The title
"Marshal of the Russian Federation" occupies a special place in both the military and general civil hierarchy. A man who has reached such heights, causes involuntary respect even among those who have a very skeptical view of the army. The experience of our country makes us treat these people with special reverence.
Marshals of the Russian Federation, which is quite natural, are people who have the highest military rank in our country. This term itself came to us from France, where it first denoted one of the court ranks, and subsequently revealed to us a whole galaxy of great military leaders from the time of the Napoleonic conquests.
In our country, the military title "Marshal" was introduced in 1935. In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, it was appropriated for special merits and gave its holder enormous powers and deserved respect. Today's Marshals of the Russian Federation are fully consistent both in spirit and in all their inherent qualities with those predecessors who wore similar titles about eighty years ago.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union for some time, uncertainty and anarchy arose in posts and military ranks. On the one hand, all the previous statutes and decrees continued to operate, and on the other, the new situation required appropriate approaches. There was one more important nuance: all the marshals of the Soviet period (with the exception of the very first) were people whose significant part of their military career fell on the Great Patriotic War or on major local military conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. Most of them made a very impressive contribution to military theory, were large strategists and commanders of armies and military districts.
The fact that the Marshals of the Russian Federation was present in the Law on Military Service, adopted at the beginning of 1993, was most likely a tribute to the traditions of the previous era of the country. Initially, it was believed that competent managers should come to the fore, that is, those people who can carry out the reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation as painlessly as possible, strategists and theorists should have fallen into the background. The difficult situation in which the domestic Armed Forces soon found themselves did not at all imply such a high honor as the assignment of the highest military rank in the country. However, in 1997, the then Minister of Defense I. Sergeyev was awarded the Presidential Decree, according to which he became proudly called the Marshal of the Russian Federation.
A huge star with the state emblem on shoulder straps, oak wreaths on the buttonholes - all these are external attributes of the title “Marshal of the Russian Federation”. 2013, as well as the preceding ones, did not give reasons for one of the military leaders to be awarded this honor. I. Sergeev, who died in 2006, is still the only one who was awarded this military rank. Marshals of the Russian Federation - the height, so far not achievable for any acting domestic military leader. On the other hand, this is evidence that our country has abandoned active military policy.