Word: shchit
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...perestroika does have its appeal for some restive segments of the armed forces who could capitalize on the failed coup. The reform-minded Shchit (Shield) organization of former officers, which wants to abolish compulsory service in favor of a volunteer, professional army, may get more attention. Middle-ranking officers, especially veterans of the Afghan war, are impatient for a switch from massive conventional forces to the high-tech systems that the U.S. fielded so ably in the Persian Gulf. In their view, a market economy and the dismantling of the defense bureaucracy offer the only hope for modernizing the military...
Another group of officers has banded together in an organization called Shchit (Shield), dedicated to democratizing the notoriously conservative military. Shchit's members have demanded that Communist Party committees be removed from military units so that all political parties can compete equally for support among the troops. "Our goal is to make sure that the army is never again used against its own people," says Vitali Urazhtsev, 46, Shchit's founder. The group claims to have 3,000 members in military installations around the country...
...surprisingly, the senior military brass is not fond of Shchit. Most of the movement's leaders, including Urazhtsev, have been taken off active duty and expelled from the party. Now many officers keep their allegiance to the new organization secret. Says Nikolai Moskovchenko, 35, a major removed from active duty earlier this year for supporting the reformers: "The majority of soldiers and officers are with...
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