Army vertical of power

The army is an organization with a strictly regulated control system. All military personnel of all military units and institutions, regardless of any local conditions, desires or opinions of higher leaders, have precisely and strictly defined duties and job titles in the relevant legislative documents (charters, manuals). Moreover, all this was established by the Minister of Defense, and not a single subordinate chief has the right to change anything here.

In the same documents it is precisely defined - to whom and to what extent this official is subordinate, and who and to what extent is subordinate to him; what rights this or that chief has in relation to subordinates.

In the language of modern "democratic" Russia, the army has a well-ordered vertical of power.

Power in the army is impersonal; there cannot be such a situation in the army when, due to the absence of one or another official at the workplace (vacation, illness, business trip, etc.), this range of duties is not performed by anyone or is postponed until the employee returns, and no one is responsible for the situation cases in this area of ​​work.
For the majority of leadership positions, there are deputies who automatically take the place of their boss in his absence, even for a short time, bearing full responsibility and using the full power of their boss.
For those positions for which there is no full-time deputy, the charter provides that the performance of duties in the absence of the chief is automatically assigned to his closest subordinate, and so on down the chain.

Figuratively speaking, even when only one soldier and one corporal survive from the entire regiment, the latter is considered the commander of the regiment with all his rights and duties in relation to a single soldier.

It is impossible to describe the entire vertical of power in the army within one article or even a whole series of articles due to the complexity and diversity of the army structure.

In this article, the army vertical of power is described at the level of a motorized rifle (tank) regiment. Approximately the same vertical exists at higher levels (division, corps, army, front), of course, with its own characteristics, due to a wider range of tasks solved by a division, corps, army, front than by a regiment.

This scheme was drawn up on the basis of the Charter of the internal service of the Armed Forces of the USSR, the states of motorized rifle (tank) regiments. It is somewhat simplified and brought only to the level of battalions and companies. But in this way it is easier for a person who did not serve in the army or served as a soldier to understand the system of subordination.

The division of the scheme into levels is purely conditional, introduced by the author to facilitate understanding of its essence. The location of the rectangles (positions) within each level is not in the same horizontal line, but in steps, not done by chance. It reflects the degree of importance of this official in his level.

The level itself indicates the staff ranks of the positions at that level. Level 0 is colonel, levels 1,2 and 3 are lieutenant colonels, level 4 majors, level 5 captains, level 6 senior lieutenants and lieutenants, levels below are ensigns, sergeants and soldiers.

The author, for obvious reasons, was forced to give the names of the positions in the scheme in abbreviated form. Here is the decryption:
* head of air defense - head of the regiment's air defense;
* early artillery - chief of artillery of the regiment;
* ZKT - deputy regiment commander for logistics;
* deputy commander - first deputy regiment commander;
* chief of staff - chief of staff of the regiment;
* ZKHR - deputy regiment commander for political affairs;
* ZKV - deputy commander of the regiment for armaments;
* com ZADN - commander of the anti-aircraft missile division;
* com ADN - commander of the artillery battalion;
* Kom MSB - commanders of motorized rifle battalions;
*kom TB - commanders of tank battalions;
* NIS - head of the engineering service of the regiment;
* NHS - head of the chemical service of the regiment;
* NMS - head of the medical service of the regiment;

* Partor - Secretary of the Regimental Committee of the Communist Party;
* prop - propagandist of the regiment;
*НР - head of intelligence of the regiment;
* NS - chief of communications of the regiment;
*Dir - conductor of the regimental orchestra;
*ZNSh - deputy chief of staff of the regiment;
* PNSh - assistant chief of staff of the regiment;
*NFPiS - head of physical training and sports of the regiment;
* US - head of the automotive service of the regiment;
* NRAV - head of the regiment's rocket and artillery weapons service;
* NBTS - head of the armored service of the regiment;
* ZKB - deputy battalion commander;
* ZKD - deputy division commander;
*NShB - chief of staff of the battalion;
*NShD - chief of staff of the division;
* ZKBT - deputy battalion commander for logistics;
* ZKDT - deputy commander of the rear division;
* ZKBV - deputy battalion commander for armaments;
*ZKDV - deputy division commander for armaments;
* ZKBHR - deputy battalion commander for political affairs;
* ZKDPHR - deputy division commander for political affairs;
* KRMO - commander of a material support company;
* NGSM - head of the regiment's fuel and lubricants supply service;
* NPFS - head of the food and feed supply service of the regiment;
* NVS - head of the clothing supply service of the regiment;
* NKES - head of the housing and maintenance service of the regiment;
* NFS - head of the financial service of the regiment;
* com bat - battery commander;
* com mouth - company commander;
* NMP - head of the regimental medical center;
*NKLB - head of the regimental club;
* KRR - commander of a reconnaissance company;
*KRS - communications company commander;
* KISR - commander of an engineering company;
* Komsomol organizer - secretary of the regimental organization of the communist youth union (VLKSM);
* KREMR - commander of a repair company;
* KVHZ - commander of a chemical protection platoon.

