Somehow, Military Builder's Day is not particularly customary to celebrate, such as Airborne Forces Day, Border Guard Day, ... But the troops are excellent, and the work that the guys do is invaluable. Maybe because it is believed that the Military Construction Troops recruit guys with certain disabilities: health problems, those who don’t know the Russian language well, those who have a criminal record,….

Therefore, the guys who were friends in the army with a shovel and a trowel prefer to celebrate their Day without much bravado, without swimming in fountains, without pestering passers-by, but quietly, peacefully drinking moonshine at home.

Military Builder's Day does not have a special date. Its celebration falls on the second Sunday of the month of August - when the whole country celebrates Builder's Day.

Nowadays it is customary to throw mud at our history. For example, after graduating from the Pushkin VVISU I ended up serving in Maykop. Those who live there know such microdistricts as Mikhailova, Voskhod, Shovgenova and others. They were built by military builders. (I. Sipkin)

"ROYAL TROOPS" USSR

“Royal troops”, or “construction battalion”, were a real legend in the USSR. True, rather in the bad sense of the word - many conscripts shunned this type of troops, and the military leadership generally opposed its existence...

Military construction detachments (VSO), or in common parlance - “construction battalion”, date back to February 13, 1942, when, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Military Reconstruction Directorate was formed, which was engaged in the repair and construction of facilities in the territories liberated from German occupiers.

The term “construction battalion” was officially withdrawn from circulation in the 1970s, but did not completely disappear from the lexicon, remaining as part of military and civilian jargon. Also, the phrase “construction battalion” continued to be used in relation to some groups of foreign troops.

The “Stroybatovtsy” ironically called themselves “royal troops.” According to one version, due to the large number of personnel: in the 1980s it numbered approximately 300 to 400 thousand people, which exceeded the number of military personnel in the Airborne Forces (60,000), Marine Corps (15,000) and Border Troops (220,000) ), taken together. According to another version, the self-name was associated with the name of the designer Sergei Korolev (all cosmodromes in the USSR were built by construction teams).

TERMS OF SERVICE

Among Soviet youth, the construction battalion was not considered the most prestigious place for military service. His unpopularity was largely due to the fact that he had only a formal relationship directly with military affairs.

Nevertheless, the recruits who joined the construction detachments had certain advantages over those drafted into other branches of the military. According to Order No. 175 of the USSR Minister of Defense dated May 30, 1977, a military builder was paid a salary for his work, from which, however, the cost of food, uniforms, bath and laundry services, cultural events and other types of support was deducted - those that were united by the concept “ clothing debt."

As one of the employees of the construction battalion recalled, he was deducted about 30 rubles monthly for household services - “washing, bathing, uniforms.”

Salaries in the construction troops (for the period of the 1980s) ranged from 110 to 180 rubles, but in some cases reached 250 rubles. Everything depended on the specialty. As a rule, those who worked on tower cranes and excavators received more than others. The money was deposited into the employee's account and given out upon retirement. True, in case of urgent need, they were allowed to send money to relatives.

At the end of the service, the “construction battalions” sometimes took away up to 5 thousand rubles.

The “construction battalion workers” also had additional sources of income, in particular, in the so-called “hack jobs”, where they paid around 10-15 rubles for one working day. They were also entitled to benefits. They were received by warrant officers and officers who had the opportunity to quickly solve their housing problems.

PERSONNEL

The VSO was staffed mainly by conscripts who graduated from construction schools. Construction teams were often replenished with people from rural areas who “knew how to hold a tool in their hands.” Troubled youth were also sent there, sometimes with a criminal record.

Although it was not customary to talk about it, nationality was another criterion for selection into the construction battalion. Thus, the share of Caucasian and Central Asian peoples in some construction battalions reached 90% of the personnel.

It is widely believed that the reason why immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus were mainly allowed to work in construction work was their poor knowledge of the Russian language. The national composition of the construction brigades scared off many conscripts.

Another category of conscripts for whom the road to the construction battalion was “banned” are young men with disabilities. Their parents, by hook or by crook, looked for all sorts of workarounds to protect their children from labor service.

CRITICISM OF BUILDING BAT

The very fact of the existence of military construction detachments has more than once been criticized by senior military leaders, who considered such formations ineffective and even “illegal.”

In 1956, Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff Vasily Sokolovsky reported that “the use of military personnel in industry is a violation of the USSR Constitution, since, according to Article 132 of the Constitution, military service ... should take place in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and not in construction organizations of civilian ministries THE USSR".

Experts drew attention to the fact that the production activities of military construction units were poorly organized, and their material and living support was at an extremely low level.

One of the negative examples is associated with military construction detachment No. 1052, which in November 1955 was located in an unfinished building. The commission revealed unacceptable living and sanitary conditions for employees. The workers had to sleep dressed, since the temperature in the rooms did not exceed +3 degrees. For a month they were deprived of the opportunity to wash in the bathhouse or change their linen, as a result of which many got lice.

DANGEROUS REGIONS

Contrary to popular belief, service in construction brigades was by no means safe. In 1986, “construction battalion workers” were sent to eliminate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster - according to some sources, they made up at least 70% of the contingent working in the contaminated zone. Two years later, construction teams went to Armenia to remove rubble and rebuild cities after a devastating earthquake.

They also served in Afghanistan. In 1979, immediately after the entry of Soviet troops into this country, the question arose about the quartering of personnel. In the shortest possible time, builders were required to create and improve military camps with all the infrastructure, residential and military-administrative buildings, build warehouses for ammunition and equipment, fortifications along the perimeter of military units, and airfields.

In 1982, a Soviet construction battalion was sent to the Falkland Islands to Port Stanley to extend a concrete runway. It was at this time that the islands were invaded by British troops, who disputed control over these territories with Argentina.

