Initially, volunteers were called exclusively volunteer soldiers. [1] In Italy, France, England and Germany during the Eighty Years 'and the Thirty Years' War various suzerains called under the banners of more and more hunters to war, but often do not have the money for the maintenance of troops, stipulates that the award they will only be the glory and the spoils of war. To many it was enough: in the XVII century the French volontaire, Italian volontario, German Volontair, English volonteere appear almost at the same time, because of which in the Russian language during XVIII-XIX centuries, the word for a long time could not resist: Volentir, Volontir, voluntir, valentir, volunteer - were used in writing, depending on what kind of foreign language preferred a Russian nobleman who became a volunteer [2].
The word has taken a prestigious ( "To name this regiment always Gusar volunteers regiment Yekaterinoslavskie because volunteers name attracts more and more hunters", 1788 [2]), and pejorative tone ( "it is a terrible Volontir" 1830 [2]), since it is easy to imagine, They behaved like soldiers, a reward which was only glory or just the spoils of war, or a combination thereof.
By the end of XVII century in most European countries volunteers Institute took shape in the high-grade near-state recruitment system or urgent mobilization (in case of war) volunteers. The system was used to support staffing troops with lower breech spending on content. We used this system in Russia since Peter I. But beyond all the process has gone in England, where the army was completed mostly by volunteers until the First World War. [3] Here, before the others found the adjective "volunteer" (1640s), and the communion of "volunteering" (1690), and the verb "volontёrstvovat" (1755), and the first mention (in 1630's) volunteers, not related to military service. [4]
It was in England, in 1844, there is now a world famous volunteer organization "Christian association of young people» (YMCA), aims to develop healthy "body, mind and soul", approved in the Christian faith. In 1851, Branch YMCA appeared in the United States just before the Civil War, during which quickly formed goals and disinterested aid techniques injured or needy as a result of hostilities - the wounded, the destitute, orphaned.
The development and worldwide distribution of the last decades of the XIX century, such declarative volunteer organizations like the Relief Society (Eng. Relief Society), «The Salvation Army", "The Red Cross" is increasingly associated the word "volunteer" for charitable, socially useful and, above all, selfless activity. On the contrary, the development of industry, the economic integration of national systems and as a consequence of the growing tax base allows the government to contain the increasingly professional and numerous army, drastically reducing the effectiveness of 'volunteer' mobilizations. As a result, in the literature of the First World War it is much easier to find a reference to "Sisters of Mercy" (members of the many volunteer companies) than the volunteer regiments.
In the USSR, the word "volunteer" was used rarely; he preferred the word "volunteer" and "militia". Ideologically, the social mission of the civil mutual aid and promote the healthy "body, mind and spirit," put on by the type of the Western volunteer "voluntary" society [citation needed 344 days] organizations like VPO Lenin, DOSAAF and the Komsomol, fully affiliated with state. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of these organizations in the country formed a temporary social vacuum. Low living standards, sometimes with severe conjugate comprehensive reassessment of values, led to a forced break in the development of principles and volunteer organizations in Russia.
However, by the mid-2000s [citation needed 344 days] s request for this kind of activity in the country is obviously formed. first volunteer associations began to appear. Some of them were able to earn a certain social capital and achieve a new level of organization - regional or even federal. The number of participants in various volunteer projects gradually increases. Since 2010, [citation needed 344 days] to support volunteer projects officially announced the Government.