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In Post-Soviet States, Finally a Time for Sergeants

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  • In Post-Soviet States, Finally a Time for Sergeants

    Georgian Daily, NY
    Feb 1 2009


    In Post-Soviet States, Finally a Time for Sergeants

    February 01, 2009
    WINDOW ON EURASIA
    Paul Goble

    Vienna, January 31 ` Russia and Armenia announced this week that they
    will build their armed services in the future around professional
    non-commissioned officers, a change that will bring them in line with
    Western militaries, fundamentally change the duties of junior
    officers, and possibly reduce the number of violations of military law
    in the ranks.

    During the Cold War, one of the most striking differences between NATO
    forces and the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries was that the former
    had professional sergeants and other non-commissioned officers and the
    latter did not. And that difference, many analysts insisted at the
    time, had a major impact on the very different nature of the two
    forces.

    The existence of professional non-commissioned officers in NATO armies
    meant that officers could be officers and that long-serving sergeants
    could play a major role in running their units and preventing the
    outbreak of the kind of tensions that existed between officers and men
    in Warsaw Pact armies where there were no such professionals.

    With the demise of the Warsaw Pact and the disintegration of the
    Soviet Union, many East European countries, including the three Baltic
    States, who aspired to NATO membership and now in many cases have
    achieved it, began the process by moving to create the corps of
    professional sergeants typical of the militaries of the Western
    alliance.

    But the 12 countries that emerged following the disintegration of the
    USSR have generally retained the older Soviet system of relying on
    senior draftees to serve as sergeants, an arrangement that increases
    the burdens on junior officers and frequently leads to outbreaks of
    "dedovshchina," the Russian term for mistreatment of junior draftees
    by more senior ones.

    Now, this week, two more of these countries ` the Russian Federation
    and Armenia -- have broken ranks and are beginning to create a
    professional NCO system, not because either of them aspires to NATO
    membership but rather because they have become convinced that having
    professional sergeants will make their forces more militarily capable.

    Starting tomorrow, the first of what are slated by 2016 to be 250,000
    professional sergeants (a number which by the way is planned to exceed
    the number of officers at that time by 100,000) will begin training in
    six higher military schools. Most will pursue a 34 month course,
    focusing not only on technical subjects but on teaching and
    psychology.

    That program, Nikita Petrov says in a commentary prepared for the
    Novosti news agency, is designed to teach the future sergeants how to
    conduct "individual work with soldiers. To be for them not only bosses
    but also senior comrades, something that unfortunately not all
    officers today are able of doing.

    As of September, professional sergeants will be studying at a total of
    68 Russian military schools, and this system is intended to produce
    some 15,000 NCOs every year. A smaller number of NCOs will be given a
    shorter course of instruction, at least initially, although it is
    unclear how long that alternative program will continue.

    Meanwhile, Armenia has announced that it is well on the way to
    creating a professional army with professional NCOs as well, a step
    that in addition to Russia, four other former Soviet republics --
    Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine -- are now taking and one
    that will likely prompt others, in the first instance their neighbors,
    to do the same.

    A commentary in the Baku newspaper "Zerkalo" today argues that
    Azerbaijan should take that step both to boost military efficiency and
    improve conditions for draftees both legally and practically, although
    it notes that Azerbaijan so far has not adopted the necessary
    legislation to take this step.

    As has been the case elsewhere, the paper notes, there is certain to
    be resistance to this step from the officer corps who see the rise of
    professional sergeants, many of the most senior of whom are likely to
    be paid far more than junior officers as a threat to their status and
    perquisites. But now that Armenia and Georgia have taken that step,
    Azerbaijan may follow suit.

    And that trend could have an outcome that will strike many as
    paradoxical: Even those countries which do not aspire to NATO
    membership or actively oppose that idea are now copying "a NATO
    standard" in organizing their militaries, something that will almost
    certainly benefit the soldiers in these forces and hence ultimately
    the countries they serve.

    http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_con tent&task=view&id-86&Itemid=65
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