According to a participant in those events, Soviet soldiers mined all approaches to the airfield, armed themselves with captured weapons and withstood a siege from the British military for three days. Only thanks to the intervention of Moscow was the local military conflict stopped - Soviet soldiers were ordered to lay down their arms.

Now in the Russian Armed Forces there is the Office of the Chief of Quartering and Arrangement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy), which performs the same functions.

P.S. By the way, today is Builder's Day, so we congratulate all construction battalion workers on their professional holiday!!!

While looking through various materials on the site, I found a comment from a certain user that, they say; in Soviet times, he served in the SA in a construction battalion, and this, according to him, was much worse than the Gulag. Poor construction battalion workers were forced to carry out concrete work for the entire working day, or even more, and then, exhausted, they were forced to engage in combat service, physical and TACTICAL training, so that they were ready to be defenders of the Soviet Motherland. And for such mockery, after 2 years of service, he was paid only 415 rubles.

It was funny to read his writings, especially since I myself served at one time in a construction battalion, and not just any battalion, but in the Semipalatinsk region, on the construction of underground missile points, near the city of Solnechny, in the Zharminsky district. Many veterans of the Strategic Missile Forces probably know where and what it is.

And so, after reading this scribble, I thought - after all, there is a lot of gossip on the topic of Military Construction Units of the Soviet Armed Forces, but I have not seen a single normal publication on this topic!

Thus the idea was born to write this story.

To begin with, it should be said that construction battalions in the USSR were called construction units that worked in different departments. Basically, such units belonged to the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Medium Engineering (nuclear industry), but I had to meet military construction units that worked in the system of many Ministries, from the Ministry of Construction to the Ministry of Water Resources.

However, let's move on to my service. They called us - a whole train of 17 cars! from Uzbekistan, mainly from the Kashkadarya region, December 1, 1967. The train consisted of 2 service cars - a kitchen and a headquarters car. The officers - team commanders, the echelon chief and his deputy - were traveling in the headquarters carriage. Riding with us in each carriage were sergeants - platoon commanders, conscripts due to be discharged in December.

Everyone who was conscripted in those years knows that conscripts did not board the trains without “fuel.” And here was the first refutation of the assertion about the drunkenness of the conscripts and the “drugs” that they were bringing from Uzbekistan - we were put into carriages one by one, and upon entering the carriage, we immediately fell into the strong hands of three sergeants, who, without ceremony, turned out our backpacks and suitcases. From there, all alcohol and more or less suspicious items were confiscated - such as homemade knives and the like, as well as everything that aroused suspicion, like drugs. We entered the carriages already “clean”. Nothing else - food, cigarettes, etc. The sergeants didn't touch me.

We settled into the carriages, and the train slowly moved off. Everyone’s heads were still stupefied by the drink they had drunk at parting “on the way”, so here and there conversations broke out, sometimes in rather high tones, but our nanny sergeants quickly restored order, and by midnight everyone on the train was already asleep.

In the morning we woke up early, broken and sleepy - the train stood somewhere in the steppe. Within an hour, breakfast was prepared in the kitchen located in the middle of the train, the sergeants took 1 duty officer from every ten people, and the first army breakfast was delivered to the carriages. Few people touched it then; everyone had plenty of household supplies. We had breakfast while the train was moving, which started and moved slowly across the steppe. We were fed hot food twice a day, in the evening there was tea with dry rations - crackers, sugar and butter.

By evening, the sergeants called several people to their compartment. Looking at us appraisingly, they warned the officers not to say a word. Then the following conversation followed: “We understand, boys, that you are going to the army and must drink, but we confiscated vodka from you. However, we are not animals, we understand that you need to drink, so we will give you a little, but without boiling, otherwise there is a lip in the train. But don’t blame me, we can’t do everything, you’ll get drunk and make a fuss.”

Then, after repeated warnings - not to make noise, not to make noise, and not to get caught by the officers, we were given the previously “confiscated” vodka, about one bottle for 4-5 people. For the green boys that we were, this was quite enough. Thus, the first day on the train ended quite happily.

And so we drove for 7 days. On the second day, the sergeants also warmed us up with alcohol, but then the lava ran out - apparently, the rest went into the staff car, and our nannies themselves consumed quite a lot. We were not allowed out of the carriages the entire way - at all stops, an officer-commander of the team appeared in the carriage and strictly monitored this.

On day 7 we stopped at a small station. When asked where we are, we heard the answer: Zhangiz!

This was the Zhangiz-Tobe station, in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, located at almost the same distance from Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk - next to it there was a fork in the roads going towards the named cities.

We stood at the station for a long time, on the second track, then our train was hooked up to a small motor locomotive and dragged somewhere into the steppe along a snow-covered railway line. After a while, the lights of a rather large city appeared and began to approach, with multi-story buildings and a huge antenna dish on the outskirts. However, we drove past it and arrived at the territory of a military unit, surrounded by a small fence.

After some time, the command followed: “Come out and line up!”

We cheerfully jumped out of the boring carriages into the snow... and immediately tried to jump into the warm carriage again - a piercing wind was blowing, and the frost was 15-20 degrees! Our southerners began to huddle in groups, with their heads inward, and lamentations were heard in the Uzbek language - OH-oy, uldym! (We are dying!) They refused to move and tried to jump into the carriage. The teams of sergeants and officers could not do anything about them. Then our commanders turned to us, who were somewhat older and controlled themselves - explain to them that they cannot stay here. The carriages will leave now, and they will freeze!

We began to explain all this in Uzbek, the guys gradually came to their senses, reluctantly lined up, and entered the gates of the unit in a column. Not far from them there was a club, into the cinema hall of which we were all taken. It was very warm there. We sat down on the seats, and immediately some kind of feature film began on the screen.

They brought us 1,500 people, but during the night everyone was slowly given a haircut, washed and dressed in uniform. They took away our civilian clothes, but allowed us to take our watches and all the money we had.

