Whether women are generals. How journalist Maria Kitaeva caught up with the generals, and why the Ministry of Defense needed new shoulder straps

It is impossible to imagine the Russian Army today without the fair sex. They perform their military duty in special forces units, in the marines, in motorized rifle and arctic brigades as soldiers, sailors, sergeants, foremen, warrant officers, midshipmen and officers. By law, it is forbidden to involve women in guard, garrison and internal service. The participation of girls on the battlefield or sending them to hot spots is also not allowed. Today, many girls complain about the injustice of laws and the inequality of opportunities for women in the Russian army. They say that girls go to serve in order to prove to themselves that they are no worse than men, but the main thing is that girls are ready to pay their debt to their native country.

Girls in the army can get into the army in two ways. First, by enrolling in a military school and receiving an officer's rank after graduation. Education in military schools for girls is free. Secondly, girls can get into the army under a contract. According to the latest official data, there are 326,000 women in the Russian Armed Forces. This figure is made up of civilian personnel and those who wear epaulettes. There are about 45 thousand women soldiers in the army.

According to statistics, today one thousand nine hundred and fifty women are serving in officer positions in the armed forces of the Russian Federation. Of these, twelve are in the rank of colonel, two hundred and sixty lieutenant colonels, five hundred majors, five hundred and fifty two captains, six hundred lieutenants, and several senior lieutenants. Data quickly becomes outdated, because there are more and more women in the army.

Every year, the interest in military service among girls is increasing, including the increase in the number of those who serve under the contract. The fair sex attracts in the service, first of all, a high level of social security: a decent salary, social guarantees, the prospect of obtaining service housing, good medical care.

There are women generals in the Russian army. In 2010, Army General Tatyana Shevtsova was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation by order of the Commander-in-Chief.

Elena Knyazeva - Deputy Head of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for educational and scientific work since September 25, 2012.

Women today are ready to defend their homeland on an equal footing with men. Defender's Day has also become their holiday, and they receive congratulations along with men. Girls in the service do not receive special indulgences, but the girls themselves admit that they receive unofficial indulgences in the service. And yet, even in the army, girls remain true to themselves, they are beautiful, responsible and faithful to duty. Girls bring in the army, where a purely masculine spirit has always reigned, new relationships. They are changing the face of the Russian Armed Forces in the literal sense of the word. The army becomes beautiful.

A special selection contains photographs of female cadets of the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after General of the Army V.F. Margelov, one of the elite military higher educational institutions. The release of the first set of female military personnel took place in 2013.

To begin with, let me remind you of an old anecdote in which two friends who met after the end of the war share their impressions of their military adventures.

One says that she was a lieutenant colonel in the war, and the second, in defiance of her, replies that she was UNDER THE GENERAL ...

Well, what can you do, if it has so historically happened that women in the conditions of war and peace always find themselves in the position of “service personnel” for men who, in gratitude for their reliability, assign them “honorary titles”, such as PJP?

(By the way, for some reason, PZH is constantly translated as a field wife, although in fact this abbreviation is translated more roughly - a field ass)

But everything flows, everything changes. If my memory serves me right, in Soviet times there was not a single female general, despite the fact that after the Great Patriotic War there were hundreds of female heroes candidates for the rank of general (not to be confused with PPG!).

The Soviet government did not give the opportunity to become generals to either the PPJ or the HEROES.

But in Putin's kingdom-state, everything has changed in the most fabulous way in this regard - all PJs are turning into generals with many stars! It is no longer enough for Putin’s male generals to have ordinary women UNDER THEM (nurses, telephone operators, secretaries, etc.) - give them female generals who will spread their legs in front of them ...

Do you want examples? Please!

Let's start with the "Tuva reindeer herder", who knows for sure that nothing warms you in severe frosts like a woman's body.

No sooner had the “reindeer breeder” moved into the chair of the Minister of Defense, when he immediately pulled his faithful PJ along with him - a 26-year-old beauty, leading from the Rossiya TV channel Maria Kitaeva, who in just a few months became a “vertical take-off general”: in June In 2012, she took the post of adviser to the governor Shoigu on information policy with the rank of minister, and already in November she became his “favorite adviser” with the rank of general.

