Serve my Homeland №4821 08.02.2004 (2004)

Our report: the smallest division of the Russian army is stationed in the small Siberian town of Nizhneudinsk.

The number of military unit 21431 is only 250 people (160 officers, the rest are soldiers).

There is no hazing here, officers perform routine work on an equal basis with privates, guard duty is carried out by paramilitary security personnel, who are recruited from among local residents who have served in the army, thus, conscripts are freed from routine, they have more time for combat and public-state training and maintenance of weapons and military equipment.

Military unit 21431 is one of the few where officers do not have problems with housing and employment of their wives.

The division command is confident that the level of combat training directly depends on the personal well-being of each officer.

This policy has already yielded results: according to the results of the year, the smallest division of the Russian army took 2nd place in all indicators in the Siberian Military District, the largest in the country.

Interview: Unit Commander Ilfar Mirgaleev, Sergeant Petr Schmidt, Chief of Staff Igor Skidenko, Deputy Chief of Staff Aleksandr Varavin.

Report by Andrey Kirisenko from the Ufa Aviation Institute.

In 1973, work began here on the UMB-9 (running mechanization device) to save human energy.

All data was strictly classified, because the Soviet army was to be equipped with these "seven-league boots", in which case our infantry would become virtually invulnerable, an attack at a speed of 60 km/h would stun the enemy.

The work was personally supervised by Marshal D.F. Ustinov.

But with the beginning of perestroika, the new bosses decided that our army was in no mood for jokes, the invention was declassified, and now the Ufa residents are setting up serial production of the civilian version.

The head of the internal combustion engine department, Boris Rudoy, and one of the testers talk about the device's operation.

Our heroes: the reduction of the army has created an acute problem - employment of retired officers.

The government even approved a state program for the social adaptation of military personnel, designed for 2002-2005, but so far it has not brought the desired results.

Many servicemen act independently, proving that there are no impossible tasks for a Russian officer even in civilian life.

Hero of Russia, retired colonel Oleg Kublin, together with his friends, organized a unique subsidiary farm, an ostrich farm in the Bryansk region.

In addition, former military personnel have established the production of elastic bandages, bandages and other medical products for the wounded at a weaving factory.

In the city of Sapozhok in the Ryazan region, the priest of the Church of St.

Nicholas the Wonderworker, Father Oleg Kuzmin, in addition to Sunday school, runs a sambo section for schoolchildren, protecting children from the influence of the street and preventing health problems.

The guests of the program are the Chairman of the Central Military Medical Commission Valery Viktorovich Kulikov and the Deputy Head of the Armed Forces Recruitment Directorate Vladimir Ivanovich Konstantinov.

A conversation about the tragedy in the Far Eastern Military District: in December 2003, as a result of unacceptable conditions of transportation and maintenance in barracks, as well as the untimely provision of winter clothing, a mass outbreak of pneumonia began among new recruits; one person died in the hospital.