Posted on 04/24/2002 4:34:38 PM PDT by David Hunter
Men are liable to compulsory Military service in Russia from the age of 18 until 27. Military service requires two years in the Army or three years in the Navy. Living conditions are appalling and torture, murder and suicide are common. I wish to bring some additional facts to your attention about Russian Conscription that do not seem to be widely appreciated in the USA. I have come across negative comments on this website about organisations that campaign for the human rights of Russian conscripts and try to prevent young men from being conscripted in the first place.
Please note the following:
1. The widespread bullying, ill treatment, rape and sadistic torture (dedovshchina system) of conscripted men in the Russian armed forces, (in violation of Articles 21.1 and 21.2 of the Russian Constitution). Highlighted by recent reports by Amnesty International and the Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg (SMSP).
2. According to the Russian Government's own figures, at least 5,000 conscripts die every year in the Russian armed forces. The SMSP believe that this figure is deliberately understated and the true figure is closer to 10,000. This can be explained by the high murder and suicide rates among Russian conscripts, deaths from starvation, medical negligence and normally avoidable diseases are also common. Compare that figure to the approximately 20,000 prisoners who die each year in the Russian prison population, one of the largest and worst provided for, in the World.
3. The use of conscripts for forced labour on non-Military tasks, (in violation of Article 37.2 of the Russian Constitution), often to enrich their commanding officer.
4. The terrible health situation of Russian conscripts, malnutrition is common, disease is rife and medical treatment is totally inadequate and sometimes deliberately withheld.
5. The repressive methods currently used to "press-gang" young men for Military service: roundups in metro stations, on the street, in student houses and at home. Even though many of them are temporarily exempt from service, specifically students.
6. The common conscription of men who are ill, mentally or physically disabled, are the sole providers for their families or are conscientious objectors (in violation of Article 59.3 of the Russian Constitution).
7. The complete impunity with which conscripts are tortured and killed. There is no Military Police force and few criminal investigations are ever initiated. In fact, conscripts who are murdered are often listed as having committed suicide, so that the Government does not have to pay for their funerals!
8. The fact that due to a recent presidential decree conscripts can be sent straight to Chechnya, without even a basic training period outside Chechnya. In the past, conscripts who had served for less than one year had to volunteer to fight in Chechnya, although sometimes they were beaten to force them to "volunteer".
9. The widespread racism in the Russian Armed Forces, mainly directed at Caucasians and Jews. Fascism is also spreading among young and impressionable conscripted men.
10. The fact that in Resolution 1166 (passed in 1998), the Council of Europe specifically condemned the Russian Government for the ill treatment, torture and poor living conditions of its conscripts. However, no further effective action seems to have been taken against the Russian Government.
I think all civilised people should condemn:
1. The Government of the Russian Federation's failure to protect the fundamental human rights of conscripted men.
2. The impunity with which conscripts are ill treated and tortured by senior servicemen and officers.
3. The culture of secrecy and "cover-up" that pervades the Russian Armed Forces regarding incidents of illegal conscription, torture and murder, which prevents criminal cases from being launched.
4. The conscription of men who are unfit to serve or are legally exempt from service.
5. The "press-gang" methods used to conscript young men for Military service.
Personally, I believe that Russian conscription is basically state coordinated slavery and that senior Russian officials condone the torture and poor living conditions. An opinion of conscript service often heard in Soviet times has never completely gone away: "It is important not that the conscript serves, but that he suffers".
It seems that many conscripted men after demobilisation become a source of violence, racism and fascism in Russian society. Domestic violence against women is always more common among men who have done the enforced stint in the Russian Armed Forces. Considering, the way they have been systematically degraded and tortured, it is easy to see why they might resent women, who do not have to do National Service, especially those who approve of male conscription but are glad it does not apply to them. I have actually met young Russian women with University degrees, who have told me that they are glad they do not have to do National Service, but they think it is good that the men are required to!
The terrible conditions for conscripts in the Russian Armed Forces are documented in an SMSP report written in 2001 (see it at http://wri-irg.org/news/2001/smsp.htm). This report details dozens of episodes of torture, murder, forced labour, deliberate withholding of medical treatment etc, all done in a climate of lawlessness and impunity in the Russian army. Because there is no Military Police force in the Russia army, the senior officers usually suppress evidence of torture and murder. In fact, more often than not, the cause of death of a murdered conscript soldier is recorded as suicide, a mortal sin according to the Russian Orthodox Church, which refuses to give burials to people who committed suicide. You can imagine how upsetting that is for the family of a young conscript soldier, especially if they are religious. The body is also sent back to them in a sealed zinc coffin and so there is no way to prove whether or not there was foul play.
