THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS ARMED FORCES’ REDUCTION IN THE EARLY 90S OF THE 20 CENTURY

Abstract

The article examines the conceptual and practical aspects of military construction in the army of the Republic of Belarus in the early 90s of the 20th century, the problems and prospects of their formation and development, as well as the role and place they play in ensuring the regional security of Central and Eastern Europe. The authors conducted their research on the basis of a methodology based on the development of a combination of classical and advanced Western approaches to understanding national security, in particular, on the basis of the idea of securitization as a process of transformation of a certain security issue or aspect. The classic vision is characteristic of American (E. Azer, C. Moore, D. Kaufman) researchers and is based on the understanding of security as the absence of threats to state integrity, basic freedoms and values of society and the individual. An extended interpretation of security within the framework of the theory of international relations is characteristic of representatives of the Copenhagen School of Security Studies, in particular Barry Buzan and Ole Weaver. They consider the security complex as the most important feature of an individual or collective international actor. Close to this approach is the vision of representatives of the school of neorealism (structural realism and offensive realism) in international relations. The basic principles of research are the principles of scientificity, objectivity, historicism, systematicity, multifactoriality and representativeness. This made it possible to follow the main principles of the formation and historical evolution of Belarus in the field of defense capability in a comparative way. The description of the research results completed the process of scientific search and study of the problem by presenting and fixing intermediate and general conclusions. The work states that the development of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus was based on a strong base of the Soviet Armed Forces, which had a large and well-armed formation on the territory of Belarus. Adopted in December 1992, the Military Doctrine of the Republic of Belarus proclaimed a policy of armed neutrality, which included, in particular, the obligation to defend one's sovereignty with the help of the armed forces. The Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus at the beginning of the 90s of the last century, in accordance with the law “On the Armed Forces”, consisted of the Ground Forces, the Air Force, the Air Defense Forces, as well as military educational institutions and other institutions, enterprises and organizations. According to the final act of the Helsinki Agreements of July 19, 1992, their total number should not exceed 100.000 people. Reforming and downsizing was carried out in two stages. Stage 1 – 1992: The armed forces were reduced by almost 30,000 people, their operational purpose was determined, and the main governing documents were developed. 2nd stage (main) – 1993–1994: The armed forces were reduced by more than 16.000 people. 922 units, units and institutions were reformed, of which 360 were disbanded and 491 were reformed. In 1993, more than 6.500 officers and warrant officers were dismissed from the ranks of the armed forces of Belarus, of which 987 people had less than 15 years of service, that is, dismissed without the right to pension. And in 1994, 1.629 officers were dismissed from the Armed Forces of Belarus, only 28% of them due to age and illness, more than 1.000 reports are pending. At the same time, in 1994, there were more than 800 vacant positions in military formations at the company-platoon level. In the article described that the military educational institutions designed to train the officer corps of the republic until the mid-1990s consisted of two higher military schools, one of which had a command profile and trained officers in seven specialties, the second was an engineering profile and trained in 24 specialties. The authors agree with the opinion of the majority of researchers, who point to the main tactical approach – not reform, but reduction of the army, taking into account known reasons, namely – preventing the collapse of the economy, a possible social explosion, and the fulfillment of the country's international obligations. At the same time, it is obvious that it was at this time that the ideas that formed the basis of future, more effective and qualitative changes in the Belarusian army were born and partially tested.