The armies of many countries are similar in structure and order of recruiting young men. This is especially true for the countries of the former USSR, however, some states abandoned the generally accepted service life of 2 years, and a number of them even called girls into the ranks of the armed forces.
Most of the states of the former Soviet space have abandoned the two-year conscription. Not only Russia, but also Belarus has reduced the term of service in the ranks of the armed forces to 1 year or one and a half years. Today, in the Republic of Belarus, young recruits must serve from six months to one and a half years, depending on the availability of higher education.
For young men who successfully completed their studies in one of the higher educational institutions, a service period of 12 months is provided, and citizens who have not received a higher education diploma are required to serve in the army for a period of 18 months.
For recruits with higher education who graduated from universities with a military department, the term of service in the army of Belarus will be only 6 months.
Graduates in the ranks of the troops
However, some of the people of military age are trying with all their might to "roll away" from the army. At the moment, there are only 65 thousand personnel in the entire Republic of Belarus, which is a rather small number. The government of the country is trying in every possible way to attract graduates to its ranks.
In early 2014, the head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, introduced an amendment to the law on military service in Belarus. It states that citizens with three or more children will be suspended from military duties in peacetime, but in wartime they are also subject to conscription. The amendment took effect on January 21, 2014.
Alternative military service
In addition, in 2013, the Law “On Alternative Service” was approved and adopted. It gives the right to those people who shy away from the military duty to work in unpopular positions, thereby also trying to serve their homeland in this way.
Citizens of draft age are offered work in the form of assistance to the elderly, children in shelters, the organization of humanitarian aid for victims of disasters and other work in various fields of activity.
The term of alternative service is somewhat longer than urgent: conscripts with higher education will have to "work out" for 20 months instead of one year; citizens without a higher education diploma will need to work in a similar position for all 30 months.
The period of alternative service does not take into account:
- vacation of citizens in connection with the acquisition of higher education, - the time of arrest of a conscript in alternative service, - the period during which the person liable for military service in the alternative service did not perform the tasks entrusted to him in connection with administrative penalties to him, - calendar days during which young men were absent from their work for more than three hours without giving a valid reason.
