Militsiya
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Militsiya (Russian: милиция, IPA:
Name and status
The name militsiya as applied to police forces originates from a
Functionally, Ministries of Internal Affairs are mostly police agencies. Their functions and organisation differ significantly from similarly named departments in Western countries, which are usually civil executive bodies headed by politicians and responsible for many other tasks as well as the supervision of law enforcement. The Soviet and successor MVDs have usually been headed by a militsiya
Internal-affairs units within the militsiya itself are usually called "internal security" departments.[citation needed]
The official names of particular militsiya bodies and services in post-Soviet countries are usually very complicated, hence the use of the short term militsiya. Laws usually refer to police just as militsiya.
The short term for a police officer (regardless of gender) is militsioner (Russian: милиционер, Ukrainian: мiлiцiонер). Slang Russian terms for militsioner include ment (plural: менты, menty) and musor (plural: мусора, musora). Although the latter word is offensive (it literally means "trash" or "garbage"), it originated from an acronym for the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department (
The following countries have changed the name of the police force from Militsiya (or equivalent) to a western-style name analogous to "police": Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Russia and Ukraine.
In 2019, Uzbekistan officially removed references to the word "Militsiya" from its laws without replacing them with "police".[3]
The police are still called militsiya in Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. In Kyrgyzstan active discussion continues about renaming the police force from militsiya to police.[citation needed]
General overview
The organizational structure, methods and traditions of the militsiya differ significantly from those of western police. Militsiya as an organisation consists of many functional departments, such as the
Militsiya personnel ranks mostly follow those of the Army – from
Unlike in some other countries' police agencies, militsioners are not assigned permanent partners, but work alone or within larger groups. Neither uniformed officers nor detectives are allowed to drive police vehicles themselves,[
One unique feature of militsiya policing approach is the system of territorial patronage over citizens. The cities, as well as the rural settlements are divided into uchastoks (Russian: pl. участки, "quarters") with a special uchastkovyi militsioner ("quarter policeman"), assigned to each. The main duty of uchastkovyi is to maintain close relations with the residents of his quarter and gather information among them. In particular, uchastkovyi should personally know each and every ex-convict, substance abuser, young hooligan etc. in given uchastok, and visit them regularly for preemptive influence. Uchastkovyi is also responsible for tackling minor offences like family violence, loud noise, residential area parking etc. Uchastkovyi is also the main, and actually the real, militsiya force in remote areas and small settlements where permanent police departments are not created. Uchastkovyi militsioners possess separate small offices within their quarters and maintain citizens admittance in definite weekdays.
This system slightly resembles the US system of sheriffs but shows some notable differences. Uchastkovyi is neither a chief police officer in a given community nor a universal one (not combining detective, incarceration or special tactics tasks).
The system of uchastkovyis dates back to imperial times when uriadniks were conducting lowest-level policing in rural areas. In Soviet Union, uchastkovyis were also responsible for such tasks as maintaining propiska limitations and overseeing former political prisoners, which were subject to daily registration at the local MVD office.
Although women constitute a significant proportion of militsiya staff, they are usually not permitted to fill positions that carry risks (such as patrolman, guard, SWAT), but are allowed to carry firearms for self-defence. Instead, they are widely represented among investigators, juvenile crime inspectors, clerks, etc. However, limited attempts are being made to appoint women as traffic officers or operativniks.
Conscripted police
Another unique militsiya feature is the use of
While not on law enforcement duty, soldiers reside in barracks and maintain standard military training. Special motorised militsiya units stationed in the cities were all
Rank insignia
Until late 1936, the People's Militsiya and
This system was largely reused by the
New insignia were issued to GUGB in 1937 and to Militsiya in 1939. It was now based on collar rank patches of the Red Army and Internal Troops. Confusingly, the special NKVD rank system was left intact, so for example 'Captain of Militsiya/State Security was assigned the three-box insignia of an army Colonel (in the Red Army, this patch was reassigned to lieutenant colonel in September 1939, but the NKVD did not alter their insignia) and Major of Militsiya/State Security was mapped to one-romb insignia of Kombrig (a brigade commander) (which was abolished for commanding officers of the Red Army in May 1940). This created a great deal of inconsistency and tension between army and NKVD/NKGB officers.
The NKVD rank system was streamlined in 1943 when imperial-style shoulder boards replaced the collar insignia patches. The ranks now copied those of the Soviet Army, with the exception of top officers starting with 'Senior Major' who were renamed Commissar of Militsiya 3rd, 2nd, and 1st rank, although they still wore army-style Major General, Lieutenant General and Colonel General shoulder boards.
The GUGB/NKGB maintained their commissar ranks until 1945, and switched to equivalent General ranks after that. The Militsiya retained the commissar ranks until 1973.
Some MVD officers had distinct ranks of General of the Internal Service of 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank; they were replaced with Major General, Lieutenant General and Colonel General in the 1970s.
