Russia's Army, rage murders, etc

[D-n-A]

Every few weeks there's a story about a Russian soldier who "goes crazy," shooting down fellow soldiers or officers, then himself. These Army rage murders are so common that many in the more remote provinces are largely unreported. News reports rarely say anything about how Army service turns ordinary Russian boys into mass murderers. Sometimes "bullying" is mentioned. But what does "bullying" actually mean?

http://www.exile.ru/2004-June-10/feature_story.html

Saw this on another forum, kinda an old article, but interesting though.

 

[3rd Herd]

Bullying is actually dedovshchina or"hazing" a time honored problem of their armed forces-Conscripts serve two years.

The first year they are victims of hazing abuses, and then in the second year, they actually perpetrate the hazing themselves. What seems to be the motor behind this cycle of violence continuing is the desire for revenge. The only way conscripts can suffer through their first year is with the prospect of being compensated for their suffering the next year by being able to inflict the same on the next generations of conscripts (http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/10/bb73a9d2-32ee-4cd1-9d36-58c442e34a9e.html)
other articles:
ETHNICITY & NATIONALISM IN THE SOVIET ARMY 1979-91 Dr A Clayton http://www.sovietarmy.com/documents/ethnicity.html

Russian recruits go to hell http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Focus/FJ26Dh02.html

Drafting Students Means Trouble http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/01/11/006.html

 

[Conquistador]

Kinda makes you think how good we have it over on the other side of the pond...

 

[pbi]

Very sick society=very sick Army. Nothing new here.

Cheers

 

[geo]

Conscript troops,(2 year stint)
Conscript NCOs,  (2 year stint)
Professional Officers ....

They have talked of developing a professional army but, before they do that, they have to figure out a way to pay their troops on time and all the time.

many horror stories of recruits starving to death cause the Depot / training centre did not have the $ to do local purchases OR someone had embezzeled the cash.

there was some nightmarish story some years ago about the local power utility cutting off the power to the local military base because it's bill hadn't been paid in XX months.

Scarry!!!

 

[K_Johnston]

You also have to keep in mind the Russian democracy is very new, and they have never really had one before.  In the last couple hundred years they went from a Monarchy, to a currupt Dictatorship, and finally to a democracy.  It takes time to work out all the bugs, and to purge the corrupt members of the old system.  I would expect it to take at least a couple more generations to start running at least somewhat smoothly.

 

[geo]

trouble is they are going thru the years of the "robber barons" while having, in their posession, WMDs
not a great combination IMHO

 

[Jarnhamar]

Kinda makes you think how good we have it over on the other side of the pond...

Kinda makes you laugh at our soldiers who get all teary eyed and whimper about harassment when you say 'cut your hair you look like a girl'.

 

[3rd Herd]

found through another board three videos of the Russians and Chechnya
1) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4...playable%3Atrue
2) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8...5399&q=Chechnya
3) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6479203226690222422 (what happens when you have lousy quaility control)

 

[missing1]

This brings back the memory of a show like 60 minutes in the 70s that documented the life of a consdript in the then Russian army. It portrayed his life for six months and let me tell you, it was hell. The NCOs locked themselves in their room at night and pled ignorance next morning to anything that happened. It was on for about three months (Wed), and very graphic.


Dave

 

[geo]

Heh... saw one newsreport showing a Russian Major or LCol doing his rounds of his base... comes around the corner of a building, heading towards vehicle sheds. Almost throttles himself with strand of concertina at throat level in response to a request for a fence the previous morning

 

[3rd Herd]

another interesting article
Crime and Justice International Julu/August 2005: Russia's Special Forces, Crime Corruption Murder undermine Couter Terrorist Efforts
www.cjcenter.org/documents/pdf/cji/Cji0507-08.pdf

 

[NL_engineer]

Thats why the US still pays the people working on/garding the WMD's

 

[geo]

face it,
while the Russians are trying to build a professional army they are going thru the Capitalist "Robber barron" days of tht 1890s .... with the technology of the 21st century.

Not a pretty picture by any length of the imagination.