Situation with Evasion from Service in Belarusian Army-2022 / 2023 and children militarization in Belarus.

 

Context:

1. Common repressive situation for conscientious objectors in Belarus
2. New repressive legislation worsening the rights of conscientious objectors in Belarus
3. Some cases of persecution of Belarusian conscientious objectors in Belarus
4. Child political prisoner for the pictures and transmitted information about the movement of Putin’s troops in Belarus
5. Boarding military schools for boys (including orphans) in Belarus with the ideology of the «russian world»
6. Militarization of children in Belarus and preparation of children to the participation in the warfare on Russia’s side

 

Common repressive situation for conscientious objectors in Belarus

According to the law «On military duty and military service» in the Republic of Belarus, an appeal on fixed-term military service is subject to men aged between 18 and 27 years, who are registered or obliged to register in military records and not serving in the reserves. The Belarusian army today has 48,000 soldiers and 12,000 border guards[1].

Every young man in Belarus is obliged to serve in the Belarusian army if he has no medical contraindications or official deferment. People with higher education must serve for a year, without higher education – for a year and a half. The conscription into the army is conducted twice a year: in spring and in autumn. Every year about 10 thousand young men are called up to compulsory military service in Belarus.

Due to all the events related to the war, from the beginning of 2022 until today, on the one hand, the Belarusian authorities have been paying increased attention to conscription as well as increasing the number of conscripts (for example, through bating the medical requirements to military service). On the other hand, more and more Belarusians themselves are actively avoiding conscription and military service.

Article 435 of the Criminal Code of Belarus criminalizes evading military service. Part 1 of this article stipulates a fine, arrest, restriction of liberty for up to two years or imprisonment for the same term. In the case of evading conscription by willfully inflicting oneself an injury, simulation of sickness, forgery of documents, or other deceit, Part 2 of the above-mentioned article applies. It carries a penalty of restriction of liberty for up to five years or imprisonment for the same period.

On the whole, the Criminal Code has several articles that stipulate criminal liability for evading military conscription: evasion from call-up to military service on the mobilization (Art. 434), evasion of regular call-up to active military service (Art. 435), failure of a reservist or person liable for military service to appear for military training or special classes (Art. 436), avoidance of military registration by a conscript or person liable for military duty (Art. 437). The punishment is various: a fine, arrest, restriction of liberty for up to five years or imprisonment for the same term.

Overall, in Belarus the number of criminal cases related to evasion of both conscription and military service is not publicized, this is classified information. However, it is known, for example, that in 2022 in Minsk 79 persons were prosecuted for these offences, most of them (96.2%) for evading regular call-up to active military service. Convicted persons received various penalties: the most common used punishments were community service and fines, but nine of those convicts were given the deprivation of liberty with suspended sentences.

The head of the conscription department of the military commissariat of Grodno and the Grodno district Mikhail Pozdnyakov also spoke about the fact that not all evaders’ cases became public. In particular, he told the Grodnenskaya Pravda regional newspaper that, on average, 20-25 residents of Grodno and Grodno region became evaders of military service during each conscription campaign. According to him, the main reason for non-appearance of those liable for military service to the military registration and enlistment office is “fear of serving in the army”. Mikhail Pozdnyakov emphasized that after receiving the summons, some of the evaders left for the EU countries, which, in their turn, refused to extradite the evaders to Belarussian side referring to their lack of any criminal liability for avoidance of service in the Belarusian army.

International center for civil initiatives "Our House" reports about 400 criminal cases for the avoid of the draft evasion within the Belarusian Army in 2022.

Conscription is used as one of the frequent repressive practices of the Belarusian regime for young male protest activists.

Belarusian army might as well be called a place of imprisonment: people get there for a year – a year and a half, are deprived of all means of communication, encounter propaganda, torture, prohibitions and rare family visits. For example, if they find a mobile phone on a soldier, he will be punished by 15 days in a solitary confinement cell. Unfortunately, the prison-like atmosphere, humiliations and abuse lead to suicides and extra-judicial executions in the Belarusian army.

