RUSSIAN CHILD SOLDIERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 6

RUSSIAN CHILD SOLDIERS

An Elaborate Training Programme

WAR PREPAREDNESS

Soviet war preparedness for civilians was xecently extended to anclude "preconscription training" for boys and gixls from eight t|p, writes the Moscow correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. A minimum of 200,000 juvenilje sharpshooters, 70,000 air and chemical defence "experts," and 150,000 "young aeroplane construetors" are to be trained by the end of the year. In addition, it is proposed that the whole of the 5,000,000 Pioneers — Soviet Boy and Girl Scouta between eight and gixteen — tshall be put through tests in three military special snbjects before November 7, which is the twentieth anniversary of the Bevolution. Some of the subjects for dnstruction are sharpshooting, cavalry, naval warfare, commnnications, topography^ aeroplane* building, defence against air and gas attacks, and the breeding of dogs and carrier pigeon. Every school in the conntry is being assigned facilities and instructors from "Osoaviakhim," the Society for Air and Chemical Defence, under whose anspices the programme is being carried ont. Thousands of small-ore rifles and 6,000,000 rounds of ammunition are being prepared for young marksmen. Gas-masks and mustardga's suits will be distributed. The detailed care which is being given to the whole project is evident from the mass production of such items as tiny combustion ; engines for aeroplane models. At the end of the school year qualified children will take part dn war games and manoenvres; this has occasionally been done in the past, but never on such a scale. Children'® "Regiments." A few crack children 's regiments" and "divisions" already existed before this programme was announced. Moscow and Leningrad have each had, slnce last year, an infantry regiment in which the maximum age is 16. Girls as well as boys, though only under protest from the latter, were accepted for serviee. The Kuban has its children 's Cossack Division, formed shortly after Cossacks were readmitted to military serviee ]gst year. And next sum mer will . see a model cruiser, about fifty feet an length, complete with gunturret, radio, and searehlights, plying Ihe Moscow Eiver manned by Pioneer officers and crew. "Serviee in these units is, of course, outside the sohool cnrriculum and is open only to the brightest and best-disciplined childrdii. An exhibit of toys in tho Kieff House with warlike playthings — tank models, miniature planes mounted on tricycles, and whole armies of tin Ked soldiers. A table-top shooting range for popg>un snipers had as targets llve Fascists, complete with Swastika. The ' 1 Y or oshilo v Sharpshooter •' ' badge is worn by half the young Bussians one meets — 2,000,000 have already been awarded, to women as well as to men. An ambitious project is the sparetime preparation of 150,000 amateur pilots, nndertaken by the Young Commundst League. Selected workers and students are trained after work hours and during tho rest day. In .tho country's 167 amateur aviation clubs 9000 pilots were trained in this way last year and 3500 the year before. The "Osoaviakhim" has 6,500,000 members, of wliom 5f000,000 have passed tests in anti-gas and anti-air-craft work; this year 500,000 are to be trained an glidiiig. A mass movement sponsored by Krupskaya, Lenin's widow, is under way to prepare a wonian substitute for every man who drives a tractor, against the day when tho men. inay have to.. operate tanks at tlie front. The Bolc of the Cincuia. The cinema is this year to produco 60,000 feet of teehnical iilms on military aviation, tank combat, arfrillery. parachute offensives, and general strategy. They will be -widely distributed for instructional pnrposes. In addition "The Final Night," a civil war picture, has been drawing crowds to Moscow theatres; another war film, "Thirteen," is soon to be released, while. two mOre, one on the Ukrain8, another on the Far East, are' under production. The ICremlin apparently wiskes to acclimatise its people to modern war and to train large civilian reserves who could supplement the anny in case of need, especially in coimteracting air and gas attacks. There is, however, no attempt to create an aggressiva psychology, and the general frame of mind is peaceful. The mass preparedness. measurcs are not iundertaken by Government dccree; they jare tho tasks oi' organisations such as j the Young Comnmni.st Leaguo and the '"Osoaviakhim." Tbe litble boys and j girls in a Soviet kindergarten know 'that their eworu enemies are "tho Fasjcists," but no one suggests to them a military crusade to seize Fascist territory. The paraeliute squadron seems to have taken its place as an established weapon. The Ked Army's new Field Eegulations, revised to 1936, call for mass paraehute descents dn arms behind the enemy lines, co-ordinated with the action of iong-range tanks and heavv artillery, to disrupt the opposing rear at the critical moment. Cavalry. to a large extent mechanised^ ia still assigned an imporlant rolo. Special political officers aro stiJl attaelied to every lighting uuit, just'as in civil war days, when tlieir duties were to cheek the work of White officers employed in the inexperienced Ked Army. The political oflieer, say the Eegulations, "inust be present during the fighting at all places where an example of person al heroism and self-denial is nccessary. " The army is also direeted to "rcnder the captured eneniy every assistance. " The Soviet public is no tonger sceptieal, as it was even last year, of the prospect of an early war. Noiie view it with pleasure, but . most Bussians are confident that. when Litvanoff says "There is no Power or eombination of Powers that can beat us" he jg stating; a Jfftct,