Marina Kitaeva - a general for all generals, isn't it?

Shines with beauty and Tatiana Shevtsova, Deputy Minister of Defense, real state adviser of the Russian Federation of the 1st class, which corresponds to the military rank of Colonel General ...

Tatyana Shevtsova - well, why not a chick?

And in general, I’ll tell you a big secret (just don’t tell Putin!), that THIRTY-FOUR major posts in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation are occupied by ladies a little over thirty years old (I named the names of the MOST EFFECTIVE according to external data).

Still want an example? Please…

All the people of the "Rassean" were surprised at how "goat-like" Tolik Serdyukov acted with Zhenya Vasilyeva. As it turned out, he had good reasons for this, since in the main favor he had thirty-year-old Marina Chubkina, who is connected with the disgraced Minister of War by a close “dryuchba”.

In response to his favor with Chubkina, at the suggestion of Serdyukov, Vladimir Putin conferred the rank of real state adviser to the Russian Federation, which corresponds to the military rank of major general. Her position is the head of the apparatus of the special construction ...

Marina Chubkina is also a sickly general!

I won’t say anything for Evgenia Vasilyeva and Ekaterina Smetanov - I will only give their joint photo, since so much has been written about them.

Vasilyeva (right) and Smetanova are civilian generals.

Well, and finally, I will dwell in more detail on one more beauty, though not as young as those mentioned above - Elena Skrynnik (nee Novitskaya), who made a dizzying career, "helping" her two husbands to go to jail .

Elena Skrynnik

Here are her career milestones:

1986 - graduates from medical school in Chelyabinsk and goes to work at the regional clinical hospital.

1992 - receives a diploma from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation. He is doing an internship in Germany and France with a degree in leasing technologies.

1994 - graduated from the Interregional Medical Leasing Company "Mudlizing".

Since 1997 - Head of the Russian Association of Leasing Companies.

2001 - General Director of OJSC Rosagroleasing.

Since November 2008, he has been elected to the Supreme Council of the All-Russian Political Party "United Russia" (party nickname - Madame Leasing).

Having lived a little abroad, since 2016 Skrynnik has been leading the International Independent Institute for Agrarian Policy, which she created, which is developing the “Strategy for the Development of Russian Agriculture until 2050 ...

Well, finally, one more anecdote.

At a corporate party, the wife asks her husband which of the women present are the mistresses of his bosses, and also asks to show his own mistress.

After the husband showed her everyone, the wife joyfully sums up: - “Our most beautiful!”

So, speaking about Putin's female generals, we can only "joyfully" state the obvious fact that in comparison with Western female generals, OUR MOST BEAUTIFUL ...)))

Not every soldier who dreams of becoming a general rises to this rank, but even more rarely this destiny is destined for women, although exceptions do occur. One of such rare cases of a female general in the Russian army is T.V. Shevtsov. She was appointed to the post of deputy defense on August 4, 2010, according to the order of the President of Russia. Let's find out what was her path to this position.

Childhood and youth

The hometown of Tatyana Shevtsova was a small settlement Kozelsk, near Kaluga. She was born in July 1969. The family played an important role in her fate, because. her father was a professional soldier. For this reason, she has been familiar with army life since childhood.

After receiving a certificate of secondary education, she decided to connect her life with the field of finance and became a student at the Leningrad Financial Institute. She graduated in 1991 and became a certified specialist in finance.

Career

After graduating, she decided to connect her profession with work in government structures. In 1991, she joined the tax department and continued to work in various divisions of this department. I had to start with the position of an ordinary inspector of the district branch of St. Petersburg.

In her positions, she always showed responsibility and zeal, which of course was noticed by her immediate supervisors. In 2000, she changed her city of residence to Moscow, where she was offered the responsible position of head of the tax service department. In 2004, she was already on the staff of the Federal Tax Service under the Cabinet of the Ministry of Finance. There she received the post of deputy head of the Federal Tax Service, while her immediate supervisor was Anatoly Eduardovich Serdyukov, who would later contribute to her career advancement.

