Volunteers, mercenaries, legionnaires: different countries, different experiences
In Israel, the army is the most important social institution that really forms a citizen of the country. Both boys and girls are drafted into the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). Compulsory alternative service is mainly performed by girls from ultra-Orthodox families and a number of young men studying in ultra-Orthodox yeshivas (Jewish religious educational institutions) who define themselves as anti-Zionist. The Jewish ultra-Orthodox do not recognize Israel as a real Jewish state, since it was recreated almost two thousand years later by people, and not by the Messiah, a descendant of the biblical king David.
To understand the situation with the performance of military duty in the Holy Land, it is impossible, firstly, to confuse the ultra-Orthodox with the Orthodox (who, by the way, have their own military-religious yeshivas). The Orthodox do not literally understand the Holy Scriptures and for the most part prefer to serve in combat units that are completed only on a voluntary basis.
Secondly, not all ultra-Orthodox are anti-Zionist. For example, male representatives of such Jewish movements as the Lubavitch Hasidim (Chabad) and the Bratslav Hasidim (both movements originated in Russia in the second half of the XVIII century) are called on a common basis.
Boys from the Druze and Circassian communities and most of the local Bedouins are also subject to conscription. Circassians and Bedouins are Sunni Muslims by religion. The Druze are a separate ethnoconfessional group of Arabs who profess Druzism – the doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
Israeli Arabs are not subject to conscription, but many of them (mostly Christians by religion) become IDF volunteers.
"MOWING" IS NOT ACCEPTED
Even before graduating from secondary school, Israeli boys and girls receive the first summons to the military enlistment office. Such a summons is called "Tsav rishon" ("first order"). This postal notification is accompanied by tickets (free of charge) for a special bus trip to the military enlistment office indicated in the summons and back. Recent Israeli citizens, that is, new repatriates, receive the "first order" no earlier than a year after their arrival in the country.
It is clear that conscripts who are not natives of Israel will not become IDF recruits until they reach a certain level in the study of Hebrew. Recent citizens of the Jewish state can be called up only after a one-year stay in the country. Moreover, if they served in the armies of the exodus countries, then they only take a six-month course of a young fighter in the IDF.
Those who have not served their military service in Israel are looked at with contempt, because those who have "sloughed off" ignore the duty of the defender of the country. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, the "mowed down" lose a lot of privileges that the army grants to the demobilized and especially to those who served in combat units.
So, the army pays former soldiers to choose from the first three years of study at any educational institution or provides funds to open their own business. The army can also partially pay for the overseas trips of the demobilized and even contributions for the purchase of apartments. Those who have been seriously injured, as well as the families of the deceased servicemen, receive quite high benefits for life.
Even the undoubted disabled are doing their best to be called up. I will never forget Daria Volmenskaya, a repatriate from Russia, who was born without a left hand. She moved to Israel for a youth program. After completing secondary education, at the age of 22, she insisted on her voluntary conscription. The most famous Israeli armless soldier remains Izzy Izakvi, who, having lost his arm in battle, managed to overcome all bureaucratic obstacles and remained in the ranks of his combat unit.
It seemed that insurmountable difficulties faced 18-year-old Daniel Defour, blind from birth. He did not even receive a summons to undergo a military medical commission, since his blindness was obvious and entered into the health card even in infancy. But Daniel has dreamed of serving in the IDF since childhood. Realizing that his illness would limit the choice of military specialties, the guy wasted no time. By graduation, he was fluent in three foreign languages. Moreover, he learned to understand very fast foreign speech and enter into a dialogue with several interlocutors at the same time.
I also remember Captain Jonathan Cohen, who uses a wheelchair. He suffers from severe cerebral palsy. When his peers were drafted into the army, Cohen declared that he would serve against all odds. He even wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking for support.
