not under pressure to advance in rank, and higher
ranked officers were not forced to retire early from the armed
services. In theory, an officer could serve as a junior lieutenant
until age forty. Mandatory retirement began at forty and went up to
age sixty for major generals. Above this rank, general officers
could get extensions and were effectively exempt from mandatory
retirement. In practice, many officers who resisted retirement were
put to work in civil defense or DOSAAF organizations. High-ranking
officers often moved into the Ministry of Defense's Main
Inspectorate as senior inspectors or became the heads of higher
military schools or academies.
Data as of May 1989
|