 

New repressive legislation worsening the rights of conscientious objectors and children militarization in Belarus

On May 2022, Lukashenka’s decree № 160 “About development of military patriotic clubs” allowed creation of such militarized children's clubs in all military units, which also partially resolved the issue of financing. The majority of such militarized camps are being established at the premises of military units, border guards, Interior Ministry troops. The document regulates activities of military patriotic clubs for children and youth in the territory of military units of Interior Ministry troops, armed forces, other troops and military formations, as well as in the places of deployment of emergencies bodies and units, in particular, the issues of implementation of the educational program in such clubs, use of educational and material resources, organization of catering, clothing and ammunition provision for the trainees. “As the Deputy Interior Minister – Commander of the Internal Troops, Major-General Mikalai Karpiankou informed, “Today the round-the-clock military patriotic camps “Doblest”, “Patriot” and “Rodina” are working at the premises of military units 3214, 5448 and 3310”.

On May 23. 2022 the Ministry of Defence of Belarus procures tokens to identify those killed on auction. The auction appeared on the National Centre for Marketing website. The bid says that the Ministry of Defence of Belarus plans to buy 20 thousand metal tokens with the abbreviation “Belarusian Armed Forces”. Such badges are traditionally used to identify those killed in battle[2].

On 4 July 2022, Aliaksandr Lukashenka signed the Ordinance № 227[3] “About military discharge and call-up for fixed-term military service, service in the reserves”. The document envisages conscription into the active military duty and service in the reserve of Belarusian male citizens aged from 18 to 27 on the draft day, which have no right to deferment of military service or have lost such a right. The conscription started in August and is going to last till November, 2022. The term of service in the Belarusian army remains the same, which is 18 months for conscripts with no higher education and 6 months for the graduates of higher educational institutions with military departments. The only people able to avoid the conscription will be the students of agricultural higher educational institutions (Lukashenka is a graduate of one of them), very sick people, people having three or more kids or closely related to a perished enforcer. Also there was created the “group of organization of selection to military service under the contract” with the aim “to increase the staffing of soldier and sergeant positions serving under the contract, and also to increase the prestige of the military service.” There has never been such a group within the structure of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus before, it is a new invention.

Also on July 2022 local executive committees made by means of regulatory acts, which actually announce the enumeration of the recrutable population  of Belarus: not only conscripts who have received the so-called “personal” draft notices must appear at the enlistment offices, but all the male population aged from 18 to 65 are invited there under various pretexts (allegedly for “document verification”) (See Item 11: citizens (over 18 years old), who have not received personal draft notices for draft activities, should arrive to the military commissariat to pass the activities of the draft in the period from August to November 30, 2022, carrying a personal identification document).

In July, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus began examining price offers for the purchase of “bags for transportation of the bodies of the deceased” in the amount of 1,000 pieces. A request to present their price offers was sent to at least two organizations: RUE “BelSudExpertObespechenie” and to the company rendering funeral services LLC “Fister”[4].

On December 2022, Belarusian young men en messe are called to the military registration and enlistment offices, where all the data is checked, future conscripts are interrogated, then a mobilization order is glued directly into the military ID with indicating both the soldier’s military specialty and the new date of his appearance in the military enlistment office. However, such a mobilization order is not glued to all those liable for military service. Although it is known that previously, the Ministry of Defense of Belarus ordered a very large number of similar specific red color forms in some printing houses[5].

On December 19, 2022, the Internet mass media Zerkalo reported that Belarusians encounter restrictions to travel abroad on the order of military enlistment offices. According to the information, provided be Zerkalo, one of the subscribers of a chat of Belarusians in Poland wrote that he had not been allowed to leave Belarus. The man was confident that the reason for that was a decision of a commissariat. Another Belarusian was also restricted from leaving the country. He was going to permanently live abroad and get a PP series passport. For that, the man had had to close his individual entrepreneurship, pay all the debts to the state and child support (if applicable), and also to get a consent from the military enlistment office. As he was prohibited to leave the country for permanent residence, the man decided not to risk and crossed the border to Poland illegally[6].

On February 4, 2023, joint Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Health Order was published (and immediately entered into force), amending the instruction on the definition of requirements for the health of citizens related to the performance of military duty. Now the Belarusian army calls young men with such health problems as excessive body weight (obesity of the 2nd degree), nearsightedness, hemorrhoids without prolapse of the nodes, mild bronchial asthma, some forms of flatfoot and deformities of feet, endocrine system diseases, nutrition disorders, heart and nervous system diseases, as well as with spinal disorders and skin ailments . In general, practically everyone сan be conscripted into the army.

