Not long ago its mighty ships and city-busting missiles inspired awe and fear worldwide. Its chiefs sat at the pinnacle of the Kremlin and its rank-and-file were a national badge of honor.
But the once-proud Soviet military now is riven by discontent and disarray, raising the prospect of piecemeal mutiny and perhaps even an attempt to unseat Boris Yeltsin as Russia`s president.
Demoralized by draconian cuts in military spending, dismal living conditions and a threat that the armed forces of the former USSR will be parceled out among the new republics, many officers have begun to broadcast their bitterness.
Some, ominously, are calling for the ”protectors of the motherland” to take a more direct political role as conditions worsen with the return of scores of thousands of troops from Eastern Europe.
The ultimate indignity, it seems, is that officers` uniforms and unit symbols-even medals for valor-are being sold to foreigners in Moscow flea markets.
At the giant Ismailovo outdoor market, a used general`s uniform can be had for $25 and a colonel`s for $10.
”The alarm felt by officers over their future has reached its peak,”
warns Gen. Konstantin Koberts, a top adviser to Yeltsin. ”Soon uncontrollable processes could begin, especially in army units in regions of crisis.”
The disarray also stems from the inability of political leaders in the shaky new Commonwealth of Independent States to agree on maintaining a unified conventional force.
Only last December they had agreed to do so.
But at a high-level meeting Friday in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, the presidents of Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova stated in no uncertain terms that they were determined to fashion their own conventional forces, presumably carved from existing units.
The leaders, however, did reaffirm their commitment to joint control over the former USSR`s 27,000 nuclear warheads.
Despite the appearance of growing anger within the military, some diplomats and Russian political experts indicate that the army`s vexation hasn`t yet coalesced. There is, they say, no evidence of significant military involvement in a coup attempt.
”There is too great a variety of attitudes between the various strata of officers,” said one Moscow politician. ”There`s not going to be an army coup.”
But a Western military affairs expert cautioned: ”We haven`t really heard from the army yet. Let`s hope we just get through the winter.”
Some officers speak of a dichotomy between their colleagues who favor democracy and those who envision a return to some degree of Soviet-style autocracy.
”The marshals and generals and colonels who command regiments tend to be conservative, although some are democratic-minded,” said one officer. ”Lower levels tend toward democracy.”
But most officers agree on one glaring fact: the shortage of housing is genuinely degrading.
Koberts told the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Independent Newspaper) that if there were 190,000 military families without housing at the beginning of 1991, ”today 240,000 military families have no apartments.”
The military`s complaints run a wide gamut: living conditions, career opportunities, the possible breakup and dispersal of units among the republics, inept generals and efforts by conservatives to purge liberal officers from the ranks.
”Frankly, I feel deceived,” Lt. Col. Sergei Nemamiski said as he waited for a train to take him from Moscow to his artillery unit in Ukraine. ”My friends back home are accruing apartments and furniture and they`ve worked themselves into good career positions.
”Inflation has eaten away my savings. When I retire, careerwise I`ll be starting from scratch. I have a flat in Ukraine, but I`ve just learned I`ll have to abandon it because they`ve discovered it`s been contaminated from (the 1986 nuclear disaster in) Chernobyl.”
His point is underscored by skimpy military pensions. An officer retiring with the rank of major receives 800 rubles a month, 200 less than the average worker in Moscow, where a chicken costs 80 rubles and a pound of tomatoes 120. In the Moscow office of Shield, a military support group, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan told of hard-line officers`s attempts to force democratic-minded subordinates from the army by issuing poor fitness reports. ”Conservative superiors are trying to get rid of those who want the
(Yeltsin) democratic reforms,” said Lt. Col. Vyacheslav Solovyov, who won the USSR`s second-highest medal for combat valor in Afghanistan.
”I am getting letters from colleagues all over the country telling me that this is happening.”
Solovyov cited the plight of another officer who commanded a tank battalion on the edge of Red Square during August`s failed coup. ”He told his superiors he would not give any command to open fire on civilians,” he said. ”Later, they tried to run him out of the army, but his division commander interceded in his behalf.”
The battalion`s political officer, who also said he would refuse to fire on civilians, was not so fortunate.
”He was given a poor efficiency rating and has been given the choice of accepting an inferior maintenance position or resigning his commission-and they are pressuring him to resign,” Solovyov said. ”He has a sick child and no place to live.”
Military experts in Moscow expect the former Soviet force to be cut from 3.9 million to 2 million within the next two years.
Alexander Tsalko, Russia`s second deputy defense minister, said last month that while ”the politicians are talking about a reduction of 700,000, I will say that we can, and will, phase out up to 2 million.”
Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, reported last month that in the first quarter of this year, Russia appears to have cut its military procurement by about 80 percent.
On Jan. 17, Yeltsin, concerned over mounting army unrest, asked officers to help preserve the peace.
”I, as Russian president elected by the people, appeal to you . . . to preserve civic calm,” he said. ”It is easy enough to start a fire. It is far more difficult to extinguish it.”
Marshal Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, acting commander of CIS forces, told the same gathering that the armed forces were the commonwealth`s last bastion against chaos.
Yeltsin has urged local authorities to give military officers priority on waiting lists for housing.
He said Russia`s income from arms sales would be spent on officers`
housing, and land near Moscow and St. Petersburg would be allocated for housing for retired officers.
Solovyov is pleased, but skeptical, with announced intentions to build 120,000 units for homeless officers during the next few months.
”We want to believe them,” he said. ”But we have our doubts.”
