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Militsiya (5=, ) were the police forces in the Soviet Union until 1991, in several Eastern Bloc countries (1945–1992), and in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia (1945–1992). The term Militsiya continues to be used in common and sometimes official usage in some of the individual former Soviet republics such as Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the partially recognised or unrecognised republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. In Russian law enforcement, the term remained in official usage until the police reform of 2011.
Functionally, Ministries of Internal Affairs are mostly police agencies. Their functions and organisation differ significantly from similarly named departments in Western countries, which are usually civil executive bodies headed by politicians and responsible for many other tasks as well as the supervision of law enforcement. The Soviet and successor MVDs have usually been headed by a militsiya three-star rank and predominantly consist of service personnel, with civilian employees only filling auxiliary posts. Although such ministers are members of their respective countries' cabinets, they usually do not report to the prime minister or parliament, but only to the president. Local militsiya departments are subordinated to their regional departments, having little accountability to local authorities.
Internal-affairs units within the militsiya itself are usually called "internal security" departments.
The official names of particular militsiya bodies and services in post-Soviet countries are usually very complicated, hence the use of the short term militsiya. Laws usually refer to police just as militsiya.
The short term for a police officer (regardless of gender) is militsioner (Russian: милиционер, Ukrainian: мiлiцiонер). Slang Russian terms for militsioner include ment (plural: менты, menty) and musor (plural: мусора, musora). Although the latter word is offensive (it literally means "trash" or "garbage"), it originated from an acronym for the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department (, short for ) in Imperial Russia. Ment is a close equivalent to the English slang term "cop" and derived from the Lwów dialect of PolishKosmolinska, Natalka and Yuri Oxrimenko. " Homo leopolensis esse." No. 36, 2004.
or possibly from the Polish word menda.
Compare:
[[File:Countries with militsiya map.svg|thumb| ]]
The following countries have changed the name of the police force from Militsiya (or equivalent) to a western-style name analogous to "police": Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Mongolia, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Russia and Ukraine.
In 2019, Uzbekistan officially removed references to the word "Militsiya" from its laws without replacing them with "police".
The police are still called militsiya in Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. In Kyrgyzstan active discussion continues about renaming the police force from militsiya to police.
Militsiya personnel ranks mostly follow those of the Army – from private (Russian: ryadovoy), which is the lowest rank, to colonel general – with only these exceptions: there are no ranks of Gefreiter, Army General, or Marshal. Detectives (Russian: operativnik (оперативник), "operative", short for "operative employee" – operativniy rabotnik (оперативный работник)) hold a rank of at least lieutenant, and could be promoted to Major general or colonel. The militsiya of an oblast (or other equivalent subnational entity) is usually headed by a general. The rank name is suffixed with "of militsiya" (e.g. "major of militsiya" for a major). Militsiya personnel carry , but are not permitted to carry their weapons when they are off duty. Patrol police service regulations by the Order of the MVD of Russia No. 80 dated 29 January 2008, art. 158
Unlike in some other countries' police agencies, militsioners are not assigned permanent partners, but work alone or within larger groups. Neither uniformed officers nor detectives are allowed to drive police vehicles themselves, so a specialist driver (either a serviceman or a civil employee) is assigned to each car and is also in charge of its maintenance. Under the Patrol Police Service Regulations a designated police officer-driver is required to have a driver licence and is not allowed to abandon the vehicle. Patrol police service regulations by the Order of the MVD of Russia No. 80 dated 29 January 2008, art. 158 However, this refers only to fully marked police vehicles with emergency lights; detectives are allowed to drive civilian cars with are registered to the MVD, having white number plates (marked police vehicles have blue plates) with specific series (for example, o...vo, o...rr, o...mm, o...om). The last two are usually assigned to the vehicles registered to regional level MVD units. The law does not provide any preferences on the road nor allows emergency lights and/or sirens on such vehicles, Unmarked vehicles may only be equipped with emergency lights and sirens in accordance with the specific procedure set forth by the Decree of the President of Russia. therefore technically police officers do not have the right to violate traffic laws even while on an assignment. GIBDD (the traffic militsiya) is the only exception: its members drive their own (or even own private) cars and are specially trained in risk-driving.
One unique feature of militsiya policing approach is the system of territorial patronage over citizens. The cities, as well as the rural settlements are divided into uchastoks (, " quarters") with a special uchastkovyi militsioner ("quarter policeman"), assigned to each. The main duty of uchastkovyi is to maintain close relations with the residents of his quarter and gather information among them. In particular, uchastkovyi should personally know each and every ex-convict, substance abuser, young hooligan etc. in given uchastok, and visit them regularly for preemptive influence. Uchastkovyi is also responsible for tackling minor offences like family violence, loud noise, residential area parking etc. Uchastkovyi is also the main, and actually the real, militsiya force in remote areas and small settlements where permanent police departments are not created. Uchastkovyi militsioners possess separate small offices within their quarters and maintain citizens admittance in definite weekdays.
This system slightly resembles the US system of but shows some notable differences. Uchastkovyi is neither a chief police officer in a given community nor a universal one (not combining detective, incarceration or special tactics tasks).
The system of uchastkovyis dates back to Russian Empire when uriadniks were conducting lowest-level policing in rural areas. In Soviet Union, uchastkovyis were also responsible for such tasks as maintaining propiska limitations and overseeing former political prisoners, which were subject to daily registration at the local MVD office.
