A guy leaving for the army is stressful not only for himself, but also for the whole family, especially for the mother. Therefore, such an important stage as conscription must be prepared responsibly and even solemnly. In our article, we have created brief instructions on how to properly prepare your conscript for service, what is best for him to put in his bag, how to organize the farewell itself, what to tell your son, what to give. You will find here tips on how to act to make it easier for a young man to survive the hardships of the army, and to remember his time of service only in a positive way.
Will the recruit be aware of the conditions of his service?
Much depends on what troops, what region the soldier will be in, what his immediate commanders and the commander of the military unit will be.
The situation, of course, is better than before, there is less violence and hazing, but these phenomena have not gone away. The Mother's Right Foundation, for example, has cases of investigating cases of deaths of military personnel who were (just like that) shot in the army by a mentally ill person or an alcoholic in a state of delirium tremens.
Therefore, this charitable foundation opposes thoughtless mass conscription, believing that military affairs should be a profession like all others.
How to deal with suicidal conscripts?
Typically, conscripts with recorded suicide attempts are on special registration and assigned to a restricted fitness category.
When called up for service, the following characteristics of such young people are carefully monitored and assessed:
- Critical attitude towards past suicide attempts;
- Absence or presence of mental disorders;
- Possibilities of social adaptation;
- Active life position;
- Harmony of relationships in the team, sociability, lack of isolation;
- Emotional-volitional stability and lack of craving for drinking alcohol;
- Absence of affective states and states of aggression;
- The ability to plan and predict one's behavior.
Many psychologists believe that it is impossible to determine suicidal feelings by external signs, especially in secretive young people. Nevertheless, when such a soldier is in a team, it is important to prevent certain educational measures that could provoke their suicidal activity. Conscripts with such forms of psycho-emotional instability, which threaten not only them, but also the surrounding team, with the availability of appropriate supporting documents provided by a certain circle of specialists, are given a deferment from military service with further confirmation.
We are going to the recruiting station: what to take with us?
Photo from the site irk.ru
You need to take with you, of course, the usual personal hygiene items - a comb, soap, toothpaste with a brush, a razor, toilet paper, and so on. There is no need to take good clothes and put them on; in the army, a soldier will wear a uniform.
It’s better to take the cheapest, push-button phone that doesn’t cause any envy. The smartphone will be confiscated, if only because it is prohibited to photograph military installations. And this ban, as noted by the Mother’s Right Foundation, not only helps preserve state or military secrets, but also meets the desire of many commanders to exclude unnecessary photographic evidence of violations.
It is worth taking adhesive plaster and other remedies for calluses and abrasions. The legs will suffer first.
Photo from focus.ua
Categories of citizens exempt from service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
Exemption from military service, in accordance with current legislation, applies to the following categories of citizens:
- Category with unfitness for military service due to health conditions;
- Serving under a contract;
- Alternative service;
- Completing military service in other states;
- Citizens with an official academic degree;
- Citizens serving a sentence or with an unexpunged criminal record;
- Citizens under investigation.
Those who have two children or whose wife is expecting a second child and have a certain period of pregnancy are also exempt from service for happier reasons. In this case, the young man is granted a deferment from service, which may later turn into release.
How to exercise the right to alternative service?
Photo from the site aif.ru
There is still a myth in society that the ACS - alternative civilian service - is a “slope” or an evasion from the army. But this is not so, this is a normal way to pay back one’s debt to the Motherland, and a safe one. Important: the reason for wanting to do alternative service does not necessarily have to be religion. The emphasis should be on the fact that the young man does not want to take up arms, that he is simply a pacifist.
The term of the AGS is 1 year and 9 months. Options for alternative service can be studied, for example, in the legal framework or on the website of the Ministry of Labor, in the order approving the list of types of work, professions, positions in which citizens undergoing alternative civil service can be employed.
At the AGS you can get a job as a nurse, a postman, there are even more unusual options, for example, a reindeer herder or work at a zoo.
True, you won’t be able to choose a job on your own, but education, specialty, qualifications, and previous work experience will be taken into account.
To get into the ACS, you need to submit an application about your desire to take it six months before conscription. The military registration and enlistment office often discourages young people and downplays the importance of the AGS. The Mother's Right Foundation advises to react calmly and not let yourself be broken.
There are also special courses conducted by human rights organizations, where the conscript is psychologically prepared for such “stressful interviews.” If the draft commission refuses to replace military service with ACS, this decision must be appealed in court, and during the period of appeal the citizen is not subject to conscription for military service.
Menu for seeing off to the army
The holiday table menu should not be too lavish. As we mentioned above, it is enough that only the conscript’s favorite dishes are on the table.
