Next January marks the 95th anniversary of the most massive public organization in Russia - DOSAAF. On the eve of the significant date, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Moscow regional branch of DOSAAF and the National Association of Reserve Officers "Megapir" presented for wide discussion the results of the interaction of civil society institutions with DOSAAF on military-patriotic education of youth and the development of military-technical sports.
The participation in the event of deputies of the State Duma and the Moscow City Duma, representatives of federal and regional authorities, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff emphasized the special role played by DOSAAF of Russia in the system of state policy in the field of defense and security.
- The authority of this organization has especially increased in recent years thanks to the broad support of the Ministry of Defense and Minister Sergei Shoigu himself, who headed the DOSAAF Supervisory Board, - said Alexander Kanshin, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, head of Megapir, Chairman of the DOSAAF Moscow Supervisory Board.
According to him, no army in the world can do without a reserve. And in this regard, DOSAAF plays an important, one might say, key role.
The history of society confirms this. According to Vyacheslav Ninichenko, the head of the DOSAAF department of the capital, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Moscow organization of the society, then called OSOAVIAKHIM, had trained more than 383 thousand military specialists, including more than 11 thousand snipers, 6 thousand signalmen, 65 thousand machine and manual machine gunners, more than 33 thousand submachine gunners, almost 13 thousand tank destroyers. More than 3 million Muscovites have been trained in anti-aircraft and chemical defense. It was they who were on duty at night on the roofs of houses, defusing incendiary bombs during enemy air raids.
Today DOSAAF is preparing future military pros. Hundreds of thousands of young people become drivers and get their rights, master the professions of aviation specialists, including flight training, sailors and skippers of small vessels, scuba divers and marine rescuers, parachutists and special forces. As Alexey Shaposhnikov, Chairman of the Moscow City Duma, emphasized in his speech, we need to work together to expand the range of DOSAAF educational structures, attract students, students and teachers, and create primary DOSAAF organizations in educational institutions.
Boris Yamshanov