Vitaliy Mykhailovich Azarov was born in 1954 in Lviv. After graduating from the Leningrad Higher Command School named after M. V. Frunze in 1975, he served in the railway troops. He commanded a platoon, a company, was the deputy commander of a battalion, a brigade on the political side. In 1988, he graduated from the Military-Political Academy named after V. I. Lenin. He was deputy corps commander, commander of the railway troops for educational work. Since 1997 in the Main Department of Educational work.

By decree of the President of the Russian Federation in February 1999, he was appointed Head of the Main Department of Educational Work of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Public and state training in the 2001 academic year*

The scale of the tasks being solved by the Russian state justifiably makes us think about the spiritual state of our society. In his Address to the Federal Assembly of Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin drew special attention to the importance of spiritual and moral values in the development of the country. The spiritual and moral factor plays an important role in the life of the Armed Forces, especially during the period of their reform and formation in a new capacity. Without relying on the spiritual forces of the army and navy, without careful and careful use of the human factor, it is impossible to count on the successful implementation of military reforms.

The formation of positive spiritual values is a complex and multifaceted process. It cannot be spontaneous and requires serious, painstaking, systematic activity. The most important place in the system of value orientation of military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, of course, belongs to public and state training. The long-running dispute over whether public and state training should shape the worldview of military personnel was resolved by life itself, clearly demonstrating that there is no spiritual vacuum in society. The refusal to take an active position on this issue only served to strengthen the influence of various preachers who seek to impose on our youth and soldiers of the Armed Forces not only an alien, but sometimes extremely dangerous system of values for Russian statehood. Currently, there are more than 2.5 thousand socio-political parties and movements operating in the country, most of which, among the program ones, set themselves the tasks of working in the military. A number of these movements are extremist. They negatively affect the consciousness of young people and their preparation for service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The number of registered religious associations is also growing - more than 19 thousand. Among them, the number of destructive religious organizations operating in the areas of deployment of formations and military units, seeking to involve military personnel and their families in their ranks, is increasing. Such facts took place in Nizhne-Tagil, Krasnoznamensk, Maloyaroslavsky, Stavropol and other garrisons. The result of their activities is an increase in the number of conscripts who do not want to serve in the military for religious reasons.

To this, we can add the complex information environment in which the Armed Forces have to perform their tasks, In the Russian Federation there are more than

* In this issue of the journal, we publish Methodological Recommendations on the organization of public and state training and Standard Curricula of the UCP for the 2001 academic year.

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5 thousand different print and electronic media. TV programs of mass media of major foreign countries are accepted throughout the country. Low-grade audio, video, and print products are distributed in large print runs.

Taking into account the difficult socio-political, religious and informational situation in the country, drawing lessons from our own negative experience, we must once and for all abandon the "schoolboy" approach to public and state training, when the main effort is spent on simple assimilation, and sometimes memorization of basic knowledge, and when not the worldview of the serviceman, not his attitude the average score is the only and main criterion for its effectiveness.

Such an approach is simply unacceptable today. It follows from an elementary misunderstanding of the essence of the main purpose of the UCP. Therefore, heads of educational work bodies at all levels need to do everything possible to make commanders (superiors) realize that public and state training is not just one of the subjects of combat training, but the most important and most effective channel of ideological and informational influence on the consciousness of military personnel today.

Hence, the main tasks of public and state training are:: active promotion of patriotism, heroic traditions of our people, courage and exploits of defenders of the Fatherland, education of pride for belonging to the Russian Army and Navy, development of historical consciousness of our soldiers. In the end, it should form state thinking among military personnel, a sense of responsibility for the fate of the country and its Armed Forces.

From all of the above, the only correct conclusion for the organizers of information and educational work is that the time experienced by the country and the Armed Forces places the highest demands on the professionalism of UCP officers and information officers, heads of training groups. At the present time, it is unacceptable to view our activities through the prism of stereotypes of ten years ago, when we all lived in a relatively stable society, when there was no significant social differentiation of the population, multiparty system, pluralism, a wide range of opinions on the most important issues of foreign and domestic policy of the state, when a single ideology prevailed.

Today, the UCP and information officer, the head of the training group, in order to find the way to the heart and consciousness of a serviceman, must be a convinced, consistent, skillful propagandist of the ideas of patriotism, statehood, and selfless service to the Fatherland. And to do this, they must be a highly moral person, constantly work to improve their professional level, have a deep knowledge of the history of Russia and the Russian Armed Forces, be able to accumulate and analyze information, clearly and argumentatively explain to military personnel and civilian personnel the essence of current events in the country and abroad, the prospects for the development of the Russian state, quickly and effectively counteract the negative information and psychological impact on personnel. Attempts to justify the low efficiency of activities by referring to the difficult social situation, spiritual disunity of society, the tendentiousness of the mass media and other negative factors cannot be considered legitimate. They only indicate an absolute lack of understanding of their role in modern processes. Only by overcoming these difficulties, showing initiative and perseverance, can a qualitatively new state of public and state training be achieved. It is by following this path that Colonels Alexander Moskalenko (SKVO), Alexander Osipov (GU SV), Vladimir Kapistka (GU GSH), and Alexander Trai (UNS) achieve certain success in organizing the UCP. Anatoly Aksenov (VSCH).