On February 15, 2023, the Ministry of Justice of Belarus became concerned about the procedure for destroying secret documents and archives in case of war or martial law.

On February 21, 2023, the deputies of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly (Belarusian parliament, fully controlled by Lukashenka) approved in the second reading amendments to the Criminal Code, in particular, they introduced criminal liability for discrediting the army and death penalty for high treason. Before that, a draft law had been adopted «On the amendment of criminal codes». As it was announced, the objective of preparing the draft law was «to take proactive measures for committing offenses of extremist (terrorist) character by introducing amendments to the Criminal Code and to the Code of Criminal Procedure». Mentioning «offenses of extremist (terrorist) character» directly indicate who the new amendments to the Criminal Code are adopted against and clearly shows that Lukashenka is thus trying to suppress any contacts between human rights defenders and mass media with members of the armed forces threatening the latter with probability of death penalty.

the press service of the House of Representatives indicated the draft law «On the amendment of criminal codes» was needed to produce «deterrent effect on destructive elements» («destructive elements» is the term used by the Belarusian regime’s propaganda to call human rights defenders and independent media in exile) and to ««demonstrate decisive fight with high treason».

The Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code is supplemented by a qualifying factor providing for the «establishment of responsibility for dissemination of knowingly false information discrediting the Armed Forces, other troops and military formations, paramilitary organizations of the Republic of Belarus».

Also, new articles appeared: Article 289-1 «Propaganda of terrorism» (this term is usually used by the Belarusian regime for the distribution of any information about the activity of human rights organizations in exile and independent mass media in exile, that it has recognized as «extremist»), and Article 375-2 «Violation of the requirements for the protection of state secrets».

Now, enforcers got the right to detain individuals suspected of high treason, conspiracy, espionage, agent activity, acts of terrorism under Articles 356 – 358-1 of the Criminal Code in the term of 20 days from the moment of arrest.

However, the KGB denunciators got some relief: Article 125 of the Criminal Code was amended by a correspondent note of release from criminal liability for an individual who participated in preparation to attack an institution under international protection (meaning, foreign embassies of Belarus) if that individual assisted in preventing the crime by timely warning of the state bodies or by other means.

Besides that, the Criminal Code was supplemented by the Article 375-2 «Violation of the requirements for the protection of state secrets», providing for the criminal liability for «for intentional unlawful transfer of a holder of state secrets holding the secrets of the Republic of Belarus or foreign states, transferred to the Republic of Belarus, outside the Republic of Belarus». Translated into the human language, it means there’s criminal liability for any help provided to a serviceman in his attempt to escape from the army abroad. Providing such help to a deserter in fleeing Belarus and going abroad will be punishable with up to 5 years of imprisonment.

On March 9, 2023, all of Alexander Lukashenko approved a draft law on the national home guard and established «the legal basis for the voluntary citizen participation in the enforcement of martial law». It was stated in the Security Council Resolution No 2, which was published on the National Legal Internet Portal on March 6. Minister of Defense, Viktor Khrenin, has to prepare amendments and recommendations within a month and send out this draft law to the various instances before its final approval by the relevant agencies. According to Lukashenko’s plans, the size of the people’s volunteer army will amount to 100-150 thousand, and it is planned that militia units will be established in each district and armed with combat weapons. International centre for civil initiatives "Our House" that only special categories of citizens will join such people’s volunteer army: those who write denunciations to the KGB about their neighbors for their opposition views, retired law enforcers, former officials, corruptionists and all those who are desperately afraid of Lukashenko leaving due to the possible disclosure of one’s abuses and crimes committed within his system.

On April 3, 2023 on the Alexander Lukashenko’s order, the Ministry of Defense began another check readiness of the Belarussian Armed Forces. The overall supervision for checking was entrusted to The State Secretariat of the Belarusian Security Council. Conscripts should start arriving at the military registration and enlistment offices in Belarus on April 4, 2023 but in fact, for example, from Brest military services reported that they hadn’t had time to prepare properly and send out summonses. As a result, in Brest they sent men who had not served and were in the reserve to deliver the summons. The men mentioned above were ‘invited’ to make such urgent deliveries to military recruitment offices instead of one’s own main job. And those who tried to refuse were threatened that there will be pressure and they will be fired from their jobs. In particular, they were told, “We will write a report on you, and then they will send a paper to your work, and, as you understand, no one will renew the contract with you.[7]”

 

Some cases of persecution of Belarusian conscientious objectors in Belarus

25 July 2022

The prosecutor’s office of Kobryn district transferred to court the criminal case against a 23-year-old resident of Volkovysk who violated the rules of alternative service. The young man’s military service was changed to alternative service by the decision of the military enlistment office, and from May 2020 he served in Kobryn psychoneurological boarding house for the elderly and disabled.