In 2006, she was awarded the title of the best financier in the country.

In 2007, when A. Serdyukov took over as Minister of Defense, he oversaw the activities of the Federal Tax Service for another 3 years. 2010 was a turning point in the career of Tatyana Viktorovna Shevtsova. The post of head of the Federal Tax Service was taken by M.V. Mishustin. All employees included in the team of A. Serdyukov were fired.

Find out: What rank now corresponds to the old rank of lieutenant

Appointment to a post under the Ministry of Defense

Despite this unpleasant moment in her career, high professionalism and her abilities were not forgotten. Anatoly Serdyukov remembered the members of his team, he also remembered his former employee. In the spring of 2010, she received the post of official adviser to the Minister of Defense on financial matters, and in August 2010 she received the post of Deputy Minister of Defense.

In her new position, she continued to work with her usual responsibility and high professionalism. Moreover, army issues were not a new area for her, because since childhood she has been familiar with the problems and life of the military.

For a short time, she was awarded the rank of colonel general, thanks to which she became a general of the Russian Army. In a difficult time for her after the removal of Serdyukov from his post, no criminal prosecution was carried out against Tatyana Shevtsova. Therefore, she remained in her position even after the change of defense minister took place.

Personal life

As expected by officials in such a position, she does not cover her personal life. It is only known that despite such a workload, she managed to start a family. Her husband is also an ex-military and now deals with more peaceful matters. There are also children.

After the start of the military operation in Syria, our military began to appear frequently on TV screens. And the people opened their mouths: the officers at the air base in Latakia wear shorts, and the generals in Moscow - in general, some in green and some in black, shoulder straps are stitched with white thread, and large and small stars are arranged in one row.

For answers to questions about the new military uniform, the correspondent of "RG" turned to the Ministry of Defense.

Were the shorts tailored specifically for our military, who are sent to Syria?

Answer: No, this uniform is designed for all military personnel located in areas with a hot climate, up to +40 degrees. For example, soldiers and officers of the Russian 201st military base in Tajikistan wear the same shorts and panamas in the summer.

Are shorts for colonels and generals? Can they be worn, for example, by the Minister of Defense, who arrived with an inspection in one of the southern parts?

Answer: The minister himself and his generals with colonels are servicemen. Therefore, they can wear any uniform approved for the army. Shorts - including.

Why is the uniform of Deputy Defense Minister Antonov black, that of Deputy Defense Minister Shevtsova - dark blue, and the rest - green?

Answer: Two years ago, the Secretary of Defense introduced a new uniform for federal government civil servants in his department. For now, they are being equipped in accordance with the temporary regulations approved by Sergei Shoigu, but soon this wardrobe will become permanent and officially legalized for officials - the draft order in the Ministry of Defense is already ready.

Army rear services did not introduce special colors for civilian colleagues. Their uniform has the same coloring as that of the military. An olive (not green) office uniform indicates belonging to the Ground Forces, black - to the Navy, blue - to the Aerospace Forces and the Airborne Forces.

And on the front tunics of the military deputies of Shoigu - Gerasimov, Bulgakov and Pankov, shoulder straps of army generals. RIA Novosti www.ria.ru

It is clear that when it comes to senior civil servants, no one will impose this or that color on them. Apparently, Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov himself chose the olive color of the uniform, while his colleague Anatoly Antonov preferred black. Like Tatyana Shevtsova, on whom the reader of "RG" mistakenly saw a dark blue uniform - maybe something is wrong with the colors on the TV.

Why do the deputies of the Minister of Defense Shevtsova, Antonov and Tsalikov have 4 stars on their shoulder straps, while Deputy Minister Pankov has one big one?

