Racism in the Soviet military

[OVERWATCH]

There is significant exception to the general principle of keeping weapons out of the hands of non-slavs. The quarter of a million men in the MVD internal security forces, which form a seperate army under control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are drawn almost exclusively from the remoter parts of central asia. These security troops are almost exclusively concerned with controllig and suppressing outbreaks of popular disaffection, such as the bread riots in Novocherkassk in 1962, whcih were put down by kazakh MVD troops. As one emigre put it, "A Russian soldier would probably not shoot Russian women, but a Kazakh would. He would say, 'They are Russians. Let's get them'" The same principle of control was used by the British in the days of their Empire, when they used to employ Sikhs from India to control the Chinese population of Singapore.

The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine - Andrew Cockburn, pp 56-57

[OVERWATCH]

...Alex recalls his fellow labourers. "We had 100 men in my company. Most of them were Moslems: Uzbeks, Kirghiz, Tadzhiks, Kazakhs, Tatars. The rest were Baptists, who refuse to carry weapons on religious grounds, and Volga Germans, in addition to myself and a few other Jews. Most of the Moslems could speak a little bit of Russian, but two of them went through their entire service without learning any at all except for a few swear words. I began feeling sorry for the Asians, they got a very hard time from the officers. For example, there was a lot of pork in our diet, which they had to east even though it was against their religion. That was a big trauma for them, and they used to worry in case their parents found out they had been eating it. After a while, though, I had lost my sympathy, because they were such crude and unpleasant people, stealing and picking quarrels all the time.

ibid, pp57-58

[OVERWATCH]

After the war, the national units were gradually phased out of the army, and by the 1960s, the forces were once again fully integrated, at least in theory. Contemporary Soviet citizens are drafted under the 1967 Law of Universal Military Service, which stipulates clearly that the object of mass conscription is to fuse recruits into mixed units and promote a cultural melting pot by the constant use of the Russian language. Leonid Brezhnev reaffirmed these intentions in 1972, declaring 'Our Army is a special one. It is a school for internationalism, instilling sentiments of fraternity, solidarity, and mutual respect for all the nations and nationalities of the Soviet Union".

Close observation of the trains carrying the raw conscripts about the USSR twice a year would reveal tangible evidence of this policy of fusing the peoples. The trains follow a curious pattern. They do not simply move their passengers to the depot nearest to their homes; they are carrying out a gigantic geographical reshuffle of the 900,000 eighteen year olds who are inducted every six months. Ukrainians are moved into northern Russia, Latvians and Estonians shifted east, Kalmyks and Kazakhs moved west, and so on, Whatever their nationality, conscripts have very little chance of serving in their home districts; the authorities do not like to encourage links between the military and the local population. Thus, the minority races are moved far away from their native lands. In addition, the distribution of new conscripts among operational units is carefully arranged so that they find themselves mixed in with troops from other areas. Emigre reports suggest that this massive dislocation might be less high-minded than that suggested by Brezhnev. One of them told the Rand Corporation that "There are several reasons the authorities send a minority soldier to serve as far away from home as possible. First, the further away he is from home, the more difficult it will be for him to run away from his unit. Second, he will have less longing for his family....Third, if you keep minorities away from their home area, it will be easier to maintain control there in times of crisis. You have to keep minority soldiers from assisting their own people against the Russians.

ibid, pp55-56

[OVERWATCH]

Official distrust of the minorities goes further than simply removing them far from home. To a considerable extent, these soldiers are kept away from any contact with weapons. The Rand Corporation Emigre Project was specifically focused on the racial makeup of the Soviet units. After reviewing 130 veterans in depth, the researchers concluded that 80% of men in combat units, the units which actually fight, are Slavs. The Slavic races include the Russians themselves, the Byelorussians, and the eastern Ukrainians. The other 20% are made up of a polyglot of Asians, western Ukrainians(who are racially akin to their Polish neighbours), Jews, Moldavians(who are Rumanian by race) and other representatives of peoples considered to be either backward or politically unreliable. For noncombat units, the proportions are reversed. Contruction battalions, railroad troops, and elements of what the Soviets call 'the tail' such as truck drivers and cooks, appear to draw 80% of their strength from minority nationalities. The remaining 20% are Russians who have incurred official disfavour for showing signs of political unreliability.

ibid, p56

[OVERWATCH]

Just as the structure of the Armed Forces is base don racial discrimination, racism itself is endemic within the ranks.Soviet soldiers can draw on a rich and varied vocabulary of racial terms with which to insult each other. The Russians use a variety of epithets for the central Asians: churka, meaning literally 'wood chip', means that someone is dumb and worthless; chernozhopyi, literally 'black ass', which has the same force as the English 'nigger', and zhopmordyi, literally 'ass face', which is the most insulting of all. A Latvian calls a Russian cuke, meaning 'pig'. Anyone who wants to pick a fight with a Ukrainian calls him a khokhol, while a Jew in the Army gets accustomed to being called zhid.