According to the materials of the case, the guy did not comply with service restrictions, in particular, he as a military servant was repeatedly absent at service without reasonable excuse in July and December. He was issued three reprimands. For this, the resident of Volkovysk was charged under part 1 of Art. 465-2 of the Criminal Code for evading alternative service. This part of the article implies punishment in the form of arrest (the criminal law of Belarus interprets this as incommunicado detention for a period of 1 to 3 months).

12 August 2022

In Kobryn the verdict was announced to a local resident, who was accused of evading military conscription. According to investigators, in May 2022 the man failed to appear for military training without a valid reason. The court found the resident of Kobryn guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 80 basic units (2,560 rubles).

18 August 2022

A criminal case was opened in Vitebsk against two women who tried to protect a draft dodger (their relative) from the police. Reportedly, the 21-year-old did not respond to the summons from the military enlistment office, so the police officers came for him. At first, the suspect’s mother and aunt tried to persuade the law enforcers to leave their relative alone. The policemen did not respond to this suggestion and tried to enter the house. Then the women began to push them away.

Telegram channels published a video of the incident, which was allegedly captured by a body-worn camera. The evader from military service was eventually detained, along with his mother and aunt. The women could face up to six years in prison.

30 August 2022

The Hrodna military registration and enlistment office held a show trial of a draft dodger. A young man had previously had a military service postponement in relation to education. When the grounds for the deferment expired, the young man received a summons. However, he did not show up for a medical examination at the military enlistment office on the appointed date. As a result, the commission was unable to make a decision, and a criminal case was initiated against the conscript.

The young man was tried at a mobile court session. The process took place in the auditorium of the military registration and enlistment office. Future conscripts were invited to it. The judge considered the criminal case and found the boy guilty of evading conscription. The defendant was sentenced to one year’s restriction of liberty and sent to an open-type correctional facility.

29 September 2022

A 24-year-old Minsk resident who tried to avoid military service and went to Poland was sentenced to a two-month arrest. He was detained at the Belarusian border on his way back to home.

As journalists were told in the Pershamaiski District Prosecutor’s Office of Minsk, the young man was supposed to go to military service in 2020. He was served with a summons under his signature, but, however, he did not show up at the appointed time in the military enlistment office. In February 2021, a criminal case was opened against a citizen of Minsk for evading military service and he was put on the wanted list.

In August 2022 the guy was detained while crossing the Polish-Belarusian border. He explained that he had worked as a taxi driver in 2020 and shortly before the draft started, he had been involved in a traffic accident and received a heavy fine. According to him, because he was fired from his job, he went to earn a living to Poland. The court found the citizen of Minsk guilty under part 1 of Art. 435 of the Criminal Code (evasion of military conscription) and sentenced him to two months of arrest.

4 October 2022

It became known that that an 18-year-old boy, accused of evading conscription, will be tried in Minsk. The guy was sent a summons and the military registration and enlistment office took his signature about criminal responsibility for evasion. However, he didn’t come to the medical commission or for additional examinations without any valid reasons.

According to the prosecutor’s office, employees of the military registration and enlistment office repeatedly called the citizen of Minsk, but he did not answer them. He lied to his mother that he had undergone the necessary examination. “The defendant has no previous convictions. He works as a tiler in a state-run organization,” Deputy Prosecutor of Partyzanski district of Minsk Timur Stuzhuk told state media. The citizen of Minsk was charged under Part 1 of Art. 435 of the Criminal Code (evasion of military service). He faces up to two years of imprisonment.

10 October 2022

Partyzanski District Court of Minsk considered a criminal case against a 19-year-old boy accused of evading conscription. According to the court materials, the accused man, being a conscript and having been warned of criminal responsibility for evading military service, from February 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022 “maliciously evaded military service until the end of the enlistment term, in particular, he did not appear three times without a valid reason to the place of conscription for military service”.

