RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL

MILITARY PERSONNEL IN RUSSIA

In 2005, the Russian armed forces was made up of 1,207,000 servicemen and 876,000 civilian personnel. The number of military personnel shrunk from around 5.3 million in the Soviet Union in 1985 to 1.4 million in Russia in 2000. Largest armed forces in terms of numbers in 1999 were: 1) China with 2.84 million; 2) the United States with 1.45 million; 3) Russia with 1.24 million. Many Russian soldiers are conscripts.

A) Manpower available for military service: males age 16-49: 34,765,736; females age 16-49: 35,410,779 (2013 est.). B) Manpower fit for military service: males age 16-49: 22,597,728; females age 16-49: 23,017,006 (2013 est.) C) Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually: male: 696,768; female: 664,847 (2013 est.) [Source: CIA World Factbook =]

The main branches of Russia’s armed forces are the ground forces, navy, air forces, and strategic deterrent forces. In 2005 Russia had 1,027,000 active military personnel and about 20 million reservists. Of the active-duty personnel, about 250,000 were conscripts. The number of women has increased since contract service was introduced; estimates of their numbers varied from 115,000 to 160,000. Some 395,000 personnel were in the army, 142,000 in the navy (including 35,000 in naval aviation), 160,000 in the air forces, and 80,000 in the strategic deterrent forces, whose total manpower of 129,000 also included 38,000 air force and 11,000 navy personnel. About 40,000 of the strategic deterrent forces were classified as strategic missile force troops. Another 250,000 active personnel were designated for command and support duties. [Source: Library of Congress, October 2006 **]

In 1996 approximately 1.5 million personnel were serving, including about 160,000 women, and 600,000 civilian support personnel. The term of active duty was two years. Units were filled mainly by conscription, with some contract personnel. Women may served if they possess specialized skills. Armed forces were divided into ground forces, naval forces, air forces, air defense forces, strategic rocket forces. Ground forces personnel 670,000 (210,000 conscripts); naval forces 200,000 (40,000 conscripts); air forces 130,000 (40,000 conscripts); air defense forces 200,000 (60,000 conscripts); strategic rocket forces 100,000 (50,000 conscripts). [Source: Library of Congress, July 1996]

The Internal Security Forces were reorganized after fall of the Soviet Union but with many extraconstitutional functions ongoing and only partial transparency. Power, but not effectiveness, grew during the crime wave in the 1990s. Ministry of Internal Affairs had 540,000 troops, including regular police and special units, in 1996. Federal Border Service, 135,000 troops in 1994, then augmented substantially. Main Guard Directorate (presidential guard), 20,000 troops, 1994. Troops of Federal Security Service and Ministry of Internal Affairs heavily involved in Chechnya conflict, 1994-96. [Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]

Soviet Military Life in the Communist Era

Young men generally had to serve a year or more in the armed forces when they were 18 or 19 after they finished their secondary education. Young men were required to serve two years in the Soviet Army. Many managed to bribe their way out or never reported. In some cases the military service lasted from 3½ to 5 years College students receive deferments until they graduated. Engineers and scientist were exempt from military service. University graduates were trained as officers. Soldiers often engaged in non-military duties such as harvesting potatoes.

In the Communist era, a military career was highly sought after. Soldiers were relatively highly paid and officers were given special privileges. There were special military schools for boys that prepared them for careers as officers. The slabs of medals pinned onto the uniforms of Soviet military men are called "icon screens" by cynics. Thompson observed one high ranking man with 18 rows of medals. World War II era soldiers display their medals in public when ever they get the chance.

The Soviet military presence was very large. By some estimates 90 percent of Soviet industry had ties with the military. But soldiers in the Soviet army often led a pretty grim life and were treated with indifference or disgust by the locals, especially in eastern Europe. Soldiers often didn't wear their uniforms when they are off duty because people look down on the military.

