Spring draft in Moscow: why recruits need hygienic lipstick

Despite the fact that in Moscow only a few wear medical masks, completely forgetting about covid, covid restrictions are still in force on Ugreshskaya. Newly arrived recruits – still in sweatpants and sweatshirts, with backpacks and bags at the ready – line up on the parade ground. It is impossible to see the faces of young people, except perhaps the eyes, since all the conscripts are wearing medical masks.

Does anyone else care about covid? – journalists ask an employee of the assembly point.

— Covid is still relevant. Imagine if even one recruit ends up with covid? All will fall. Why such risks?

After measuring the temperature, the conscripts enter the room, where they conduct rapid tests for the virus, which has recently put half the world on its ears. Then a medical examination. In the corridors, young people, still in civilian clothes, are waiting for their turn – everything is decorous and noble.

In the meantime, the narcologist-psychiatrist Mikhail Makhov is receiving an appointment. On the couch is a frail young man with glasses.

– Alexey Igorevich, did you use drugs? the doctor asks.

– No, I didn’t use it.

– Did you drink alcohol?

– No, I didn’t use it.

Have you tried it at all?

There was a tense pause in the office, after which the young man finally spoke, lowering his head:

— Tried.

It turns out that the doctor not only interviews recruits and asks to show their hands (even such a check can lead an experienced doctor to certain conclusions), but also offers to take a test for ten types of drugs: from cocaine and salts to cannabis.

– This testing is very sensitive, and a person who used something forbidden even a month ago cannot pass us by. We also look at cuts, injections, scars, tattoos. Pay attention to signs that a young person may be at risk.

According to the narcologist psychiatrist, who has been working at the recruiting center for more than a year, the guys from the risk zone come across.

“We will weed them out right away. It is important that they do not go further into the army, because there are still weapons there. The main task is to remove people who will not be able to adapt in the army. And those who use drugs will not be able to adapt. If such a person is identified, then we send him for examination to a hospital, where the commission makes a decision.

Children with too low body weight or, conversely, who are obese, can also get a deferment and go to the hospital. As the therapist told MK, if a young person has a body mass index below 18, then he is sent for examination, as well as those who have it above 40. If too thin young people have low body weight is not associated with pathologies, then he is drafted into the army in the next draft campaign. But those suffering from neglected obesity receive a category “D”, that is, they are recognized as unfit.

The next stop is the dining room. Already a mile away you can feel the smell of cabbage soup. In the dining room, young people, already in military uniform, eat their first army dinner. Soup, an appetizer of pickles, a full plate of buckwheat and two cutlets on the trays. Packaged juice and four slices of bread are given separately.

– Four pieces of bread, isn’t it a lot? journalists are interested.

“As expected, everything is normal,” the head of the dining room answers dryly.

By the way, according to reviews, as a rule, spoiled Muscovites, lunch is edible. And some even line up for more.

I sit down at the table with the 20-year-old recruit Lesha. The young man says that he went to college and worked in a fast food restaurant at the same time. Exactly until April 19, until the summons arrived.

– You yourself wanted to go to serve?

Now the service lasts only a year. Yes, I thought about it and decided, why not serve the Motherland? Again, in the future, there will be no need to worry about an army that has not been passed.

– Do you have any wishes? Where would you like to serve?

– Yes they were. I wanted to serve in the National Guard, but they didn’t take me. Most likely, they will be sent to the Southern Military District (Muscovites, as a rule, are sent to serve in the Southern or Western Military Districts. – “MK”), in which part, I don’t know yet.

– Do you keep in touch with your parents?

Yes, of course, I call them. They say they will come.

– Are they worried?

– At first they were worried. And then they accepted everything normally, – the rookie answers somehow casually, finishing his lunch.

Another central room at the collection point is the room for issuing uniforms. Several types of uniforms are neatly laid out on the table – for the Airborne Forces, the Navy and the Ground Forces. Soap, a washcloth and just a huge snow-white handkerchief are stacked right there in neat piles.

“To be enough for a long time,” they laugh at Ugreshka.

The collection point also gives out socks, underwear, a T-shirt or a vest, two types of belts, rubber slippers and summer berets. By the way, it is not hot in high berets in summer. Here they assure that they are made using special technology and the leg is well ventilated. Despite the fact that the berets are made of “rag”, the shoes are worn well. Many conscripts pick up berets after serving in the army and still wear them in civilian life.

Recruits are also given a travel bag – a kind of “beauty box”, which includes gels, creams, a razor, a face towel and even hygienic lipstick.

– And what, do they use it in the army?

– Who cares … Some, according to their convictions, ignore, and some, who are constantly on the street, really need it so that their lips do not become chapped.

Recruits are also given dry rations, which include several types of porridge with stew, melted cheese, pate, bread, chocolate, chewing gum, a set for warming up food, vitamins, etc. Many pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of pork stew in dry rations.

– What should young people do who, for various reasons, do not eat pork?

– We have different types of dry rations, in some pork is replaced with other meat. We understand that because of their religion, some young people cannot eat pork. So we’re aware, we’re monitoring it, and we’re responding.

In the next room, fighters already disguised, with duffel bags, are waiting to be sent.

24-year-old Markus already knows which troops he will go to serve in, but remains intrigued. The young man himself is in a sense unique – he already has two higher educations, a prestigious job.

– In general, he is very positive about serving in the army. After the recent situations that occurred in geopolitics, it was important for me to go and pay my debt to the Motherland, learn how to protect my family and my home. I didn’t think for a long time. Graduated from magistracy and came here. I hope they find a use for me in the army.