The young man admitted the guilt in full. During the trial, he explained that he had failed to attend the medical examination without a valid reason, as he had undertaken it lightly. The court considered that his sincere repentance was a mitigating circumstance. As a result, he was found guilty of evading conscription and sentenced to 240 hours of public works.

22 November 2022

A criminal case against a 24-year-old resident of Luninets district for evading conscription was sent to court. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the accused man has been on the wanted list as a person not fulfilling military registration duties since the fall of 2015. In May 2020, police officers found him and brought him to the military registration and enlistment office, where the guy was handed a summons under his signature and notified that he had to undergo an obligatory medical examination before conscription procedure for the military service. However, the defendant did not appear either for medical examination or at the military commissariat.

“The young man changed his name during the conscription campaign in 2020 and went to work in the Russian Federation. Upon returning home in 2022, he was detained by law enforcement,” the prosecutor’s office said. Criminal proceedings were instituted against the guy under Article 435, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (‘Evasion from activities on draft to the military service’). The article provides for punishment in the form of community service, a fine, arrest, restriction of liberty or up to two years in a penal colony.

2 December 2022

In Stolin, a court verdict was announced against a 27-year-old resident of town Stolin. He was accused of evading conscription for military service. In May 2020, the defendant received a subpoena under personal signature at his place of residency in which he was ordered to appear at the military registration and enlistment office for the passage of events for conscription to urgent military service, service in the reserve.

However, the young man did not appear at the address indicated in the summons. In December 2020, he was put on the wanted list. The man was found in June 2022 in Russia. There he was detained by the police and handed over to the Belarusian side. The court found the young man guilty and sentenced him to three months of arrest.

10 March 2023

Military Commissariat of Brest and the Brest region organized a mobile court session for trying an 18-year-old boy who refused to serve in the Belarusian army. The defendant failed a medical examination without a valid reason and did not appear at the military registration and enlistment office on the date specified in the summons.

During the trial he admitted his guilt in full, explaining that he “did not want to go to the army because he was afraid of being sent to the war”. The court found the defendant’s fear unconvincing and sentenced the young man to a fine of 60 basic units (2,220 rubles). This court session was also used by the authorities both for propaganda purposes and to intimidate young people: high schoolers and draft-age youths from local schools were gathered for it.

13 March 2023

Hrodna Regional Court started hearing the case against 19-year-old Anita Bakunovich, former customs officer Mikalai Kuleshou and army evader Yehor Kurzin. All of them were detained near the Lithuanian fence while trying to cross the border illegally. Yehor Kurzin was accused of illegal border crossing as well as draft evasion.

21-year-old Yehor Kurzin in the propaganda film of Belarusian television (BT) said that he had studied for a year at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radio Electronics (BSUIR) and had been expelled for academic failure. According to the propaganda story, the guy allegedly made up a story about political persecution, because he did not want to join the army, and “was not listed in the political prisoners ” (namely BT used such wording).

 

Child political prisoner and other pressure for minors for the pictures and transmitted information about the movement of Putin’s troops in Belarus

Minor Pavel Piskun, who was accused of filming Russian military equipment on his mobile phone on February 27, 2022 and sending this video to an “extremist” telegram channel along with an accompanying text in which he spoke about the amount of military vehicles, direction of its movement and distinctive features.

According to the prosecution, by these actions Pavel Piskun contributed to extremist activities. The guy was also charged with the fact that a few days later he again filmed Russian military equipment and again transferred the materials to the “extremist” telegram channel. He was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of three years. Pavel Piskun was declared a political prisoner on September 23, 2022[8].

But three other students of the Gomel region – two schoolchildren and a lyceum student – learned about the location of military equipment and decided to look at it at night. For this, protocols were drawn up against the parents of teenagers due to failure to fulfill the duties of raising children.

Boarding military schools for boys (including orphans) in Belarus with the ideology of the «russian world»[9]

In Belarus there are closed militarized boarding schools for boys starting from the age of 12, where they are taught skills in military affairs.

The aim of such institutions is to train personnel in military and sport specialties for the armed forces, other troops and military formations of the Republic of Belarus, as well as personnel for the bodies of internal affairs, Investigation Committee, State Committee of Forensic Expertise, emergencies bodies and units, and other power structures. To put it briefly: from their childhood, boys are trained to serve in the uniformed agencies of Lukashenka.