By the way - pay attention to the place in this hierarchy of the chief of intelligence of the regiment. If the chief of engineering, chemical, financial, medical services and even the conductor of the orchestra are directly subordinate to the regiment commander, then the chief of intelligence is only to the chief of staff of the regiment, i.e. his official position is lower than these chiefs. Even a propagandist and party organizer are of greater importance than a scout.
Exactly the same position was occupied by scouts in the structure of a division, corps, army, district (front). This is me as an illustration to the book by V. Suvorov "Aquarium".

It should also be noted that this diagram shows only a straight line of military power. In addition to it, there are auxiliary, additional verticals.

For example, the regimental commander is the body of inquiry, i.e. he has the right to initiate criminal proceedings against all personnel of the regiment, to conduct an investigation and to refer criminal cases to a military tribunal. For the direct performance of the tasks of the investigation, the regiment has five positions of military interrogators and one position of a senior military interrogator. However, the duties of military interrogators are assigned by the regimental commander to six senior officers (from a major and above) of the regiment. Those. these officers perform two positions - their own in the state and additionally as a military interrogator. These interrogating officers report to the senior interrogating officer, and he, in turn, directly to the regiment commander, regardless of his state subordination. For example, the chief of staff of the artillery battalion was appointed senior military interrogator, and the head of the regiment's air defense was appointed one of the interrogators. According to this legal line, the air defense chief of the regiment is subordinate to the chief of staff of the artillery battalion, and he is directly subordinate to the regiment commander.

Second example. The positions of secretaries of party organizations in battalion party organizations, company party organizations are also additional positions performed by officers or ensigns in parallel with their main ones. On this party line, they all report to the secretary of the regiment's party organization.

Third example. Each company has a medical instructor, the battalion, division has a medical center. These servicemen are subordinate respectively to the commanders of their companies, the commanders of their battalions. But on medical issues, they, in addition, report to the head of the medical service of the regiment.

Fourth example. The battalion commander in his official position is higher than the head of the chemical service of the regiment, but on issues of chemical property, training of personnel in defense against weapons of mass destruction, and on the measures of this protection, the instructions of the chemical chief. regiment for the battalion commander are required.

Fifth example. The commander of one of the tank companies has an additional position of chairman of the financial and auditing commission. Although the head of the financial service of the regiment, in his official position, is higher than the company commander, however, in the field of checking the finances of the regiment, he is subordinate to this company commander.

Sixth example. All military personnel of the regiment, including the deputy commander of the regiment, are obliged to follow the orders of the head of physical training and sports of the regiment in the field of their personal physical training and their subordinates. Figuratively speaking, at the stadium, sports ground, the captain can also order the lieutenant colonel.

There are still quite a few such additional verticals of power in the regiment. It is impossible to list them within the framework of this article.

Sources and literature.

1. The staff of the motorized rifle regiment No. 12 / ХХХХ.
2. The staff of the tank regiment No. 12 / ХХХХ - A
3. Charter of the Internal Service of the USSR Armed Forces (Approved by the Decree of the Presidium of the Armed Forces of July 30, 1975). Military publishing house. Moscow. 1975
4.B. Suvorov. Aquarium. AST. Moscow. 1995
5. Combat Charter of the Ground Forces of the USSR Armed Forces (division-brigade-regiment). Military publishing. Moscow. 1980

One day, the regimental commander called me and offered me the position of deputy chief of staff of the regiment. At the same time, he assured that I would fly once a week with one of his deputies. He commented on the position of deputy chief of staff as follows: work depends on how you work on it. He gave examples: Major Pavlov worked, he sat day and night and did not have time; and another officer worked, he worked until dinner, and after dinner he told jokes, and things went on.
I took one day to think.