Military Service in Russia

Military service age and obligation: 18-27 years of age for compulsory or voluntary military service; males are registered for the draft at 17 years of age; 1-year service obligation (conscripts can only be sent to combat zones after 6 months of training); reserve obligation for non-officers to age 50; enrollment in military schools from the age of 16, cadets classified as members of the armed forces. In the old days most young Russian men served 18 months in the Soviet army. These many only serve six months because the army can't get conscripts to serve. Males between ages 18 and 27 used to be conscripted for terms of 18 to 24 months. Legislation in 2006 reduced the term of active duty to one year starting in 2008. [Source: CIA World Factbook =, Library of Congress]

The chief of the General Staff Mobilization Directorate announced in May 2013 that for health reasons, only 65 percent of draftees called up during the spring 2013 draft campaign were fit for military service, and over 12 percent of these were sent for an additional medical examination (by way of comparison, 69.9 percent in 2012 and 57.7 percent in 2011 were deemed fit for military service); approximately 50 percent of draft-age Russian males receive some type of legal deferment each draft cycle (2014)

For 150 years, serfs were drafted for 25 years of military service. This policy caused great stress on the village level. Peter the Great instituted a modest system for military and civilian upward mobility, through a system of progressively earned ranks.

Conscription is supposed to be universal but it is easy to bribe your way out of the military for a few thousand dollars. With Chechnya a choice facing many soldiers in the 1990s, many young men did whatever they could to raise the money for the bribe. The rich can generally get out of their military service either by a student deferment or paying the bride.

Moscow wants to end conscription and phase in a better-equipped, better-trained, volunteer, professional force designed to deal with regional conflicts rather than act as counterweight for military might of the West, which was the case in the Cold War. Yeltsin promised in the 1996 election to get rid of conscription but it didn't happen. Putin endorsed the plan to switch to a professional army beginning 2005, possibly phasing out conscription. In 2001, some placed began allowing conscripts who were members of minorities or considered themselves pacifists or conscientious objectors to serve their time in hospitals rather than the military. About 1,500 young each years get ut of the military service by doing community service sponsored by the charities even though the practice is not officially sanctioned by the government (the December 1993 Constitution called for alternative service but the Duma never passed any enabling legislation).

Military Training and Schools in Russia

According to Russian and Western reports, inadequate funding and bad organization have caused all of the armed forces to suffer from extremely poor training. Although numerous top military leaders criticized this situation, little progress has been made in the mid-1990s. In 1996 the Ministry of Defense administered a multilevel system of military training institutions, none of which had full enrollment in the mid-1990s. The system included eight military academies and one military university, offering university-level training and education in military and related fields. There were specialized academies for artillery, chemical defense, air defense, air engineering, space engineering, and medicine. The Military University in Moscow specialized in jurisprudence and journalism. In addition, there were about seventy institutions of higher education (vysshiye uchebnyye zavedeniya — VUZy; sing., VUZ) for military studies, most of which fell under one of the main force groups and were further specialized according to subject (for example, the Kazan' Higher Artillery Command-Engineer School and the Ufa Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots). [Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]

Nominally, the Russian armed forces operate on the same six-month training cycle that was observed by the Soviet armed forces. Each cycle begins with induction of draftees and basic individual training, proceeds to unit training at the levels of squad through division, and terminates with an army-level exercise. In 1994 General Semenov reported that the ground forces had not conducted any divisional exercises for the previous two years. As early as 1989, a reduction in Russia's military training activity became obvious in CSCE reports of major training exercises. This means that by 1996 the armed forces had passed through more than ten cycles without conducting any serious training. *

Considering the Russian military five-year personnel assignment cycle, the training hiatus means that there was one, and part of another, military generation in each rank with a serious training deficiency, or no training at all in their nominal assignments. There were platoon and company commanders with no field experience. Few battalion, regimental, and division commanders had practical experience in commanding troops in the field at their present or preceding level. *