How funny and identical we were - bald, in cotton pea coats and boots, we didn’t recognize each other, we were looking for friends, standing next to them. We were already divided into companies, platoons and squads, introduced to the company commander - senior lieutenant, and platoon commanders - sergeants who had just completed sergeant training.

Then they loaded us onto buses and took us to a point - “quarantine”, to undergo a course for young fighters.

Quarantine.

We drove for at least 40 km, through the steppe, around not a single residential house, not a pillar, white and white. There was a lot of snow, and for us, Uzbeks, at that time it was a novelty - we rarely get snow in early December and don’t last long. Soon the area around began to slowly change, and hills covered with snow appeared. Turning around the next one, we suddenly saw two rows of long one-story buildings, and a boiler room pipe sticking out nearby. Two or three more hills were located nearby. The buses drove into this village and stopped. We arrived at a newly built “point”, where a “quarantine” was organized for those newly called up this year in the barracks that had been vacated by the company that built it. One of the hills sticking out nearby covered a silo with a rocket, but which of them was almost impossible to distinguish. It was approximately 10 o'clock in the morning.

We didn't sleep the whole previous night - haircuts, washing, uniforms and assembling the company took almost the whole night, we only managed to take a nap on the bus, on the way to the point. Out of civil habit, everyone expected that now they would let us rest.

Not so! Although the barracks were prepared in advance for our reception - repaired, warmed up and washed, we still had the work to do. Upon arrival, we were lined up first on the street. In front of the barracks. And it was explained how to enter the barracks after formation - “March from the right, one at a time!” In the barracks, everything was already in place - there were soldiers' two-tiered beds, stools, part of the barracks was a classroom, in the other part - a military room. Having lined us up inside the barracks, the platoon was divided into sections, simply lined up according to height, in three ranks. The highest person in each rank was appointed squad commander. Sergeants who were called up six months earlier than us and who graduated from a six-month sergeant school were appointed platoon commanders.

It’s probably not worth talking in particular detail about everything else that happened that day - we received bedding, we were taught how to make beds, how stools should be positioned, we were given white fabric and taught how to hem collars. And most importantly, they taught us how to build quickly and forced everyone to remember their place in the ranks. We had lunch and dinner that day with dry rations - canned food, sugar and butter, as well as hot tea, which was brought in thermoses. On the first day, considering that we had not slept the entire previous night, the all-clear went off without any incidents - at ten o’clock we were given the all-clear command, and almost everyone fell asleep like the dead.

And in the morning the madhouse began! The command rang out - platoon, rise! The sergeants, looking at their watches, hurried us, but we could not get our act together. The company lined up on the central aisle only after 5-7 minutes, and half continued to pull on their tunics as they walked, and several people ran up with boots in their hands and put them on already in formation.

When everyone got dressed and lined up, the company sergeant major (one of the extra-conscripts) gave the command “Stay at attention!”, looked at us critically, looked at his watch, shook his head and commanded:

Company, hang up!

At this point the sergeants didn’t let us idle - 47 seconds, lights out, they forced us to quickly lie back in bed, after which the command came again - Get up!

And so - five or six times! On the sixth time, although I saw little difference between the first and last formation, the foreman took mercy on us, the command to settle accounts followed, and we ran out to exercise. The exercise, in principle, went without any special incidents, after which we were given the command to recover, wash ourselves, and so on. The company also coped with this without any problems, and after formation we went to have breakfast - already in the soldiers’ canteen.

It turns out that in order to serve us, there was almost a company of “old people” in quarantine - cooks, boiler workers, diesel electricians, and so on. When we arrived in the dining room, the tables were already set - there were soldiers’ bowls, mugs, spoons and a large ladle on them, and there were also plates with bread and butter, and a container of porridge.

I especially remember my first breakfast in quarantine. The fact is that I was appointed commander of the squad, and it was up to me to distribute butter, sugar and porridge. But my fellow Muslims were suspicious of the oil and pieces of meat in the porridge:

- “Chucka!” (pig), we won’t eat it.”

No matter how I tried to persuade them to at least eat some butter, they flatly refused. There were three of us non-Muslims in the department, so on the first day we got almost all of the breakfast - our fellow countrymen limited themselves to bread, sugar and tea.

The same thing was repeated at lunch and dinner, but on the second day at breakfast half of the guys no longer paid attention to the “chuchka”, and in the evening everyone was already cracking the porridge and butter so that it was cracking behind their ears. However, looking ahead, I will say that among our call there were still several people who during the entire service never touched the hot dishes, fearing that they were made from pork. These guys tried to get into the “procurers”, who were sent to the canteen to set tables for the company, asked bread and sugar from the bread cutters and cooks there, and ate only on them, at times feeding on the parcels they received or buying something in the soldier’s cafe.

Further stays in quarantine were not marked by any special incidents. The barbaric morning wake-up and drop-off ended somewhere on the fifth day, by which time we already calmly managed to get dressed and line up in 1 minute.

I will tell you only about one case. In our platoon there was a boy from the city, apparently quite spoiled at home. One day he was assigned to some household work. work, I don’t remember, whether to wash the floor or something like that, but he flatly refused.

The sergeant tried to influence him with the words “I order you,” he turned out to be educated and told him - and I haven’t taken the oath yet! In response, another was assigned to the squad; the platoon commander remained silent. However, the next day, during physical education, he suddenly turned the platoon to the exit from the unit’s territory, and when we left it, he gave the command “Run!” By that time we had already gotten into the workouts and were running relatively well. But this time the sergeant directed us to the top of the nearest hill, which was at least a kilometer away, and even on untrodden snow. While running (he himself ran like a marathon runner), the sergeant popularly explained to us that if one of us did not want to follow his orders, then we would all follow them.

Half an hour later, half of us were baked, the sergeant did not seem to pay attention to those who stopped, however, as soon as the culprit of what was happening was baked, the command followed - do not stop! Don’t leave your friend, pick him up and run, supporting him! So we got to the top of the hill, dragging the resisting culprit behind us.

