Who were the ‘druzhinniki’ & how did they appear in the USSR?
Volunteers from among the civilian population who helped maintain law and order first appeared back in tsarist times. However, it was under Soviet rule that the ‘Voluntary People's Druzhina’ (‘DND’) gained the status of an independent organization with clear functions.
‘Militia Assistance Brigades’
After the Civil War, during the New Economic Policy (NEP) period, the country faced a surge in street crime, hooliganism and homelessness. The shortage of regular police officers was, however, compensated for by the enthusiasm of citizens.
The first volunteer police officers appeared in the 1920s. There was no unified structure at the time; the most common were the so-called ‘Osodmils’ – ‘Societies for Assistance to the Militia’. Volunteers were allowed to carry weapons and detain public order offenders. This also served as a personnel reserve for the militia. By the 1930s, about 50,000 people had joined the ‘Osodmil’.
In 1932, these societies were transformed into ‘Brigadmil’ (Brigades for Assistance to the Militia), whose activities were now regulated by law. The ‘Brigadmil’ fought not only against hooliganism and domestic incidents, but was also tasked with identifying spies and anti-Soviet elements. They were, however, not issued firearms.
Workers from local factories were typically recruited into the brigades based on recommendations from trade unions or the Komsomol.
If a people's patrol witnessed a crime, they were required to promptly report it to the militia and guard the scene until their arrival. However, there were also instances where people's guards had to engage in hand-to-hand combat with criminals. The brigades also maintained order at fairs and provided assistance to local residents during emergencies.
In total, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were about 400,000 militia assistants in the USSR. During the war, many went to the front and those who remained in populated areas were reorganized into public order groups and helped combat saboteurs locally.
‘Voluntary People's Druzhina’
After the war, the ‘Brigadmil’ began to assist the militia again. But now, the Soviet leadership emphasized the moral character of the Soviet person. In the mid-1950s, Nikita Khrushchev proclaimed a course towards communism and an all-people's state. Hooligans were to be re-educated and educational work was to be conducted with youth people. They also fought against "stilyagi" – those who followed Western fashion.
The ‘Brigadmil’ existed until 1958, when they were replaced by another organization – the ‘Voluntary People's Druzhina’ (‘DND’).
Even before the official establishment of this organization, volunteer ‘druzhinas’ appeared at several large factories in Leningrad. By 1958, the city had about 15,000 ‘druzhinniki’. The official birth date of the mass movement is considered to be March 2, 1959, when a decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers ‘On the Participation of Working People in the Protection of Public Order’ gave it a nationwide scale.
How patrols were conducted
Mass volunteer ‘druzhinas’ were created from the workers’ collectives at Soviet factories. ‘Druzhinniki’ gathered in groups of 4-5 people, received instructions at a police station and went on duty in a designated city district. Each wore a bright armband and had a ‘druzhinnik’ ID. The patrols were unpaid, however, the activists were encouraged in various other ways. Some factories gave them time off, others provided free vacation vouchers to sanatoriums, while others still gave bonuses.
The movement grew to enormous proportions, reaching its peak in the mid-1980s – at that time, about 13 million people were serving as ‘druzhinniki’. However, during the perestroika era, it began to wane and disappeared completely with the collapse of the USSR.
In modern Russia, volunteer law enforcement units for maintaining public order exist in the form of Cossack ‘druzhinas’ and student detachments in some regions.