It is startling to hear otherwise civilised and well-educated emigres express the most bigoted sentiments about the troops of different nationalities with which they have served, although they are not always as blunt as the interviewee who declared: "From the beginning, we, the white people, considered ourselves somewhat higher and with more privileges than the Churka....words speak for themselves, . That is why, when it is necessary to do some unpleasant work, say, clean a toilet, a Kazakh would be sent and the Russians would make sure he did it....It was the same at all levels. At a table in the military dining room, Russians always take the first turn. kazakhs and Uzbeks always the last. First we will eat, and then they.The same holds true for who is going to sleep where. Kakakhs and Uzbeks would always be sen tto the most uncomfortable corner...this is done by the soldiers themselves. It has always been this way in the Army. If I worked with a scredriver, the central Asian works with a shovel.

ibid, p58

[OVERWATCH]

Alex Rantinor, otherwise a cultured and wryly humourous man, discusses the central Asians he commanded in similarly prejudiced terms. "The Soldiers who come from central Asia pretend that they do not understand the Russian language and therefore try to dodge their duties. They spend most of their time either asleep or trying to be first in line at the cookhouse. They are corrupt and steal from the supply stores, as well as trying to bribe the officers. I personally was offered a bribe of 2,000 rubles by a raw recruit to fix the necessary documents to have him discharged"

Racial discord in the ranks goes wll beyond insults. Violent and even homocidal incidents appear to be common. This report of what happened in a communications unit in the late 1960s is not atypical. 'Ivashenko stole a Kazakh soldier's girlfriend. So all the other Kazakhs took to beating Ivashenko whenever they saw him. One day all the Russians were getting drunk because it was the anniversary of the October Revolution, when Ivashenko shouted that the Kazakhs were beating him up again. So they went over to the Kazakh barracks in a body and crippled 15 of them"

ibid, pp58-59

[Boleslaw]

Carey Shofield reported much of the same in her book Inside the Soviet Military. IF you want I'll post excerpts.

[OVERWATCH]

Carey Shofield reported much of the same in her book Inside the Soviet Military. IF you want I'll post excerpts.

At your leisure, sir. :)

[Boleslaw]

Well to start off with, heres about the differing opinion towards conscription and military service that existed among the various nationalities of the USSR:

"As might be expected, attitudes to conscription vary considerably in the Soviet Union...Those who are most wholeheartedly against the conscription of their sons are the Baltic nationalities. After them come the Jews, Western-orientated liberals, and some(but by no means all) of the Caucasians and Central Asians. There is also resistance to conscription among Western Ukrainians. Those least hostile to conscription seem to be Russian, Byelorussian, and Ukrainian country people and those with family military traditions."
--Inside the Soviet Military pg 76

[Boleslaw]

"A Soviet conscript will probably find himself plunged into a barracks with representatives of many different nationalities. For a conscript from one of the Caucasian or Central Asian republics, this maybe the first real contact that he has had with other Soviet nationalities (although he will probably have met Russians before, unless he really comes from the backwoods). For a Slav, it can be daunting to find himself, suddenly, in a minority. According to the Russian soldiers, the worst fate that can befall them is to be put into a unit where there are a lot of Azerbaijanis, who apparently gang up and terrorize everyone else. The Uzbeks are not considered to be as bad, but they also cause trouble. They stick together and do not want to have much contact with anyone else, and if one of them makes an enemy or gets into a fight, the whole lot of them will come in one his side. It is not clear why the Slavs conscripts do not band together to defend themselves: they simply say they do not have such a strong racial identity and are not willing to get involved in other people's battles. This tribal violence is now the most serious problem facing the soldiers...It may break out between soldiers of any nationality but it usually involves Caucasians or Central Asians. Trouble often empts, initially, because one group believes that another is not doing its share of the work. The Slavs do notm on the whole, initiate such violence. They may bring with them assumptions of their racial superiority, but they are not interested in asserting this by force. Balts are also unlikely to start trouble. From their point of view, ascendancy over the other races in a Soviet army barracks is not something that is worth fighting for, as most of them have no business being there at all, on any terms."
--inbid pg.87

[Boleslaw]

Tommorrow I hope to post excerpts about the prevelant Russian nationalism and xenophobia among Soviet officiers. :)