The air forces of the Russian Federation are the most technologically sensitive of the armed forces. Modern high-performance aircraft demand skilled crews to operate and maintain them. However, in 1995 General Deynekin reported receiving only 30 percent of required funding for fuel, equipment, and parts in 1995 — a shortfall that cut pilot flight time in operational squadrons to thirty to forty hours per year, approximately three hours per month in the cockpit. By contrast, the United States standard for pilot proficiency is 180 to 260 hours per year. *

Paramilitary and Special Forces in Russia

In 2005 a total of 415,000 individuals were on active duty with paramilitary forces. This total included 160,000 in the Federal Border Guard Service, 170,000 in the five paramilitary divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and about 4,000 in the Federal Security Service. The Federal Protection Service, including the Presidential Guard Regiment, includes 10,000 to 30,000 troops. In 2006 the Federal Security Service added 300 counterterrorist personnel. [Source: Library of Congress, October 2006 **]

Special forces in the Russian military are called Spetsnaz. Among the units within Spetsnaz are “Alfa” (specialists in counter terrorism), “Vityaz” ("knight," hostage rescue), “Vympel” ("banner” sabotage behind enemy lines). There are also snipers, and specialists in explosives, communications, close combat and surveillance. Compared with American Delta Forces, Alfa and Vityaz were founded as units of the KGB and are today under it successor the FSB. Alfa was created first, in 1972 by Yuri Andropov, then head of the KGB. Vymple was created a few years later and it is not regarded as elite as Alfa. For the most part their activities and duties are kept secret.

To qualify for Spetsnaz units. recruits endure thorough training and complete a 20 kilometer run and get through an obstacle course. The final test is 12 minutes of unarmed combatant against a succession of three or four seasoned Spetsnaz soldiers. "Basically, they try to kill you," one recruit told Newsweek. Only one in three recruits make it. Many end up beaten and battered in the hospital.

Members of Spetsanz overthrew the President of Afghanistan in his own palace. But Alfa and Vympel units were involved in the failed rescue operation that resulted in the Besland school massacre, which left 331 people were dead, including 186 children. Today they are highly sought after as bodyguards.

In August 1997, St. Petersburg politician Mikhail Manevich was shot five times on a busy street by a sniper with a powerful long-range rifle. The crime was believed to have been carried by a former Spetsanz soldiers. Spetsanz personnel is also believed to be behind the 1994 murder of Dmitri Kholodov—a journalist with a muckraking newspaper—with a booby-trapped briefcase. Kholodov had been told the briefcase contained document pertaining to military corruption. The bomb was so powerful it nearly tore his right leg off his body.

OMON Special Forces

The Special Forces Police Detachment (Otryad militsii osobogo naznacheniya — OMON), commonly known as the Black Berets, is a highly trained elite branch of the public security force of the MVD militia. Established in 1987, OMON is assigned to emergency situations such as hostage crises, widespread public disturbances, and terrorist threats. In the Soviet period, OMON forces also were used to quell unrest in rebellious republics. In the 1990s, OMON units have been stationed at transportation hubs and population centers. [Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]

OMON act as a unit of police commandos. They are trained are perform duties like the Green Berets but they are part of the police. At the home they are involved in riot control and busting organized crime members. In Chechnya and other places they have been called in to “cleanse” areas after they have been seized by the army. The Moscow contingent, reportedly 2,000 strong, receives support from the mayor's office and the city's internal affairs office as well as from the MVD budget. OMON units have the best and most up-to-date weapons and combat equipment available, and they enjoy a reputation for courage and effectiveness.

Describing an OMON commando, Maura Reynolds wrote in the Los Angeles Times. "Over a green track suit he pulls on baggy camouflage pants. He secures them in a heavy belt that includes a sheath for a wicked-looking 8-inch blade. He pulls on a gray knit sweater, padded jacket, camouflage shirt and puffy vest bristling with grenades, ammunition, cartridges and flares. Finally he takes out a thick black head scarf...and ties the ends tightly at the back of his head."

