SOVIET BORDER TROOPS EM AND RECRUIT TRAINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00046R000300230008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 12, 2013
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 26, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP82-0004i6R000300230008-5
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COUNTRY USSR
C? TPRITIAP REPORT NO.
SUSXKI Soviet Border Troops EM and Recruit
Training
DATE OF INFORMATION
PLACE ACQUIRED
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
DATE DISTR. ca. 4.1.61
NO. OF PAGES 2
REFERENCES:
- EM Training
\
1. The_daily schedule for border troops was supposed to be: training,
three hours; guard duty, eight hours; sleep, seven hours (uninter-
rupted); and meals, preparation for duty, political debateajand free
time, six hours. However, due to a shortage of personnel in border
units, EM spent 12 to 14 hours daily on guard duty. Three hours
daily were devoted to political lectures, close order drill, PT and
weapons training.
2. .Battalion and detachment CO's tried to maintain a full T/0 in order
not to overwork their EM, but this was impossible. A company which
had a T/0 strength of 6o-64 actually had an average of 40 men for
duty, and at times only 2,5 men. ?A battalion of the 68th Border
Guard Detachment had a T/O strength of 380 to 400 men. From 70 to
8o of these were in the hospital, stockade, or on TDY. An average
of eight EM were attached to the district headquarters as medics or
in some other capacity. Five to 10 men were also on TDY to detach-
ment headquarters. Since the border had to be constantly guarded
and fatigue details performed, unit CO's had rio other choice than to
put their men on a 12- to 14-hour guard workday.
3. Border troop EM could be sent on TDY to the following schools: a
three-month radio course or a two-month dog handling course at MVD
district headquarters; a one-month MG firing course, a 10- to 20-
day tower observation course, or a one-month engineer and special
electrical training course at detachment headquarters. Each company
had a total of two or three EM attending such courses.
Recruit Training
4. Upon induction, EM assigned to border guard duty were sent from the
"rayvoyenkomaty" direct to border detachments, which had special
training battalions (uchelnyye punkty) where recruits received a
QIAL
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP82-00046R000300230008-5
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP82-00046R000300230008-5
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CONFIDENTIAL
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three- to four-month basic course of instruction. These battalions
were divided into three 100-man companies. A company was divided
into three 30- to 35-man platoons, each of which had three 10- to
12-man squads.
Basic training consisted of the following subjects (number of hours
unknown, except where given):
a. Political orientation: four hours weekly on the history of the
Communist Party, Stalinism, Leninism, Marxism, Propaganda on
benefits of the five-year plans, and the progress made in the
USSR under the Communist Party.
b. Weapons training: nomenclature and field stripping of rifles,
carbines, PPSh, SMG's and Degtyarev LW's. Target practice con-
sisted of firing the carbine at a bulls-eye target 100 m. die-
tent, at a bust or full length target 200 m. distant, and at a
moving full length silhouette 300 m. distant. Three rounds
were fired from each position. He knew nothing of the scoring
method. Recruits also fired the PPSh SMG at 50 to 75 m. on
moviAg and stationary bust silhouette targets, 10 rounds on the
stationary and 15 rounds on the moving. As far as he knew,
they never fired MG's.
c. Physical training: daily calisthenics using rifles with fixed
bayonets and weekly running of the obstacle course. The course
included jumping over a one-meter high fence, climbing ..a two-
meter wall, crawling under barbed wire, jumping over ditches
and hurdles, crossing a ditch by walking over a single log,
which required good balance, and throwing dummy grenades at
windows in a mock-up building. No weapons were fired on the
course.
. Border guard duties: patrols, traps, ambushes, Covering detach-
ments, convoying troops, couriers L search groups, border picket
Q and sentinel duties Zell of which are described in
e. Engineer training: digging foxholes, trenches and camouflagimg.
To the best of his knowledge, no instruction on mines, booby
traps and tank ditches was given.
f. Medical lectures: VD and personal hygiene.
g. Chemical lectures: Shlem-1 mask, and various gas capes boots,
coveralls, and gases.
Ii. Topography training: map reading, use of compass, and terrain
studies.
After completion of basic training, recruits were sent to a border
battalion where they served for three years. Often this term las
extended by two or three months.
CONFIDENTIAL
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/09/23: CIA-RDP82-00046R000300230008-5