President Putin has passed some pretty dubious policies since he was inaugurated. These policies have included; compulsory Military training (including firearms instruction) for all male school pupils and the release of a commemorative coin for Stalin. He has also appointed Victor Cherkesov the Governor of Russia's north-western districts. This man was deputy director of the FSB, the reorganised KGB, and he was feared and hated by Russia's liberal population. He was responsible, in the 70s and 80s, for surveillance of the media and trade unions and he pursued any critic of the Soviet regime. Putin has also silenced the critical independent news media in Russia (note the closures of NTV and TV6). He also initiated the vicious war in Chechnya, on the basis of the 1999 Moscow bombings, which it is has never been proved were caused by Chechens. Indeed, there is some circumstantial evidence that the FSB had a hand in those bombings.
Given his militaristic tendencies, his 15 years in the KGB and his initial reaction to the Kursk submarine sinking, Putin is hardly likely to make serious efforts to improve the situation of Russian conscripts. In February, he said that he intends to stop conscription around the year 2010. However, in 1993 Yeltsin also said that he wanted volunteer only Armed Forces by the year 2000 and nothing came of that. Indeed, even if Putin keeps his word, based on the current statistics; between 40,000 and 80,000 innocent young men will have died and thousands more will have been maimed or disabled, before the draft is revoked.
Press-ganging of Russian University students and young men
University students are supposed to be exempt from Military service while they are studying for their degrees. But the evidence presented here proves that this temporary exemption is often ignored by officials. The conscription plan allows for lower recruitment each time, but the number conscripted is still higher than legally possible. In order to fulfil the plan the Military has to use repressive methods to fill its ranks: roundups in Metro stations, on the street, in student houses, even at home and this is done with the help of the Militia (Police).
In the autumn draft campaign 2001, as in the previous year, the incidents of forcible conscription of young men and students by the Military Commissariats became more frequent. There is a simple explanation for this fact, the Military are having problems filling their conscription quotas because of the poor health of the country's young men. Deputy Health Minister Olga Sharapova recently stated that one in three conscripts is pronounced medically unfit for Military service. Therefore, in order to fill the quotas the Military Commissariats are resorting to kidnapping young men who should be temporarily or permanently exempt from Military service.
Cases 1 to 3 below describe the "press-ganging" of three students by the Viborg district Military Commissariat of St. Petersburg. For confirmation of their authenticity email the SMSP at: Info@soldiersmothers.spb.org I have changed their names to protect their anonymity, since they could be the victims of recriminations. Case 4 occurred in Moscow during the same autumn 2001 draft. This information was obtained from a press release of the ARA (Moscow, 25/12/01), it was confirmed by the news agency PRIMA. These are only the cases that we know about. How many more students and young men were kidnapped and enslaved in the whole of Russia just during the 2001 autumn draft?
1) Dmitri, born in 1981, was detained during a dragnet in his student dormitory at the Saint-Petersburg State Electrotechnical University and sent to the army on December 22nd, 2001. At that time Dmitri was studying on 4 modules. The Military and Militia withdrew him from his room in the dormitory and delivered him to the Military Commissariat of the Viborgskiy district of Saint Petersburg. Dmitri was sent to a Military unit in the city of Serpuhov, Moscow area. At present, Dmitri serves in this Military unit, being hitherto a student of the above named University. A complaint was made by Dmitri's father to the court of the Viborgskiy district of Saint Petersburg. At the first hearing of the court it was decided not to release him from the army. The Military liaison from the Viborgskiy District Commissariat asked the court to show the original documents from the University proving he was a student. The judge did not seem to look favourably on Dmitri. The judicial inquest is still not finished and meanwhile Dmitri continues to serve in the army.
N.B. Dmitri only had copies of the original student registration documents. But why were the authorities detaining young men living in a University student dormitory, if students are temporarily exempt from Military service?