Problems Suffered by Russian Soldiers

Russian soldiers have been having a hard time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 1990s some units were eliminated. Soldiers in units that remained often went without pay and endured other difficult circumstances. In many ways the best and brightest find ways to avoid the draft and stay out of the military many of those that end up in the military are poorly educated and have few skills.

In post-Soviet period, the quantity and quality of recruits have dropped dramatically because of the Chechnya conflict, low pay, and adverse service conditions. In the air force draft of spring 2006, only 20 percent of conscripts were found fit for combat units. The tradition of hazing new recruits drew increased public criticism in the early 2000s, but the practice continued to discourage enlistment. In mid-2006 the Ministry of Defense announced that the first phase of the plan to create an all-volunteer armed force would conclude in 2008, with special emphasis on professionalizing the rank of sergeant (to reduce hazing) and personnel in airborne units and units designated for conflict. However, in 2006 large numbers of early contract cancellations reduced the prospects of meeting program goals. [Source: Library of Congress, October 2006]

It is not unusual in Russia for soldiers to live with their wife and children in single room measuring 1.5-x-2.5 meters. Russian officers and their families live in former sanitariums and youth camps. In the United States, a lack of military housing means that military families have to find homes or apartments in the civilian community. Because that option does not exist in Russia, a military family without military housing is literally homeless. Families of field-grade officers subsist in tents or packing crates salvaged from troop redeployments from Central Europe. In other cases, homeless military families have been sheltered for years at a time in gymnasiums or warehouses set up like emergency shelters. [Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]

At the end of 1994, an estimated 280,000 military personnel and family members were homeless. Many units live in permanent field conditions under canvas. In 1995 only 2,500 of 5,000 rated pilots in flight-status jobs had apartments. The elite strategic rocket forces (SRF) have not fared much better than the other branches of the armed forces. In 1995 the SRF commander in chief, General Igor' Sergeyev, stated that only fourteen of forty-two apartment blocks needed in 1994 to house his troops and their families had been constructed, leaving 11,000 of his troops unhoused; one year later, 4,000 of his troops still were without housing. In 1996 the overall housing situation worsened. *

Russian Soldiers and Wages

Soldiers in the Russian military endure low wages that are often unpaid for five months or more. In 2001, soldier's were paid less than $2 month and officers received $12 a montth, and often times they aren't even paid that. Some soldiers steal and sell weapons and fuel to survive. Many moonlight at other jobs. Some beg for fruit, vegetables, toothbrushes and soap in the towns near where they are stationed. The wife of one officer told National Geographic that when she goes shopping all she can afford to do is look.

In 1996, before the 1998 collapse of the rubble, the average salary of a Russian soldier was $232 a month compared to $4,173 for a U.S. soldier. Pensions in 1996 were $108 a month compared to $2,143 in the United States. The standard payment given to the family of dead solider was 3,600 rubles ($129.50) in 2000, plus 750 rubles ($26.90) for each immediate family member. Families of soldiers missing in action receive 400 rules ($14.40 a month).

In the 1990s, soldiers often waited two to four months to be paid, and often only partial pay was issued. According to a complex financial system, Russian commercial banks had responsibility for issuing funds from the Ministry of Defense's budget account to individuals, but the system proved extremely cumbersome, and substantial amounts of money simply disappeared or was long delayed while being processed. The pay level also was unsatisfactory. In early 1996, a Russian pilot holding the rank of major was paid approximately 1.5 million rubles per month, or about US$300. By comparison, a NATO pilot of equivalent rank earned US$6,000 per month. [Source: Library of Congress, 1996 *]

The impact on military preparedness was immense. The daily lives of officers and enlisted personnel was consumed with providing the means of survival for themselves and their families. This marginal existence provided fertile ground for illegal activities such as trading military property for means of sustenance, or engaging in illicit acts to obtain money earned, but not received, in pay (see Crime in the Military). There was little energy, time, funds, matériel, or even motivation to conduct individual or small-unit training. *

In 1995, the Russian military officer and politician Alexander Lebed said soldiers were "on the brink of mutiny" over unpaid wages. A Russian parliament report said that unless something was done, the military was in danger of "a collapse of discipline, mass desertions, theft of essential supplies, technical breakdowns, accidents from planes crashing to ships colliding and growing tensions between military and civilian authorities at the local level." In 1998, wives of members of the elite Strategic Rocket Forces blockaded the road to silos of nuclear missiles to protest unpaid wages.