Naturally, in the evening we all had a cool conversation, after which no one again refused to carry out any orders.

During quarantine, we were in uniform in the kitchen, many served as orderlies in the company, there were political classes and drill training. When there were 2 days left before the oath, we were given a medical examination, as a result of which 4-5 people from the entire unit were sent home for health reasons.

The day before the oath, we were given shoulder straps and emblems, so that in the morning formation on the day of the oath we looked like real soldiers.

Probably everyone who served in the army remembers the oath day. The only time during the entire service that day we were allowed to hold a weapon - a carbine, with which we read out in our hands and then signed the oath. The taking of the oath in all companies ended by lunchtime, after which everything did not go according to the daily routine - there were no classes, we were given a festive lunch (borscht with sour cream was served for lunch, a boiled egg was added and some buns with jam for sweets) . After lunch everyone was allowed to rest. From five o’clock in the evening, “buyers” from the units began to come for us, and took several people with them. Somewhere around 6, they called me too - 4 of us ended up in a unit that everyone called “10th Regiment”. The commander came for us - a senior lieutenant, who checked our names against the list, ordered us to be loaded into the back of a GAZ-53 with an awning, and we went to the unit.

Our service began. We spent 10 days in quarantine.

(STROYBAT)

The next morning I left for Tver again, I had a lot of work there, and in February I was called to the military registration and enlistment office and was given a summons to appear with my things for military service. I handed this summons to David Markovich, he immediately went to the NKVD to leave me, but nothing came of it, and I was sent to serve in a rear militia unit, now called construction battalions. All those previously convicted under Article 58, dispossessed kulaks and dispossessed people who had not yet completed military service served in these units. Our construction battalion was located at the Vypolzovo station of the Leningrad railway, 30 km from Valdai, and we were called “tylopans”. We built the airfield and all services, including housing for pilots and commanders. It’s good that there were no criminals among us at all, and the entire staff was surprisingly efficient. Our military town had the same barracks as in the concentration camp, fenced with wire and with a checkpoint and gates, and we also went to work in formation, only without an escort. Upon arrival, we were immediately divided into platoons according to specialties: machine operators, carpenters, carpenters, painters, diggers, masons, drivers and service platoons - tailors, shoemakers. Everyone was introduced to each other separately and assigned where to go. Of course, I ended up with the machine operators. We have

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The routine included days when political classes were held, weapons were studied, and even during the 3 years of service they were taken to shooting range 3 times.

The most important thing in our battalion was Sergeant Major Shkurin - a real fool. He had the right to put someone in a guardhouse for 3 days, which he used with impunity, not to mention being sent out of turn. He will line up the battalion in the morning for physical training, check it and, if anyone is late, immediately say something like this: “Ivanov, get out of formation. I’m announcing to you 3 orders out of turn.” Ivanov replies: “Yes, 3 orders out of turn.” Shkurin: “Get in line,” then he comes up to Ivanov and with a finger in front of his nose: “Service, brother, nothing can be done!”

We had a carpenter foreman named Shumeiko. He somehow managed to organize everything, and he worked very quickly, even making shoes. In general, wherever he is sent, usually to where there is a breakthrough, he will definitely straighten out the situation, and in the evening he goes AWOL. The foreman will find him and go to the guardhouse. So he told me when he was demobilized that during three years of service he served 178 days in prison.

I was assigned to a workshop where they made parapets for the roofs of houses and handrails for stairs. The houses were built with five floors. In general, we received a good salary, and the working day was 10 hours. In addition to our main job, we had a good extra income. On weekends, we went to install the jib - this is a mast made of several logs, taller than the house, and on its bracket there is a roller for lifting building materials to the upper floors. This lifting was carried out using a small oil engine, which was serviced by a mechanic. All these parapets were riveted by hand, since we did not have any welding. Throughout the workshop there was a small foot-operated lathe. At first I also worked on the parapets, and then I was assigned to repair these oil engines “Kommunar”, “Pobeda” and the larger engine “Red October”.

Somehow they gathered us all, and civilians worked with us, and explained that we needed to build a parachute tower 75 meters high, which we did, and from this tower we jumped with a parachute onto a cable. First I made the base for the parachute - a ring with a diameter of 12 meters, and the flight was very slow. We had to change the ring to 8 meters, and they started jumping. I also had to jump several times, as going down the stairs was long and inconvenient.

I remember how the former kulaks worked. For example, to meet and exceed the excavator's quota; they buried the rails with the soles up, in order to make it easier to transport the excavated earth on converted wheelbarrows, where the wheel was placed under the center of the wheelbarrow and better balance was obtained, and a person along this path carried such a mountain of soil that three wheelbarrows would be enough to load 1.5 - a ton car. Or here's another example. A competition of masons was organized, and in 10 hours one mason laid 23 thousand bricks, and another 19 thousand. Of course, they were served by two teams of auxiliary workers, but even to calculate, pointing a finger at a brick, this amount

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It's simply impossible. The first mason was awarded a gold watch, and the second - a silver one and was demobilized early. It seems to me that not a single repeat offender would work like that, since from childhood they are accustomed not to work, but to steal.

One day I came to work and saw a truck parked outside the workshop. One of the first cars, our Soviet “AMF-15”. It turns out that it was brought to us from the air unit, well, of course, we became interested in it, tried to start it, and it turned out that the gear shift shaft in the box was broken. I machined a new shaft, hardened it, and the car started working. We started transporting all our products to sites on it.

