Modern Russia is a state of generals, ruled by a reserve colonel. In 1998, President Boris Yeltsin, appointing Vladimir Putin as the head of the FSB, offered him to return from the reserve and be promoted to general. However, Putin preferred to remain a colonel.
The tsarist, Soviet and contemporary Russian empires, like any empire, are constantly fighting wars or preparing for them. And for war you need generals, and not only in the army. Generals are also needed in many other important places from this point of view. Russia has mastered the generals’ system perfectly.
Currently, the most important ministries and services in Russia are headed by the president. The rest remain in the hands of the Prime Minister. All ministries and uniformed services operate within a strictly defined organizational framework. Their total number and lists of general positions are approved by the president. Detailed full-time solutions are already being developed in individual ministries and services. However, any changes necessary to introduce changes in the general number and individual full-time general positions can also be introduced only by the president.
Only the president appoints full-time generals throughout Russia by his ukases. Such a position can be taken by a general, but more often it is taken by a colonel, and occasionally by a lieutenant colonel. Appointment to such a position is associated with a high monthly financial salary. Usually, presidential decrees with these appointments are classified or not made public.
Taking up the position of general is the first sieve that army and service officers go through on their way to being a general. The second sieve is the promotion of the general itself. In Russia, he does not meet all officers who hold the position of general. One can even risk that fewer officers become generals than those who end their service as colonels. To take a risk, because there is no reliable information available on the numbers of all full-time generals’ posts and all generals. The promotion of a general is associated with an even higher monthly financial salary.
It is true that generals are promoted by presidential ukases published officially, but not all of them. In Russia, lists of promoted generals are not published, including in the Federal Security Service (FSB), including the FSB Border Service, the Federal Protective Service (FSO), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GU), i.e. in the former GRU and the Main Directorate of Special Programs (GUSP). Lists of full-time generals’ positions in the army, the National Guard Troops (Rosgvardiya), the FSB, FSO, SVR and GUSP are also not published.
For this reason, it can only be estimated that there are several thousand generals throughout Russia, and generals much less than half the number of these positions.
In Russia, a general is not equal to a general, because there are different types of them. A Russian general can be:
- General;
- a general of the medical service;
- a general of justice;
- a police general;
- general of the internal service;
- General of the Customs Service.
President Vladimir Putin surrounded by the military.
Author. Office of the President of Russia
There are different types of generals in individual Russian ministries, services and units subordinate to them:
– in the Armed Forces, SWR, FSB, FSO and GUSP there are generals, generals of the medical service and generals of justice;
– there are generals in the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief, and in the Fire Service of this ministry there are generals of the internal service;
– in the National Guard Troops there are generals, generals of the medical service, generals of justice and generals of police;
– there are generals of justice in the Investigative Committee and in the Military Prosecutor’s Office;
– in the Ministry of the Interior there are generals of police, internal service and justice;
– in the Federal Prison Service, the Federal Bailiff Service and the State Federal Courier Service there are generals of the internal service;
– there are generals of the customs service in the Customs Service.
Each of the above ministries and services usually has a very extensive organizational structure. Of course, each is different and adapted to fulfill specific tasks. But one thing they have in common. All of them are enormously developed and filled with dozens and hundreds of full-time general positions and the generals themselves.
For the President of Russia, thePromotion to the position of general and promotion to the rank of general is an ideal method of exercising power. The entire Russian corps of generals and the group of officers awaiting such promotion are unconditionally loyal and carry out every order and every order without a murmur. Presidential power in Russia is mainly based on these intricately built structures.
Each of them is different, but it is based on the so-called central apparatus and field structures. Russia as a federal state consists of many local administrative units. Currently formally according to Russian legislation The Russian Federation consists of 89 (including 6 occupied):
- 24 republics, including the occupied Crimean, Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics;
- 9 countries;
- 48 oblasts, including the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts;
- 3 separate cities, i.e. Moscow, St. Petersburg and occupied Sevastopol;
- 1 of the autonomous circuit.
- 4 autonomous districts.
The territories occupied by the Russian Federation are not recognized as part of this state in the light of international law.
In addition, due to the enormity of Russia’s territory, it is divided into 8 federal districts. They are used in some activities that facilitate the exercise of federal power.