Poor Health and Suicides Among Russian Soldiers

Soldiers in the Russian military endure little food, malnutrition, and poor housing with no heat or hot water. There are high rates of hepatitis, tuberculosis, malnutrition, AIDS, drug addiction, mental illness and suicides among conscripts. Many come down with Hepatitis C contacted from sharing razors with other soldiers. Soldiers sometimes go months without seeing fresh meat, milk or eggs and have heath problems related to lack of vitamins and fruit in their diets. Rations generally consist preserved fish and canned food. Many units live off emergency rations, and even bread is considered a luxury. In the 1990s, soldiers in some remote outposts were on the edge of starving. Many survive off emergency rations of dried bread and killed stray dogs for meat.

The suicide rate in the Russian military is high. More than 100 soldiers killed themselves in the first six months of 2004, more than a one third increase from the previous year. Suicides, hazing, mistreatment, murder and other crimes are all a problem in the Russian military. An estimated 4,000 soldiers a year die from assault, suicide, accidents, illnesses and even starvation.

There were over 500 reported suicides in the Russian military in 1997 compared to 230 in the United States (where the military in 20 percent bigger). Suicides are blamed on hardships, vodka, and boredom. Some have even committed suicide to get pension benefits for their families. One solider, who had not been paid for four months, stole a loaf of bread to feed his daughter who had fainted from hunger. Overcome with guilt he shot himself with a revolver in front of his wife and daughter. He was buried in a cloth because his family and unit could not scrape together enough money for a coffin.

Hazing in the Russian Military

The bullying and hazing of new recruits by commanders—a practice known as “dyedovshchina”—is common in the Russian military. Victims are routinely humiliated, tortured and beaten with chains, sticks, chairs. A hazing video shown on television showed one soldier being forced to eat two pounds of mustard, two others being savagely beaten with a blunt object and a paratrooper officer beating on lined-up recruits one after another. [Source: New York Times]

In some units, news conscripts live in prisonlike conditions ruled over by second-year soldiers known as "grandfathers." When new conscripts arrive they are stripped of their possessions and beaten for entertainment or as a form of discipline. Gang rapes of young recruits also occur. According to some estimates hazing accounts for 70 percent of all deaths in the Russian military.

One soldier told the New York Times he was woken in the middle of the night by a drunken second-year soldier and taken to a washroom where he was beaten so savagely his jaw was dislocated. This he said was followed by beatings with pool table legs, shovels and rubber tubes. When he became a sergeant in his second year he was told with new recruits: "If they don't understand something, hit them on their heads."

Senior soldiers often tell their juniors to go and fetch some vodka even though they have no money and tell them they will get beat up if they return empty handed. In the first six months of 2004, 25 soldiers died in hazing incidents and 12 died as a result of force from their superior officers.

Crime in the Russian Military

By the mid-1990s, both organized and random crime had penetrated Russia's military, as they had penetrated many other parts of society. As the military reorganizes, personnel are faced with strong temptations to engage in criminal activity, particularly when valuable state property is available for sale and when the professional prospects and social prestige of military service are sinking. Military and security personnel also offer criminal organizations a useful set of skills. [Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]

Petty criminal activity and systematic abuses by the officer corps have long been acknowledged aspects of the Soviet military system. As early as the late 1980s, authorities noticed escalating rates of weapons and munitions theft, narcotics trafficking, and diversion of various types of military resources. But the fragmentation of military authority and organization that began with the dissolution of the Soviet Union multiplied the opportunities for such activities. Drug use afflicted the military on a large scale during the nine-year occupation of Afghanistan, and the general increase in drug use in civilian society brought more users into the armed forces in the 1980s and 1990s. *

