As Long as We’re On the Subject of Veterans

This is kind of long, but it has to do with how veterans have been treated in the past in some place other than the USA.

Does this sound familiar? An unpopular war in a foreign location that nobody knows much about, nor does anyone really care, but which costs lives and leaves veterans disliked and often stranded when trying to get help of any kind… war-related medical needs, including counseling going sadly lacking, no real support, disdainful remarks about serving, the media not telling the truth about it, etc.

Welcome to the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan. It started in the late 1970s and lasted until 1989, just before the Politburo was dissolved and Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union was out of money and bankrupt.  And now, the Russians are embroiled in another war in the Middle East, in Syria. Another generation of Russian veterans is on deck.  http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9902/09/afghan.veterans/

From the article:

Once a year, Zhdanov — among the last soldiers to leave Afghanistan in February 1989 — visits the grave of his friend Nikolai who died two months before the Soviet pullout.

“At least his gravestone says where he died,” Zhdanov said, sprinkling another glass of vodka over the grave in a traditional Russian gesture. “Relatives of soldiers who had been killed earlier were not allowed to mention that for fear of ‘demoralizing the population’.”

In December 1979, the Soviet Union sent 80,000 troops into Afghanistan to support the leaders it had installed there.

The operation was planned as a “little victorious war” meant to thwart Western-backed Islamist rebels and subdue growing discontent over economic and social problems at home.

But the full-scale war proved too expensive for the creaking Soviet economy and the flow of zinc coffins with the bodies of dead soldiers, most of which were delivered in secrecy, only compounded the unpopularity of the aging Soviet leadership.

The glasnost policy of more public openness encouraged by Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev after he came to power in 1985 exposed the truth about the Soviet role in Afghanistan and the atrocities of the war, fueling public rage and making withdrawal inevitable.

On February 15, 1989, the last Soviet commander in Afghanistan, General Boris Gromov, crossed a border bridge to complete the pullout. Behind him lay one million dead Afghans and the memory of 15,000 comrades in arms who perished.

“Perhaps glasnost was good, but when we came back home people treated us as criminals, as if we started the war,” Zhdanov said. “‘We did not send you there’ was the mildest answer one could get turning for official assistance.”

The appalling conditions under which the Soviet troops in Afghanistan were far worse than you can imagine, but they are described in that 1999 article.

We all know what followed: the collapse of communism, wars in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the rise of fundamentalist Islam, the appalling use of passenger airplanes to attack Americans at home, the invasion of Kuwait, the Great Recession, so-called “lines in the sand”, and now the seemingly endless conflict in the Middle East.

By 2000, not only were Russian military wages low and benefits nearly nonexistent, but also when someone left the military there was no real support system in place. Families had to pay to bury their veteran members, and in some cases could not afford the cost of a coffin. There were local veterans’ organizations that were set up to try to get medical and other help and were given tax exempt status to do so, so that they could provide some support such as food and housing for these Russian Army vets, but it was not a government organization like our Veterans Administration. Crime was rampant in some of them, also.

http://factsanddetails.com/russia/Government_Military_Crime/sub9_5b/entry-5209.html#chapter-7

In regard to active duty pay, in early 1996, a Russian pilot holding the rank of major was paid approximately 1.5 million rubles per month, or about US$300. By comparison, a 1996 NATO pilot of equivalent rank earned US$6,000 per month. [Source: Library of Congress, 1996]

1996 is now 22 years in the past. In the 1999 collapse of the USSR, the frail base of support for veterans collapsed with it. The Russian economy literally imploded.

In 2001, Russian soldiers were paid USD $2/month and officers were paid $12/month. This was after the collapse of the ruble fo a value of $0.01733, which has since recovered with a 2018 value of about $0.15 on the dollar. My cousin and his wife went to Moscow back then, and told me that they found Russian vets on the streets trying make a little money for food by selling their uniforms and medals.

Currently, in 2018, wages are better, as are housing, food and medical care for troops but there are still issues with caring for veterans, because that is where the real expense lies: the aftermath. In January this year, Deputy Defense Minister Tatyana Shevtsova told journalists on Friday that military pay and pensions will increase four percent per annum in 2018, 2019, and 2020. It remains to be seen if this will happen consistently, as the Russian economy is still quite creaky.

