The guardhouse is what? What is the guardhouse building

The guardhouse was once the seat of the main guard of the state army in tsarist Russia. It existed in every major city. Later it was used as a place of detention of the arrested military.

History of occurrence

In its original meaning of the guardhouse - this is translated from the German "chief guard", which is called a temporary military formation. Its sole task is to protect and protect military banners, objects of varying degrees of importance. In Russia, after the establishment of military garrisons and commandant's offices by Peter the Great, there was also a guardhouse, this happened in 1707. It was used at that time to house the guard.

The first building of the guardhouse was built, as you might guess, on Sennaya Square in St. Petersburg. Later, such institutions were located on the main squares in all major cities. Since the divorce of the guard always attracted attention with the beauty, clarity, graceful movements of soldiers, such buildings were located on the central streets of the cities, and their design was done by famous architects and builders.

Later, the Communists used the premises of the guard to keep the arrested servicemen. It is worth noting that in Europe there was no such institution as a guardhouse. In general, as punishment, the military received only reprimands.

The guardhouse in the present

In 2002, the guardhouses were abolished in Russia because of the contradiction that arises with the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to the Charter of the Garrison and Guard Service of the Russian Armed Forces, the arrest of a suspected serviceman could be imposed on the regiment commander, not the judicial authority. This contradicted the basic law of the state.

Five years later this institute was returned to the Russian armed forces. Two of its forms were formed: the army and garrison guardhouse. To date, there are fifteen of these institutions in the Russian Federation. In 2013, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu returned the guardhouse to the capital, where the latter was closed in 2008.

Grounds for arresting premises

In 2006, according to the law adopted by Vladimir Putin, the guardhouse was again identified as the place of detention for the guilty military. This provided for a disciplinary arrest, the decision on the imposition of which can only be taken by a military court. The grounds for keeping the guardhouse for reasons of this penalty may be the unauthorized abandonment of the military unit, violations committed in the handling of combat weapons, as well as being in the discharge of duties in alcohol or narcotic intoxication. The maintenance at the guardhouse can last a maximum of 45 days.

In addition to those serving disciplinary punishment, there may be other categories of convicts in the institution. In a number of cases provided for by the military tribunal, the guardhouse is a temporary maintenance of the suspected or accused servicemen. For example, if a court has postponed the decision to select a preventive measure, the defendant may stay in the place of temporary stay for not more than three days. If there is no possibility to bring a person under investigation to an isolator due to various reasons, the period of stay can last up to a month.

Conditions of stay

The maintenance of servicemen in the guardhouse is also controlled by the norms of international law and the Russian Constitution, which consists in preventing the use of torture and other cruel treatment that may lead to humiliation of human dignity. The detainees may be in solitary confinement or in common cells. At the same time, the military is always detached from others because of disciplinary action.

Also, the principles of separate detention are observed in the arrest of officers of senior and junior staff, call-up officers and contract personnel.