The illegal sale of weapons of all sizes became pervasive in the 1990s. Already in the late 1980s, Soviet troops in Europe were selling large numbers of individual weapons; as withdrawal from Europe progressed in the early 1990s, the sale of heavy equipment, including armored vehicles and jet fighters, also was reported. The largest force group in the region, the Western Group of Forces stationed in Germany, was the most active in this area, according to a series of investigations in the early and mid-1990s. Underground sales were reported inside Russia as well, with large numbers of weapons moving to civilian criminal organizations. *

In late 1993, President Yeltsin formed the State Corporation for Export and Import of Armaments (Rosvooruzheniye) to consolidate and control arms sales under a single agency, but after that time the state still realized only a small part of the huge hard-currency profits from arms sales, while a number of top Rosvooruzheniye officials, with ties to a complex web of financial enterprises in Russia and abroad, flourished as sales continued to go undocumented. The agency acquired the nickname "Ros-vor," meaning "Russian thief," as the controversial activities of its officers were publicized and public confidence dropped. Shortly after creating Rosvooruzheniye, the government approved direct arms sales activities by weapons manufacturers, further complicating the effort to monitor sales. *

A study by Graham H. Turbiville, Jr., "Mafia in Uniform: The Criminalization of the Russian Armed Forces," from the 1990s is a detailed report on post-Soviet criminal activity in the military.

Murder and Deaths in the Russian Military

In the early 2000s, about 500 Russian soldiers died every year at the hands of officers or comrades. By contrast the large American army loses about 30 men under these same circumstances. Many of dead Russian soldiers were hazing victims. Other have been murdered or beaten to death by other soldiers.

Episodes violence increased througout the 1990s. In 1989 fifty-nine officers were killed in attacks unrelated to military action. As morale dropped, cases of severe hazing of new recruits (dedovshchina — a tradition that began under Peter the Great) increased until, in 1994, an estimated 2,500 soldiers died and another 480 committed suicide as a direct result of hazing. One soldier who was listening to music while he lay in a cot with a fever was beaten into a coma by a major because the soldier didn't hear the major tell him to turn down the music.

In 1997, 16 soldiers we killed in two incidents in which soldiers ran amok and 40 people were killed in 14 reported instances of soldiers in a rage killing officers or soldiers in their units. In 2002, there were several incidents in which deserting soldiers ran amok and killed innocent civilians. In one case, two paratroopers, traditionally among the best trained soldiers in the Russian military, deserted their bases in the Volga region and shot dead nine people.

Some victims are sent home in sealed coffins that could can be opened. A father who was told his son had died from poisoning himself was denied access to medical records. He told AFP, "Even from a distance of 10 meters we could see that his ribcage was broken. We also saw a dent in his head. It was clear he had been murdered.”

Corruption and Gangsters in the Russian Military

Corruption in the military is widespread. As wages declined to below subsistence level many soldiers felt they had no choice but to “find a sponsor.” Explaining how this worked one security guard in the Far East told the New York Times, “I was supposed to go to local businessmen and ask for financial support. It was humiliating. Some of them would just give me money. Maybe they served in the army themselves. But others would want things in return.

The majority of soldiers used corrupt practices just to get by. A few got rich. Few were charged with any crime One general and former official in the defense ministry were convicted in 2002 of “misappropriating” $450 million.

