RUSSIA: The Scary Rites of Dedovshchina

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In many cultures, the military is seen as a normal rite of passage for making boys into men. However, in Russia, and many prior Soviet countries, conscription can be brutal. Dedovshchina can include cruel beatings, torture, and rape. Sometimes, boys never make it out alive from their compulsory service.

YOU ARE WORTHLESS

Dedovshchina is often translated as the "reign of grandfathers", and it's the process of hazing of junior conscripts by senior conscripts, officers and non-commissioned officers. It was widespread in the Soviet Union, and still prevails in the Russian army. It is practiced to a lesser extent in the other branches of the Russian security ecosphere like in FSB, Border Guards and National Guards. 

Younger draftees often have to do chores for their superiors, like shining boots (source: unknown)

This barbaric practice is often cited as a rite of passage for everyone that goes to conscription service in the army. It involves everything from doing chores, stealing money and food, to more ruthless practices such as vicious beatings, torture, sexual assault and mental abuse. When boys leave the service, they can have permanent physical injuries or mental trauma for the rest of their lives.

Humiliation, pain and feelings of worthlessness contribute to the sense of mistrust and non-camaraderie of the Russian army. This leads to low morale, poorly performing personnel and often incompetent soldiers. 

Many times, dedovshchina is as an excuse to help the younger generation "toughen up" and become men. However, the reasons that this brutal tradition still exists are :

  • Older conscripts and officers want to inflict the same level of pain that was inflicted on them at the beginning of their services. 
  • There is a hierarchy that demands that the older ones inflict a certain level of cruelty, and if they don't then they will be demoted back to the lower levels. 
  • It's the cycle of abuse, which is hard to stamp out. This is even harder when it is seen as part of the culture. 
  • The officers that are supposed to supervise don't do enough to stop it. In fact, they don't even want to because it keeps a sense of order in the unit. The older ones are loyal to the officers that given them free reign, and the younger ones are abused and subdued. 
WHERE DOES THIS COME FROM?

While a clear timeline can't be established, dedovshchina is often attributed to the change of law in 1967 in Soviet Russia. The compulsory service for young men was shortened to two years, from the three years previously. This created a situation where the new group of recruits was present at the same time as those older conscripts finishing their three year service. Simultaneously, the government decided that they would allow conscripts with a criminal past to draft for the army. 

Dedovshchina can result in more than black eyes for some unlucky conscripts (source: social media)

This change created a "four-class" system as there was call-ups two times per year. So each level of conscripts tormented the lower levels below them. According to the ''format'' of dedovshchina:
  • The newbies are called "dukhi", or ghosts. These fresh faces are tormented from day one by stealing their brand new uniforms and replacing them with rags. 
  • The second year conscripts, who were usually 19 or 20 years old were referred to as "old-timers"
  • And those left with six months of service or less were called "dedy" or grandfathers. These were the ones that had the most authority, even more than the officers. 
To combat this deadly pecking order, the government shortened the terms of conscription from two years to one year. This change has somehow helped with curbing the violence.

CASES OF DEDOVSHCHINA 

The Russian Defence Ministry stopped publishing data of violent deaths in the Russian army in 2010. This was to promote their narrative that they are winning the war on hazing. In 2009, the last figure published by them, showed that there was about 30 cases of violent deaths in the army per month. 

The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia reports that they get around 15 to 20 complaints about mistreatment due to hazing per day. This is an organisation with a mission to expose human rights violations in the Russian military. They understand that it is very difficult for young men to admit such things, so it is believed that a lot of cases go unreported due to fears of retaliation.

Ramil Shamsutdinov, who killed 8 other soldiers in retaliation to bullying, in 2019 (source: unknown)

Some sad examples of victims of dedovshchina:
  • On January 1, 2006,  Private Andrei Sychyov of the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy, was awakened from his bed at 3am. He was forced to squat for three and a half hours by an older draftee. This sergeant, who eked out the diabolical punishment, was very drunk. When Private Sychyov complained of pain in his legs, the sergeant stomped on his ankles. After this, he was tied to a chair and beaten up for hours, with his superiors only taking breaks for drinking more alcohol. The young man was beaten up so badly that he had to get both his legs and his genitals amputated due to infection. 
  • Ramil Shamsutdinov used his service weapon to shoot and kill eight other soldiers on his army base in Siberia, in September 2019. His father attributed the attack to incessant bullying targeted towards Ramil over a period of months. The Russian authorities denied that there was any ill-feelings between the conscripts on the base. Ramil said that he had no other choice, these boys made his life ''hell''. Besides being bullied, he was also threatened with rape. 
  • Private Artyom Pakhotin killed himself on April 19, 2018. The last straw was when he had the word "cock" carved into his forehead with a razorblade after smoking a forbidden cigarette in the barracks toilet. He shot himself with his AK-47 during his platoon's drill training session. His last text to his mother read: “Mom, don’t believe what anyone tells you. They’re bullying me here, exhausting me psychologically and extorting money … I don’t see how I can go on. I’m already very tired. I’m sorry it all turned out like this."
  • Pavel, a boy from Siberia, told to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, how he was forced into prostitution by his superiors. First he was beaten up, then handed a phone and forced to make arrangements with clients. After fulfilling these "appointments", Pavel was forced to give the money earned to these higher-ranked officers.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO COMBAT THIS?

After the terrible case of Private Andrei Sychyov, in 2006, the authorities were forced to do something. There had been public outcry for some time, but the authorities have been slow to react. One year later, in 2007, Anatoly Serdyukov who became the new Minister of Defence brought in one of the biggest reforms in the Russian armed forces. These changes contained:
  • Shortened conscription service to one year, as discussed above. 
  • Allowing the soldiers to use their mobile phones in their free time, and letting their relatives visit more frequently. 
  • Increased public control over the army by allowing humanitarian organisation more liberal access to accompany and inspect conscripts and their military units. 
  • Time scheduled to sport and combat training was increased as the more menial tasks like cleaning and cooking were outsourced. 
  • Conscripts get regularly checked for bruises, and if any found they are asked what has happened. However, many bullies have found ways to inflict physical pain without causing bruising. For example, prolonged squatting, doing extreme amounts of push-ups, or slapping instead of punching and kicking.
The changes brought by the reforms was seen in just a short time. The years 2009 - 2013 were the most cohesive years for the military, according one leader of the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, Valentina Melnikova.

Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, founded in 1989, protesting for soldiers' rights (source: unknown)

The annexation of Crimea in 2014, and subsequent war in Donbas, created a lot of causalities for the Russian army. This meant that the Kremlin moved to hide deaths in the military from the public. President of the Russian Federation, Mr Vladimir Putin signed a decree in 2015 making this information a state secret. 

The Russian military prosecutor's office said in 2019 that cases related to dedovshchina were getting worse. In that year, there was 51,000 human rights violations and 9,890 cases of sexual assault recorded. 

CONCLUSION

I am not surprised that the Russian armed forces are having problems with morale in the war with Ukraine. When these conscripts are not treated as humans from the first day that they enter the army, I believe that it is very hard for them to trust another soldier in the battlefield. This prevalent abuse doesn't just cause low morale, but it can also cause indifference and animosity towards superiors.

The Ukrainians also know this ritual of dedovshchina. It was prevalent in Ukraine in the USSR period as well. Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed this phenomena in one of his videos on Instagram by directly saying to the conscripts, "If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people ought to be treated … The way you were not treated in your army." He was alleging to the fact that the Ukrainian army will treat the surrendering conscripts as humans, and not animals as they are treated by their own. 

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