And the head of the Israeli government, a former special forces soldier, met with Yohanatan and supported him. The army accepted a blind guy into its ranks as a volunteer. He served in the educational department of the IDF, lectured young conscripts – initially of a motivational nature, explaining that serving in the army is a privilege. And then, after graduating from special officer courses, he began to lecture on the history of Islam.
After appropriate checks with an army psychologist, called "boar" (short for kcin briut nefesh – "mental health officer"), the IDF may not refuse autistic volunteers. Nowadays, military psychologists have no doubt that many autistic people, despite the difficulties in acquiring social skills, are ideally suited for service in intelligence units that require concentration and attention to detail.
In 2008, a secret unit was created in the Mossad (Foreign Intelligence Service) specifically from autistic volunteers. These unusual servicemen with autism spectrum disorder have proven themselves well in electronic intelligence. For example, when analyzing a series of satellite photos, they noticed minute changes.
"BROTHERS" HAVE NO PLACE IN THE ISRAELI ARMY
In addition to a thorough examination by the medical commission, all conscripts must be checked for not only criminal records, but also police records. As in the whole world, police drives are understood as procedural actions similar to detention.
A record of a criminal record within 17 years after the verdict is handed over to various state authorities. Such actually open information prevents not only the applicant from entering the security structures, but even obtaining the right of a taxi driver. There is no need to talk about conscription into the army.
In order to pay off a criminal record before the expiration of 17 years after the announcement of the verdict, it is necessary to contact the president of the country through the appropriate legal authorities. And it is best to carry out such an appeal through lawyers specializing in Israeli army law (military code). At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that the Israeli military code has several "simplified paragraphs" that treat inappropriate behavior as "shameful behavior" that does not entail a criminal record.
Retired Colonel Yaniv Rokhov, who worked for many years in one of the departments of the General Staff, when asked if there were chances for a young Israeli who had problems with the police, but without a criminal record, that is, not a "sitter", to become an IDF soldier, replied: "The military enlistment office will definitely study all the protocols of detention, paying attention for the presence or absence of relapses. A request to the police is quite possible. If we are talking about minor offenses, then such a guy or girl may not be denied a voluntary appeal."
Rokhov draws attention to the fact that in such problematic cases we are talking about voluntary conscription. Usually problematic conscripts are not enrolled in elite units or in the military police. Although exceptions are possible.
WITHOUT A WOLF TICKET
Prominent Israeli statesman and politician Reuven Rivlin, who served as president of the country in 2014-2021, has repeatedly taken the initiative to "more tolerant attitude towards young people with criminal records that they committed before conscription."
The Head of State is not vested with judicial powers, but is authorized to "grant clemency to criminals and mitigate punishments by reducing the term of imprisonment or by replacing the type of punishment." There is no formal constitution in Israel, and the legal system is based on a set of Basic Laws, the process of formation of which has not yet been completed.
As for the Supreme Court of Israel, which sits as the Supreme Court of Justice, this body is "authorized to issue decrees on the release of persons who have been detained or deprived of liberty illegally." Within the framework of the separation of powers, laws can only be passed by the Knesset (the Parliament of Israel).
Having no legislative power, but demonstrating the sincerity of his initiative, Reuven Rivlin, a lawyer by profession who completed military service on conscription with the rank of lieutenant and rose to the rank of major during reservist service, during his presidency removed the criminal records of several soldiers who committed crimes before conscription. At the same time, the head of state stated: "For citizens who are ready to defend the country and serve society, there should be an opportunity to start life from scratch, leaving the past behind."
Reuven Rivlin supported the position of a number of jurists, according to which crimes committed at a young age will not necessarily have a negative impact in adulthood. In a statement published by the Office of the President (KP), it is proposed that conscripts who have committed crimes for which long prison sentences are not provided, submit requests to the Department of Pardon of the KP or to the Main Committee on Education and the Army associated with it with a request to consider the issue of pardon.
