The history of civil defence services in Russia traces to the years of Muscovy rule and the 1649 "Direction on Municipal rescue" decree of TsarAlexis of Russia which officially raised the Moscow Municipal Fire Service, the first active fire department in Russia. When Peter the Great was Tsar, Saint Petersburg was given its own fire department modeled on Western practices of the time. By 1863 it was transformed, by orders of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, as the first ever professional fire service in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Starting in 1932 civil defense matters were performed by the Local Air Defense Units (Местная противовоздушная оборона PBO-C, Mestnaya protivovozdushnaya oborona PVO-S) under the nascent Soviet Air Defence Forces, which were transferred to the NKVD in 1940 (and served with distinction, together with the NKVD Fire Services Command founded in 1918, in the Great Patriotic War). In 1960 it was returned to the Ministry of Defence as a service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces (the Civil Defence Forces of the Ministry of Defense) and a directly reporting agency, while the MVD retained the firefighting service.
In the aftermath of the events of the 1988 Armenian earthquake and the Chernobyl disaster, on July 17, 1990 a directive decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Russian Socialist Soviet Republic led to the formation of the Russian Rescue Corps (Российский корпус спасателей), which eventually was formed by the Soviet Government on December 27, 1990.[5] This date is marked as the official anniversary of the EMERCOM.
On April 17, 1991 the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Russia appointed Sergei Shoigu as Chairman of the State Committee for Extraordinary Situations (Государственный Комитет по чрезвычайным ситуациям, ГКЧС), which succeeded the RRC.[6][7]
On November 19, 1991 the State Committee was merged with the Headquarters for Civil Defense of the USSR (under the Ministry of Defense) to create the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence Matters, Extraordinary Situations and the Liquidation of Natural Disasters (Государственный комитет по делам гражданской обороны, чрезвычайным ситуациям и ликвидации последствий стихийных бедствий при Президенте РСФСР) and was subordinated to the President of Russia.
On January 10, 1994 the State Committee became part of the Government of Russia and the ministry was named The Ministry for the Affairs of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief, with Sergei Shoigu as a minister.
On May 12, 2012, Vladimir Puchkov was appointed as the new minister, replacing Shoigu who was later appointed as Defense Minister after a brief stint as Governor of Moscow Oblast.[8]
On July 1, 2016, an EMERCOM firefighting Il-76crashed after taking off from Irkutsk International airport while on its way to dump water as to help douse wildfires in Siberia.
Duties
Russian Post stamp about EMERCOMRussian Post stamp about EMERCOM
According to an EMERCOM publication, the Ministry is an agency of federal executive power with the following tasks:
developing proposals and initiatives in the sphere of State policy on issues within the Ministry's competence;
The first Minister in charge of EMERCOM was Sergei Shoigu. He was appointed by President Yeltsin in November 1991 as Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence Matters, Extraordinary Situations and the Liquidation of Natural Disasters. Shoigu was given the rank of Major General in October 1994, and his committee became a ministry in January 1994. President Yeltsin showed his faith in the importance of EMERCOM by designating Minister Shoigu a member of the Russian Security Council by Presidential Decree on February 1, 1994. In May 2012 he was appointed as Governor of Moscow Oblast and he resigned from his office.
Yevgeny Zinichev was appointed minister on May 18, 2018, in the second Medvedev government. Zinichev was not a career lifeguard and had served all his life in security agencies such as the KGB, the FSO and the FSB. Prior to appointment, Zinichev held the position of deputy director of the FSB. After the resignation of the Second Medvedev cabinet in 2020, he retained his post in the new government of Mikhail Mishustin.
Yevgeny Zinichev tragically died on 8 September 2021, aged 55, during the filming of an interdepartmental exercise to protect the Arctic zone of Russia. According to the ministry, he fell off a cliff while trying to save the life of director and cameraman Aleksandr Melnik, who also died. His death was the first case in the history of post-Soviet Russia of the death of an incumbent federal minister.
Department for the Protection of the Population and Territories
Department for Disaster Prevention
Department of Forces
Department for International Cooperation
Department for the Elimination of Consequences of Radiological and other Disasters
Department for Science and Technology
Management Department
Commissions and Boards
Small emblem
Interagency Commission of the Russian Federation for Fighting Forest Fires
Interagency Commission of the Russian Federation for Floods
Interagency Maritime Coordinating Commission for Emergencies on the Seas and Water Basins
Interagency Commission of the Russian Federation for the Certification of Rescuers
Working through the office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry can ask for private, Ministry of Defence or National Guard of Russia assistance. That is, the Ministry has international coordination power and the ability to tap local resources if required.
The Department of International Cooperation, to present an example of the activities of one of these departments and commissions, has already signed agreements on cooperation during disaster response and prevention with Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland, Belarus, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. Mutual assistance pacts are ready for signing with Mongolia, Latvia, Finland, Armenia, Moldova, Serbia and Estonia. An agreement also exists with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and agreements are sought with the OSCE and NATO.
Central Air-Mobile Rescue Team – These teams are equipped with aviation facilities that include helicopters and cargo aircraft (Ilyushin Il-76, Antonov An-72, An-148-100EM,[10]Ka-32A11VS). The teams have taken part in United Nations' humanitarian delivery operations.
Civil Defense Forces Command – These troops consist of military troop divisions and regiments/brigades stationed in various regions of the country aimed at civil defense measures during natural and man-made disasters.
EMERCOM Civil Defense Academy – trains all officers and non-commissioned personnel of the Ministry in the duties of civil defense.
Search and Rescue Service – This service maintains 30 units in various republics, regions and provinces.
↑ Russian: Министерство Российской Федерации по делам гражданской обороны, чрезвычайным ситуациям и ликвидации последствий стихийных бедствий, romanized: Ministerstvo Rossiyskoy Federatsii po delam grazhdanskoy oborony, chrezvychaynym situatsiyam i likvidatsii posledstviy stikhiynykh bedstviy; also known as the Ministry of Emergency Situations (Министерство по чрезвычайным ситуациям; abbreviated MChS, МЧС России) or internationally as EMERCOM (derived from "Emergency Control Ministry")
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↑ "Russian Rescue Corps established. Russian Rescuer Day". Presidential Library. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2016. [On] December 27, 1990 a decree by the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR № 606 "On the establishment of the Russian Rescue Corps as the RSFSR State Committee, as well as the formation of a unified state and social system of forecasting, prevention and emergency response" was adopted.
EMERCOM of Russia, publication of the Ministry of Emergency Situations
"EMERCOM: RUSSIA'S EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM" (1995), Mr. Timothy L. Thomas, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Low Intensity Conflict and Law Enforcement, Vol 4, Autumn 1995, No 2
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