Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1542142
STATE AS OF SUMMER 2025, PERIOD DISCUSSED FROM 1990 ONWARD. T he personnel-reserve mana- gement system, of which re- serve soldiers' exercises are a part, is a Soviet system that originated in 1954 and was implemented as mandatory across the Warsaw Pact armies in the late 1950s and early 1960s, although similar sys - tems were in place at that time in many conscription-ba- sed armies. The system was based on mass conscription and on the mass buildup of the armed forces during mobilization and, sub- sequently, wartime. It envi- saged graduated management of personnel reserves: from con- scription, through basic mi- litary service — during which a soldier learned basics (so- -called simple tasks) — to specialization (Military Spe- cialties — SW). Some soldiers were sent to non-commissioned officer schools or to "junior specialists" schools, and fi- nally — while in the reserve — were to maintain and deve- lop their knowledge and skil- ls during reserve exercises. By design, reserve exerci- ses were supposed to check what the reservist had lear- ned during mandatory service, to maintain that knowledge — especially specialist know- ledge — and in special ca- ses to develop it further, as well as to acquire new skills required for a position con- sistent with their mobiliza- tion assignment. This applied particularly to reserve NCOs and officers.That system has survived in the Polish Army to the present day — but it has survived without any chan - ges. Remember that it survi- ved Poland's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, it was not changed when we joined NATO, and it received no correction when conscription (i.e., Basic Military Service — later: ZSW) was suspended in 2009. After 1995 a steady degrada - tion began in the military's education and personnel tra- ining system — not only in the professional corps but also in reserve resources. The system that prepared reserve officers in the form of Reserve Officer Cadet Schools — at its peak numbering 17, training fu - ture reserve officers across the full spectrum of military specialties — was abolished by 2005. Each of those schools educated up to 400 reserve ca - dets a year. As part of the abolition of the warrant officer corps, the Reserve Warrant Officer Schools — where reserve NCOs were trained — were also clo - sed. The same fate befell Co- urses for the Improvement of Officer Personnel; in short, fundamental training elements that doctrine prescribes to be used during reserve exer - cises were removed. Reserves Training Real or Just "On Paper"? To describe the current condition and level of training of reserve soldiers, we must go back to the early 1990s — to Poland's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. story by Krzysztof Szymański, Michał Sitarski www.fragoutmag.com