2) Boris is a student at another institute. His family had decided to move to an apartment in another area of Saint Petersburg. In such situations in Russia, it is necessary to give a reference to the branch of the Militia in the new area. So on December the 24th, 2001 Boris went to branch 57 of the militia of the Viborgskiy district for a reference to change the apartment. The Militia detained him along with 10 other persons and sent them to the Military Commissariat of the Viborgskiy district. Boris did not return home, and his parents did not know where he was. They searched for him the whole night and finally found out what had happened. His parents managed to get him released by a narrow margin and they then contacted the non governmental organisation "Soldiers' Mothers of Saint Petersburg". Recently, he has proved he has a legal right not to serve in the army, since his health is too poor.
3) This occurred on Christmas eve, the 24th of December 2001, in the Viborgskiy district of Saint Petersburg. I had found a new place of residence for myself and my son. I wanted to get the key for the new apartment instead of my exhusband, who had been registered for the apartment for 2 years without our knowledge, and did not want me and my son to live in the apartment. So we appealed to district officer Aksenov. He simply ignored our requests. I also applied to the RUVD and the GUVD, and approximately three months later on behalf of district officer Aksenov, representative DU-54 of the RUVD, sent us the key. But suddenly this representative of the RUVD declared that my son had been detained in a roundup on December the 23rd. We got his passport and took it to the specified place which was the district Militia.
We asked for a meeting at the Militia branch about his Military service. We expected that our son would receive a summons for conscription at his place of residence, which he had not got. We, along with other people waited several hours for the Military representative. A minibus arrived and it turned out that the chief of the 57th Militia branch, S.V. Yakovlev had just delivered the conscription notice to our apartment. Later, we heard that for each draftee they delivered they got a bonus of 300 roubles. They had not shown any interest in his student registration ticket, which had been in his pocket all the time. As well as not examining his student registration document, the Militia had crudely handcuffed this law abiding lad, like some bandit and taken him away. We were shaken by the arbitrariness and lawlessness of it.
At the Militia branch, the chief said that with a wave of his hand they would detain me and put me with my son. Then the chief himself blocked our complaint, after he had threatened us with his fists, as if he were provoking us to fight back. We both immediately understood that only by an unofficial route would we be able to help our child. This occurred at approximately 22:00 hours. We immediately travelled to district 54, where the town draft board is situated. But it turned out that he was not there. The whole night we conducted a search in stressful conditions, since we did not know where they had taken him. We rang all the places where he could have been taken, that had been suggested to us. But everywhere they answered no. We did this for 7 hours. Afterwards, we were practically in a state of despair. And already we did not know what to do. But since we know that in this country the officials are afraid of the press and television. We resolved to play on this. And so I rang a television journalist in district 54, where the town draft board is located, I explained about my boy, whose stay in the army they were going to arrange incomprehensibly without his draft summons, passport, other documents and without checking that he is physically fit to serve. The journalist contacted the Militia and said: "I am a TV journalist, did you inform the family about this case?” And he has immediately received the answer: “ Yes, we have". And then they said that they informed the parents where he was taken.
After I had put down the telephone, almost immediately, it rang again. This was a man on duty at the town draft board. He said; your son is here, and you may visit him at 9:00 hours in the morning. But we decided to rescue him and resolved to go earlier. This was our day! And the 20th birthday of my son was December the 25th. We had arrived, we had opened the door and since they were frightened by the representative of the television, they immediately agreed to let us see our son. He had not had a change of clothes and nothing to eat during the previous day and the whole night, he was being housed in inhuman conditions. In that moment, we did not care what could happen to us. I said: "We, will all go home", then we smuggled him past the man on duty, who did not notice that my son was behind us as we passed him to leave the building, but then he came to open the door for us and saw him. After we got out we made for the other side of the street, the man on duty was confused, and did not seem to know who to chase. I yelled to my son: "Run!"
At the moment we are frightened every time the door bell of our apartment rings, and that he will be grabbed on the street while coming home or at his place of study. Though under the law he has a right to delay his Military service. The question about whether he is fit to do his Military service, is not yet solved. But he has already had an appropriate medical examination. And the diagnosis, supplied for that, says that he should not be called for Military service. But note the following: the commissions have already distorted the conclusions of the leading institute of the country in this area. They do not want to acknowledge obvious things.