At this time, a new diesel engine was brought to the power plant, the electricity from which both our town and the entire civilian settlement used, since the four-cylinder one there was rather weak and there were often interruptions in the supply of electricity to all facilities. A master, a native of Leningrad, a Russian German who worked at the Russian Diesel plant, Karl Adolfovich Krause, came from Leningrad to install the new diesel engine. And our battalion technical officer singled out 5 of us, among them there were wonderful guys - Kolya Trofimov, Kosogovsky, before dispossession they dealt with weapons and locomotives, and two more, I don’t remember their last names. They brought us and handed us over to Karl Adolfovich. He explained to us that he was an old man, he was probably already over 60, and he had his own habits: “If I tell you: “Yes!”, you will answer me: “There is fur on my ass,” and I will tell you : "Only a rare one," and although it was mockingly funny, the work ahead was interesting, and we tried to fulfill these and his other quirks and not pay much attention to them. He also loved to court women, he especially liked one, very pretty 30 years old cleaning lady Lyuda, but we somehow didn’t care. He brought a good tool with him, and we began installing and concrete the diesel frame, everything was very precise. Of course, he knew the business perfectly. The diesel was a marine 2-cylinder with a capacity of 200 hp After installing the frame, they began laying the crankshaft with re-scraping of the bearings according to the spirit level, and the scraping was very precise, 25 points per square inch, then they began installing the cylinders and fuel equipment, where it was necessary to bend the pipelines in place and solder the tips onto the tubes silver, which is what I did, and he really liked it. When everything was ready, they began to launch. It was started with compressed air, two cylinders were used up, but the diesel engine would not start. Everyone was terribly upset, they left for lunch, but Kolya Trofimov did not go. Suddenly, after lunch, we heard the diesel engine start up, and Karl Adolfovich came running and shouted: “How did you start it?”, And the diesel engine was working and took the load. Kolya later explained to me that when they installed the valves, he warned Karl Adolfovich that he was installing the valves wrong, but he did not agree, saying that he, not Kolya, was installing the diesel engine. When everyone left for lunch, Kolya rearranged the valves and the diesel engine started working. We were thanked for this work, and Kolya was left to work on this diesel engine.

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After installing the diesel engine, the battalion pomotech called me, I don’t remember his first and last name, he found out that we had installed the AMF-15 and asked: “Are you the driver?” I told them that during my arrest, my driver’s license was taken away. Then he explained that in our battalion we have an AMO-3 vehicle, a tractor driver there is trying to fix it, he said to go take a look, help do what is needed, and report. Indeed, Vanya Garecht was digging around the car; he is one of the dispossessed Germans of the Volga region, a very nice guy. He showed what was available from spare parts, it turned out that the block needed to be bored, and this could only be done at Bologoye station in the railway workshops. We went there with a pompot, they gave it to us, and he begged for some keys and tools. Everything was brought, and Vanya and I started collecting. He didn't speak Russian particularly well, but we got the hang of it. Pompotech promised that as soon as we made the car, he would send us to Leningrad to take exams for drivers, but in the meantime he gave us books, we put together a group of 5 people (Kolya Trofimov, Kosogovsky, Pavlik Nikitin, he worked with me in the workshop, Vanya Garecht and I) began to prepare. As for driving, everyone has already driven the AMO-F-15, and when they made the AMO-3, they also drove it.

The battalion had a radio center, and a broadcast was made to all companies and command houses, 175 points. It was installed by Leningrader Rudolf Peterson. We became friends, and when he went somewhere, I stayed behind him, and since electricity was supplied unevenly, the voltage varied greatly depending on the load, and all the time it was necessary to monitor the voltage and manually adjust it with an autotransformer. Rudolf also helped me sort out the battery, so we set up the AMO-3 and started driving it.

We were soon sent with a group from the airport (25 people and 5 of us) to Leningrad. We settled down with my cousin Marusenka Vologdina, i.e. former Merkuryeva. The traffic police was located at 43 Moika Embankment. Out of the airfield group of 25 people, only 3 passed, and all five of us passed. We were given trainee certificates and told that after we completed our internship in the unit, and we were noted that we had driven 100 hours, one person could come with documents and he would be given driver’s licenses for all of us. That’s what the pompotech did, and about a month later he brought driver’s licenses for all five of us from Leningrad. It was 1936.

We had 40 horses in our battalion. So, we started by transporting compressed hay by car, taking loaders with us and loading it so that only when crossing the railway tracks did the cargo pass under the barrier, and the loaders were placed inside, and one of the commanders rode with me in the cabin. The finance chief and I also went to the bank together to get money, and I helped him count the money there. It happened that they carried 2 large bags, and the money was small - rubles, three rubles and fives. Let's put these bags in the back and drive quietly, we never thought that we could be robbed. Everything was going fine, but once, when we were going for hay, the foreman

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asked to stop and went with the soldiers to the store for cultural goods - checkers, notebooks, ink, etc., and they all returned together with the loaders, screwed. But there’s nothing to do, let’s go. The car was heavily overloaded and I was driving very slowly. We stopped to see how the load was, but no one responded from the hay. The foreman went to look, but there was no one there; when and where they went is unclear. We turned around, drove back, and they were sitting in a ditch. It turns out that they didn’t get along with each other and got into a fight, one was thrown out of the car, and the others jumped off after him. It was already an emergency. Everyone began to ask me not to report to my superiors, but one seriously injured his leg. We arrived, unloaded, and I don’t remember how the foreman himself reported there afterwards.

After that, we were “sold” for the construction and repair of the Leningradskoe Highway, and Garecht and I began to work in turns, one day he, one day I. We were assigned 4 loaders, and we transported gravel and sand for the road 8 km away, sometimes we did 10 trips per shift, we were paid piece by piece per vehicle, and we began to receive 200-250 rubles a month.

There was Lenya in the battalion, I don’t remember his last name, he was a great photographer, and I have a lot of pictures. Rudolf bought a motorcycle somewhere and started riding with it everywhere. The commissar of the battalion was an unpleasant guy, he wore only a sleeper, his last name was Grib, and there was a clerk at the headquarters named Wolf. While cleaning the headquarters, he poured raw water into the commissar's decanter, he got drunk, and his stomach was upset. This Mushroom organized a whole investigation, allegedly Wolf wanted to disable the command of the unit, and this is already a counter-revolution, and he again needs to be tried under Article 58. But after that, Grib left, and Wolf remained to work at the headquarters, and instead of Grib, a wonderful commissioner named Bibiksarov came. He talked to everyone very skillfully and humanely, well organized red corners, various clubs, including sports ones. A football team, drama club, and string orchestra were immediately organized. His wife, a very nice woman, joined our drama club.

