History of Conscription
Compulsory military service is an obligation of all male citizens to do military service. It is stipulated by the Russian laws and dates back to the time before Peter the Great.
The ancient Moscow State already had well-organized troops. Regular service was done by nobility while the rest of the population was drafted in the times of great threat to the country. At the turn of XV-XVI, the key military force was cavalry, however the times of Ivan the Great saw infantry emerge as a major guarantor of state security. It was for this reason that the first Russian tsar established the elite military corps (Streltsy). That was the start of the history of the state regular troops.
The regular army was created by Peter I and was based on recruitment. Peasants, petty bourgeois and other tax-paying classes were subject to such obligatory recruitment. Military service was communal and life-long.
Further significant changes were introduced during the reign of Alexander II. In 1862, he lifted the obligation from nobility and later from some other classes – merchants, honorable citizens and clergy. Most of the army now consisted of peasants and petty bourgeois. However in 1874, the Russian emperor introduced the universal personal service duty covering all 21-year-old male population in the country. The Draft now applied to all nationalities living in Russia.
In the early XX century, it was decided to shorten the army service time. Certain groups of citizens were granted privileges. Among them were people who completed the course at an educational institution having the 1st rank. Those completely unable to carry weapons were relieved from service. The obligation was also lifted from clergy and certain minor orders. The state also granted service determent and other privileges.
Administration of tougher conscription terms resumed with the Bolsheviks coming to power. In 1918, they passed the Resolution On the Press Draft to the Worker-Peasant Red Army which was decidedly class-oriented and stipulated compulsory military service for all working people. Draft applied to 18-year-olds.
The year 1930 saw the adoption of a new USSR Law On Compulsory Military Service, according to which armed defense of the USSR was to be undertaken by the working people only. All non-working classes were obligated to provide service support to the army. This ensured the class-based approach to the fulfillment of the military duty by all citizens.
Four years after the War end, the newly adopted Law stipulated that the Draft would be done once a year. The service time was filed: ground forces and aviation – 3 years; navy – four years. Two decades later, the service time was reduced to two years in the ground forces and aviation and three years in the navy. Institute graduates without military training served one year. The law also introduced the spring Draft.
Today, the main Draft law is the Federal Law of March 6, 1998 On Military Duty and Military Service. Some of its provisions were amended or repealed by subsequently adopted laws. In 2006, the new amendments to the Law established the new military service term for male citizens as one year starting from 2008.