I was not allowed to fly into the front cockpit even from the second New Year, when flying from the rear cockpit there are no prospects for growth. The rear cabin infringed on my pride - why did I graduate from the academy.

I understood that to go along the line of ZNSH means to change the whole direction of official activity. But supersonic aviation was already firmly on the threshold, which at my age would not be imprisoned, and the Yak-25m was outliving its days.

After such reflections, I agreed to the ZNSh with the obligatory condition - to fly.
The regimental commander discussed the issue of my nomination with the deputy for political affairs, Davydov, who was a good political worker, but we were sometimes struck by his excessively conciliatory policy. As soon as the regiment commander said his decision, Davydov immediately picked up and said: "That's right, that's right."

When I had already matured the decision to go to the post of ZNSh, Davydov met me in the corridor and repeated what the regiment commander had suggested to me. As soon as he started like this: “So the commander and I decided to offer you the position of deputy chief of staff, how do you look at it?”
About Davydov, it is appropriate here to cite one anecdotal incident that the head of the guard, sergeant, told me. At that moment I was on duty in the regiment - I checked the guard.

The head of physical training and sports, captain Vasiliev, having received the command to equip a place for swimming on the Kokshaga River, selected the soldiers and went to the place of work. By the end of the day, Davydov and the chief of staff of the regiment Naumov A.M. went to check the place equipped for swimming. The chief of staff (I will tell about him later) was laconic, strict, expressed categorical decisions, did not curry favor with anyone, did not fawn.

It so happened that Davydov was the first to ask Vasiliev what he had done. And the captain showed, along with other structures, a bridge for jumping into the water. Davydov immediately approved, said: “Well, Vasilyev, that’s right. Let the soldiers dive and develop their lungs.” Here he made a mistake in being the first to express his opinion.
Naumov kept silent, and then went up to the bridge and in a tone that could not stand objections, said: “Vasiliev, remove this. The soldier dives, drowns, he will have to answer. Immediately Davydov picked up: “Well, Vasiliev, that’s right. After all, he will dive and drown, and we will answer.
Those who built this structure, including my narrator, grinned, and they had no choice but to pull out the stakes of the bridge and let this simple structure go with the flow.

So, I gave my consent to the regimental commander. I was sent on vacation in January, and when I returned from it, there was already an order for my appointment to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff (22.02.66). The regiment commander immediately, as promised, gave the command to send documents for conferring me the next military rank of "major".
I will not describe the duties and roles of the ZNSh in the regiment, but I will say figuratively that the ZNSh is the brain and mirror of the regiment. He leads the planning of all activities of the regiment, keeps records and sends all reporting forms to the higher headquarters, and there they evaluate the work and affairs in the regiment.
In addition, the deputy chief of staff is the regiment's chief of intelligence. He himself must know the potential enemy well, keep an eye on his weapons and bring all this to the personnel of the regiment. And first of all to the flight crew.

In the new position, all my notes and knowledge gained within the walls of the academy came in handy. They began to call me unusually for me by my first name and patronymic. That was the staff ethic. The most offensive was that, as the regiment commander promised me, they did not let me fly.
Here the chief of staff played a role. He, using his rights, proved to me that I would not be able to deal with papers and fly. I argued the opposite, and then soon the regiment commander and chief of staff brought to me the decision of the army aviation commander that he did not allow me to fly. I realized that this decision was not for me to jump over, and I set about a new business for me.

Basically, the chief of staff was the initiator of the ban, since he himself did not fulfill the position of the ZNSH, did not know it and was afraid of my reporting figures. Even when I went on vacation, I prepared reports in advance, wrote down what and where to send. And then after my return, I found some reports in a confused and neglected state.

For two years I have not yet handed over my flight uniforms. And then our regiment began to retrain for new supersonic equipment, which required fighter experience, youth, enthusiasm, and I calmed down on staff activities.
I soon realized that staff work in a regiment requires knowledge, good health, the ability to lead people, and for this you need to know what they are doing in order to help, prompt, and spur them on time.

If you write according to the statutory canons, then the headquarters is an executive body, that is, the commander commands, and the headquarters puts his commands into practice. But the function of the headquarters is much broader, it is well described in Shtemenko's book "The General Staff during the Great Patriotic War" (second book).

