What is a demobilization album? How do conscript soldiers end their military service? We will answer these and other questions in the article. The album DMB in the subculture of conscripts is called an unusually decorated atlas with documents, photographs, handwritten text and other materials about the memorial service. It is made before the demobilization of a soldier from the ranks of the Armed Forces ("demobilization").
Private edition
A Dembel album is a concept that is much broader than just a book with photographic materials. In its purpose and character, it is a kind of samizdat - an atlas made by the artist personally with the author’s notes about an important stage in life.
Such a publication refers to the kind of man-made collection, made in a single copy. It is a kind of unique authorial work containing a biography reflecting the period of being associated with the army service.
Content
When there is 100 days left before the demobilization, the soldier begins to prepare for civilian life. He begins to create an album that is not standard in its artistic, social, psychological structure. As a rule, it is made by amateurs and amateurs. They imitate qualified writers and artists, completing drawings, photographs, documents, postcards, and wishes of colleagues in a separate book, giving everything a certain order and inherent only to the military subculture significance. Such an album is filled with unique components of art - graphics, painting, collage, photography, and often even minting.
Decor
100 days before the demobilization - a significant date. As a rule, soldiers create their albums manually or ask colleagues who have artistic abilities to do this. There are many ways to design demobilization books. They depend on the type of troops, rank of service, local traditions. But there are general rules - this work should be bright, striking the reader’s imagination, striking.
Cultural content
Do you have 100 days left before the demobilization? In content, your photo book should be a biographical universal artistic-historical document. Its basic content is usually photographic materials reflecting the personal memory of the owner. The nature of the demobilization album depends on the time of its creation. After all, it expresses the tastes of society, more precisely, a certain socio-temporal section projected onto the military subculture.
100 days before the demobilization, soldiers begin to make an album, which is a kind of copyright. It simultaneously contains the ingenuousness of the young man, his naive rudeness and the desire to make a book about himself.
It should be noted that according to the approach to execution and design, its form, content, ideological content, the demobilization album is closely related to such a layer of creativity as scrapbooking. And probably it can be regarded as one of the types of the latter. It is also noticeable that this photo book is the heiress of the school custom of conducting questionnaire-notebooks.
Officer rating
How long are 100 days before the order! And how do officers relate to demobilization books? On the whole, the command, political bodies and the military counterintelligence service did not like the appearance of these “works of art”, and this is not without meaning.
Liquidation of hazing
Now let’s find out how the struggle against hazing, which appeared in the eighties of the XX century, is carried out. In connection with this phenomenon, the political department of the army decided that the custom of creating demobilization albums is a component of hazing. Therefore, the troops received instructions instructing political workers and commanders to eradicate it by all possible means.
In military units with a high level of discipline (in the so-called statutory units), the creation of books of DMB has become an illegal act. Their soldiers made secretly, hiding from the authorities in every possible way. It was forbidden to take “fake photos” - images that had a look that went beyond what was allowed. It was possible to store only portrait-type photographs taken by professional photographers.
The command of the armed forces took various repressive measures, but could not eliminate the objectionable tradition. In some units, where the management understood that it was useless to fight this phenomenon, it was actually legalized. Here, soldiers were allocated time to create DMB books in accordance with the regulations of official activities. For the design of albums, military personnel endowed with artistic talents were involved, they housed elements of army folklore glorifying service in one form or another of the armed forces or military branches, pre-approved by the military leaders part of the picture, laying between sheets ("tracing paper"). In such military units, the command allowed conducting competitions-reviews of DMB albums, the winners of which were awarded prizes and certificates.
State Secret Protection
The Dembelsky order is a holiday for the soldier. It is known that military counterintelligence actively sought and reviewed photographs that were retired to the reserve home. The soldiers wanted to draw attention to themselves and preserve the moments associated with the service. Therefore, they often posted photographs on the album for which foreign intelligence would give more than enough. Often in demobilization books one could find a picture of the author on the background of secret latest technology.
Letters
Many soldiers in the army wrote poems about demobilization. Often those who were left to serve 100 days shaved their heads baldly. Some acquired a meter, from which a figure was cut off daily. Then they glued it to the sheet, put their signature and sent home. Many sent such letters to their beloved girls, whom they later married.
Often, reserve soldiers say that they have a happy family life. They claim that the numbers sent in the letters, the so-called “day counter, ” helped them achieve this.
"Story"
It is known that, before going to bed, one of the servicemen read a "bedtime story" - poems about demobilization. Then he jumped up at attention and saluted and said: “Allow me to report how much you have left to serve …” After he fell onto the bed and cut off the paper printed on it from the paper ribbon pasted on the inside of the metal corner of the bed. In total, 100 days and an order were depicted on it. The text had to be read with expression; it was impossible to be mistaken in any case. If someone did not like the performance of the poem, the soldier was forced to read it several times in a row.
Expectation
When can I start the day counter? Soldiers, as a rule, expect DMB one year after the date when they depart to a part from the dispenser. It is indicated on the army ticket. But only after the order do the exact dates become known: all military units post lists. In practice, this is not done on time in every military unit, since dates sometimes change several times.
Dembel porridge
Agree, 100 days before the order, wait a long time. A week before the hundred days old, "grandfathers" make it clear to the "young" that they need to get some money or bring some delicacy from the dismissal. Next, the soldiers set a rich table. And in the army there is an unusual tradition - at the beginning of the waiting period for the order, the military personnel eat “demobilized porridge”. To prepare it, you need to grind a simple cookie "Jubilee" into small crumbs and mix with boiled condensed milk. A lot of such porridge is prepared so that both “grandfathers” and “spirits” ate. As a rule, on this day, soldiers give each other presents.
Anything to purchase is optional. You can, for example, make a card yourself, beads from plexiglass or a keychain, make a calendar, which usually shows a countdown from one hundred days to zero. In parts on the walls, semi-official wall newspapers are hung with funny drawings in which any person (contractor or even an officer) can write a few warm words for the guys who will soon be going home.
Nuances
Soldiers adore all kinds of calendars, in which every day they spend are pierced with a needle or crossed out. No matter how enthusiastic the guy is about the service, he still wants to get home. Many dates are marked on the officer belt, in which there are 24 holes (according to the number of months). The names of the months until the end of the service are written in a semicircle around each hole. It is also known that during a hundred days "grandfathers" do not eat butter at breakfast, because they give it to the "young".
100 days
"Grandfathers" on the first day of the hundred days old are cut in bulk to feel like "spirits" again (the "young", on the contrary, are forbidden to cut their hair to zero during the same period). Dembel appoints an “elephant” for itself, which for the remaining hundred days will daily report to him how many days are left before being fired, sign cigarettes, take care of him and eat oil for him.
In turn, the parents of the soldiers should buy balloons, make demobilization posters and decorate with them not only the apartment, but also the entrance. It is customary to hang a poster on the door of the entrance, on which it says "Ten steps left to the house" and so on each floor.
The form
DMB is the most important day for a soldier. It is remembered forever. Feeling of will, joy of friends and parents, kisses and cuddles of the beloved girl. As usual, a soldier dressed in a new demobilization uniform walks along his native street, greets acquaintances and friends, everyone shakes hands with him and admires him. What is, for example, the demobilization form of motorized rifle troops? It can be purchased at the store for 9500 rubles. The kit includes a tunic, badges and pants, gold coats of arms of the Russian Federation on the valves, shoulder straps from black velvet, edged chevrons, a beret and an accessory, on the chest - a tricolor.
