The Russian military has finally achieved a quantitative edge over its erstwhile Cold War enemy. While America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of some 6000 troops over 7 years, Russia has managed to lose nearly double that number of soldiers, in peacetime!
According to NGOs cited in a distressing recent BBC story, between 2 and 3000 Russian conscripts die each year without a shot being fired – driven to suicide or killed outright by bullying via a notorious system of hazing called Dedovschina, or the Grandaddy system. Dedovschina involves officers and ‘graduating’ recruits – known as Deds, or Grandaddies, brutally hazing new arrivals in ways that make American History X look like Sesame Street. Most of it is so horrific that youtube requires users to sign in and verify their age before being allowed to see the candid videos uploaded by fellow conscripts.
While the US has been accused of glorifying the number of enemies it kills, Russia has always had a kind of grim pride in its own death rates. Indeed, Russians frequently justify their country’s role in WWII in terms of the number of Soviets dead: a rare case of a victorious power suffering more losses than its adversary.
However, deaths from Dedovschina are far from a source of pride. In 2006, 69% of Russians polled by the Levada Center said they would not like a loved one or relative to serve in the army. Of those, 32% cited a fear of death in Chechnya but a whopping 73% named dedovschina and abuse by officers as the key factor in their lack of confidence.
The moving BBC story describes how the Mother’s Rights Foundation has created an internet campaign against the practice, featuring first hand descriptions of bullying by soldiers who have since died.
A heart-wrenching example:
Nikolay Ishimov from the village of Mezhozernyj, not far from Chelyabinsk tells his story.
“On 20 August 2007, in front of 47 fellow soldiers, I was shot by a drunkenofficer, Vladimir Bazelev, just like that, for no reason.
“The bullet hit me right between the eyes; I died instantly.
“After three court cases and with the help of the Mother’s Right, my mom managed to get my killer jailed for five years and eight months.
“But my mom still cries, every day… Sometimes my parents see me in their dreams.”
Today, despite a perception that Putin has cleaned things up a bit, having your child sent to the Army remains perhaps the number one nightmare of every Russian parent. People are willing to go into serious debt, amounting to several thousand dollars, to bribe their way out of military service altogether or have their kids stationed at cushier posts.
Every time I visit Russia, I pray that some cop doesn’t stop me and ask to see documents indicating whether I’ve served in the army: something that happens to hundreds of ‘military age’ young men in every Russian city. Lack of papers can get you sent immediately to the Voenkomat – the feared Military Commission, and then straight to a barrack.
Though Medvedev has been making noises about a US style ‘professional army’ for some time, conscription, and the attendant Dedovschina, remain.
However, while the more horrible aspects of Dedovschina are condemned, Russian society continues to accept a high amount of violence, machismo and exaggerated culture of ‘respect’ in the armed forces as inevitable and even desirable. One Naval officer recently became an internet hero after his profanity-strewn tirade directed at a political officer for perceived disrespect went viral. One commenter wrote: “You deserve a medal. It’s people like you that are keeping Russia together”.
Last month, a conservative Kuwaiti politician who supports Sharia Law was condemned for advocating Muslim men to take captured Russian soldiers imported into the Gulf from Chechnya as sex slaves.
Tragically, however, Russian soldiers are at a much higher risk of being taken into sexual slavery by their own commanders: a recent investigation found officers running a prostitution ring composed of recruits.
As history has so often proved, we Russians are our own worst enemies.
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