TAMAN DIVISION MEN

IN OFF-DUTY HOURS

TO get these photographs of garrison life in peacetime, we traveled out to the base of the Taman Motorized Infantry Guards Division, an army unit whose name commemorates a victory over the Nazi invaders on the Taman Peninsula in the North Caucasus during the Second World War.

There was nothing unusual about the base with its neat groups of many-storied barracks, blocks of garages for armored carriers, the big field for parade drill and the general feeling of top-to-bottom organization. All this added up to a strict and carefully ordered military routine. But we learned very quickly that the day-to-day life of this division—or any other that we might have chosen to visit—was by no means confined to things military.

The first place Captain Ivan Chernov, our guide, showed us at the base was the Division's clubhouse, a spacious building with a colonnaded front. A list of the month's recreational activities posted on the bulletin board included motion pictures once or twice a week; concerts by variety performers from Leningrad and dancers of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet; a talk by the stage director Yuri Zavadsky on his trip to the United States; a forum on the topic "When Man Reaches Outer Space" with leading scientists participating; a lecture on international events; a meeting with the coach of the Torpedo soccer team, the 1960 national title holder; several readers' conferences on new books with the authors present; and such assorted items as classes in dressmaking for wives or dances.

"This is all part of peacetime army life," said Captain Chernov. "We do whatever we think will help develop the men as rounded civilians while they're in the service," he stressed the word civilian, "so that when they are demobilized they can go home with a better cultural and vocational background.

Some of the men complete their formal schooling while in the service, others learn trades and skills."

A soldier who wants to continue his education while in the service has all the facilities he needs to study under the secondary school program. Army units also organize college preparatory courses if there are men interested, and there generally are. During our visit to the Taman Division base we saw quite a few men who spent nearly all their off-duty time in classroom and library with school textbooks.

People from the factories, colleges and organizations in the area do a good deal of cultural work with the Taman Division. They give talks, stage plays, arrange excursions to industrial plants, museums and theaters. College students do voluntary teaching in their special subjects.

Each unit in the Division has comfortably furnished recreation rooms where the men gather in the evening to read, watch television, play chess or sing. There are many capable musicians and singers, dancers and artists among the men, enough so that the units frequently hold music competitions and art shows. There are also, of course, contests in boxing, basketball, soccer, wrestling, skiing, gymnastics, volleyball and other sports.

Our guide introduced us to a group of servicemen in one of the recreation rooms at the Division's base. They were rehearsing a concert and show for Army Day. This is a national holiday celebrated on February 23 each year and commemorates the first Soviet Army victory in 1918 over the foreign armies that invaded the country soon after the October Socialist Revolution. Distinguished guests visit army units, friends bring gifts to the men in the service, and salvoes are fired in many cities in honor of the occasion.

During a break in the rehearsal we talked to a few of the amateur singers and actors. Sergeant Valentin Mukhin of Vladimir Region told us he expected to be leaving for home soon. "I'll be going back to the plant where I worked as a mechanic before I was called up," he said. "I've decided to take a college correspondence course in mechanical engineering. Students here have been helping me bone up in preparation for it."

Private Yuri Grigoriev said he was going back to his native city, Yaroslavl on the Volga, to work as an electric welder. He learned the trade in the army.

Sergeant Valentin Abradov also learned his trade in the service. He is an electrician and intends to go to one of the big Siberian construction projects when he is demobilized. "The solid technical background I got in the army," he said, "is going to be very useful in civilian life. There are jobs all over the country for which I can qualify."

Some years ago a group of men in the Taman Division got together when they were demobilized and went out to Kazakhstan. There in the virgin lands they set up a state farm and, appropriately enough, named it Tamansky, after the Division that equipped them with the variety of skills needed to run a modern mechanized farm. They have been joined by many other Taman Division vets since.