Of course, we are not talking about the fact that the Main Department of Educational Work of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation relies only on the initiative from below, without taking any measures to improve the effectiveness of public and state training. The priority area today is the educational and methodological support of classes in the UCP. This is due, on the one hand, to the changed socio-political conditions, as a result of which almost all the previously developed educational and methodological literature has lost its relevance. On the other hand, in information and educational work, it is fundamentally important what sources the heads of educational groups use in preparing for classes. Both the content and ideological orientation of the UCP depend crucially on this.

Based on this, the Main Department of Educational Work, together with the departments of educational work of the branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, districts (fleets), has done quite a lot of work. For the first time in recent years, training manuals on the UCP were prepared and published in mass editions for soldiers and sergeants "In the service of the Fatherland!" (more than 700 thousand), as well as for officers and warrant officers "In the name of Russia" (80 thousand). Regular publication of training manuals for group leaders of the UCP " Otechestvo. Honour. Debt", five such issues have already been published. More than twenty-five training videos have been prepared. Developments have become more meaningful

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educational topics on UCP, published by the magazine "Orientir". All this bypasses the process of preparing for classes, but in no way reduces the importance of serious independent training of the group leader. And this is exactly how some representatives of the educational authorities took these measures, who decided that now the head does not seem to have any need to prepare for classes: I voiced the book, showed the film, and on this, consider your mission accomplished. This is a deeply erroneous and incorrect idea!

The team leader is still the main figure in the system of public and state training. The effectiveness of classes in public and state training depends crucially on their knowledge and methodological skills. To date, skilful, creative, live communication with military personnel on the impact on consciousness, by the nature of feedback, covers the possibilities of other channels of information dissemination and largely neutralizes the negative information and psychological impact exerted on military collectives. But this, I emphasize, is done with good methodological training of the manager. Unfortunately, it is one of the sore spots in the organization of public and state training. And as a result - schoolboyism, lack of proper argumentation and system in the study of the fundamental issues of the history of Russia and its army, problems of state and political life of the country, military construction. All this reduces the level of ideological influence on military personnel, emasculates the main meaning of the UCP. The main reasons for this state of affairs are: first, shortcomings in the selection of UCP group leaders, as evidenced by the work of GUVRa representatives in the troops (forces); second, the poor quality of training sessions and instructional and methodological sessions with UCP group leaders on the ground, and a low degree of participation in their training and conduct of senior staff third, the lack of time for independent work, as well as control over the self - education of officers-group leaders. This disadvantage, with rare exceptions, is typical for all units (ships) and divisions of the Armed Forces. Without serious independent training, it is difficult to expect an increase in the methodological skills of class leaders. To date, the detachment of UCP group leaders represents a very impressive force - more than 60 thousand people.

In the organization of public and state training, an important place belongs to the UCP and information officer. The quality of not only public and state training, but also all information and educational work in the unit, on the ship, depends crucially on his professionalism and attitude to business. The analysis of the personnel situation shows that recently, officers who do not have special training (today it is already more than 50 percent), are inclined to this activity, and, moreover, have little idea of their role and place in the structure of information and educational work are often appointed to this position. Their inability to establish themselves as professionals leads to the fact that these officers are often used to perform functions that are not typical of them. Of particular concern is the emergence of a "new" style of work, the meaning of which is reduced only to relaying plans, instructions, manuals, counting the missing number of textbooks, etc. As for direct participation in propaganda work, this is considered the lot of only the leaders of the UCP groups. There is sometimes a situation when officers responsible for organizing public and state training at various levels do not personally participate in conducting classes, are afraid and do not want to perform in military collectives. They appear in subordinate military collectives only in the role of inspectors. This practice is unacceptable. Today, this most important area of work requires not statisticians, but specialists who are able to effectively defend and promote the system of spiritual values, without which the existence of our state and the Armed Forces is unthinkable.

It is at least perplexing that some managers at various levels avoid participating in the organization and conduct of public-state training under various pretexts. In the context of intense information warfare, this is not only a short-sighted, but also a very dangerous position. It is fraught with the loss of information and ideological influence on the personnel, the strengthening of ideological expansion on the part of various kinds of destructive and extremist forces. History knows many cases when such a development of events led to the loss of controllability of the armed forces and the sad fate of the officer corps itself. Interesting in this regard are the observations of the Tsarist Army officer N. V. Kolesnikov, who survived the crash' The Russian Imperial Army in 1917. It shows that one of the reasons for that tragedy was the underestimation of the importance of information and educational work. "Too little attention," writes Kolesnikov, " was paid to the organization of patriotic education of personnel, the study of the glorious pages of the army's history, and explanatory work among soldiers. The officers were told: "Talk!", but how to do it, from what sources, how and what to say - they were silent. Why? Yes, because it is easier to try cabbage soup, watch footcloths, than to educate the soul. They themselves did not know, did not know how, did not understand and did not suspect the significance of this upbringing." Today, in my opinion, these words sound no less relevant. Their topicality

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It also increases due to the fact that public-state training is of great public importance. After all, the conscripted army is not only an armed force, but also a school for educating millions and millions of Russian young men and preparing them for public life. The spiritual image of Russian society, the prestige of military labor, the status of an officer, and the authority of the army and navy will largely depend on what spiritual values they will absorb in the Armed Forces. Without all this, it is difficult to count on the country's recovery from the crisis.