At this time, Andrei Opel, with whom we were at BAM, came to us with a new set, and he also began studying in the drama club. With him came a Leningrader, an actor from the Kirov Club, whose last name was Kovshik, and his name was Kapa. He became the battalion's postman, in general he was a very active fellow and became our director in the drama club. The first performance was "Lies" by Vyaltsev, the second was based on Gusev's play "Glory", which Capa knew word for word by heart. In this play I played a professor and sang with a guitar. It was a very successful performance and everyone really liked it. We performed with him both in the village and at the airfield, and we were greatly applauded.

In 1937, when I was already working on the machine, there was an accident at the drilling rig, which supplied water to the entire garrison. The connecting rod bearing of the diesel engine flew off, and due to the lack of armor, they even refused to repair it in the railway workshops. A tractor was temporarily connected there, but it was weak and did not provide the necessary power, and there was always not enough water. All the management gathered for a meeting and invited me. I offered

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try to cast it yourself and got permission. I made iron molds, 2 halves, but for this it was necessary to heat up 30-40 kg of bronze, but there was none. But they found a way out - they decided to use cartridges from spent rifle cartridges. They welded the ladle, formed the molds and began to melt the metal. They lit such a fire that the entire forge almost caught fire, but the castings turned out excellent. I sawed them, soldered them, bored them, sharpened them, then filled them with babbitt and bored them again, and I scraped them up. The diesel engine was pre-revolutionary, single-cylinder 50 hp. Mamontov company, neck diameter 120 mm. Kolya Trofimov and Kosogovsky again helped me. When we did everything and launched the drilling rig, we were thanked, and I was given 15 days of vacation and a trip to Leningrad. After this, an accident occurred again, this time a gear on a sawmill, also bronze, but of a very complex configuration, flew off. But there was a model maker who made a very good model of 8 parts, but we did not have molding soil, and we made the mold in natural sand. But this time we had to heat up 50 kg of metal, and we didn’t even expect it; the casting turned out so good that we had to adjust it quite a bit. The sawmill started working, and again gratitude and a 15-day vacation to Leningrad.

Then I received a letter from dad. He was tried without me, allegedly for some kind of fraud. He was already working as a supplier, and it seems, as they told me later, they sold a carload of hardware, but no one really could explain anything, they just gave him 3 years, and now he’s at the Vasilyevsky peat mines. He writes that he works carrying peat to a locomotive, and soon the news of his death came. He was over seventy years old, and, of course, the place where he was buried is not known. And then a letter arrived from my younger brother. He worked as a salesman in a store, and he ended up embezzling. He, however, paid off the embezzlement by selling some things from the house, but did not know what to do next. I wrote to him to learn to become a driver, and he did just that. After completing the courses, he worked on a truck, delivered beer, and then went to work at the Institute of Horse Breeding, driving the director on the M-1. Budyonny often visited this Institute, and Boris sometimes took them home. Then he went to work in a taxi; their taxi depot was located on Stolyarny Lane on Krasnaya Presnya.

At this time, Rudolf Peterson was supposed to be demobilized, and when the commissar asked him who he could transfer the radio center to, Rudolf named me. I was removed from the car and became a radio operator. The radio center was at the entrance gate in a separate house, and no matter who passed, everyone came in or sat on a bench near the house. I had to turn on the broadcasts at 6 a.m. to get up until 11 a.m. and then from 7 to 11 p.m. in the barracks, and the command and civilian staff listened until 2 a.m. A very powerful loudspeaker was also installed in the attic of the house. It could be heard far beyond the town. And then one day I fell asleep, and after good music they started broadcasting some propaganda in Russian from Berlin. The political officer woke me up shouting that I was allegedly deliberately provoking by broadcasting fascist propaganda, that I should be tried again,

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that he would report this fact to the political department of the army. But thanks to the commissar, he quickly reined in this deputy, and the battalion commander and pompotekh only laughed. They started coming to my radio center to repair watches and various household items, and there was almost no free time.

We, junior commanders, and I had already been given a rank, and I began to wear 2 triangles in my buttonholes, had to be on duty in the battalion, and in the morning report to the battalion commander. And so, I had to hand over duty to Sergeant Major Shkurin. We came to the battalion commander after visiting all the services, and he reported to the battalion commander that he was not on duty because the guardhouse was dirty, and the floors in the third company had not been washed. The battalion commander orders to eliminate everything and report execution. I gave the command to put everything in order, reported to the battalion commander, handed over my duty and signed the book. But the next time I took over duty from Shkurin, I also reported that I was not taking over duty, because... the kitchen is dirty, there is no goat in the stable, which must be with the horses at all times, because its smell repels weasels and rats, the territory near the barracks is not cleaned. The battalion commander ordered to put everything in order and report. They went out, and Shkurin said: “Well, you give it!” I then explained to him that this was so that he knew that I would not allow myself to be bullied. Since then he has changed a lot towards me. Shumeiko made a wonderful desk for the battalion commander. Sergeant Major Shkurin asked to make the same one for him and promised that if he made him a table, he would not put it on his lip. Shumeiko made a table for him, and Shkurin invited him to his place to thank him, and they got drunk. Shkurin had two guys, he kept 2 goats for milk, so they took one goat to a neighboring village when they were drunk and sold it. In the morning, Shkurin came to me and asked if I had seen Shumeiko, and he told me everything, and then Shumeiko came in and said that he did all this on purpose to teach him a lesson, so that he would not mock the militia.

