Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 11 – For decades in
Soviet times and post-Soviet ones, the military was plagued by “dedovshchina,”
the brutalization of soldiers beginning their service by those who were nearing
the end, a phenomenon that undermined unit cohesion and thus the combat
readiness of many units.
With the reduction in the Russian draft
to only one year of service, “dedovshchina” has almost completely disappeared:
there simply isn’t enough difference between those just coming on board and
those who have been in the ranks for six months. (Russia drafts young people
twice a year.)
But today, soldiers say, “’dedovshchina’
is already a thing of the past and in its place are groups formed on the basis
of place of origin, regions or republics, who organize in order to defend
themselves against officers, a development that has the potential to be even
more destructive of good military order than “dedovshchina” ever was.
Indeed, Maksim Mamedov, a Radio
Liberty journalist, says, “’dedovshchina has been something archaic for a long
time. As former draftees say, in its place has come groups of soldiers from
particular places.” And such men aren’t afraid of anyone, including officers,
and live by their own rules (kavkazr.com/a/dedovshchina-i-zemlyachestvo/29932922.html).-
On the basis of interviews with
former soldiers of the Russian army, the journalist says that “dedovshchina”
has declined, largely because of the shortening of the length of draft service,
and given way in some units but hardly all to clashes between groups based on
where the soldiers are from. When they’re from the republics, these groups are
largely based on ethnicity.
Mamedov’s interlocutors are not that
forthcoming, perhaps because this is a subject few want to talk about. But his article is important as an indication
that this problem is more widespread than many in Russia and the West have thought
– and that it may be more serious as well.
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