SOURCE. Tatyana Maleva, Al'ternativnaia grazhdanskaia sluzhba v
Rossii:byt' ili ne byt'? [Alternative Civilian Service in Russia: To Be
Or Not ToBe?]. Brifing Moskovskogo tsentra Karnegi [Carnegie Moscow Center
Briefing], Tom 4, Vypusk 4, April 2002.
According to Article 59 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation,
a citizen whose convictions or religious faith do not permit him to do
military service has the right to do alternative civilian service instead.
Until now this right has existed only on paper. On April 17 a draft law
on alternative civilian service (ACS) finally passed its first reading
in the Duma. However, the author is far from sure that the law will be
adopted, or if adopted prove workable.
It is generally assumed that young men on ACS will be assigned heavy
and non-prestigious jobs as cleaners in hospitals, in homes for invalids
and the elderly, on the roads, and the like -- that is, jobs for which
the normal labor supply is insufficient. But if ACS becomes a mass phenomenon,
will enough places be found for them all? Under what conditions will they
work? What will they be paid? What will it cost the state? None of these
issues have yet been clarified.
The military brass and their supporters, wishing to minimize the appeal
of ACS to potential draftees, try to make it as burdensome as possible.
That is why the term of ACS has been set at four years, twice as long as
military service. This criterion also requires that those doing ACS, like
military draftees, not be allowed to work near home and live with their
families but be sent to other parts of the country. However, such an arrangement
would be much more expensive for the state, which would have to provide
them with accommodation near their place of service.
Can ACS help resolve the crisis of Russia's military draft system by
providing an alternative option acceptable to a large proportion of the
numerous young men inclined to evade the draft? (1) Ms. Maleva thinks not.
ACS would cater to a small minority of highly motivated individuals with
deeply held objections of principle to military service, but not to the
much larger numbers concerned mainly for their own comfort and advantage.
Thus in a survey conducted by the Institute of Youth, boys of pre-draft
age and their parents were asked: "If you had free choice, which would
you prefer?" The responses were as follows:
-
24 percent of boys and 21 percent of parents preferred
military service.
-
28 percent of boys and 38 percent of parents preferred
alternative civilian service.
-
36 percent of boys and 31 percent of parents preferred
neither military nor civilian service.
-
12 percent of boys and 10 percent of parents didn't
know.
NOTE
(1) According to recent polls, over half of the Russian
public sympathizes with draft evaders.
See Post-Soviet Armies
Newsletter, October 14, 2002.