The priority is given to boys in a socially dangerous situation, that is, to children whose parents were killed, died or went missing in the line of duty, as well as child orphans and children deprived of parental care (removed from the families according to the presidential decree N. 18). During their studies the boys are provided with free living and accommodation in accordance with legal acts of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus. For a lot of such children, the enforcement agencies become, in fact, the only family they know, and Lukashenka is perceived as the “father”. Accordingly, personal devotion and loyalty to the “family” is formed.

A whole system of cadet schools in various cities and towns of the country is working in Belarus. They have been established and are acting on the basis of the presidential decree N. 54, dated January 28, 2010, “About cadet schools”.

Part of such institutions provide only the round-the-clock stay for the cadets: they live in the educational institution. Part of them have classes like normal school classes: a teenager is at school during the daytime, and goes home for the night.

The main cadet school of the kind, situated in Minsk, is called “Suvorov Military School”, and it is named after Aleksandr Suvorov, Russian military leader, who actively fought with Belarusians and the Great Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th century. For example, in 1771, Suvorov defeated the Belarusian Hetman of the GDL, Mihail Kazimir Ahinski, near Stolovichy.

The name of Aleksandr Suvorov is a bright marker of belonging of the cadet school to the “Russian world” and the historical narratives of the “Russian world”.

The Lieutenant General Aleksei Ignatiev initiated the opening of such cadet schools: on April 17, 1943, he addressed a letter to Stalin, suggesting to create one cadet corps in Moscow, as an experiment. Stalin made two modifications: the cadet schools were named after Suvorov, and there were founded 9 of them in different cities of the USSR.

According to the Soviet propaganda, those schools in Soviet times were established “in response to numerous requests of servicemen, former partisans, workers”; in the result, the Council of Ministers of BSSR, the Command of the Belarusian military district in 1951 sent a petition to the Council of Ministers of the USSR about the necessity to establish Suvorov Military School in Minsk.

In accordance with the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N. 18461 dated May 21, 1952, the military school was open in 1953. The first year the enrollment of pupils was done simultaneously into various forms to upbring children of warriors and partisans of the Great Patriotic War, as well as child orphans, whose parents perished at war, i.e., street children.

Today there are about 400 pupils in Minsk Suvorov Military School. The tuition period is 5 years.

Minsk City Cadet School: 192 pupils.

According to the information provided by the Belarusian union of cadets, currently over 10 thousand cadet graduates live in Belarus. About 2 thousand of them are graduates from Minsk Suvorov Military School.

There is also Minsk City Cadet School – a state specialized secondary educational institution, providing 2nd and 3rd degree education (forms 8-11), basic general education and secondary general education. Also, the cadet school is giving primary knowledge and skills in military affairs and service in border troops, necessary for choosing the professions. The founder of the cadet school is the Administration of Education, Sport and Tourism under Pervomajsky District Administration of Minsk. It is sort of a “light” version of Minsk Suvorov Military School.

There is also a Specialized Lyceum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (former Minsk City Cadet School # 1).

Educational Institutions of the cadet education system:

– Minsk Suvorov Military School,

– Specialized Lyceum of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (former MCCS #1),

– Specialized Lyceum under Civil Protection University of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry,

– Brest Regional Cadet School,

– Vitebsk Cadet School,

– Gomel State Cadet School,

– Grodno Regional Cadet School,

– Minsk Regional Cadet School,

– Minsk City Cadet School,

– Polotsk Cadet Corps,

– Mogilev Regional Cadet School,

– Slonim Cadet Corps at the premises of Secondary School N. 9 of Slonim.

Admission
Categories of children that have the right to enter the school without sitting the entrance examination, provided they pass the medical examination and the psychological test: children of military personnel, officers and staff of the bodies of internal affairs, financial investigation bodies at the State Control Committee, emergency situation bodies and divisions, that perished, died or went missing in the line of duty.

Categories of children with the right of admission without taking part in a competition, provided they get a mark not less than 3 (three) at the entrance exams:

• children of military personnel, officers and staff of the bodies of internal affairs, financial investigation bodies at the State Control Committee, emergency situation bodies and divisions, who have sustained a disability in the line of duty or as well as deceased in the result of wounds, contusions, injuries or diseases obtained in the line of duty;
• orphan children and children deprived of parental care;
• children who passed admission to a sports specialized form.