We also had such a case. Everyone had lunch, the painters and mechanic Nikulin lingered. They sat down at the table, began to pour out the soup, Nikulin scooped it up, and there was a mouse in the ladle. Immediately shout, call the doctor on duty. The cabbage soup, of course, was poured out. Everyone who had not eaten was given dry rations and half-smoked sausage, but those who had already eaten, of course, were not given anything. There was another case when large quantities of nails were found in pasta. They immediately suspected sabotage, and when they looked into it, it turned out that these nails had been used to nail together the boxes in which the pasta was packed, and the kitchen duty officer was hit for not looking properly when he poured in the pasta.

Somewhere in 1937, the commissar called me and said that it was necessary to dismantle the radio center, since we had to relocate to a new location. Outskirts in Soltsy. It turned out to be a very unpleasant place, there was no greenery nearby, the area was swampy. This town of several barracks and a small house was apparently abandoned by a previous military unit or concentration camp. There was no electricity. I had to use the bat. There were small sidewalks between all the buildings, but they all needed repairs. In this separate house I began to install a radio unit, but I had to do it with batteries and

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set up a broadcast. It was all very difficult due to the lack of tools, and even a huge number of rats. There was even a case when a sentry stepped on a rat, it bit through his boot and pulled at his leg, so he had to be given injections. But over time, everything settled down, they connected the power plant, organized a club, the drama club started working again, and before my demobilization they gave 3 performances of “Glory”. I was supposed to be demobilized in November, but at the request of the commander I was delayed because I did not have a replacement in the performance. After the 3rd performance, I went home with good reviews and characteristics about my military service. In 1936, our unit was renamed from rear militia units to a construction battalion.

During this time, I wrote applications for the expungement of a criminal record, first to Yagoda, then to Yezhov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Vyshinsky, Beria, Stalin, and to all of them I received the answer “Rejected” and “Denied.”

“Royal troops” or construction battalion were a real legend in the USSR. True, rather in the bad sense of the word - many conscripts shunned this type of troops, and the military leadership generally opposed its existence.

"Royal Troops"

Military construction detachments (VSO), or in common parlance - “construction battalion”, date back to February 13, 1942, when, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Military Reconstruction Directorate was formed, which was engaged in the repair and construction of facilities in the territories liberated from German occupiers. The term “construction battalion” was officially withdrawn from circulation in the 1970s, but did not completely disappear from the lexicon, remaining as part of military and civilian jargon. Also, the phrase “construction battalion” continued to be used in relation to some groups of foreign troops. The “Stroybatovtsy” ironically called themselves “royal troops.” According to one version, due to the large number of personnel: in the 1980s, it numbered approximately 300 to 400 thousand people, which exceeded the number of military personnel in the Airborne Forces (60,000), Marine Corps (15,000) and Border Troops (220,000) combined. According to another version, the self-name was associated with the name of the designer Sergei Korolev (all cosmodromes in the USSR were built by construction teams).

Terms of Service

Among Soviet youth, the construction battalion was not considered the most prestigious place for military service. His unpopularity was largely due to the fact that he had only a formal relationship directly with military affairs. However, the recruits who joined the construction detachments had certain advantages over those drafted into other branches of the military. According to Order No. 175 of the USSR Minister of Defense dated May 30, 1977, a military builder was paid a salary for his work, from which, however, the cost of food, uniforms, bath and laundry services, cultural events and other types of support was deducted - those that were united by the concept of “clothing debt." As one of the employees of the construction battalion recalled, he was deducted about 30 rubles monthly for household services - “washing, bathing, uniforms.” Salaries in the construction troops (for the period of the 1980s) ranged from 110 to 180 rubles, but in some cases reached 250 rubles. Everything depended on the specialty. As a rule, those who worked on tower cranes and excavators received more than others. The money was deposited into the employee's account and given out upon retirement. True, in case of urgent need, they were allowed to send money to relatives. At the end of the service, the “construction battalions” sometimes took away up to 5 thousand rubles. The “construction battalion workers” also had additional sources of income, in particular, in the so-called “hack jobs”, where they paid around 10-15 rubles for one working day. They were also entitled to benefits. They were received by warrant officers and officers who had the opportunity to quickly solve their housing problems.

Personnel

The VSO was staffed mainly by conscripts who graduated from construction schools. Construction teams were often replenished with people from rural areas who “knew how to hold a tool in their hands.” Troubled youth were also sent there, sometimes with a criminal record. Although it was not customary to talk about it, nationality was another criterion for selection into the construction battalion. Thus, the share of Caucasian and Central Asian peoples in some construction battalions reached 90% of the personnel. It is widely believed that the reason why immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus were mainly allowed to work in construction work was their poor knowledge of the Russian language. The national composition of the construction brigades scared off many conscripts. Another category of conscripts for whom the road to the construction battalion was “banned” are young men with disabilities. Their parents, by hook or by crook, looked for all sorts of workarounds to protect their children from labor service.

Criticism of the construction battalion

The very fact of the existence of military construction detachments has more than once been criticized by senior military leaders, who considered such formations ineffective and even “illegal.” In 1956, Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff Vasily Sokolovsky reported that “the use of military personnel in industry is a violation of the USSR Constitution, since, according to Article 132 of the Constitution, military service ... should take place in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and not in construction organizations of civilian ministries THE USSR". Experts drew attention to the fact that the production activities of military construction units were poorly organized, and their material and living support was at an extremely low level. One of the negative examples is associated with military construction detachment No. 1052, which in November 1955 was located in an unfinished building. The commission revealed unacceptable living and sanitary conditions for employees. The workers had to sleep dressed, since the temperature in the rooms did not exceed +3 degrees. For a month they were deprived of the opportunity to wash in the bathhouse or change their linen, as a result of which many got lice.

