>>34327
Was similar here. It was abolished before my turn to vacuumed in, but had relatives and pals who were conscripts and told a few anecdotes. Also read two "army reports" (of a blogger and a reader of his) which were full accounts of their time in the Defence Force, kind of a memoirs.
After WWII when the People's Army was organized three years were service at least for two decades maybe for 25 years. Then it was reduced to two years. Then 1.5 probably after the regime change then 1, then to 6 months. Was abolished around 2002-03 I think. There's always some talk to bring it back but nothing that can be taken seriously.
It could be useful. One could learn (beside how to handle a gun) teamwork, responsibility for oneself and for others, order, discipline, leadership skills, handling unexpected situations and some more, even a trade (like mechanic, accounting, chef, etc.) if it was properly done. But never ever had been done properly, so mostly it was a waste of time and unnecessary stress which quite a few can't bear and quit via self-headshot during standing on guard with live rounds in their mags.
Yeah, doing empty, useless and meaningless work is very typical and our soldiers too created their idioms: "clean this window until you see to home / until you see the horse on the roof", "this is the Hungarian Defense Force, we carry what is round and roll what is square". Ofc these seemingly pointless exercises do serve a purpose, they train soldiers to execute orders which might seem nonsensical to them, instead of questioning and hesitating. On the field, where orders come on the radio, and no time for explanations, and the soldiers shouldn't even know the background info which led to the decision upstairs, it is very useful.