Ranks of militsiya are considered special ranks, not to be confused with military (all-forces) ranks, which are used by the internal troops of the
Soviet militsiya (1935–39)
Chief Director of Militsiya | Director of Militsiya | Inspector of Militsiya | Senior Major | Major | Captain | Senior Lieutenant | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Source:[7] |
Lieutenant | Junior Lieutenant | Sergeant | Cadet | Starshina | Subunit Leader | Senior Militiaman | Militiaman | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Source:[7] |
Soviet militsiya (1939–1945)
Chief Director | Director | Inspector | Senior Major | Major | Captain | Senior Lieutenant | Lieutenant | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Source:[8] | ||||||||
Junior Lieutenant | Sergeant | Starshina | Subunit Leader | Senior Militiaman | Militiaman | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Source:[8] |
Former Russian militsiya
Junior Supervising Staff | Private Staff | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shoulder insignia for every day uniform |
|||||||
Rank | Senior praporshchik of militsiya |
Praporshchik of militsiya |
Starshina of militsiya |
Senior sergeant of militsiya |
Sergeant of militsiya |
Junior sergeant of militsiya |
Private of militsiya |
Former Ukrainian militsiya
Private Officers | Cadet Officers | Non-commissioned Officers | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shoulder insignia for every day uniform |
||||||||
Rank | Senior praporshchik of militsiya |
Praporshchik of militsiya |
Starshina of militsiya |
Senior sergeant of militsiya |
Sergeant of militsiya |
Junior sergeant of militsiya |
Private of militsiya |
Cadet of militsiya |
Belarusian militsiya
Category | Ensigns | Sergeants | Private | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Police Shoulder | ||||||||
Rank | Senior Ensign | Ensign | Starshina | Senior Sergeant |
Sergeant | Junior Sergeant |
Corporal | Private |
Non-police services
The Soviet and some post-Soviet Ministries of Internal Affairs have also included:
- Internal Troops);
- Department of prisons (i.e. Gulag and its successor bodies), if not merged with other ministries or agencies;
- Passport and registration service, if not merged with Migration service.
These non-police services should be distinguished from the militsiya itself, except passport and registration service, which structures are often included into OVD and sometimes considered one of the important militsiya services. Their members have always used different generic names and specific ranks (e.g. Major of the Internal Service, rather than Major of Militsiya).
Soviet militsiya (GAI) cars
The most common types were:
-
Restored GAZ-21 Volga militsiya car in Minsk 2014
-
Restored UAZ-452 militsiya van in Minsk 2014
-
Restored VAZ-2106 in Minsk 2014
Post-Soviet Militsiya forces
Russia
The Russian
In August 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev introduced new legislation to reform and centralize the funding of the militsiya, as well as to officially change the militsiya's name to "Police" (the term which was used in the Russian Empire).[9] The change was performed on March 1, 2011.
Ukraine
Militsiya was the national police service of Ukraine from the 1950s until 2015. The militsiya was formed whilst Ukraine was governed by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union, and continued to serve as a national police service in independent Ukraine until it was replaced by the National Police of Ukraine on 7 November 2015.[10][nb 1]
Other jurisdictions
The term militsiya remains in use in several[quantify] parts of the former Soviet Union:
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus operates a militsyya (Belarusian: мiлíцыя), as well as other law-enforcement agencies such as the Presidential Security Service and the State Security Committee (KGB).
- Tajikistan retains the name militsiya, sometime translated as "police".[12]
- The Transdnistrian police force bears the official name PMR militsiya.[13]
Cognate terms also came into use in several
See also
- Internal Troops
- OMON
- Ukrainian People's Militsiya
- Voluntary People's Druzhina
Notes
- ^ On 3 July 2015 the National Police of Ukraine had started to replaced militsiya.[11]
References
- ^ Kosmolinska, Natalka and Yuri Oxrimenko. "Homo leopolensis esse." No. 36, 2004.
- ^ Compare: Moldovan, A. M. (2011). "Re the etymology of the word ment" К этимологии слова мент [K etimologii slova ment]. Русский язык в научном освещении (in Russian). 22 (2). Moscow: 47–67. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- ^ "Uzbekistan officially replaces the word "militsiya" with another term". KUN.UZ. KUN.UZ. May 24, 2019. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- ^ Patrol police service regulations by the Order of the MVD of Russia No. 80 dated 29 January 2008, art. 158
- ^ Patrol police service regulations by the Order of the MVD of Russia No. 80 dated 29 January 2008, art. 158
- ^ Unmarked vehicles may only be equipped with emergency lights and sirens in accordance with the specific procedure set forth by the Decree of the President of Russia.
- ^ a b Форма одежды и знаки различия милиции СССР. Часть 7. 1936-1939 гг. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
- ^ a b Форма одежды и знаки различия милиции СССР. Часть 8. 1939-1943 гг. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
- Moscow Times. August 9, 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
- ^ Law on national police enacted in Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine (7 November 2015)
(in Ukrainian)Avakov told how the militsiya will become police, Korrespondent.net (4 November 2015) - ^ "Ukraine launches Western-style police force to set a marker for reform". Yahoo News. Reuters. July 6, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^
"An open conversation between the Minister of Internal Affairs with staff of militia". Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan. 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
[...] the Minister of the Interior, referring to the constructive policy of the Head of State, noted that, at the initiative of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the General Army, the respected Emomali Rahmon, police officers are provided with all necessary conditions and modern technology.
- ^ Compare Министерство внутренних дел Приднестровской Молдавской Республики
Further reading
- Shelley, Louise I. Policing Soviet Society: The Evolution of State Control. London: Routledge, 1996.
External links
- This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.
- Information from the July 1996 CIA World Factbook
- Ministry of the Interior of Russia (official website)