“We teach priority skills”: the popularity of basic military training courses is growing among Russians

"Grenade!"

- several men standing near a dilapidated building rush in all directions and fall to the ground, covering their heads with their hands.

"Everything!

Everyone died, I just put down ten people at once!

grins a man in a green balaclava, who threw a training lemon into the crowd. 

The "killed" begin to rise from the bushes and shake themselves off.

So, at an abandoned training ground near Moscow, classes in basic military training (NVP) are held.

50 men learn how to wield weapons, crawl like a plastuna, comb the area and provide first aid for injuries. 

After the decree on partial mobilization, such activities have rapidly gained popularity among Russians.

One of the organizers of the CWP courses was the ROKOT volunteer association.

Within two weeks of the announcement of the mobilization, volunteers began training in cities across Russia.

"People were waiting for the initiative"

“The idea (to start training courses

) has been in the air for a long time.

But during the SVO and before mobilization, our association prioritized helping the fighters who were sent to the front line.

In particular, we helped them to equip themselves.

Mobilization made adjustments to the plans.

We decided to open several courses and see what the demand would be, ”says Dmitry, one of the organizers of the association, to RT.

The demand for these courses is very high.

To date, only the ROKOT society has created 121 groups on the NVP in 106 cities - from Belgorod to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

More than 14,000 people applied to learn how to properly defend themselves and comb the area, handle weapons, use communications equipment, and provide first aid.

“Society is now quite mobilized - people were waiting for an initiative to start studying the basics of military affairs.

And when such an initiator with a proven reputation appeared (in this case, we became it), people responded to the offer, ”the instructor notes.

To organize courses, volunteers need premises, training models on which to explain the device of weapons, first aid kits.

All these things are provided to the association voluntarily and free of charge by local businessmen and public figures.

• A student of the course, under the supervision of an instructor, learns to roll a training grenade into the room

• RT

“The premises are provided to us by ordinary people – the owners of these areas.

We also receive weapon models from volunteers, for example, from those who are fond of airsoft.

I must say that local businessmen and other sponsors express a great desire to help in our cause.

We try to connect them with those who are ready to form local study groups themselves in order to create a local group of “good people,” says Dmitry.

- In 99% of cases, the authorities are not involved and generally eschew this story.

Why is not clear."

Knowledge versus fear

In the Moscow region, the NVP course is conducted by instructors from the regional military-patriotic organization "Kaskad".

Students from Lyubertsy, Zhukovsky and Ramenskoye come to the training ground where classes are held.

About 50 men are involved in one group, who are taught in turn the order of battle, the handling of weapons, and field medicine. 

“I’ll be honest: it’s unrealistic to fully prepare a person in a month and make a fighter out of him,” Nikita, an instructor at the Kaskada training center, tells RT.

“People come to us, and they have fear in their eyes.

They do not know or no longer remember what a machine gun is, how to hold it, load it and shoot it.

Our task is to conduct an educational program in order to dispel these fears that cover a person from the unknown.

Then he will become psychologically relaxed, and this is very important.

If a person finds himself in an extreme situation and does not understand at all what is happening and how to behave, this is very dangerous for him and for others.

If he starts to panic, then at some point he will simply drop everything, run away and frame his colleagues. ”

Loud shots resembling pops are heard in the forest belt - there the group is practicing firing from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The students stand in a line and, on command, shoot blanks.

Instructor Roman, who is standing right in front of them, doesn't even flinch at the loud and harsh sounds.

• fire training classes

• RT

“Now we shoot from the knee.

Target behind!"

he commands.

The men abruptly turn back and fall to their knees.

“Target control, space control, weapon control.

We carry the weapon through the bottom, otherwise you can put the brothers, - reminds Roman.

“So, where is your store, fighter?”

One of the students, recollecting himself, picks up a forgotten horn from the ground and attaches it to the machine gun, his colleagues nearby chuckle.

Roman served in the special forces, and now he teaches children who are engaged in the Cascade.

In the NVP courses organized by ROKOT, they try to use as instructors as much as possible people with real military and combat experience.