Answer: State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Nikolai Pankov retired from military service with the rank of army general with the right to wear military uniforms. This is the uniform he wears now. Some of his colleagues, such as Tatyana Shevtsova, never served in the army. Therefore, they are assigned the uniform of a federal state civil servant with shoulder straps of a class rank. Shevtsova, Antonov and Tsalikov have the rank of the actual state adviser of the Russian Federation, 1st class. It corresponds to the army rank of colonel-general, but implies wearing not three, as in the army, but four embroidered stars on shoulder straps.

And what military ranks correspond to shoulder straps of other civil servants?

Answer: A four-star officer is the same army colonel general, a three-star officer is a lieutenant general, a two-star officer is a major general. And an employee with one sewn star has no analogues among the military. Figuratively speaking, this is a senior colonel. By the way, there is such a title in the Chinese army.

The job breakdown is like this. Four sewn stars correspond to the rank of the military deputy minister of defense. A three-star official is, as a rule, the head of a department; in the army, he would command the commander in chief. Two stars in the military correspond to the position of the head of the central administration, one - his deputy.

Who, besides Minister Shoigu, has one big star on shoulder straps?

Answer: His military deputies - army generals Gerasimov, Bakhin, Bulgakov and the already mentioned Pankov.

Why does adviser Shoigu Kitaeva have shoulder straps without stars?

Answer: Apparently, you saw Ms. Kitaeva even before her attestation for the class rank of a federal civil servant. After passing the exams, she received the status of a real state adviser of the Russian Federation of the 3rd class, now she wears shoulder straps with two embroidered stars.

Outwardly, the rank of a civilian official of the Ministry of Defense can be defined as follows: the assistants of the state civil service wear epaulettes with one clearance and small stars. The advisers already have shoulder straps with two gaps and stars the size of senior officers in the army. And real state advisers have shoulder straps stitched with white thread with embroidered stars on their shoulders.

In hot, literally and figuratively, Syria, shorts and panama are the most comfortable uniform for our military. AP

What kind of T-shirts are worn in the Ministry of Defense and why are they different colors?

Answer: Uniform T-shirt - an element of the office uniform, which was introduced for staff officers by Minister Shoigu. The color of the shirt, as well as the uniform itself, is strictly normalized. For example, with a black uniform, the military is supposed to wear a vest, and civil officials - a white T-shirt. The blue office uniform should be combined with a dark blue T-shirt (for paratroopers - again with a vest). Under the olive uniform, it is supposed to wear a light green T-shirt. By the way, such underwear has the brand name "Army of Russia" and is issued in army and navy warehouses.

Why are women in the Ministry of Defense without hats? This is a violation of the dress code!

Answer: There is no violation, caps are not provided for women. But there is a ladies' headdress in an office uniform. This is a rather elegant hat (officially it is called a hat) of black or olive color, depending on the official's uniform.

Deputy Defense Minister Borisov was once shown on TV in a luxurious dress uniform. Are such outfits provided for everyone in the Ministry of Defense?

Answer: Dress uniforms for civil officials, such as Mr. Borisov, are indeed required. Depending on the rank of the official, it looks different. For officials of the level of Borisov, they developed a dress uniform of a general's cut: a double-breasted gray tunic, shoulder straps and a cap, richly decorated with silver thread. But stripes are not sewn on the trousers of an official.

A very piquant situation is developing in the generals of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Apparently, there appeared two types of generals. "Regular" - with yellow stars on shoulder straps. These titles are awarded by the Supreme Commander, whose role is played by the President of the country. And there are "unusual" - with white stars. These stars appeared in the army after the post of Minister of Defense was taken by Sergei Shoigu. Such insignia are awarded on the basis of civil ranks to trusted civilians (including females) by internal orders of the Ministry of Defense. Thus, Sergei Shoigu seems to be forming his own "women's battalion" with "almost general" stars, and unlimited confidence.

The material dated 05/03/19 was amended on 07/03/19 (in italics) in accordance with the information received from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The exact number of generals (and admirals) in the Russian army is currently unknown. According to data for past years, it can be assumed that there are from 860 to 879 of them.

Of these, 115 lieutenant generals (vice admirals), 290 major generals (senior rear admirals), 440 brigadier generals (junior rear admirals), and 34 "full" generals. All of them wear yellow stars on shoulder straps.