It should be noted that Reuven Rivlin did not call for a mass amnesty. In other words, for those who have committed violent crimes, the road to the Israeli soldiers' brotherhood is closed forever. If a candidate for conscription by mobilization or by voluntary choice has a stay in places not so remote, which is legally considered "extinguished", and the committed criminal acts do not cause consternation with their cruelty, then he can replenish the ranks of the IDF after a serious check.
And this is despite the fact that once a former convict who has broken the law and served his sentence can be drafted into the army in almost any country without any problems and without special checks. In any country except Israel. After all, the local servicemen do not leave their weapons at the bases even when they are dismissed.
Therefore, Israeli soldiers of both sexes can be found with weapons on buses, movie theaters and even on beaches. A man with a gun is trusted in Israel. The citizens of the country have no doubt that the rifle that the soldier holds in his hands will not fall into the hands of madmen and criminals.
"Blatnyak", who found himself in the army, always makes attempts to establish his own order, such as hazing. In the Israeli army, hazing has never been and is not.
Mikhail Zhvanetsky owns such a maxim: "Humor should be a glimmer, like a beacon." The same is the case with the experience of being on a bunk. If only as a "glimpse", and not a terrible crime or recidivism, then such a fighter can take a place in the ranks of the Israeli army.
DIFFERENT MERCENARIES – DIFFERENT DEMAND
For some mercenaries, the main thing is money, and they are ready to stay in the vassals of any money bag, not caring about morality. Such were often called "dogs of war".
Others are also dashing guys. And I'm not averse to making good money. But still, they have a "king in their head", they do not differ in total recklessness and sincerely wish to serve a good cause. Such are called "wild geese".
The latter name most likely came from the Middle Ages. At the end of the XVII century, thousands of Irish soldiers, having lost the war to the British, refused to swear allegiance to the new king of England and sailed with their families to France. But on the continent, only a small part of the Irish soldiers joined the French army. Most of them became mercenaries in the armies of other countries.
Mercenary activity has always been criminalized. In this respect, England went the furthest. Queen Elizabeth I in 1581 elevated the real pirate Francis Drake to knighthood. Soon he became vice Admiral and deputy commander of the British Fleet.
And it was in Britain that the practice of recruiting "prison volunteers" into the navy and land forces first spread. Sometimes forcibly. They were faced with such an alternative: army or noose.
During the Iberian War of the early nineteenth century, when Napoleon's troops opposed the union of the armies of Spain, Portugal and Great Britain, criminals made up at least a fifth of the armed forces of the British Empire.
They showed themselves well in the war, but they did not forget their old habits either. The locals got hard from them. What can we talk about if Arthur Wellington himself, the famous British commander and politician, the winner of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, directly said that part of his army consists of "inveterate scoundrels".
Girls are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on an equal basis with boys and serve without any discounts. Photos from the website www.idf.il
BRITISH AND AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
By and large, the recruitment of prisoners is beneficial to the state, because it reduces the cost of maintaining penitentiary institutions, while eliminating criminal elements from society.
It is very significant that in 1914, the majority of British judges ignored the requests of criminals to allow them to mobilize into the army instead of sitting on prison bunks. But two years later, when the losses on the fronts became significant, judicial officials of various ranks began to hint to the "prisoners" themselves about the possibility of replacing prison sentences with service in the Royal Army.
William Mariner, who served time in prison for robbery, entered British history. Having enlisted in the army, he received the highest award for bravery – the Victoria Cross. Later he died heroically.
Infiltration of members of bandit formations into army structures is deadly for the state. For example, the American army, recruited since 1973 from contract volunteers, today consists of at least 30% of "specific boys" and "brothers", which include those who committed violent crimes.
This problem is so serious that the issue of a possible return to military service is already on the agenda of American lawmakers – with a simultaneous tightening of requirements for recruits. Note that it is not difficult to make such a return, since the US Department of Defense, just in case, keeps a permanent military record of the male population of the country aged 18 to 25 years. Today, more than 15 million people are registered in this way. But no one counted how many "criminal elements" there were among this mass.