June 2017, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin addressed military pay publicly for the first time since 2012. It had not been indexed for inflation once during the interval according to NVO.  But Putin said he wants to improve the “material stimulus” for the MOD, MVD, FSB, and SVR.

With another presidential election looming, he wanted to show he’s still concerned about men in uniform. This is not easy when the federal budgets scarcely have money for it and economic recovery is weak. While four percent raises will be welcome, they won’t make up for the eroded purchasing power of military pay. The CPI in Russia has increased more than 50 percent since May 2012. An increase like that sounds wonderful on paper, but it does not address the real sluggishness of the Russian economy at the time. Theirs was considerably worse than ours, and the impact on ex-military with no base of support was heavy.

Whether or not this 4% raise does become an annual reality, remains to be seen. It may be less or may be inconsistent. It is an election year in Russia, just as it is here.  Politicians are prone to make many promises, but, as some say, campaign promises are made to be broken.

The fact that military wages in Russia’s military are low to begin with means that the money Putin makes from gas and oil sales is stretched quite thin already.

From what I have found, it appears that the military may be more of a show with “advanced” equipment production being more important than real-world improvements for the troops, as in Big Missiles instead of better equipment and logistics. The pounding they are taking in the Middle East, in Syria, may be taking its toll, too.

As for how Russia’s veterans are treated now, things seem to have improved somewhat since 1999, when the returning Afghan veterans were not just looked down upon but despised. This comes from Quora, from someone in Russia:

Andrey Yanovski, Senior Business Development Specialist Answered Jun 19, 2017 Russian Federation.

First of all, I want to say that here under “military veterans” I will understand “combat veterans” – people who have participated in active combat operations as they receive a set of social support measures in extension to the social support of a retired military person who has never participated in combat operations. Also some people may be legal combat veterans and not be actually former or active military personnel.

That includes:

1. WWII vetrans include anyone, who has received a medal or a decoration both on the front and in the rear. That may include. for example, military factory workers, security officers, engineers etc, who contributed to the war effort.
2. Persons, who were engaged in minesweeping duties both on land and at sea after WWII
3. Some police/security services officers who were engaged in military combat operations
4. Persons who served in “automotive battalions”, delivering cargo to Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
5. Wounded, concussed or otherwise disabled persons, who were at any time engaged in supporting (servicing) military units of USSR or RF in foreign countries, if at that time there was a military conflict at that county.
6. People, who received medals or other decorations for actions in support of combat operations (doctors, drivers etc.)
7. Pilots, who were performing flights (including civilian) from the territory of USSR to Afghanistan at the time of active combat in Afghanistan.
8. Citizens commandeered to work in Afghanistan in the period between 1979 and 1989.

So, for all veterans both civilian and military the following social support is available:

1. Veterans are exempt from property tax
2. Veterans have also tax reductions of personal income tax and land ownership tax, but the reduction amounts are negligible.
3. Veterans have a right for additional annual leave of 35 days per year, however this leave is unpaid.
4. Veterans receive a pension increase (in addition to their military pension) of ~2500 rub/month (roughly $50).
5. Veterans don’t need to pay fees for court applications.
6. Veterans have the right to receive free housing, however there is a queue for the housing being constructed, so it is unfortunately not guaranteed.
7. Veterans have a 50% discount on housing services fees. Note: not utilities payments, only housing fees.
8. Veterans are entitled to free medical care in military hospitals and clinics, Note: military hospitals and clinics are able to provide treatment for a fairly limited number of conditions, of course.
9. Veterans are entitled to free medical examination every 3 months.
10. Veterans are entitled to receive free limb prosthetics (only manufacturing cost included, including replacement of worn ones, any treatment/surgery costs still need to be paid by the vet.  In some regions of Russia, tooth implants are also included.
11. Some medication can be received for free (specific list is updated annually, but generally it’s the most basic stuff).
12. Veterans have a right of free pass on suburban electric trains.
13. Veterans receive increased scholarship payments in colleges and universities.
14. Veterans receive priority admittance to colleges and universities.

Our own politicians use veterans as a mounting block to get votes for themselves. Some of them do mean well and do support the veteran community, but in the end it still comes down to votes. And as I said, talk is great; politicians are prone to make many promises, but, as some say, campaign promises are made to be broken.

Category: Disposable Warriors