ARMY: EXPECTATIONS vs REALITY (my family experience)

YEAAHH!

My soldier is at home!!

But let's start from the very beginning;)

Army is a school of life, as Russians say.
In army boys become men.
Army changes people greatly.

It's loud, nice, but very abstract words, when army comes into your own family, you start to worry.

Last year army knocked into my family's door. My brother's son, my nephew, was called to the state army.

According to the rules all boys of about 18-20 are called to the army.
If they have some medical reasons, they can be free from this "duty to the Motherland", all the rest should go there.

Of course, there is corruption in this sphere too, and kids of rich parents never go there (they all are "sick" according to their docs, but what strange diseases! they prevent them only going to the army, all the rest activities are available without any restrictions!)

So our boy, our kid (yeah, even when he is 19 he is a kid because I was his nurse from his birth;) was called to serve in the army.

How proud he was! How long he was waiting for it and dreaming of it!
He wanted to be an adult, to be an independent man and prove he could do it.

But we all worried very much...
Why?

Because of sad past of Russian (and all other neighbour countries) army.

The problem is that 90-s were years of anarchy and outrage. And army wasn't a place of exception.

Abuse and humiliation reigned there in those years.

Army has to make men from boys.
But THAT army just destroyed people. Just killed them morally and physically.

There were thousands of cases when boys just committed suicides...
Personally I know parents who lost their son after the army...He just came home and couldn't live any more...

There were many cases when parents took their kids home after cruel abuse and beating...

The reason why it happened was in so called "dedovtschina" - (there is no analogue in English, it's not a classical word, it's more like slang,
but I tried to translate it like "grandfatherness"

The thing is that "grandfather" was a slang name for those soldiers who had come to the army earlier than the rest.

In the past boys had to serve for 2 years. So those who came for example in 1991 were "grandfathers" for all the rest who came in 1992.

They considered themselves to be more experienced, stronger, more powerful and just cool to dictate and rule younger boys.
And if they reject to be their slaves, they became victims of abuse and beating...

Unfortunately, boys didn't have protection even among officers, because it was shame if they complained to them or parents, and sometimes officers even supported this outrage...

Was it legal? Of course, not, but at that time laws existed only in the documents..

So now you understand WHY my family worried SO much about going to the army now.

Of course, now things have changed greatly, and there is no such outrage any more, but loving hearts always worry and doubt..

Moreover, our boy was sent to the North, to Vladikavkaz, where eastern nations live.
We call them "hot blood", and they are sometimes not very friendly with Russian people.
So we've a double reason to worry.

But thanks Heaven everything was fine!!

It was a nice place with nice and friedly people, and even eastern boys were kind and open!

they had great conditions for life, good nutrition and fair officers-commanders.

It's one of the houses for soldiers

It's a place for trainings

It's a canteen

And the main this bloody phenomenon as "grandfatherness" disappeared forever!

Our boy served during 1 year, and he really became a real man!;)

He changed greatly, he became more serious, more responsible, much wiser and much manly!

We didn't see him during this year, only phone calls sometimes, and how happy we were to see him at home...
Tears of happiness!

This is my gift for him.

It's a token, a necklace with his army photo he had sent to me, and the number of his army disctrict;)

Now we're proud of him and of the fact this cruel army past has gone forever...