By Natasha, Saint Petersburg
4) "On the 9th of December, the Militia's officers brought Fyodor Boychenko, a student at the MIREA (N.B. Moscow State Institute of Radiotechnology, Electronics & Automatics), to the Military Commissariat "to pass the medical board". After that, Fyodor phoned his parents from the recruit depot of the Moscow city Military Commissariat ("Ugreshka") and informed them that he had been sent to the army. His present whereabouts are unknown…"
The following quote tells of the press-ganging of three young Russian men, it was obtained from a press release of the ARA (Moscow, 25/12/2001), and confirmed by the news agency PRIMA.
"On December 8, Pavel Zuykov was detained by militia and brought to the Military Commissariat. From the Military Commissariat, in violation of all stipulated norms, he was sent to a Military unit in the Arkhangelsky region.
On December 11, we received a phone call from Boris Stefanov who conscientiously objected (on the basis of Article 59.3 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). He informed us that he was forcibly being kept in the basement of the Ostankinsky Military Commissariat. When we managed to get in contact with him once more, he told us that he and other draftees were being carried in an unknown direction, then the connection was broken. The employees of the Ostankinsky Military Commissariat keep silence.
On December 12, the mother of one more draftee, Alexander Chvanov, phoned us. Her son was forcibly sent to a Military unit by the employees of the Lyublinsky Military Commissariat with the assistance of the Militia, without passage of the draft commission. His destiny is also unknown."
Putin has shown himself to be a pragmatist, note the withdrawl from the Lourdes listening post in Cuba, withdrawl from Camh Ranh Bay and intial 'pruning' of Generals. Neither decision was popular withing the entrenched military bureacracy and reflects the need to minimise non-essential outgoings. The money saved is probably most likely going to go primarily into weapons renewal. He has already introduced rules on 'zachistka', though so far it remains to be seen whether they will ever be taken seriously. The things going for Putin having any sort of power to carry out these reforms are mainly that he is a spook and sober.
It's quite clear that twisting the arms of the Oligarcs is easy compared to a reform of the Russian Forces.
Anyway, that's my 'short' take on it.
VRN
Army day is/was a Russian tradition, every day for all students: male and female. By your logic that conscripts are under trained, this is actually good. It teaches responsibility and weapons operation/safety.
2. Russia does have a partial professional army: Spetsnatz and VDV (Airborne) are all contract soldiers.
3. Slamming Putin's past as part of the FSB does nothing but lower your overall moral stand point on conscription, considering that 1. he has instigated many liberal reforms and 2. he has not silenced Russian media. The two companies sited were run by robber barons and their assets were confiscated.
When you get to the part about the chechens being picked on because of oil, you know the credibility factor is too low to bother with this thread.
This is a few nasty happenings built up to make an attack on Putin and support the chechens. How did these people get on FR anyway?
Why is it that all the times I lived in Russia, once with a Russian general and his family, I never heard a single Russian talk about things like this? Instead they always talked of wanting to go and fight in Chechnya. And they love Putin in Russia. Something smells bad here.
I'm pretty certain it is.
I hope I can assume from your statements that you have visited this "barbarian" country as many times as I have?
If not, allow me to tell you about my husband's first visit to the upper northern Arkhangelsk region where few Russians had ever met any American before, about 8 years ago. It was during the adoption of our then-7 year old daughter from a small town called Khoriazma. He took our daughter to the park one day and she spoke with many Russians while there. Since my husband speaks little Russian he was not able to understand much of what was said.
However that evening, in the flat where he was staying with our daughter, there was a knock on the door. My husband opened it to find an older Russian woman standing there with a pot of warm stew in her hands. She held it out to my husband, bowed and left.
This scenario was repeated all evening long. My husband ended up with enough food to feed a small army, several hand-crafted wooden wall hangings, and many other gifts. I have two wall hangings in my kitchen from that very story. They are hand-painted beauties. My husband discovered later that week that some of these people had no shoes and little to feed themselves. He was able to buy a doll for a little girl there who had not one of her own. Yet her grandmother had been one of the people to bring him food.
If you had ever been to Russia, you would discover what thousands of adoptive parents like us have learned. There is no hospitality in the world to compare with what the Russians can offer. We quickly learned not admire a single thing in a Russian home over the years we traveled there, because if you did they took it off the wall and handed it to you.
Be sure to visit my profile for a story about these Russian barbarians in a time of war.
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