Non-Organizational Leisure Preferences of Military Personnel of the National Guard of the Russian Federation

Abstract

In the modern world, leisure is one of the most important components of a person’s time budget, including military personnel. Many scientific papers have been devoted to its study. The article deals with the concept of leisure category and its meaning. For military personnel of the national guard of the Russian Federation, the goal of leisure is not only to restore spiritual and physical strength, but also to improve their education, Outlook, and physical development. Leisure in the life of military personnel plays an important role, as it is aimed at restoring and developing spiritual and physical strength, family cohesion, personal self-improvement, expanding horizons, as well as the transfer of life experience and moral values. On the basis of a sociological study conducted by the questionnaire method, the non-organizational leisure preferences of various groups of military personnel are analyzed. Non-organizational leisure is divided into home and non-home leisure. When conducting out-of-home leisure activities, the respondents of the first group give the greatest preference to entertainment forms of leisure (visiting cinemas, recreation parks, cafes, sports events), the respondents of the second group, in addition to entertainment forms of leisure, prefer spiritual and moral (visiting theaters, museums, religious institutions). When considering home forms of leisure, it was found that the leisure practices of the respondents of the first and second groups coincide. Despite the fact that the representatives of the first group one of the main leisure activities is self-education, they, unfortunately, exclude such leisure activities as visiting theaters, museums and organizing family performances. In our opinion, these types of leisure contribute to the moral and spiritual development of the individual and increase his self-education. Despite the fact that the results of the study showed that more than 80% of the surveyed military personnel are satisfied with their leisure time and carry out its planning, a number of negative factors have been identified that affect the implementation of leisure practices in full. If the main negative factors for the respondents of the second group are physiological, i.e. fatigue after work, then the respondents of the first group note equally the material (lack of money) and temporary (lack of time) factors, as well as the physiological factor (fatigue after work). The material factor noted by military personnel of the first group for the reason that their pay does not match the standard of living, as money reform the military, conducted in 2012, did not give the expected results in improving the material well-being of privates and sergeants.