Dangerous regions

Contrary to popular belief, service in construction brigades was by no means safe. In 1986, “construction battalion workers” were sent to eliminate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster - according to some sources, they made up at least 70% of the contingent working in the contaminated zone. Two years later, construction teams went to Armenia to remove rubble and rebuild cities after a devastating earthquake. They also served in Afghanistan. In 1979, immediately after the entry of Soviet troops into this country, the question of quartering personnel arose. In the shortest possible time, builders were required to create and improve military camps with all the infrastructure, residential and military-administrative buildings, build warehouses for ammunition and equipment, fortifications along the perimeter of military units, and airfields. In 1982, a Soviet construction battalion was sent to the Falkland Islands to Port Stanley to extend a concrete runway. It was at this time that the islands were invaded by British troops, who disputed control over these territories with Argentina. According to a participant in those events, Soviet soldiers mined all approaches to the airfield, armed themselves with captured weapons and withstood a siege from the British military for three days. Only thanks to the intervention of Moscow was the local military conflict stopped - Soviet soldiers were ordered to lay down their arms.

“Royal troops” or “construction battalion” were a real legend in the USSR. True, rather in the bad sense of the word - many conscripts shunned this type of troops, and the military leadership generally opposed its existence...
"Royal Troops"
Military construction detachments (VSO), or in common parlance - “construction battalion”, date back to February 13, 1942, when, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Military Reconstruction Directorate was formed, which was engaged in the repair and construction of facilities in the territories liberated from German occupiers.
The term “construction battalion” was officially withdrawn from circulation in the 1970s, but did not completely disappear from the lexicon, remaining as part of military and civilian jargon. Also, the phrase “construction battalion” continued to be used in relation to some groups of foreign troops.


The “Stroybatovtsy” ironically called themselves “royal troops.”
According to one version, due to the large number of personnel: in the 1980s, it numbered approximately 300 to 400 thousand people, which exceeded the number of military personnel in the Airborne Forces (60,000), Marine Corps (15,000) and Border Troops (220,000) combined. According to another version, the self-name was associated with the name of the designer Sergei Korolev (all cosmodromes in the USSR were built by construction teams).
Terms of Service
Among Soviet youth, the construction battalion was not considered the most prestigious place for military service. His unpopularity was largely due to the fact that he had only a formal relationship directly with military affairs.
However, the recruits who joined the construction detachments had certain advantages over those drafted into other branches of the military. According to Order No. 175 of the USSR Minister of Defense dated May 30, 1977, a military builder was paid a salary for his work, from which, however, the cost of food, uniforms, bath and laundry services, cultural events and other types of support was deducted - those that were united by the concept of “clothing debt."


As one of the employees of the construction battalion recalled, he was deducted about 30 rubles monthly for household services - “washing, bathing, uniforms.”
Salaries in the construction troops (for the period of the 1980s) ranged from 110 to 180 rubles, but in some cases reached 250 rubles. Everything depended on the specialty. As a rule, those who worked on tower cranes and excavators received more than others. The money was deposited into the employee's account and given out upon retirement. True, in case of urgent need, they were allowed to send money to relatives.
At the end of the service, the “construction battalions” sometimes took away up to 5 thousand rubles.

The “construction battalion workers” also had additional sources of income, in particular, in the so-called “hack jobs”, where they paid around 10-15 rubles for one working day. They were also entitled to benefits. They were received by warrant officers and officers who had the opportunity to quickly solve their housing problems.
Personnel
The VSO was staffed mainly by conscripts who graduated from construction schools. Construction teams were often replenished with people from rural areas who “knew how to hold a tool in their hands.” Troubled youth were also sent there, sometimes with a criminal record.
Although it was not customary to talk about it, nationality was another criterion for selection into the construction battalion. Thus, the share of Caucasian and Central Asian peoples in some construction battalions reached 90% of the personnel.


It is widely believed that the reason why immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus were mainly allowed to work in construction work was their poor knowledge of the Russian language. The national composition of the construction brigades scared off many conscripts.
Another category of conscripts for whom the road to the construction battalion was “banned” are young men with disabilities. Their parents, by hook or by crook, looked for all sorts of workarounds to protect their children from labor service.
Criticism of the construction battalion
The very fact of the existence of military construction detachments has more than once been criticized by senior military leaders, who considered such formations ineffective and even “illegal.”
In 1956, Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff Vasily Sokolovsky reported that “the use of military personnel in industry is a violation of the USSR Constitution, since, according to Article 132 of the Constitution, military service ... should take place in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and not in construction organizations of civilian ministries THE USSR".

Experts drew attention to the fact that the production activities of military construction units were poorly organized, and their material and living support was at an extremely low level.
One of the negative examples is associated with military construction detachment No. 1052, which in November 1955 was located in an unfinished building. The commission revealed unacceptable living and sanitary conditions for employees. The workers had to sleep dressed, since the temperature in the rooms did not exceed +3 degrees. For a month they were deprived of the opportunity to wash in the bathhouse or change their linen, as a result of which many got lice.
Dangerous regions
Contrary to popular belief, service in construction brigades was by no means safe. In 1986, “construction battalion workers” were sent to eliminate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster - according to some sources, they made up at least 70% of the contingent working in the contaminated zone. Two years later, construction teams went to Armenia to remove rubble and rebuild cities after a devastating earthquake.
They also served in Afghanistan. In 1979, immediately after the entry of Soviet troops into this country, the question of quartering personnel arose. In the shortest possible time, builders were required to create and improve military camps with all the infrastructure, residential and military-administrative buildings, build warehouses for ammunition and equipment, fortifications along the perimeter of military units, and airfields.


In 1982, a Soviet construction battalion was sent to the Falkland Islands to Port Stanley to extend a concrete runway. It was at this time that the islands were invaded by British troops, who disputed control over these territories with Argentina.
According to a participant in those events, Soviet soldiers mined all approaches to the airfield, armed themselves with captured weapons and withstood a siege from the British military for three days. Only thanks to the intervention of Moscow was the local military conflict stopped - Soviet soldiers were ordered to lay down their arms.
Taras Repin