In this regard, we recommend that you adhere to the following menu:
- For appetizers, you can make canapés, a pita roll with cheese and ham.
- From salads : meat, herring under a fur coat, with crab sticks. Why is it better to prepare just such salads? They are hearty, and since people usually drink a lot of alcohol during a farewell party, it is better that the dishes are not dietary, because the guests will quickly get drunk and the celebration will not be a success.
- From the main dishes . You can make dumplings, bake potatoes with meat, kebabs, grilled vegetables. Here it is better to start from the personal preferences of the conscript. He loves cabbage rolls - make a lot of them, he loves dumplings, then make them.
- Desserts include some cookies in the shape of soldier's attributes and a cake. Even if your recruit does not have a sweet tooth, still prepare a cake. Below we will present you a recipe for a sweet that is traditionally baked for seeing off the army.
Of course there must be a lot of alcohol. As a rule, it is vodka. But you can buy what you prefer, because you don’t have to turn the farewell into a drinking party, you can spend it culturally, but fun, without vodka and other strong alcoholic drinks.
Are conscripts hunted between and during conscription?
Photo from the site borbagazeta.r
The conscription occurs from April 1 to July 15 (spring) and from October 1 to December 31 (autumn). Between calls, no one should be touched, and this cannot influence travel abroad if the person is not listed as a “draft dodger.” But during calls, “hunting” still happens.
In 2021, in Moscow, for example, in Bashkiria, St. Petersburg, and Astrakhan, there were cases of forced conscription, young people were detained, they were kept at a collection point, deprived of the opportunity to challenge the decision of the draft commission. This is illegal, in such cases it is necessary to immediately contact human rights organizations and involve the media.
During the interval between the autumn and spring conscription, a citizen can be called to the military registration and enlistment office only to clarify military registration documents, but not for a medical examination or a draft commission.
Food, food
Before arriving at the unit, the soldier should take care of his diet on his own. Depending on the time spent en route, the volume of reserves should be calculated. It happens that a conscript can reach his destination for several days or even weeks. With this in mind, you need to think carefully about your food supplies.
You should not take any perishable foods. The conscript's kit should consist of simple and light products.
It is best to stock up on dry rations, which may include:
- canned food;
- dry noodles;
- bread or biscuits;
- cookies;
- chocolate;
- tea bags;
- lumps of sugar.
Among other products, you can take sandwiches with sausage and cheese, several tomatoes and cucumbers for the first time. For fruits, you can take non-perishable varieties, for example, hard green apples, oranges, and a few bananas. It’s good to stock up on lollipops or caramels that you can nibble on at any time. They are especially good at helping to satisfy the feeling of hunger.
All products should take up minimal space in your bag and not require pre-cooking. You must have a certain supply of water. You can additionally take a thermos with tea and make a fruit drink. Drinks should be stored in plastic containers. This condition must be observed, since in addition to the high risk of injury, glass accessories with them are not allowed on the route.
Also, for the first time, it is quite possible to provide your leisure time with a jar of jam in an airtight container, a few hard-boiled eggs, and a salad of fresh vegetables with spices. All these foods should be eaten in the next 1 - 2 days of travel if the conscript reaches his destination in a warm period of time. If the trip falls in the cold, then you don’t have to worry about food spoilage for 3 to 4 days.
You can take a couple of plastic cups and plates with a disposable fork. Upon arrival at the military unit, you can easily throw them away or leave them in your cabinet to use again when you return home.
Communication between a serviceman and his family: the right to a telephone call is legal
Photo from the site russianlook.com
A serviceman has the right to use the telephone every day in his free time. But usually the order in which the telephone is used is determined by the command. Lawyers for the organization Citizen and the Army argue that allowing people to call home only on weekends is a violation of the rights of military personnel.
If your son does not get in touch, you need to contact the command of the unit (through the military commissariat) and find out what happened.
If you have any fear for your son’s life, it is better to immediately contact the military prosecutor’s office and human rights organizations.
Parents should know that by order of the Ministry of Defense, when conscripts arrive at a military unit, the commander of the military unit sends a letter to the parents of the military personnel, which indicates the telephone numbers of the commander of the military unit, political officer and other commanders.
If such a letter has not arrived, you can write an appeal to the commander of the military district through the Internet reception, and also receive the mobile phones of the political officer and other officials of the military unit when visiting your son in the military unit.