18. If places are available after admission of candidates possessing the right to enter the school without passing exams or taking part in the competition, the remaining candidates, who obtained the mark 3 (three) and higher at the entrance exams on Mathematics and Russian (Belarusian), are admitted on competition basis.

If the number of points scored is equal, candidates with higher results in mathematics have the advantage.

Terms of stay at the military school: round-the-clock

In 2006, sports specialized forms were created on the basis of the presidential decree (judo, Greco-Roman wrestling, bullet shooting, handball). Candidates, chosen and directed there by the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus in collaboration with the state body “Sport Committee of Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus” are admitted to the sports specialized form of the military school, in accordance with the Ordinance of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus dated October 09, 2006, N. 33/42 “On approval of the Instruction on the procedure of selection of children to form spots specialized forms of the educational institution “Minsk Suvorov Military School”.

Material and technical support

– five meals a day;

– full provision of military clothes;

– physiotherapy room, dental office, clinic, pharmacy, infirmary with 25 beds.

– Sewing workshop, shoe repair shop, hairdresser’s, sauna that provide services to cadets of Suvorov Military School free of charge.

Every year about 100 new cadets are admitted.

Every year about 50-70 persons graduate.

Cadets of Suvorov Military School have significant benefits for admission to universities:

They are admitted without exams on the following conditions:

Those who graduated from the Suvorov Military School in the year of entering the university with the marks six and higher for all the subjects of the curriculum and are directed to university according to the distribution plan for further education on specialties of control of units and maintenance of service arms activity with professional qualifications in “management specialist – engineer”; or those who successfully completed their studies in sports specialized forms and are directed according to the distribution plan for Minsk Suvorov Military School to continue education in the field of sports and physical education.

Are admitted without competition, (with rear exceptions, e.g., one cannot be admitted to a medical higher educational establishment without competition) those who have marks not lower that 6 (six) on the subjects of entrance exams in their certificate of education. To get such benefits they must enter the university in the year of graduation from the military school and be directed there according to the plan of distribution of the cadets of Minsk Suvorov Military School for further education in higher educational establishments of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Emergency Situations, military faculties at other higher educational institutions.

 

Militarization of children in Belarus and preparation of children to the participation in the warfare on Russia’s side[10]

 

On August 29, 2022, the deputy director of the  Republican Center for Health Improvement and Sanatorium Treatment of the Population of Belarus Aliaksandr Tsai informed, that in summer 2022, 480 military patriotic camps were organized in Belarus through the offices of Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defence, in which over 18 thousand minors went through the “health improvement program”. Considering that the approximate total number of children in Belarus as for the date of January 1, 2022, was 1 million 848 thousand, Our House is hereby stating: every 55th minor in Belarus (which approximately equals to 2%), in 2022 only, went through such militarized camps and, accordingly, was illegally involved in various armed groups. It should be separately stated, that in such militarized camps children are being foisted on the ideology of the so-called “Russian world”, including propagandist historical and cultural rhetoric. In fact, such a camp is a nine-day long preparation of children to be full-fledged military reservists, legally formalized as a “nine-day-long health recreation for children”.

Children do marching drills, assemble and disassemble weapons, practice power moves, learn to to navigate the terrain. Every day the trainees learn combat training subjects of special forces units, practice to provide military medical treatment, master skills of firing airsoft weapons, air guns and firearms. They have regular classes on basics of life safety: the young generation should understand how to behave in one or another emergency situation. Besides that, they can familiarize themselves with the military machinery, standing on the weapons of the military unit and try their hand in hand-to-hand combat.

Representatives of the delegation of the Russian search movements in the Chechen Republic visited the Youth Patriotic Center on April 23, 2022. At the meeting agreements were reached for the search movement development and cooperation between children and youth patriotic clubs of the regions.

July 29, 2022. Uladzimir Parkhomtsau, an official representative of the Interior Ministry troops of Belarus: “Only this summer 25 camps have been created in the Interior Ministry troops. 16 of them are round-the-clock.”

July 7, 2022. Belarusian children are taught to fire arms and “be patriots”. Interior Ministry troops have already open 17 clubs and 146 camps. They started talking about opening children’s clubs under the patronage of military units after the protests in 2020. Currently, there are 17 such clubs in the country, about 1,5 thousand children study there, and there are a hundred and a half special camps for children. It was told in the film “School of Patriots” on the TV channel “Belarus 1”.