What is a demobilization album? How do conscripts complete their military service? We will answer these and other questions in the article. The DMB album in the subculture of conscripts is called an unusually decorated atlas with documents, photographs, handwritten text and other materials about the memoirist service. Made before the demobilization of a soldier from the ranks of the Armed Forces ("demobilization").
Private Edition
Demobilization album is a concept that is much broader than just a book with photographic materials. By its purpose and character, it is a kind of samizdat - an atlas made by the artist personally with the author's notes about an important life stage.
This edition refers to the type of man-made collection, made in a single copy. It is a kind of unique author's work containing a biography reflecting the period of life associated with army service.
Contents
When there are 100 days left before the demobilization, the soldier begins to prepare for civilian life. He begins to create an album that is not standard in its artistic, social, psychological structure. As a rule, it is made by amateurs and amateurs. They imitate qualified writers and artists, compiling drawings, photographs, documents, postcards, wishes of colleagues into a separate book, giving it all a certain order and significance inherent only in the military subculture. Such an album is full of unique components of art - graphics, painting, collage, photography, and often even embossing.
Design
100 days before demobilization is a significant date. As a rule, soldiers create their albums by hand or ask colleagues with artistic abilities to do it. There are many ways to design demobilization books. They depend on the type of troops, the category of service, local traditions. But there are general rules - this work should be bright, striking the reader's imagination, conspicuous.
Cultural content
Do you have 100 days left before demobilization? In terms of its content, your photo book should be a biographical universal art-historical document. Its basic content is usually photographic materials reflecting the personal memory of the owner. The nature of the demobilization album depends on the time of its creation. After all, it expresses the tastes of society, or rather a certain socio-temporal cut, projected onto the military subculture.
100 days before demobilizationsoldiers begin to make an album, which is a kind of author's work. It simultaneously contains the ingenuousness of a young man, his naive rudeness and the desire to make a book about himself.
It should be noted that in terms of approach to performance and design, its form, content, and ideological content, the demobilization album is closely adjacent to such a layer of creativity as scrapbooking. And probably can be regarded as one of the types of the latter. It is also noticeable that this photo book is the heir to the school custom of maintaining questionnaires-notebooks.
Officer grade
How long it takes 100 days to order! And how do officers treat demobilization books? In general, the command, political bodies and the military counterintelligence service did not like the appearance of these "works of art", and this is not without meaning.
Liquidation of hazing
And now let's find out how the fight against hazing, which appeared in the eighties of the XX century, is carried out. In connection with this phenomenon, the political department of the army decided that the custom of creating demobilization albums is a component of hazing. Therefore, the troops received instructions instructing political workers and commanders to eradicate it by all possible means.
In military units with a high level of discipline (in the so-called statutory units), the creation of DMB books has become an illegal act. The soldiers made them secretly, in every possible way hiding from the authorities. It was forbidden to take "bullying photos" - images that looked beyond what was allowed. It was possible to store only pictures of portraitthe kind that professional photographers took.
The command of the armed forces took various repressive measures, but could not eliminate the objectionable tradition. In some divisions, where the leadership understood that it was useless to fight this phenomenon, it was actually legalized. Here, the soldiers were given time to create DMB books in accordance with the regulations of service activities. For the design of the albums, servicemen endowed with artistic talents were involved, elements of army folklore were placed in them, glorifying service in one form or another of the Armed Forces or branch of service, photographs previously approved by the military leaders of the unit, gaskets between sheets ("tracing paper"). In such military units, the command allowed to hold competitions-reviews of DMB albums, the winners of which were awarded prizes and certificates.
Protection of state secrets
Demobilization order is a holiday for a soldier. It is known that the military counterintelligence actively searched for and reviewed photographs that those leaving the reserve took home. The soldiers wanted to draw attention to themselves and save the moments associated with the service. Therefore, they often placed photographs in the album that foreign intelligence agencies would pay more than enough for. Often in demobilization books one could find a picture of the author against the backdrop of the latest secret technology.
Letters
Many soldiers in the army wrote poems about demobilization. Often those who had 100 days to serve would shave their heads bald. Some acquired a meter, from which they daily cut off a figure. Then they glued it to the sheet, put their signature and sent it home. Many sent such letters to their beloved girls, whom they later married.