Cool congratulations on seeing off the army
It is within the power of close people and relatives to make sure that seeing off for the army does not turn into emotional torture for a guy, where he needs to calm everyone down, and then tune himself into a positive mood. Remove any manifestations of negativity and tears. Just celebrate this day in love, in friendship, in joy. After all, you are not seeing off the guy on his last journey, but only to the service from which he will return as a real man.
What to do if a soldier gets sick?
Photo: altyn73.livejournal.com
Soldiers often receive poor quality medical care. In this case, it is important to urgently contact the military prosecutor’s office, higher command or a human rights organization.
Last year, several families contacted the Mother’s Right Foundation whose sons died in the army from pneumonia, which was not treated there, and the servicemen were called “malingerers.”
In such proceedings, the fund is faced with falsification of medical documents by the military.
Therefore, if your child gets sick in the army, you need to monitor the situation very carefully and immediately go to the child’s unit or hospital.
If your son complains about the inattention of the medical staff or feels unwell, and military doctors assure that “everything is fine,” believe not them, but your son.
Army farewell cake, recipe
Usually, an “ Anthill ” cake is baked as a farewell to the army. It is his recipe that we will present to you. The number of ingredients is taken into account that 8 people will be present at the holiday.
- Prepare 250 g of margarine, 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, a pinch of soda, a pinch of salt, 1/2 kg of flour, a can of condensed milk and 0.2 kg of butter. You will need all these products to knead the dough and prepare the cream.
- Immediately set the condensed milk to cook. It should boil for 60 minutes. At this time you need to beat the eggs with a whisk.
- Next, whisk the margarine and sugar. Make sure you get a creamy consistency.
- Pour the eggs into this margarine mixture, immediately add salt and soda, mix everything with a wooden spoon and beat again with a mixer.
- Then add flour and knead the dough. It should turn out cool. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the refrigerator to set for 1 hour.
- After 60 minutes, scroll the dough through a meat grinder, place it on parchment and place in a preheated oven. The dough is baked for half an hour at a temperature of 150 °C.
- While the dough is baking, whip the cream by mixing butter with boiled condensed milk.
- Break the finished dough into pieces and cool. After that, mix them with the cream and place them on a plate in the form of a slide. Decorate the top with poppy seeds, which will create an imitation of ants.
What should a soldier do if he is a believer?
Military personnel of different faiths serve in the army.
If the leadership itself is a believer, there may be, for example, a chapel, a special room, and so on on the territory of the unit. But the service initially imposes a number of restrictions. It is unlikely that anyone will allow a “military unit” to go to the temple for a procession of the cross, for Kurban Bayram, and so on. It is also worth studying the information from the ROC MP department on interaction with law enforcement agencies and the armed forces. Recommendations from psychologist Irina Garbuzenko: It’s better to prepare mentally in advance.
Don’t tell your son that this will be a prison and that he will have to “endure.” Better discuss how to use this time more usefully. Quit smoking, for example. Set your son up so that he does not participate in any bullying, on any basis. You cannot succumb to the herd feeling in other impulses, from the series “let’s all get tattoos together” and so on. A young man should find a friend or two in the army. Mutual assistance, interaction, team play are very important. A serviceman should not sign any documents without reading them. Do not give in to the pressure “The Motherland is asking you to go and shoot.” Do not give in to the provocations of your colleagues. “Let’s go for a walk, we have money, they let us go” - don’t agree to dubious ideas. Don’t refuse directly, but refer to something: “Guys, it’s a great idea, but I can’t, my stomach is churning, there will be problems along the way.” That's better. Parents should listen to their son's signals. Sometimes they behave like little children during this period. They speak not about themselves, but about others, indirectly. Like in kindergarten: “Mom, one boy was hit, and I cried.” Parents should unite in a chat, on WhatsApp, this will help solve problems together. The young man needs to convey as much information to his family as possible, by any means. Through friends' mothers and so on. Do not be afraid to ask for yourself if it is within the framework of the law and regulations. Agree with your son about secret symbols in correspondence and SMS. For example, a colon means “come urgently,” a semicolon is also some kind of signal, etc. We thank our experts Eronica Marchenko , Chairman of the Board of the Mother’s Right Foundation, and Arseniy Levinson , lawyer at the Citizen and the Army human rights initiative, for their assistance in preparing the publication and answering the most popular troubling questions of mothers and conscripts.
Quatrains from guests
Short wishes in verse that can be used to write on cards:
Guard the border strictly, behave with dignity. Serve your Motherland honestly, so that we can sleep peacefully.
We would like to wish you patience, to always be a man in everything. We will be waiting for you, writing, missing you, loving you.
Serve with dignity, our fighter! Carry out commands skillfully. Be strong, healthy, well done, Walk through life boldly.