But even earlier, from my peasant years, I made friends with the proverb: I took up the tug - do not say that it is not hefty. When performing work related to agriculture, it was sometimes used in the literal sense. The horses of the war years, on which I had to work, were weak from unbearable loads, and then my father and I had to firmly grasp the tug of the collar and pull the cart with all our might, helping the horse. The horse is a smart animal. Seeing and feeling help, she strained her last strength and overcame difficulties ...

I served in the position of ZNSH for several days, when my chief of staff fell ill. The regiment commander did not want to let him go to the hospital, but, looking into the office, he saw the following picture: the chief of staff was sitting with his head bowed low and holding his heart. The regimental commander jumped into my office and said: "Go to the NSH quickly and take care of things." And instantly signed him a referral to the hospital.

I went to the chief of staff. He slowly, quietly, clearly began to tell me what to do, what to pay attention to and how to deal with whom. Then he called me two more times, and at the end he quietly said: “But can you tell me everything ... You yourself will understand what to do.” And he left for the hospital.

So I, in the rank of captain, yesterday's pilot-operator, ended up at the helm of the regiment under such a strict, demanding commander. The main thing in my work was organizing regimental flights and directing them from the command post, conducting formations, organizing training days, organizing combat duty, monitoring the daily outfit, guards and a host of other affairs and affairs.

The regiment is a solid organization: about two hundred officers, more than a hundred soldiers, many ensigns, a command post, buildings and structures, barracks, headquarters, territory. The regiment commander made me understand that I must do his will, and there can be no two opinions in the regiment, but only his opinion.
I had to learn a lot and learn on the go. It must be said that in the Army, having put an officer in a position, they begin to strictly ask him, they don’t give days to build up - do it as you know.

At the beginning there were difficulties with the command post. I knew the theory, but practically faced it for the first time. The difficulty was that among the officers of the command post I was the only one with a higher education. Separate officers even tried to substitute a “leg” so that I stumbled, they say, you are an academician, so think about it. The process of mastering the role is complex, and you cannot express the whole gamut of experiences, learning, emotions, etc. on paper.

I quickly figured out all the schemes, connections and worked for 12-14 hours every day, because in addition to leadership, control, I had to draw up a lot of documents, diagrams, and graphs myself.

Shortly after my appointment to the post, the regiment commander ordered that documents be sent for conferring the next rank of "major" on me. This can complete the story that, playing the role of the chief of staff of the regiment with the rank of captain, I passed the exam. Military rank in the army plays a big role for leadership. I had to command majors and below.

In order to better master the command post, I went on duty at the command post as an operational duty officer - deputy chief of staff for combat control.

Staff work was much more difficult than flight work. The pilot is his own master in the cockpit, and his whole flight, his success depends mainly on himself. The deputy chief of staff often remains in charge of the NSh of the regiment, and here he has to direct the entire life and activities of the regiment. The success of the regiment and its main figure - the regiment commander, appointed by order of the Minister of Defense - depends on the work of the headquarters. They move faster in position and military rank. Staff members grow more slowly, they are in no hurry to move, since order and stability in the regiment depend on them.

Deputy NSh in the flight fighter regiment is the head of intelligence. I liked this position more, I did it with a twinkle. I made a map in my office, where I noted all the data about potential opponents. I had to conduct a lot of reconnaissance training and teach all regimental categories of officers and below. Accordingly, it was necessary to constantly work on oneself, since any audience tolerated a knowledgeable teacher and forced them to prepare for classes in all seriousness.

To supplement the significance of the figure of the chief of intelligence in the regiment, I will cite the following fact. When one of the first downed American pilots in Vietnam and taken prisoner was asked what he would do if he returned to his own, he answered without delay: “I would shoot the intelligence chief - he did not say that there were Russian missiles here.”

In the summer of 1966, I received another military rank of major. In the same period, an important event took place in the family - our son was born. I was informed by phone, and I jumped out of joy onto the balcony and announced to the world with a joyful cry: “I have a son!” It just so happened that the husband in the family is always more waiting for the birth of his son. I informed my father about this in Boromlyu by telegram.

In the summer the regiment left for the camps, I remained in winter quarters, endowed with the authority of the regiment commander. My duties included repairing all regimental quarters and preparing for winter. There was a lot of work. I made a plan and started implementing it. The remaining personnel began to smoke and violate military discipline. I had to exercise the fullness of the power given to me, using the guardhouse for this. Discipline improved, and we began to implement the plan.