Whitecaps and Yellowcaps

With the advent in 2012 to the post of Minister of Defense Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu the situation in the army began to change rapidly. There, for example, new shoulder straps were seen - with large white stars. But if the “yellow” generals are appointed by their decrees by the supreme commander in chief (the Russian president), then the “white” ones, apparently, are the minister of defense. Do you get, so to speak, "generals" for "internal use"? A special piquancy to the whole story is given by the fact how the "white-lined" these epaulettes are combined with skirts.

And the topic was in the spotlight after the appearance on the youtube channel of a video that talked about Maria Kitaeva. The video scored two million views, after which it was blocked, but very quickly multiplied on social networks. The Streisand Effect once again proved its strength - now many more people know and watch the movie about "General Kitaev".

The star has risen

Now on the website of the Ministry of Defense there is no information about the employee Maria Kitaeva. Other information resources have also been thoroughly cleaned up. They do not agree on the main dates - the birth, study and work of Maria Vladimirovna. In the article about her on the Wikipedia website, there is not even a year of birth. According to some reports, it looks like she was born in 1986 and spent her childhood in Belgium, but then something went wrong and she returned to Moscow, where she entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. But instead of a career as a diplomat, she decided to become an actress. This is evidenced by the career of Maria Kitaeva: according to the site kleo.ru, she is the one who starred in the film “The Year of the Horse - the constellation of Scorpio” and participates in theatrical productions.

Then Maria began her career as a television presenter: from 2007 to 2010 she worked on the Stolitsa TV channel, and then on Zvezda. But Kitaeva’s career on the VGTRK TV channel turned out to be extremely bright: there are many videos on the network about how a young TV star tries to talk about economics and business and (despite his education from MGIMO) desperately confuses basic concepts and names. These frank shortcomings do not prevent her from interviewing the iconic faces of the country - Dmitry Peskov, Irina Winner, Mikhail Prokhorov and others. The somewhat glamorous image of the TV presenter was paired with quite risky work as a reporter in Syria, Tunisia and Libya. And the work of Maria Kitaeva in documentaries about the work of the Ministry of Emergency Situations turned out to be especially significant.

It is not known for certain how the life and bureaucratic paths of Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu and Maria Kitaeva intersected, and whether they intersected at all. The media casually mentions that a spectacular journalist when he was the governor of the Moscow region in 2011 was noticed by Sergei Shoigu, and offered the job of an adviser on information policy. And about a year later, Maria Kitaeva received a high rank.

Supplemented with a quote from a rebuttal received from the Department of Defense:

The position category "adviser to the federal minister" not only in the Ministry of Defense of Russia, but also in all other federal ministries in accordance with Federal Law No. positions of the Federal State Civil Service” is assigned to the highest group of positions of state civil servants.

Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of February 1, 2005 No. 113 "On the procedure for assigning and maintaining class ranks of the state civil service of the Russian Federation", each civil servant is assigned a class rank.

The same regulatory legal document establishes that the position of "adviser to the federal minister" corresponds to the class rank "actual state adviser of the 2nd class", which is assigned only by decree of the President of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the class rank "actual state adviser of the 2nd class" of federal state civil servants had nothing to do with the military ranks of senior officers of the Armed Forces and does not have.

Note that the class rank of the state adviser of the Russian Federation of the 2nd class corresponds to the military rank - lieutenant general and vice admiral. So the class rank of Maria Kitaeva corresponds to the military general rank.

In fact, of course, all these general stars can be called "real" with a stretch - they are for internal use. But on the TV screen they look quite real and cannot but attract attention. Against the background of the career of former colleagues, the rise of Maria Kitaeva really turned out to be stellar. Apparently, this method has already been adopted by new generations of Russian girls. "General" epaulettes (even fake) can be cooler than life in Brussels.

By the way

All this might seem like a joke, but such stars adorn, for example, another deputy minister of defense - Tatyana Shevtsova. She oversees the organization of the financial support of the Armed Forces.