...ensures correct selection and placement commanding personnel, stimulates the purposeful, continuous rise of the level of professionalism, the forming and development of the officer's qualities the defender of Motherland needs.

The word attestation (evaluation) originated from the Latin word attestation denoting a certificate. In Military Encyclopedia published in 1911, evaluation was defined as "testimonials of authorities concerning the subordinate's qualities set forth with the observance of the rules and formalities." (1) The present-day conception of evaluation involves the appraisal of the result of the evinced fighting, business-like, professional abilities and personal qualities of the officer, as well as their accounting in different periods of military service record. Officer evaluations play an important role in the career of the officer being the official acknowledgment of strengths and weaknesses of his personality. Moreover, account is taken not only of the level of military professional qualification, but also the spiritual profile of the person, his attitude towards team-mates, his psychological peculiarities, character features.

The evaluation of the servicemen of the Russian Army has rich history of its own. (2) The process was initiated by the Decree signed by Peter I in 1719 whereby non-commissioned officers were promoted to officer rank and captains were awarded field officers rank after voting by ballot (selection of candidates) in officership, in which all officers of the unit participated that made it possible to select the acme among these. If the position of company or battalion commander became vacant, the question about who might hold it was discussed openly and finally decision was adopted by secret voting (as a rule, there were two or three claimants per vacancy), in which all regimental officers participated once more. Looking ahead, we note that by virtue of this system Russia witnessed the appearance of the military commanders such as A.V. Suvorov, F.F. Ushakov, M.I. Kutuzov, B.M. Barclay de Tolli, P.I. Bagration and others. The system introduced by Peter I was fairly well-thought-out. The commander of the regiment could repeal the decision of the officer meeting individually and appoint his candidate, but if his protege failed to cope with the job, the commander, who had nominated him, had to resign together with him.

Written evaluation, except that originally only negative qualities of the appraisee were set forth in it, began to be made since 1742. Since 1756, attention began to be paid also on the positive (official and mental) qualities of the officer, as well as on his outward appearance. In the process of evaluation, first of all, the principle document was considered, which depicted the record of military service of the officer--military history (formulary) sheet, which included the following columns: his rank, name, patronymic and surname; how old he is; what occupational group (estate or social class) he originates from, if from nobility--is there landed estate (in what uyezd, goubeniya and how many masculine serfs owned); time (year, month, day of the month) of joining military service, of promotions to subsequent ranks and transfers from unit to unit; participation in battles and campaigns; education; when and how many days he was on leave and whether he appeared within the time-limit; whether he incurred a penalty in court or out of court; marital status with indication of birth dates of wife and children; being in permanent appointment, in excess of full strength, in absentation; whether he qualifies for next...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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