During this period, the chief of staff of the unit, a certain Colonel Kalinichenko, visited the winter quarters. It so happened that he himself walked around the regimental facilities. He had the uniform of an artilleryman, no one reported to him, no one introduced himself, he became furious and appeared at the headquarters, where he was supposed to start. He gave me a tremendous overclocking, the like of which I did not receive either before or after this situation.

The first time I repented that I moved to the headquarters. I understood very well that a superior officer should welcome the transition of the flight personnel to staff work, but here it turned out the other way around. True, if it were an officer in flight uniform, and here in front of me was a “gunner yashka”. Infantry laws were different. They do not understand the soul of a pilot; they have never taken to the air in a manned aircraft. In their ranks there was an order of "unterprishibeevs".

In the evening he called me to his place again. I firmly decided that if he did not moderate his ardor, then I would tell him everything frankly about his tactlessness. Much to my surprise, this time he was in good spirits. And at the end of the conversation, he even patted me familiarly on the shoulder, saying, they say, work hard, things are going well.
By the way, because of the abuse of power, this colonel was soon demoted, and his finish was sad.

In the autumn of the same year, our "monarch" I.I. Chernyak, without waiting for the post of general, left, as he put it, for a quieter service, but also as a colonel. The struggle for the post began in the regiment, but Moscow sent us Colonel N.N. Avramchik from the East. For a long time he fought for a replacement in the central regions, wrote complaints to all authorities, and his request was granted.

He began to command the regiment from the age of 32, was a participant in the war, had Olympian calm, prepared to retire for a well-deserved rest. He ruled our regiment, carelessly. My teacher, the chief of staff of the regiment Naumov, brought up by Chernyak in the spirit of not making any decisions without him, faced great difficulties.

Avramchik could often leave with or without reason, and the regiment's activities did not stop - the chief of staff had to make decisions himself. I saw the torment of Naumov, it was surprising that he was still looking for Avramchik to make a decision.
In the future, already in the role of chief of staff, I often had to make decisions for the regiment commander, for the head of the garrison, and I looked at it more simply, I was bolder in my decisions.

Avramchik had extensive experience in commanding a regiment, but he was tired of everything, and he only thought about being transferred to the reserve. And the fact that he had experience, says such an episode. Our regiment took part in regular exercises. The exercises were complex, they practiced interaction with the ZRV by zones, as well as the actions of fighter aircraft at the distant lines of interception.

The mediators in the regiment were demanding and competent. I had to play the role of chief of staff. Avramchik jokingly called me "Chief of Staff of the entire Mari Republic", because Naumov was often sick, and accordingly I remained behind him.
We repulsed the raid during the day, and at night by morning it was necessary to display all this on the map, the regiment commander to make decisions on the restoration of battle formations (we had "losses") and on the further conduct of hostilities.

Nikolai Nesterovich Avramchik became interested in playing "shishi-beshi" with the navigators of the command post during the pauses, and the fact that they would hear him in the morning did not bother him at all. He was imperturbably calm.
For the rest of the night, I gathered my deputies, the commanders of the supporting units, listened to them, and by morning the decisions for the regiment commander were printed textually and displayed on the map. Avramchik did not even take the text in his hands. I began to worry about his Olympian calmness, I thought that they would slap us with a low mark ...

Great was my surprise when, in front of a higher commander and intermediaries, Avramchik clearly (according to my preparation), articulately, in commanding language, without stumbling, reported what had been done, what had been restored, and his decisions on the further conduct of hostilities. There were no questions from the intermediaries and the unit commander. So, the regimental commander covered everything necessary.
I beamed - aviation did not let us down, it was clear to me that Nikolai Nesterovich had a lot of experience, he knew how to navigate on the move.

The second was heard by the commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment. He had a solid appearance, a mustache and two rhombuses on his chest. But he reported weakly compared to Avramchik, by about 3 points. A lot of questions rained down, he began to report on them vaguely. In general, their headquarters let us down.
Avramchik, even before the second raid, set to work on "shishi-beshi". We also repulsed the second raid. I had to stay awake for 3 nights, but we accounted for the exercises in all respects.

But the weakness of the leadership on the part of the regiment commander soon made itself felt ...

Years of war: 1942 [Notes of the chief of staff of the division] Rogov Konstantin Ivanovich

Chapter 4 Service at the headquarters of the 24th reserve army. Senior Assistant Chief of Operations, Army

Service at the headquarters of the 24th reserve army. Senior Assistant Chief of Operations, Army