Old
Soviet era Drujzinnik (Дружинник) Station
Pushkinskaya 22 (Пушкинская)
This
was once one of the city's Drujzinnik headquarters,
as recognized by the soviet sickle and hammer
sign posted above the door. Drujzinna were a
volunteer force set up to help police ensure
public order.
The
first Drujzinna force was established in 1881
by czarist Russia as a self-ruling body to help
guard statesmen and imperial processions.
In
the Khrushchev era, the Communist Party reestablished
the Drujzinna, at the same time forming special
groups among Komsomol (the Party's youth organization,
similar to the boy scouts) members. Sometimes
these citizen police were used by the Soviet
Union to clamp down on what it viewed as signs
of subversion.
The
Drujzinna was so popular that communists planned
they would replace law-enforcers when the country
finally attained utopian communism.
But
the popularity of the Drujzinna dropped. By
the mid-1980s, the volunteers were openly ridiculed
as they accepted feeble pensioners or unfit
youths into their ranks.
To
attract more volunteers, the state offered three
days off in return for services. Millions of
people throughout the USSR became volunteers.
But soon, it became clear that it was free time,
not idealism, which kept people filling the
ranks. Many women would go shopping while on
duty, while male volunteers drank away their
patrol time. In the late 1980's the free time
policy was canceled and the volunteers disbanded.
--Adapted from Lyuba Pronina, The Russia
Journal
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