A state agency, the State Armament and Military Equipment Sales Company (Voyentekh), was established in 1992 to sell used equipment and arms overseas, with the proceeds to finance housing for troops. According to frequent allegations, that program also is riddled with corruption, most of its profits have not reached the housing fund, and much equipment has gone to the criminal world. Among the beneficiaries of such uncontrolled movement have been the Chechen guerrillas, who apparently were able to buy Russian arms even after the beginning of hostilities in late 1994. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Huge ammunition dump explosions in Vladivostok in 1994 are believed to be cover ups for the thefts of missiles and other weapons. Columbian drug dealers bought helicopters and even considered buying a submarine to transport drugs from the Russian military. In 1998, U.S. drug officials, identified 47 Eastern bloc planes and helicopters used to transport narcotics and chemicals used to make narcotics. The majority of them were Soviet-designed military cargo planes from the Ukraine. The Colombians were interested in $20 million to $75 million Tango class submarines that had a cruising speed of 16 knots and were used in the Cold War to patrol shallow waters.

Draft Dodgers and Deserters in the Russian Military

One average about 40,000 of the 200,000 young men conscripted every year in the 1990s tried to dodge the draft. Of these, about a third were given exemptions for health and educational reasons. Others paid bribes. Many simply didn't bother to show up. Only a few ended up in prison. At one point in some places only 13 percent of those conscripted showed up. The result was that many of Russia's strategic defenses went unmanned.

Families with enough money paid bribes to corrupt draft officials or to doctors for certificates for health problems. The going rate for a medical exemption or a bribe to get out of the draft was between $2,500 and $10,000 in the early 2000s. One defense analyst told Reuters, "Only those who cannot pay or who not smart enough end up serving." When fighting was going on in Chechnya, so many men dodged the drafts that military had a hard time getting enough soldiers to fight. In one effort to combat draft dodging the requirement for fighting in Chechnya was dropped from one year to six months.

Desertion has also been a problem. Some simplyly walked off their post after having decided they had had enough, and flaghed down a car and hitchhiked home. One soldier told the New York Times he did this after he had a strong urge to shoot someone. He estimated about one seventh of his unit deserted.

Women in the Russian Military

Russian women have served in the military and seen quite a bit of action in World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Civil War and the Napoleonic wars. In World War II, over 800,000 women served. Most were medical workers but some served as tank drivers, combat soldiers, pilots and snipers. One of the most famous World War II fighters, Maria Oktyaberskay bought her own tanks and died of battle wounds.

During peacetime, women have largely been excluded from armed forced. Most of the 25,000 women in the military now mostly do clerical and administrative work. They make up less than one percent of the armed forces (compared to 20 percent in the United States). In the fall of 1997, the Russia Naval Academy accepted its first female cadet.

Some believed to be that women can best serve as morale boosters. One of the most well-known television personalities in the 1990s was Dana Borisova, a Playboy centerfold who appears on a television show intended to boost the moral of disenfranchised soldiers. The show, “Army Store”, features soldiers airing their gripes, stupid jokes with Beatle Bailey-type characters, appearances of rock stars, birthday greetings and Borisova posing in scanty outfits and reporting on housing and poor conditions.

Russian Military Forces Abroad and Afghanistan Vets

In 2006 Russian forces were stationed in several countries of the former Soviet Union: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. The presence of Russian forces, ostensibly as peacekeepers, in the separatist republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was an ongoing irritant in relations with Georgia. Russia has provided troops or observers for several United Nations (UN) peacekeeping groups: the Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo; the Mission for the United Nations Referendum in Western Sahara; the Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea; the Mission in Sierra Leone; the Observer Mission in Georgia; and UN operations in Burundi, Congo, and Côte d’Ivoire. [Source: Library of Congress, October 2006 **]

Veterans of the war in Afghanistan refer to their tenure as "international duty." In the 1990s these soldiers bore an uncanny resemblance to Vietnam veterans. They wore their medals and uniforms more out of mockery than pride. Many were unemployed and had drinking and drug problems. About their service in Afghanistan they were very bitter, claiming the war was simply a means of testing new Soviet weapons. Perhaps one million Soviet soldiers died in Afghanistan. Russian Veterans with missing limbs could be seen begging in Moscow subway stations. [Source: Mike Edwards, National Geographic, February 1991]

Image Sources:

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated May 2016


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