Although women constitute a significant proportion of militsiya staff, they are usually not permitted to fill positions that carry risks (such as patrolman, guard, SWAT), but are allowed to carry firearms for self-defence. Instead, they are widely represented among investigators, juvenile crime inspectors, clerks, etc. However, limited attempts are being made to appoint women as traffic officers or operativniks.
While not on law enforcement duty, soldiers reside in barracks and maintain standard military training. Special motorised militsiya units stationed in the cities were all with three exceptions. Kyiv and Leningrad had and Moscow had a division, known as OMSDON, which is frequently used for policing Moscow; its soldiers can be spotted by a shoulder patch which features a white Leopard; other Internal troops units in the Moscow region use a shoulder patch with a white falcon.
This system was largely reused by the GUGB in their special rank structure introduced in 1935, although with new rank insignia and Commissar-style ranks for top officers.
New insignia were issued to GUGB in 1937 and to Militsiya in 1939. It was now based on collar rank patches of the Red Army and Internal Troops. Confusingly, the special NKVD rank system was left intact, so for example 'Captain of Militsiya/State Security was assigned the three-box insignia of an army Colonel (in the Red Army, this patch was reassigned to lieutenant colonel in September 1939, but the NKVD did not alter their insignia) and Major of Militsiya/State Security was mapped to one-romb insignia of Kombrig (a brigade commander) (which was abolished for commanding officers of the Red Army in May 1940). This created a great deal of inconsistency and tension between army and NKVD/NKGB officers.
The NKVD rank system was streamlined in 1943 when imperial-style shoulder boards replaced the collar insignia patches. The ranks now copied those of the Soviet Army, with the exception of top officers starting with 'Senior Major' who were renamed Commissar of Militsiya 3rd, 2nd, and 1st rank, although they still wore army-style Major General, Lieutenant General and Colonel General shoulder boards.
The GUGB/NKGB maintained their commissar ranks until 1945, and switched to equivalent General ranks after that. The Militsiya retained the commissar ranks until 1973.
Some MVD officers had distinct ranks of General of the Internal Service of 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank; they were replaced with Major General, Lieutenant General and Colonel General in the 1970s.
Ranks of militsiya are considered special ranks, not to be confused with military (all-forces) ranks, which are used by the internal troops of the MVD. All militsiya ranks have had the words "of militsiya" at the end, which are part of the rank name and not a descriptive addition.
| Shoulder insignia for every day uniform | ||||||||||
| Rank | Colonel General of militsiya | Lieutenant General of militsiya | Major General of militsiya | Colonel of militsiya | Lieutenant colonel of militsiya | Major of militsiya | Captain of militsiya | Senior lieutenant of militsiya | Lieutenant of militsiya | Junior lieutenant of militsiya |
| Shoulder insignia for every day uniform | |||||||
| Rank | Senior praporshchik of militsiya | Praporshchik of militsiya | Starshina of militsiya | Senior sergeant of militsiya | Sergeant of militsiya | Junior sergeant of militsiya | Private of militsiya |
| Shoulder insignia for every day uniform | ||||||||||
| Rank | Colonel General of militsiya | Lieutenant General of militsiya | Major General of militsiya | Colonel of militsiya | Lieutenant colonel of militsiya | Major of militsiya | Captain of militsiya | Senior lieutenant of militsiya | Lieutenant of militsiya | Junior lieutenant of militsiya |
| Shoulder insignia for every day uniform | ||||||||
| Rank | Senior praporshchik of militsiya | Praporshchik of militsiya | Starshina of militsiya | Senior sergeant of militsiya | Sergeant of militsiya | Junior sergeant of militsiya | Private of militsiya | Cadet of militsiya |
| Shoulder Ranks | ||||||||||
| Ranks | Colonel General | Lieutenant General | Major General | Colonel | Lieutenant Colonel | Major | Captain | Senior Lieutenant | Lieutenant | Junior Lieutenant |
| Police Shoulder | ||||||||
| Rank | Senior Ensign | Ensign | Starshina | Senior Sergeant | Sergeant | Junior Sergeant | Gefreiter | Private |
These non-police services should be distinguished from the militsiya itself, except passport and registration service, which structures are often included into OVD and sometimes considered one of the important militsiya services. Their members have always used different generic names and specific ranks (e.g. Major of the Internal Service, rather than Major of Militsiya).
In August 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev introduced new legislation to reform and centralize the funding of the militsiya, as well as to officially change the militsiya's name to "Police" (the term which was used in the Russian Empire).Bratersky, Alexander. " Police to get new name in reform." Moscow Times. August 9, 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2010. The change was performed on March 1, 2011.
In 2016 its name was changed to "Communal Militsya" () under which it continues to operate to the current day.
Compare Министерство внутренних дел Приднестровской Молдавской Республики
Cognate terms also came into use in several Soviet bloc countries during the Cold War. Examples included Bulgaria (Peoples' Militia), Poland ( Milicja Obywatelska) and other Warsaw Pact nations, as well as the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia ( Milicija), which was phased out throughout the 1990s and replaced by policija (police) in early 1997. Bulgaria changed the name of its law-enforcement body to Policija () in 1991. Romania operated a Miliția, but after the communist regime there fell (1989), the Poliția replaced it in 1990.
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