THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRACTICE AND THE THEORY OF CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA

Abstract

The article represents the review of the development of practice and theory of civil and military relations (CMR) in post- Soviet Russia. The problem of their reorganization sharply rose in latest years of existence of the USSR due to the change of the model of social development, decay of the country and its armed forces that possessed nuclear weapon. There was a danger of loss of control over army and of its transformation into independent political force. In these conditions emerged complex application-oriented and theoretical problems of CMR which resolution was aggravated by the absence of scientific development and specialized institutes, and by the resistance of conservative circles. During the post-Soviet period there was created the legal basis of CMR and specialized non-state institutes appeared. Public and military authorities were adapting to the changing conditions. In 2004 the domination of the Minister of Defense over the General Staff was legislatively fixed. Positive changes also happened in the sphere of transparency of army for society, the expert activity of institutes of civil society connected to the sphere of security and defense gained development. So in Russia was approved the model of CMR that provided the prevalence of the policy over army and it was the result of wide range of political, legal, social and economic, organizational-administrative, image and educational measures. The developed model reflects specifics of the Russian policy: violation of balance of the authorities towards executive power, its personification; palliative and declarative character of the legal regulation, etc. It is necessary to mention the absence of steady institutional guarantees against usurpation of the power in a long-term perspective. Democratic evolution of CMR didn’t acquire irreversible character. The intensive phase of theoretical consideration of CMR came to the end by the middle of the first decade of the new century that can be easily explained by the lowering of attention of the citizens to the army due to the measures taken, absence of the request for researches, etc. Thus, CMR in Russia have wide range of theoretical and practical problems that need solution.