Monday, August 3, 1998
Going AWOL
RUSSIA: Government-required military service has many young
Russians searching for way out
By Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Past the throng of 150 teenage boys,
mothers and girlfriends in attendance, Ilena Vilenskaya looked up
at the 30 photographs of soldiers staring back at her solemnly from
the window at the front of the room.
"Some of them died in wars," she uttered, "but most were killed
in peacetime."
With this one simple sentence, the co-chairwoman of the St.
Petersburg Soldiers’ Mothers Organization spoke volumes about
Russia’s past, present and what lies ahead for the country’s
military.
She explained why the dark, stuffy and cramped room was filled
to capacity despite the rare sunny weather, and why it was at
standing-room capacity for the umpteenth time this year.
Young men and their loved ones crowd the room, because they want
to avoid the same fate that those memorialized in the
black-and-white photographs suffered years, months or even weeks
before.
They are here to learn how to avoid military service from the
only organization of its kind in the city
For many young men here and all across Russia, the army hangs
over their life like a dark cloud on the horizon – ominous,
dangerous and menacing. Because army service is compulsory, they
live with the knowledge that their service is expected.
It is an army that has been ravaged by economic woes, political
squabbles and – recently – nightmarish war in Chechnya.
But, more importantly, it is an army that has traditionally
suffered from the cruel mistreatment and killing of its own
soldiers.
Reports from Amnesty International claim 4,000 to 5,000 Russian
soldiers die yearly at the hands of their own officers or peers.
Nobody knows how many more are hospitalized, paralyzed or
traumatized for life.
Some men look forward to serving because it’s an opportunity to
prove their masculinity, and earn medals and glory.
But for most, a lifetime sentence to Siberia sounds more
enticing.
"It’s something like prison," Sergei Markeyvich said,
understating the severity of the military’s practices.
One such practice is known in the Russian military as
dedovschina. In short, it means that the dedi, the older soldiers,
practically own the rookies.
Sometimes this leads to death, sometimes, to amputations, but
always to degradation.
"Sometimes they beat me by foot on the chest, and by the hands
to the face," said Dennis Alexandrov, a deserter who had enough
after six months.
Alexandrov considers himself one of the lucky ones.
"In a neighboring unit, a boy was killed, but they prosecuted
the case as a suicide," he said.
In two other instances, Alexandrov watched an officer break a
post box with the head of a soldier, and also witnessed the man use
another soldier’s head to break a drawer.
"The officer was nervous and needed to relax," Alexandrov said.
"That was the only reason."
These are not isolated cases by any means.
The soldiers marched through the Soldiers’ Mothers Organization
to speak about their experiences.
Andrei Lukanov, 18, discussed why he deserted the army only the
day before today’s meeting.
He wanted to leave months ago when his mother was dying. Not
allowed to depart then, he ran away eight months into his two-year
stint, because he was beaten and couldn’t take it anymore.
"I got hit with a fist on the chest," he said. "They don’t hit
on the face because then there’d be wounds. Other guys got beat by
stools and belts, but I just got beat on the chest," Lukanov
said.
Alexei Slepov had it worse.
For eight months, if he didn’t pay money or supply goods to his
elders, he was beaten.
Because there was no way to earn money and the only way to get
goods was by stealing, punishment often awaited Slepov.
"It was almost every day," he said.
From his shaky and quiet voice, it is easy to tell that the
19-year-old is hesitant to talk about his experiences.
"Hardly a day went by when I was left in peace. It started the
first day and lasted for eight months," Slepov added.
That’s when he had had enough and deserted along with
Lukanov.
"We don’t really like to say ‘deserted,’ because that means they
left for no reason," Vilenskaya said. "These soldiers had a
reason."
Apparently, this kind of military behavior has been going on for
years.
"The worst thing about the military was the hazing," said Dima
Borisov, a student who concluded his military service in 1992.
"But it’s really hard to get rid of something like that. When
you’re a rookie, you think it’s crazy. But when it’s your time,
that’s the way you see it being," he added.
Although soldiers are mistreated in units throughout Russia,
brutality against soldiers is not an all-encompassing tradition, as
there are some places where it no longer exists.
Before Alexandrov was transferred to a new unit, he encountered
no problems.
After the downfall of the Communists, there were no beatings in
Borisov’s unit when he served as a KGB guard in Poland
How is this different from militaries throughout the world? Is
it really that much different from the American military?
Perhaps.
"One of my most interesting experiences came when I talked to
former American soldiers," said Borisov, currently a student at
Brigham Young University in Utah. "We found that we all went
through the same things and experienced the same stuff."
It would be presumptuous to say that Russia is the only country
to have such occurrences in the military, but it would also be
naive to think that there is no problem that needs to be fixed.
And, officially, it looks like solutions may on their way –
albeit slowly.
Compulsory service existed throughout the Soviet era, but plans
are in the works now to have a professional army, like that of the
United States.
For now, Russians are settling for somewhere in between.
Officially, university students and students with health problems
are ineligible. Aside from those few, all men aged 18 to 27 are
supposed to serve for a minimum of two years.
Last month, 1,600 students in a St. Petersburg technical school
were forced to graduate a week early so they could make the draft
deadline, and there have been reports of "military
kidnappings."
"It’s kind of similar to fascism because sometimes people are
asked to show documents on the streets or in the Metro," Vilenskaya
said, "If they are 18, the soldiers catch and put them in jail
where they bring all the conscriptors."
"Every young boy is a great prize because after the conscription
period, whoever catches one is given money," he added.
One student, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he is
extra careful around the Metro stations during the conscription
periods – April to June and October to December. He doesn’t want to
join the military because "it’s a waste of time."
Besides, who knows if his burgeoning music career would ever
recover from a two-year stint in the military.
"It would be over," he said, just like the lives of many
soldiers who enter the military here – lives unjustly and
unceremoniously lost.
Russia’s army suffers from mistreatment of its own soldiers.
Many young men fear entering the service.
The Soldiers’ Mothers Organization offers young men an
opportunity to hear from enlisted men about their experience in the
military and how to avoid service.