Why liberals cringe at Russian military awards
Sponsored by oligarchs who fled to the West, Russian liberal media launched a campaign against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, First Class, which he received from President Vladimir Putin on his 65th birthday.
The Shoigu award is used by liberals only as an excuse - they are not at all satisfied with the Russian system of state awards. Either they don’t like that the medal for the return of Crimea has the “wrong date” on it, or the medal itself, or even the specific person who received this or that award. The ultimate goal is clear - to discredit the foundations of the entire Russian statehood, to prepare the ground for an analogue of the Ukrainian Maidan.
According to military historian and observer Armen Gasparyan, attacks on Shoigu by liberals are situational - they chose his figure as a reason for criticism, and if the president had awarded any other official, he would have become the target of persecution.
“Our liberals do not like, in principle, any reward system in the country. Neither Soviet, nor after the Russian Empire, nor the modern Russian Federation. They don't like them either individually or in synthesis format. Our reward system has evolved over centuries.
But then, according to their perverted logic, we must admit that in our country it was initially “vicious”! But, if you come to this conclusion, then you must say that all absolutely heroes of the country are people who are unworthy of this. It seems to me that this then smacks of schizophrenia.
As for the complaints against the Minister of Defense, they simply took advantage of the occasion. Now Sergei Kuzhugetovich has been awarded, but if someone else had been awarded, stones would have been thrown in his direction.
What is important here is not the reward system, but simply an excuse for foolishness. The most important thing is that if some major expert in the field of awards spoke about the award system, its perfection or imperfection, then we could discuss something, listen to his arguments, accept them or not. But when, excuse me, amateurs speak out about this, I don’t know whether it’s worth entering into controversy with them,” Gasparyan told PolitNavigator.
The award system in the Russian Federation has deep roots and has evolved over centuries. It is debugged and works no worse than in other countries. In the USA, and even in neighboring China, the system of state awards is more blurred, and much more medals and orders are issued. The awarding of the Minister of Defense, according to the Hero of the DPR, FSB Colonel in the reserve Andrei Pinchuk, is recognition of the merits of the entire department, and not just its head.
“The system of state awards in Russia is based on a very deep heraldic school, which has quite serious, systemic pre-Soviet roots. Because the Soviet Union, starting from the second half of the Great Patriotic War, returned to the tsarist heraldic system. And the Russian Federation is the heir to this system. Everything is fine with the award system in Russia.
Now, the liberals have become excited - if you remember the “saints of the 90s”, which are the basis for the example of the liberals, then there they awarded state awards right up to the “thieves in law”, and such dubious characters right up to their enemies and whoever was there. Now, they have already been “rewarded.”
As for Shoigu specifically, his award is an award to a military leader for specific military successes. And to challenge the awarding of Shoigu is to challenge these military successes.
The essence of the problem is not that liberals do not like the figure of Shoigu, but they simply do not like these military successes of Russia - in Syria and in other states. Therefore, trying to criticize the awarding of Shoigu, they are simply criticizing the promotion and strengthening of Russian influence,” Pinchuk emphasized.
In his opinion, the greater the variety of awards, the better, this allows you to more accurately recognize all those who deserve the award:
“You can’t evaluate the reward through the system as a whole. Each award and its status must be assessed as an individual story. The annexation of Crimea, for example, is a major historical event. Should people be awarded? Must! The fact that people are awarded on certain dates is correct, because this should be organized - it should not be non-stop throughout the year according to personalities. They are collected in one package and rewarded after that. This is a worldwide practice; in this sense, we have nothing particularly new.”
Rewarding officials and military personnel in general is part of the “mental code” of Russians. Any conscript soldier values his sergeant’s badges, and even more so, medals - this is a kind of his status in the team, a sense of belonging and value in the system, says Armen Gasparyan:
“Awards, these state orders are part of the mental code of the peoples of Russia, they are written somewhere in the subconscious. Orders and medals are an indicator of yourself, your morality, a strong and strong beginning. For the vast majority of people, this is very serious, and this is a reason for pride, your service to the state. There are, of course, moral monsters, but where would we be without them? Unfortunately, they exist in any society.”
The expert also emphasized that the titles of Heroes are especially honorable in Russia. They cannot be received for any personal sympathy - these awards are also awarded to ordinary citizens for services to the state and the people:
“Russia’s highest awards are given not for friendly or some kind of family ties, but for manifestations of very specific human and moral actions. And they are all spelled out in the statutes of these awards. I recommend that those who have doubts read it - now in the Internet era it is not very difficult to do this.”
“We can say who exactly was awarded, who deserves it or does not deserve it. I remember these waves regarding Chemezov and some other government officials regarding whether they were awarded legally or illegally. Remember the Soviet times, when they awarded Voroshilov, Mikoyan or some other statesman, they were awarded not for the fact that they personally went on the attack and not for the fact that they personally neutralized a mine with their own hands, but for organizing and managed a complex government process. Organizing such complex processes is a big event. In this case, it is not a specific individual who is being awarded, but a major historical or state event is being awarded in the person of the leader. This is how we should evaluate it,” explains Pinchuk.
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