One of the important problems that still exists in the organization of public and state training in some units ( on ships) is its insufficient connection with the life of units, weak direct influence on the moral climate in the team, the state of law and order and military discipline, the level of combat readiness, the quality of training and combat tasks. Talking about the effectiveness of the UCP outside of these basic aspects of military life is meaningless.

Classes in public and state training cannot be held for the sake of classes as such, in order to report "up" on the implementation of instructions. At the same time, the actual practice of working in the armed forces (forces) shows that even at the planning stage of the UCP, you can face a situation where the curriculum does not take into account the specifics of the tasks being solved by the type of Armed Forces, branch of the Armed Forces, management, association, connection, part, as well as their features and historical traditions. Independence and initiative within the established framework are extremely insufficient. As a result, the content of classes on the ground is disconnected from life, pressing issues solved by the personnel of units (ships).

All officials should clearly understand that the Standard curriculum, having reached the shelf (ship), should be transformed into a thematic one, including adjustments to topics, forms of classes, and the number of hours on a particular topic. That is, plans should not be ossified. They should work! As for the number of hours allocated to the UCP, in this matter it is necessary to strictly follow the order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 250 of 1993, instructions and methodological recommendations of the Main Department of Educational Work on the organization of the UCP in the new academic year, clarifying and supplementing this order.

The following year, 2001, opens the XXI century, the new millennium. It marks not only another milestone in the chronology of human civilization, but also a new stage in its qualitative improvement. According to experts ' forecasts, this process will be accompanied by further development of new information technologies. We have no right not to take this factor into account when organizing public and state training. Therefore, even today, UCP and information officers need to actively master new techniques, new forms of work, and boldly introduce new information technologies into the educational process. Of course, one can complain about the backwardness of the material base, the lack of funds, and a number of other objective and subjective reasons. But this position can hardly be called constructive. And it is absolutely impossible to expect tangible success in information and educational work with such an attitude.

Speaking about the main tasks of public and state training in the 2001 academic year, I would like to remind you once again that it cannot be conducted in the abstract, in isolation from the tasks that our country solves. Armed Forces, formation, or unit (ship). Therefore, the main efforts of the UCP should be directed at explaining the policy of the country's leadership in strengthening the statehood and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, in reforming the Armed Forces. In the current academic year, such important documents as the Concept of National Security and the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation were adopted. The study of these guidelines should not be stopped.

The personnel of the Russian Armed Forces continue to carry out the tasks of the counter-terrorist operation on the territory of the Chechen Republic. This should be appropriately reflected in the system of public and state training. The work here should be carried out in three main areas: first, it is necessary to truthfully cover the history of the North Caucasus region, to debunk historical myths speculated on by separatist propagandists; second, to show the legitimacy and legality of the actions of the Russian authorities to establish constitutional order in the Chechen Republic; and third, to vividly tell about the exploits of the Chechen people. Russian military personnel, heroic actions of units and subunits participating in the counter-terrorist operation. The dedication and courage of our soldiers and officers, the nature and historical justice of the tasks being solved give all personnel the full right to feel legitimate pride in belonging to the Armed Forces of Russia.

The work on maintaining law and order and strengthening discipline in military units remains an urgent task of reforming the Armed Forces. And here an important role is assigned to public and state training. Its main efforts should be directed to strengthening the spiritual and moral component of military discipline. By themselves, measures to control personnel and punish those responsible without convincing military personnel of the need for strict compliance with the rules of military service will not have the proper effect. The special significance of this work should be shown in the prevention of suicides, which are an indicator of the decline in the spiritual and moral potential of military personnel. It is the loss of meaning in life under the influence of unfavorable social factors that is one of the main causes of this social disease. To restore the soldier's faith in himself and others, to show the transitory nature of the difficulties experienced today - the task is primarily public and state training. Here it is important to convince the personnel that Russia and its Armed Forces have not only a difficult present, a great past, but also a huge potential for building a decent future. However, this future can only come if every soldier is aware of the responsibility for the fate of the country and is ready to courageously overcome difficulties in carrying out transformations.

At a meeting of the Russian Security Council on August 11, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin stressed that at present the Russian army and Navy perform their tasks largely due to the dedication and courage of people in uniform. I believe that a considerable contribution to this belongs to public and state training, which mobilizes personnel to conscientiously and selflessly perform their official duties. I hope that in the 2001 academic year, through joint efforts, we will be able to take another step to improve its quality and effectiveness, strengthen its role in strengthening law and order and military discipline in military collectives, and perform training and combat tasks.

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