CONSTELLATION OF BIG DOGS
Covered with dubious fame and even more disgrace, the French Foreign Legion, from the very beginning of its almost two-century history, has welcomed all sorts of male rabble into its ranks, regardless of citizenship.
The star among these undoubted "dogs of war" for many years was Robert (Bob) Denard (real name and surname Gilbert Bourgeois), born in China in 1929. He followed in the footsteps of his father, an officer in the French army. At the age of 16, he began serving in Indochina, and in 1956, at the age of 27, he already wore the shoulder straps of a major. Nevertheless, he was dismissed from the army for drunkenness and hooliganism.
Believing that thugs will always find a job, Denard went to Morocco and Tunisia. There, having had the opportunity to work in the military police, he took up his old ways. Moreover, he was suspected of preparing an assassination attempt on the then Prime Minister of France Pierre Mendes-France, a left-wing politician, a Portuguese Jew by origin.
While the investigation was underway, Denard served 14 months in prison. After serving his sentence, he decided to take fate into his own hands and in 1965 organized a company in Paris (in fact, a private military campaign), which he called "Soldiers of Fortune". He recruited fighters for African dictators and to perform such tasks, which it is better for performers to forget forever.
"Soldiers cannot afford to be saints" – this maxim was left in the novel "Angels and Demons" by the American writer Dan Brown. And we can agree with him, although holiness and war are not very compatible in principle. Be that as it may, an "unholy soldier" commits a crime against humanity, he immediately turns into a war criminal – regardless of what kind of uniform he is wearing.
Interestingly, according to Bob Denard, who considered himself the king of mercenaries, the best "soldiers of fortune" have always been the Russian military. Denard saw the only drawback of Russian soldiers in their poor command of foreign languages – primarily English and French.
Time does not stand still. The French Foreign Legion has been conducting a fairly rigorous selection process in recent years, using Interpol data. The applicant for admission to the Foreign Legion in case of establishing his criminal record for murder, rape or drug trafficking, the road is closed.
In 2003, France introduced criminal liability for mercenary activities for French citizens, permanent residents and legal entities. However, this law does not prohibit French citizens from serving as volunteers in foreign armed forces.
Speaking of the famous "dogs of war", it is impossible not to mention Thomas Michael Hoare, an Irishman, a native of Calcutta, a British officer and a South African mercenary, who from the bandits and alcoholics recruited by him, having eliminated the most worthless, created a fully combat-ready personal "guard".
This soldier was distinguished by a ferocious character and cruel methods of educating his "guards". He lived up to his nickname, Mad Mike. For trying to argue, he beat the butt of a pistol on the head, and one rapist, a fan of playing football, shot off his big toes. It is clear that the rapist has said goodbye to football forever.
Mike Hoare participated in many African wars, organized coups (not always successful) – and nevertheless lived 100 years. He was married twice and had five children. His son Chris Hoare defined his father's "philosophy" as follows: "For him, risk was more important than life."
Of course, this is not entirely true. Adrenaline is adrenaline, but the money of "murderers for hire" and racist thugs by profession earned a lot.
ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FRONT
At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, there were many Russian soldiers in Spain, mostly former officers of the White Army. All of them were emigrants, often stateless people who left their homeland after the Civil War in Russia.
In 1936, Spain had its own Civil War, which lasted until 1939. Many Russians who had military experience joined the ranks of the Spanish Foreign Legion (IIL), which was created back in 1920 during the Spanish war with Morocco.
During the Civil War, anti-fascist volunteers from the Soviet Union and many countries of the world fought on the side of the legitimate republican government of Spain. In the course of fulfilling the "international duty" in the distant Pyrenees, more than 200 Soviet citizens died.
