The ranking system in the Soviet Army was not as straightforward as it seems from the first sight. The main problem was how the rank was not always related to the actual position of the person. And when things came to actual wars, the mess just piled up. In this article we will discover what soldiers and officers of different ranks actually were responsible for during the Soviet-Afghan War.
Sergeant schools
The regular system of making sergeants in the Soviet Army worked in two main ways. Either a fresh conscript would be sent straight to Sergeants school, where he would spend six month studying a specialty. He would then get the rank of Junior Sergeant or Sergeant. These new sergeants would then be sent to their regiments, where they would take charge of other soldiers. Second option was less common - to be promoted by the unit commander. This happened from time to time, but the bureaucracy behind this process did not exactly help to identify people with best leadership skills. In fact, neither of two ways helped it. People who went to Sergeant schools were usually chosen at random, with little no no consideration for their age or education.
There was also another way to rise through the ranks - sign a contract with Soviet Armed Forces. But this was a very irregular way of getting new people into the Army - those who wanted to serve on regular bases were sent to Warrant Schools straight ahead, in most cases. And there were never enough WOs to fill all the designated roles.
Reality on the ground
While the system sounds good in theory, it never really worked in practice. The rank was not as important for the soldier's community as the number of days spent in the forces. So, the fresh sergeant, who was just released after six month of school would not be giving orders to a private who served for a year now. Well, he could give an order - "older" private would just ignore it. So, a sergeant in a regular Soviet Army would command his age group and everyone below.
The situation in Afghan was not different and this time not following subordination did actually save lives. It would be completely ridiculous to be commanded by some guy who have never been to Afghanistan while you were there for a year now.
In most cases this worked rather well - new sergeants, understanding that they are lacking practical experience, did not mind being commanded by their older companions. And they did not have much choice anyway - a battle hardened veteran could easily "explain" the rules to a fresh recruit, whatever his rank was.
Warrant officers - praporshiks
Another large portion of boots on the ground was filled by neither officers, no soldiers - but Praporshiks. We already had an article on Praporshiks which you can check out. In Afghanistan they would usually do either household work, like organizing storage, repairing vehicles, weapons or they would actually be given the command of a unit. This was not uncommon as it usually took weeks for a killed or injured officer to be replaced. Warrant Officers were usually placed in command of a section or a platoon sized unit, although unit sizes in Afghanistan were far from usual - we had another article on that as well. Typically, praporshiks would be in command of heavy weapons platoons or sappers.
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