Inside Russia's army: Brutality and abuse unmasked

Bullying, corporal punishment, and humiliation of soldiers are daily occurrences in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Especially now, during wartime, when not only volunteers and mobilized reservists but criminals and people from the fringes of society are sent to the front. Brutal force is not only the main disciplinary tool but also a method of establishing hierarchy. This has been the case for centuries.

In the Russian army since Tsarist times, "dedovshchina," the eastern equivalent of Poland's "fala," has prevailed. Dedovshchina is also adapted to the Russian mentality, characterized by ruthlessness and brutality. Oppression of younger recruits spared no one, not even noblemen’s sons.

The renowned Russian geomorphologist, Prince Captain Pyotr Kropotkin, recalled the bullying of younger cadets in the most privileged military educational institution of the Russian Empire - the Page Corps, where the children of princes, boyars, and tsars studied. Older students would "gather newcomers at night in one room and in nightshirts lead them in a circle, like horses in a circus. Some pages stood in the circle, others outside it, mercilessly flogging the boys with gutta-percha."

Kropotkin completed his studies at the Page Corps in 1862. Twenty years earlier, Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, a famous geographer and statistician who conducted the first census in the Russian Empire, attended it.

Years later, he recalled that "newcomers were treated in a degrading manner: under all possible pretexts, they were not only mercilessly beaten but sometimes even tortured, albeit not with brutal cruelty. Only one student in our class, who stood out for his cruelty, walked with a belt in his hands, to which a large key was attached and even hit novices on the head with this key."

It is worth remembering that this was the elite of Russian society. Among draftees recruited from the peasantry, the brutality of the behaviour exceeded the wildest expectations. Torture and psychological abuse were commonplace. Deaths were rare, but they did occur. Unfortunately, the army often concealed such cases.

Higher command tried to fight dedovshchina, particularly during the reigns of Tsar Peter I, Catherine II, and Alexander I, and the rule of Josef Stalin. The latter managed to eradicate it with a strong hand and capital punishment for the guilty. According to Russian military historians like Oleg Shakh-Guseinov, dedovshchina's resurgence is linked to the amnesty of March 1953, after which many former prisoners who had not previously served were drafted into the military. Since then, it has returned as in its best times in the 19th century.

Most publicized cases of abuse in the Russian army are related to the use of young soldiers for private purposes by unit commanders. Those rarely disclosed involve physical abuse, which often leads to death or suicides.

According to statistics published in 1996, about 1,000 people were injured due to the abuse of young soldiers. In 2001, 1,500 soldiers were harmed; of these, 74 died, and 54 committed suicide. In 2003 and 2006, NGO activists released footage documenting cases of abuse of young soldiers. The army did nothing about it but rather intimidated activists.

One case involved Andrei Sychyov, who did not receive the required medical care in time. Only at the end of his service, due to a sudden deterioration in health before leaving the army, was he transferred to a hospital where doctors diagnosed numerous fractures, gangrene of the lower limbs, and bruising of the genital organs. His legs and genitals were amputated.

The matter ended with a show trial, where the scapegoat was Sychyov's immediate superior. Alexander Sivyakov was sentenced to four years in prison with deprivation of the right to hold command positions for three years and loss of military rank. No one else was held accountable.

In 2008, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation reported that over 500 soldiers committed suicide or were killed as a result of dedovshchina. During the war with Georgia, the wave of desertion was overwhelming. In 2011, only within the Samara-based then-587th Mechanized Division, more than 70 soldiers deserted at once, and a few months later, a young recruit shot four soldiers who abused him.

These were not isolated cases. The Ministry of Defence resolved the problem in its own way - if the problem cannot be defeated, pretend it does not exist. In March 2019, a provision prohibiting the possession and use of cell phones on military unit premises and during operational tasks was introduced to the law on the status of military personnel. Officially, the reason was fear of accidental disclosure of military secrets. In fact, it prevented the documentation of crimes committed by soldiers.

War has not so much loosened these regulations as rendered them irrelevant. After the panic retreat due to the offensive on Izium and Balakliia in 2022, Ukrainians found abandoned documents containing reports of numerous cases of refusal to execute orders, physical attacks on commanders, and desertion.

Since the limited mobilization began and criminals began arriving at the front, it is not only documents that show the scale of the crimes; the perpetrators themselves document them. This happens because they feel completely impudent.

Soldiers face a maximum of special arrest or, in the case of serious crimes, a penal colony. A colony from which they most often have just emerged and will likely emerge again because the army needs cannon fodder. However, they rarely face punishment. Officers are afraid to react - even to physical assaults. The situation is beginning to resemble that of the summer of 1917, when Soldiers' Councils began forming, taking over power in units, and soldiers were completely demoralized.