In the IIL units, both outspoken Nazis and adventurers of all stripes fought on the side of General Francisco Franco, who had rebelled. Hitler's Germany sent several Luftwaffe units with full technical support to help the Francoists. The expeditionary force was also provided by Italy, which was then ruled by Benito Mussolini. The French were represented by the Joan of Arc company. The Portuguese and Irish also sent their "legions" to help the Francoists.
The company of Russian volunteers consisted of 72 white emigrants, of whom 34 were killed and nine were seriously injured. Major General Anatoly Fok was the first to help the Francoists in 1936. He was 57 years old, but despite his age and general rank, he agreed to serve in the IIL as a private.
Major General Nikolai Shinkarenko also enlisted in the ranks of the IIL. Both Russian generals, having shown courage and military ingenuity in the first battles, were soon promoted to lieutenant.
In August 1937, when trying to stop the Republican inter-brigade, General Fok and staff Captain Yakov Polukhin, who had previously served in the artillery brigade of the famous Markov Division of the Volunteer White Army, were killed. In Spain, Polukhin also received the rank of captain.
The fate of Vyacheslav Gurko, a volunteer of the famous Kornilov Shock Regiment, who participated in many battles with the Germans during the First World War, and after October 1917, as part of the White Movement, opposed the Bolsheviks and Ukrainian units. For five years Gurko served as a sergeant in the French Legion, and later in the same rank he transferred to the Spanish. He even managed to fight in Equatorial Africa, two provinces of which Spain claimed. There the former volunteer died of malaria.
In the history of the Spanish Civil War, Ivan Traian, a Denikin, who fought on the side of the Republicans, also remained. In 1936, he volunteered in Spain to suppress the fascist Francoist rebellion. After the defeat of the Republicans, he moved to France, where he was interned.
In 1942, Trajan was sent to forced labor in Germany, from where the former Denikin managed to escape. He joined the first Soviet partisan detachment near the city of Nancy. In 1944, he was arrested by the Nazis and executed after torture, refusing to hand over his comrades. In 1965, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree.
Lev Savinkov, the youngest son of the famous Boris Viktorovich Savinkov, a Russian terrorist, the head of the "Combat Socialist Revolutionary Organization", the head of the "Union for the Defense of the Motherland and Freedom", a famous writer and poet who performed under the pseudonym V. Ropshin, also fought on the side of the Republicans.
After the victory of the Francoists, Lev Savinkov fled to France and joined the French Resistance. It was he who, in August 1944, as part of the "Union of Russian Patriots", hoisted a red flag over the building of the Soviet embassy in Paris. In the postwar years, Lev Viktorovich was an active member of the "Union of Russian Patriots".
AFRICAN LEGIONNAIRES IN LIBYA
In 1972, at the initiative of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Islamic Legion (IL) was created, which, although not called foreign, was staffed mostly by non-Libyans.
Muammar Gaddafi at that time was preparing for war with Chad, with whom Libya had far from friendly relations. The Libyan dictator interfered in the affairs of Chad and supported one of the parties to the internal conflict. This confrontation in 1978 led N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, to a civil war.
The majority of the IL troops were mercenaries from the poorest African states: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Eritrea, Burkina Faso and the same Chad. These "volunteers" did not really master military affairs, and Gaddafi had to attract several thousand Pakistanis to the ranks of the legion.
The Libyan leader intended to annex Chad to his country. But the aggression from Tripoli united the Chadians, the civil war ended quickly, and Gaddafi did not achieve his goals. In 1987, he was forced to disband the now useless Islamic Legion. The following year, a peace agreement was signed between Libya and Chad.
The recently deceased Scottish-Canadian writer Eric Mccormand in the novel "The Flying Dutchman" uttered the following maxim: "Dead soldiers go straight to heaven, because they have already been to hell."
No one knows where the souls of the mercenaries who have left the sublunary world will dwell. Because, being in the earthly guise, not all people behave like humans. And only by appearance it is impossible to distinguish a person from a monster.
Jerusalem
Zakhar Gelman
Zakhar Gelman is an independent journalist.