Reserve soldiers often say that they have a happy family life. They claim that the numbers sent in letters, the so-called "counter of days", helped them achieve this.
Fairy Tale
It is known that before going to bed, one of the servicemen read a "bedtime story" - poems about demobilization. Then he jumped up at attention, saluted and said: “Let me report how much you have left to serve …” Then he fell on the bed and cut off the days printed on it from a paper ribbon pasted on the inside of the metal corner of the bed. In total, it depicted 100 days and an order. The text had to be read with expression, it was impossible to make mistakes in any case. If someone did not like the performance of the poem, the soldier was forced to read it several times in a row.
Waiting
When can I start the day counter? Soldiers, as a rule, expect DMB a year after the date when they left for the unit from the distributor. It is indicated in the army ticket. But only after the order, the exact dates become known: all military units post lists. In practice, this is not done on time in every military unit, as dates sometimes change several times.
Demobilization porridge
Agree, 100 days before the order to wait a long time. A week before the hundred days, the “grandfathers” make it clear to the “young” that they need to get some money or from dismissalbring some delicacy. Then the soldiers set a rich table. And there is an unusual tradition in the army - at the beginning of the period of waiting for an order, servicemen eat "demobilization porridge". To prepare it, you need to crush simple Yubileinoye cookies into small crumbs and mix with boiled condensed milk. They cook a lot of such porridge so that both the "grandfathers" and the "spirits" ate. As a rule, on this day soldiers give gifts to each other.
No purchase required. You can, for example, make a postcard yourself, a plexiglass rosary or a key chain, make a calendar, which usually shows a countdown from one hundred days to zero. In units, semi-official wall newspapers with funny drawings are hung on the walls, on which any person (contractor or even an officer) can write a couple of kind words for the guys who will go home soon.
Nuances
Soldiers love all sorts of calendars, in which every passing day is pierced with a needle or crossed out. No matter how the guy admires the service, he still wants to get home. Many dates are marked on the officer's belt, which has 24 holes (according to the number of months). Around each hole, the names of the months until the end of the service are written in a semicircle. It is also known that “grandfathers” do not eat butter at breakfast during the hundred days, as they give it to the “young.”
100 days
“Grandfathers” on the first day of the 100 days are cut bald in order to feel like “spirits” again (“young”, on the contrary, it is forbidden to cut their hair to zero during the 100 days). The demobilization appoints itself an "elephant", whichthe remaining hundred days will daily report to him how many days are left until dismissal, sign cigarettes, look after him and eat butter for him.
In turn, the soldiers' parents should buy balloons, make demobilization posters and decorate with them not only the apartment, but also the entrance. It is customary to hang a poster on the entrance door, which says "There are ten steps left to the house" and so on each floor.
Shape
DMB is the most important day for a soldier. He is remembered forever. The feeling of will, the joy of friends and parents, kisses and strong hugs of the beloved girl. As usual, a soldier dressed in a new demobilization uniform walks along his native street, greets acquaintances and friends, everyone shakes hands with him and admires him. What is, for example, the demobilization form of motorized rifle troops? It can be purchased at the store for 9500 rubles. The set includes a tunic, badges and pants, gold emblems of the Russian Federation on the flaps, black velvet shoulder straps, edged chevrons, beret and aiguillette, tricolor on the chest.
Performance
Do you know that after the order, "grandfathers" no longer participate in the evening verification, and if they are already in service, they do not respond to their last name? Instead, the person in charge reports that such and such is temporarily detained on the territory of the GDR.
In some parts, the sergeants came up with the following performance: they called the cadet and sent him to the Minister of Defense in Moscow to ask when he would publish the order for demobilization. The performance was played out after lights out in the dormitory where several platoons were stationed. The cadet pretended to be a train, showed how he was going to Moscow, following the minister, knocking, asking permission to enter the office and asking when he would issue a demobilization order for such and such a company. After the soldier came and reported on the results of the trip.
Demobilized hats were worn with folded visors and a bent cockade. And there was also a tradition after lights out to discuss each other. And of course, they always wished sweet dreams to colleagues, after which everyone shouted “thank you”. Or they said the phrase: “Demobilization has become a day shorter - good night to the old people!”
