A sample of life in the Russian military

A veteran of the Soviet Army recounts what life was like in the Soviet military in an article that indicates that things have not change since the time of the Soviet Union. His description shows soldier-to-soldier interaction that contrasts with what is expected in the US military. The way Russian soldiers are treated by their own officers and fellow soldiers appears to have contributed to the Russian Army’s poor performance in Ukraine.

From Neue Zurcher Zeitung:

If you want to survive as a recruit, you must first become a slave, abandon your human dignity. Later you go from slave to master, now it’s your turn to beat the newbies, piss on their boots, make them eat a slice of bread smeared with shoe polish, take away the groceries sent from home. Most Russian men complete this slave education and carry the acquired skills and abilities into every family. The brutality in everyday conflicts in my country is appalling. Tolerance is virtually unknown.

In its report on the “Situation of the Russian Armed Forces” the Konrad Adenauer Foundation published the following figures in 2006: Around 130,000 criminal offenses were committed each year. Criminal proceedings were initiated against 15,700 soldiers and officers, and 15,000 of them were convicted. More than a thousand soldiers and officers were sentenced to prison for stealing weapons, technology, equipment and funds. 40 percent of all crimes were due to physical violence. An average of 88 soldiers and officers died monthly (in peacetime!), making 1064 soldiers a year, 276 of them by suicide and 16 by physical abuse of the superiors and other soldiers.

Those were the numbers from open sources. Later, Putin’s army reform began. In recent years, according to the opposition «Novaya Gazeta», such data have been kept secret. The defense minister swore repeatedly that the dedovshchina had been eradicated from the army. Regular media reports about soldiers who shoot their so-called brothers in arms and flee show that this is not the case.

To be fair, it must also be said that the army in Russia also plays a civilizational role. On February 15, 2006, then Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov declared in the Duma: “Many conscripts see a toilet bowl, a toothbrush and three meals a day for the first time in their lives. That’s why it’s not easy to educate such soldiers.”

A tank breaks down in Red Square

Who said that every generation needs its war? That’s true in Russia. Two friends of mine died in Afghanistan. The next generation had to take part in the wars in Chechnya. Countless accounts from veterans paint the same picture of the Russian army: starvation and corruption. It was common for commanders to sell Chechen rebels arms and intelligence, in other words, the lives of their own soldiers. The well-known journalist Arkady Babchenko, who himself had fought in Chechnya, formulated the famous principle of soldier morale in the Russian army: “Your homeland will always let you down, my son, always.”

Now the next generation has its war. The image of the reformed, modern, combat-ready army turned out to be the self-deception of Putin’s propaganda. If the entire criminal regime is based on corruption and the embezzlement of state funds, then this primarily affected the immense expenditures for reforms and the re-equipment of the army.

The opaque practices of the allocation of funds brought all attempts at reform to failure. Even the horrendous military spending could not change the critical situation. The disgrace of the arms industry became famous when in May 2015 a new-generation Armata T-14 tank broke down on Red Square during the military parade and had to be towed away. The production of this new development came to a standstill. A lot of the equipment is also outdated and dates back to the Soviet era.

The balance of this Soviet veteran’s story can be found at Neue Zurcher Zeitung. Make sure to use the translate option.

Category: Russia