So, tactical medicine, that is, first aid for wounds on the battlefield, is taught by a soldier who has only recently returned from the NVO zone after a three-month trip.

“You need to master tactical medicine not only in case of military operations.

Anything can happen, and a person will have to receive first aid in case of an accident, accident or other accident,” says Vasily, laying out individual dressing bags for a new group of students.

“Unfortunately, in our schools, children are practically not taught this.

People now come in with zero knowledge, so first we teach them the highest priority skills: how to stop arterial bleeding, prevent tension pneumothorax, start the heart if a person has no pulse.”

• Vasily tells listeners how to “start” the heart if a person has no pulse

• RT

The military adds that there is nothing wrong with the very feeling of fear of death or injury, fear is normal, but it must be learned to control.

“We speak to the students in a simple language, which we use with colleagues.

During the lesson, we can joke about some difficult topics: for example, if a leg is torn off, it can be thrown away, but the beret must be left, it can still come in handy.

Maybe people who are not used to hearing about limb breaks feel a little better from such jokes, because laughter helps to overcome this fear, ”says Vasily.

"We will be useful"

There are now more people who want to go through the basics of military training than there are places in the courses.

The organizers give priority to those who have already received the agenda or who can be mobilized in the near future.

“Those come to us who are waiting for the agenda and do not want to waste time, they want to prepare in advance.

Someone is planning to volunteer.

The main thing is that all these people are motivated to learn,” adds Goiko.

Most of the courses are enrolled by men over 30-35 years old.

Many of them served in the army, but they managed to forget something, and they didn’t study something during the year of military service.

Instructor Andrei, who served in the GRU, teaches students how to throw grenades from a trench.

First, he explains the principle of operation of the F-1 anti-personnel defensive grenade, says that even if you pull out the safety pin, but at the same time hold the safety lever with your fingers, the grenade will not explode.

After the theoretical part, the students take turns throwing airsoft analogues of the F-1 from the trench.

• Grenade throwing lessons

• RT

"Don't look at the grenade, lie down!"

- almost every student Andrei has to be reminded that he must immediately hide in the trench after throwing a grenade.

“He threw well.

Before that, in the army, you threw grenades?

he asks one of the students.

“No, never, although he served in the army,” the man replies.

"Don't crowd in one place!

A grenade or a shell will fly in - it will put you all down with one blow, ”the instructor explains to the fighters.

In the classroom, the instructor can throw a training lemon at any time, and then the one who noticed it first should shout “grenade!”, And all the fighters should react and lie on the ground to avoid splinters.

You need to lie down with your feet to the grenade in order to reduce the likelihood of damage to vital organs - this is how instructors teach "soldiers".

Although the courses show students how to handle a machine gun and grenades, the main task is to teach them to provide medical assistance and defend themselves: to crawl correctly over the terrain, dig in, and comb the area so as not to become a target for the enemy.

In parallel with tactical medicine, nursing courses are taking place at the training ground, for which women are enrolled.

“In general, at first we did not want to take women on the course, but they began to write to us actively from the first days!

And they want to learn not only medicine.

The first classes we had were in mixed courses, and women were much more active in the lessons than men: they asked more questions, including on the technical characteristics of weapons.

We have girls who brought their men by the hand so that they also do it, ”says Nikita.

• Course participants learn to move around the area with weapons so as not to become a target for the enemy

• RT

Among students of medical courses is Oksana, who came here after her 24-year-old son went to the front as a volunteer.

“If not for my son, I would hardly have come here,” the woman says.

- He came to the draft board as a volunteer the day before the announcement of mobilization.

Now he is already there.

I'm worried, of course, but I'll put it under my skirt, or what?

I am proud, I have no doubt that he did the right thing.

Oksana says that, in addition to medicine, she would like to master shooting from a machine gun and tactics.

According to the woman, she decided to undergo training in order to be ready for the future.

“And if the war is long?

Then we’ll be useful, maybe we’ll go there, to the front, too, ”she says, while she puts a splint on another listener, who pretends to be wounded.

Oksana tightens the bandage and carefully looks at the "patient".

“Everything will be fine, I can tell you that for sure.”