The territorial structures of ministries and uniformed services are of particular importance outside the largest urban centers in Russia, such as Moscow or St. Petersburg. Each of the above-mentioned uniformed services has its own local main directorates or boards in each of Russia’s organizational units. Sometimes one main board or board covers the area of two or more such units. This is particularly true of the FSB Border Directorates. They cover the entire territory of Russia, but for natural reasons resulting from the shape of the state border, some cover huge areas.
President Vladimir Putin willingly takes part in military ceremonies.
Author. Office of the President of Russia
Each main board or board is headed by a head with a full-time general rank. He has several deputies, and in the main boards some of them are also in the rank of general.
For example, in the geographically closest to us Königsberg (Kaliningrad) Oblast, there are the following uniformed field branches:
- the Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
- the Directorate of the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops (Rosgvardiya);
- the Board of the Federal Security Service;
- Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service;
- Main Board of the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Liquidation of the Effects of Natural Disasters;
- the Board of the Federal Enforcement Service;
- Federal Prison Service Board;
- Königsberg Regional Customs Service;
- A branch of the Federal Courier Service.
Most of them are headed by generals or colonels with generals’ posts. In this way, the whole of Russia is wrapped in a general’s web. But the generals of the Russian Armed Forces are still of the greatest importance. And in addition, there are the most of them.
President Putin loves to promote generals, and en masse. Although he does not hand out these promotions personally, in this way he builds the support of the command structures of the army, special services and uniformed services.
On the occasion of the Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23, President Putin signed another extensive promotion decree No. 86 two days earlier. He was promoted to new ranks:
- 49 people in the Ministry of Defence, including: 4 colonel-generals, 1 admiral, 9 lieutenant-generals, 2 vice-admirals, 28 major-generals, 5 rear-admirals;
- 14 people in Rosgvardiya, including: 1 colonel-general, 2 lieutenant-generals, 3 major-generals, 1 lieutenant-general, 7 major-generals of police;
- 21 people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including 6 lieutenant-generals of the police, 8 major-generals of the police, 5 major-generals of the internal service, 2 major-generals of justice;
- one person in the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Liquidation of the Effects of Natural Disasters, i.e. the major-general of the internal service;
- three people in the Federal Prison Service, i.e. three major-generals of the internal service;
- two people in the Federal Customs Service, i.e. two major generals of the customs service;
- four people in the Investigative Committee, i.e. four major-generals of justice.
In total, it is 94 people (sic!) at one time, but as many as 52% of them are soldiers of the Ministry of Defense units. This is just an example, but it reflects well the trend of theRussia. Of course, it does not take into account undisclosed promotions in the special services, i.e. FSB, FSO, SWR, GU and GUSP.
Among these 94 people, six people received the third star:
- Colonel-General Stanislav Israpilovich Gadzhymagomedov – Head of the National Defense Command Center;
- Colonel-General Andrei Sergeyevich Ivanayev – commander of the Group of Forces (Forces) “East” in the war against Ukraine;
- Colonel-General Vladimir Viktorovich Kravchenko – Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces;
- Colonel-General Valery Nikolayevich Solodchuk – Deputy Commander of the Central Military District;
- Admiral Sergei Mikhailovich Pinchuk – Commander of the Black Sea Fleet;
- Colonel-General Vladimir Leonidovich Spiridonov – commander of the Ural District of the National Guard Troops (Rosgvardiya).
Four-star generals are appointed relatively rarely in Russia. From 1992 to today, only 72 such promotions (including special services) are known. Currently, only 12 army generals remain in active service, of which only six are in the structures of the Ministry of Defense.
Russia is ruled by politicians, oligarchs and generals. The Russian president has direct power over all of them. This is one of the reasons for the almost complete lack of opposition to the functioning of this system. Generals are relatively highly paid for their service, and after leaving the service, they have high pensions. Therefore:
- The SVR and GU are following the actions of countries unfriendly to Russia;
- The FSB tracks the activities of citizens in the country and “near” abroad and deals with counterintelligence among civilians and uniformed personnel;
- The FSB Border Service controls their trips abroad;
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs makes sure that they behave well;
- Rosgvardiya controls the crowds;
- The Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief extinguishes fires;
- The Enforcement Authority collects unpaid amounts from citizens;
- The Investigative Committee charges them in cases of the greatest crimes;
- and finally, the Prison Service guards them in detention centers, prisons and penal colonies.
But all this is still controlled by the military, which is the most important and strongest arm of the Russian president.