Be a faithful comrade, serve honestly, value your soldier's friendship. We wish you to find true friends, so that your service will be more fun.
Don’t let yourself be offended, And help your colleagues, Follow orders strictly, Don’t forget to write home.
Protecting the borders of the Fatherland is an honorable duty. Serve bravely and valiantly. And it will be a test year.
I wish you easy service, help your colleagues. I wish you strong friendship, Never lose heart.
We wish demobilization to come as soon as possible. Try not to miss home too much. And we promise in a year, believe us, we will meet you with the same composition.
A good idea would be to compose army-themed ditties yourself and fulfill them on the dump.
PACKAGES
I sent parcels twice in the first half of the year. I put candies, chocolates, cookies, nuts. And what did you ask for (Sberbank card, phone number).
From medicines
- foot cream to prevent fungi, special ointment and Teymurov’s paste so that the guys don’t have problems with their feet;
- ascorbic acid in powders, recommended taking it at the first sign of a cold so that the disease does not develop and taking it for prevention for four to five days. I sent 30 pieces at a time;
— nasal drops (we need to make sure they can be stored at room temperature, because when I wanted to buy influenza, I was told that it should be stored in the refrigerator, otherwise it will spoil);
— sucking tablets for the throat (I sent from sage);
— Vietnamese balm, lasts a long time. You can smear it on your nose to help you breathe, and against insect bites.
Also, mothers from our chat for demobilization mothers advise:
- take a lot of different adhesive plasters and roll adhesive plasters in order to hide the battery and SIM card. Especially if the call is in the summer;
- use tweezers instead of scissors;
— add insoles for the winter call. In many parts you cannot wear additional socks, but insoles are a great help.
It is necessary to track the parcel using the tracking number and during the next conversation with your son, inform him that the parcel has arrived at the post office and so that he can inform whoever should pick up the parcel.
It happens that a package may sit at the post office for two or three weeks until it is picked up. I contacted the post office. It turned out that there is someone responsible from the military unit for mail delivery. After my appeal, my son quickly received the parcel, but flatly refused the subsequent parcel, which I sent the day before.
I didn’t say the reason... I asked for a review. I made a review and paid 50 rubles. However, this time he received the parcel safely and on time.
DIFFICULT TESTS
Yes, there are sorrows and irreparable grief in life.
Soldiers die. Due to the fact that safety regulations are violated, most often with the knowledge of the commanders.
During training, when the tank was performing a test to drive along the bottom of a reservoir, the tank stalled; due to poor sealing, water began to seep into the tank (mothers wrote in a chat from the words of their sons a week before the incident that the training tank was leaky and was flooding down the collar). We had to wait for the tractor to arrive and pull out the tank. The conscript soldier's nerves could not stand it and he opened the hatch. He got out, but the instructor, a 25-year-old contract soldier, couldn’t...
Less than two weeks later, a reinforced concrete slab-fence fell and crushed a conscript soldier to death in front of the soldiers working together. It really hurts for the guys, for their ridiculous deaths.
Yes, during our service, in a unit not far from Chita, a terrible incident happened to Shamsutdinov...
After three months in training, one of our most sociable mothers, a young woman, died. Heart, I went to bed and didn’t wake up in the morning.
After some time, after waiting for her son to leave the Army, another mother left cancer six months later. Another one of our mothers passed away from Covid, having just welcomed her son out of the Army.
Therefore, I want to tell mothers, take care of yourself, your sons need you even after the Army.
LONG ROAD
Advice for mothers accompanying their son to the Army.
- Ask your son to call, if possible, or at least send SMS on his way to his destination. Knowing his whereabouts makes you worry less. The news is reassuring
- To notify you of your arrival at your destination.
- He reported where they were assigned (battalion, company, squad), address, names of commanders, telephone numbers.
- Search for a chat of waiting moms. There are chat rooms in almost all military units. This greatly helps mothers wait more calmly for their son from the Army.
While my son was driving, I began to look for information on the Internet, on social networks about the Gerbil. I met Anya from my city on VK.. Mom Larisa from Samara responded, she joined me in the Gerbil chat.
Our guys from Chuvashia were transferred from the train to the train, taking recruits from Mari El and Tataria. Then in Syzran we switched to another train, Ulyanovsk, Samara and Saratov were added. The guys from the Volga region were taken to the Urals, to Ufa.
In Ufa, having joined conscripts from Bashkiria and Udmurtia, they were transferred to a train and sent through Yekaterinburg to the Far East. The train was already moving faster, stopping only in big cities. We drove through half of Russia. 5 thousand km from our house.
