Hazing in the Russian army: origins and methods of struggle
The peculiarity of the phenomenon of hazing is that it arose almost instantly and just as quickly became a kind of subculture. However, experts cannot come to an unequivocal conclusion about what is the cause of its occurrence. So far, there are disputes about what caused this phenomenon, whether its appearance in modern society is logical, whether it is the results of management’s mistakes and miscalculations, whether it is a simple coincidence of circumstances.
Most of the younger generation are convinced that hazing is a characteristic feature of the Soviet Army from the very beginning of its existence, but in fact this concept arose only in the 1970-s. In essence, hazing is part of a global phenomenon such as bullying. It can have several varieties as human dignity is degraded. This is not only a certain ritual of transferring a soldier from one group (according to the term of service) to another. These are works that, regardless of the fact that they should be performed by all soldiers of military service, but transferred exclusively to young soldiers. This may be work that is passed on to soldiers who have nothing to do with them at all. And the most cruel kind of hazing is the physical mockery of the senior servicemen over the young recruitment.
This phenomenon is noteworthy in the first place because a special cult is maintained around it, which contributes to its special “vitality” compared to other forms of non-statutory relations. The main reason for hazing is a certain principle of acceptability: the soldiers, who passed all the tests in the first year of service, decide to “break away in full” in the future. In addition, there is such a thing as “knocking”, which also plays an important role in supporting the cult of hazing.
As for the socio-political reasons for the emergence of this phenomenon, it is often associated with changes in society, when the concepts of friendship, partnership have lost their value. A new generation in a significant part of it is not capable of manifesting such qualities. Another social cause is the collapse of the USSR, when the “communal” principle has become more irrelevant. All this was reflected in the failure of the army. In addition, contributed to the emergence of hazing and democratization of society, and the weakening of discipline. As a result, a new generation of soldiers who came to the service did not want to obey all orders unquestioningly. But the army means storguy discipline and accurate, accurate and quick execution of orders without any discussion. Therefore, the appearance of non-statutory relations on the part of the officers in the army was predetermined.
In addition to these reasons, there are other, no less important. So, for example, the changes associated with the moral climate of the army, that is, the call to the service of a significant number of "not those" people. The problem lies in the fact that the contingent of recruits was significantly reduced, but the number of military units actually remained at the same level. Therefore, we had to increase the call, significantly reducing the requirements for a new generation of soldiers. As a result, even those connected with the criminal world found themselves in the army service.
A fairly common explanation of this phenomenon in society is the problem of generational conflict. The fact is that at the time of the emergence of non-statutory relations, a transition was made from a three-year term of service to a two-year one, and those who had to serve a longer period of time gradually began to put their displeasure on those who were luckier.
Of course, it is possible and necessary to fight hazing. For this, there are even certain methods. First of all, you need to take the soldier to work, so that he has neither the time nor the desire to manifest non-statutory relations. But this requires an appropriate base and officers. Secondly, to allocate for each recruit a mentor from the senior servicemen, who will be responsible not only for his actions, but also for the state (this practice existed in America). But it will be extremely difficult to determine what methods such “mentoring” will be implemented, and the main goal of the commanders is to increase the combat readiness of army formations, and not control over the fighters. Thirdly, it is possible to introduce supervisory bodies independent of the army leadership that would monitor the situation in the army, but this is associated with high financial costs and certain problems of moral and ethical character.
In addition, you can reduce the service life in the army and gradually move to a fully professional mercenary army. It was this method that the Russian military command chose to fight against non-statutory relations in the army. But this measure, according to the admission of the military itself, was not very effective. According to Sergey Fridinsky, “it is too early to talk about the victory over hazing.” The number of crimes of this kind is still large. Thousands of servicemen suffered from violent actions, many were seriously injured, and there are dead. Virtually every fourth army unit is associated with a violation of statutory relations. This explains a significant number of cases of suicide among soldiers.
So, quite recently in the Russian army there was such a high-profile case. In a military brigade stationed in Volgograd, 22 committed suicide — a summer soldier of conscript Dmitry Nikitin. He was a very diligent soldier, so he quickly moved up the career ladder. After a very short period of time after the start of the service, he received the rank of corporal and was appointed commander of the department. But this did not please the junior sergeant, who before him headed this department. Therefore, he began to systematically humiliate Nikitin for all. The final straw that ultimately led to the tragedy was the beating of the corporal. The day after, Nikitin shot himself. It happened three months after the start of the service.
The younger sergeant was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, but his parents sued the Ministry of Defense, wanting to receive moral compensation. They won the case: the court ordered the military department to pay the Nikitin family half a million rubles.
A little earlier, in the 2009 year, a loud scandal occurred in the Kaluga garrison, where the platoon commander allowed himself to use assault on more than a dozen conscripts, who later fled from the unit and wrote a complaint to the prosecutor's office.
The Chief Military Prosecutor is confident that the cause of the non-statutory relations in the Russian army comes down to several main reasons: a large number of conscripts and obvious deficiencies in the command staff. A big problem is also the "kuchkovanie" soldiers on a national basis. So, for example, representatives of the Caucasian peoples love to set their own rules, which often leads to mass fights, news about which quickly spread beyond the limits of their military formation. At the same time, commanders respond to force with force, in other words, they also use their fists. Moreover, this practice is becoming more frequent.
It was the increase in the level of non-statutory relations that was one of the reasons why, instead of 1,5, the year of being in the army, 1 was introduced the year of military service. But S. Fridinsky cited statistical data that directly indicate that such a measure did not have much success. For example, in 2011, officers beat their subordinate conscripts by 15 percent, and sergeants twice as often as in 2010. For such violations, an order of 1400 people was convicted ...
According to the coordinator of the public organization “Citizen and Army” Sergey Krivenko, the reduction of the term of military service was recorded as early as 2003, when the targeted federal program to transfer the Russian army to a contract basis was adopted (half of all military personnel had to be transferred to a contract). It was assumed that those conscripts who would come to the army would mainly receive a military registration specialty (six months of training based on special centers, and half a year - practice in linear units). But then the program “successfully” failed. The reason for this is the management miscalculations of the leadership and outright sabotage of the majority of generals who were not interested in creating a professional contract army. Therefore, despite the shorter service life, the soldiers were still sent to regular military units instead of training. Thus, hazing in a certain sense changed its format: discrimination on service life was broken, but the violence did not disappear, those who were stronger became more in control. They set the "rules of the game": prices for outfits, for the possibility of going beyond the limits of a military unit, for getting into the medical unit and much more.
But, according to the human rights activist, hazing can be fought. The main method is a complete transition to a contract army. In this case, the soldiers will receive a completely different legal status, since the contract will clearly spell out his rights and obligations, having fulfilled that the contractor can leave the territory of the part (which was not the case for the conscripts, who were constantly in the unit and had no right to leave its territory without relevant documents ). As an example, he cites the border service, which completely refused to be called up. As a result, no facts of non-statutory relations were established. In addition, S.Krivenko adds, it is necessary to take other measures, in particular, to open an army for public organizations, provide means of communication (internet, telephone), create a military police to investigate incidents related to the army (now this function is performed by the commanders of ).
And most importantly, it is necessary that the government and the military leadership be interested in all these changes. Only in this case, the Russian army will be able to reach a new level of relations.
Materials used:
http://svpressa.ru/society/article/55413/
http://www.situation.ru/app/rs/mater/dedov/Dedovschina.htm
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