Russian Military Message Types

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The message information is divided into following categories, by importance and urgency:

–      Signals of combat control and warnings;
–      Message divided into categories of urgency: “Monolith” (Монолит) , “Air”(Воздух), “Rocket” (Ракета), “Plane”(Самолет), “Regular” (Обычный).

Messages in the category “Air” are transmitted without queuing, once all messages of “Monolith” category have finished transmitting.

Radio messages in various categories of urgency are transmitted in such order:

1.    “Monolith” – reception and transmission of messages in other categories of urgency are interrupted;

2.    “Air” – after “Monolith” category messages, reception and transmission of messages in categories “Rocket”, “Plane”, and “Regular” are interrupted;

3.    “Rocket” – after “Monolith” and “Air” category messages, reception and transmission of messages in categories “Plane” and “Regular” are interrupted;

4.    “Plane” – after “Monolith”, “Air”, and “Rocket” category messages, reception and transmission of “Regular” messages are interrupted;

5.    “Regular” messager are transmitted after “Plane” category messages, in order of their arrival.
When operating an open radio channel, the category of message’s urgency is coded via cipher table of radio operator on duty, or using a different method.

When using international call signs, the category of message’s urgency is transmitted openly in abbreviated form; e. g. in Russian «Монолит» (мнл), «Воздух» (взд), «Ракета» (ркт), «Самолет» (смл) etc.

Received and printed messages are color-coded by their urgency: “Monolith” and “Air” – red hatching, “Rocket” – green, “Plane” – blue.

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Emergency signals are given higher priority than “Monolith” category messages.

This is a translation from the Наставление по радиосвязи в вооруженных силах СССР. (The Radio Manual for the armed forces of the USSR) Translation from Russian by Yuri Giderashko.

 

Monolith Training and Combat Signals

PRILEZhNYJ SEJaTEL-Prilezhnyj Seyatel / Прилежный Сеятель (“Diligent Sower”) – It’s a low level terrorist threat training signal. Signals of terrorist danger in the Russian army and internal troops are divided into levels B/C(Low), Б/B(High), A/A (Full):

Training Signals

Low – Прилежный Сеятель / Prilezhnyj Seyatel (Diligent Sower)
High – Неважный Эпилог / Nevazhnyj Epilog (Unimportant Epilogue)
Full – Угнетающий рельеф / Ugnetayushchij Rel’ef (Depressing Terrain)

Signal the cancel of orders – Осторожный Победитель / Ostorozhnyj Pobeditel (Careful Winner)

Combat Signals

Low – Чепкий Ястреб / Cepkij Yastreb (Tenacious Hawk)
High – Стихийный Пыль / Stihijnyj Pyl (Spontaneous Fervor)
Full – Стандарт Жестокий / Zhestokij Standart (Cruel Standard)
Signal the cancel of orders – Бескровный шлейф / Beskrovnyj Shlejf (Bloodless Trail)

This information is freely available, but only among a narrow circle of informed people.

This comment was made by and ex-Russian serviceman on meanings of the buzzer monoliths made on a video about a message caught in December of 2013.  The video is lost, however we luckily recovered this message.