What was the "bullying" in the tsarist, imperial and Soviet armies - features and differences

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A strong army is a guarantee of state security. And its power lies in strict discipline. However, there is a phenomenon that has a decomposing effect on military structures - "hazing". Non-regulation relations were observed practically at all stages of the existence of the army of the Russian state. And they did not always consider it necessary to fight this phenomenon.

The structure of the armed forces of the Russian kingdom and features of the education of the army

The Russian army of pre-Petrine times represented an association of people called up for military service out of necessity. Basically, the so-called service people came from free classes. For example, representatives of the nobility and boyars formed cavalry and pikemen. They came with personal squads reporting directly to them. The servicemen "by selection" included Cossacks, archers and gunners, who also had their own structures. Peasants, serfs and church officials were also taken into the army. This huge militia lacked professional training and centralized leadership. The hiring of foreign military units, which Vasily III, the father of Ivan the Terrible, began to practice, did not justify itself either.

The first regular regiments were created under Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. Foreign military specialists were involved in their training. The increase in the size of the Russian army required radical transformations in the military sphere.

The military reform of Peter I and the emergence of the army "bullying"

The All-Russian Emperor Peter I realized how much the existing army was losing to the European powers. Prioritizing the security of the country, he radically changed the structure of military units, making the army professional. Since 1705, a decree began to operate, providing for a compulsory life-long recruitment, which applies to all classes. Boyars and nobles made the decision to send them to the service personally, for other social strata the issue was decided by the peasant community or its landowner-landowner. From that moment on, recruits became soldiers for life, and not only for the duration of hostilities, as it was before.

This reform had consequences: a special category appeared among the military - old-timers. Recruits-recruits received instructions from them on how to fulfill the requirements of the charter, learned how to avoid cavils from commanders. It was these relationships, which were based on the service life and military merits, that became the prototype of "bullying".

Institute of corporal punishment, tyrant officers and "tsuki" in military schools under the successors of Peter I

In the tsarist army, the prosperity of "bullying" and the brutal attitude of officers towards soldiers was due to the existing system of corporal punishment. Assault is the smallest thing that veteran soldiers and their superiors "rewarded" recruits with. The officers used whips and spits. There were legends about the cruelty of the famous military leader Alexei Arakcheev. It was said that he tore out the mustache of the grenadiers with his own hand. The outstanding commander Alexander Suvorov did not reject corporal punishment either.

Non-regulation relations were observed not only in the active army, but also in military schools. The mockery of senior cadets over the younger for the purpose of self-assertion was called "tsuk".

Under Catherine II, corporal punishment was abolished. However, Alexander I returned them to army life, as a result of which there was a division among the cadets according to the degree of physical endurance. "Temper", that is, one who could withstand at least a hundred lashes as punishment for his antics, began to claim the right to tyrannize the less hardy. At the end of the nineteenth century, "tsukanie" penetrated almost all military educational institutions. Pupils of senior courses cynically called their bullying an effective way to screen out the physically and morally weak, unable to become real warriors.

"Hazing" and regulations in the Soviet army

It is believed that the first wave of hazing within the SA ranks in the post-war years. Then many soldiers who went through the war were not demobilized. The feeling of superiority over the untrained youth was the impetus for the emergence of "bullying". The second surge was provoked by the 1967 decree on the reduction of the terms of military service, which led to the emergence of hostility of the "old people" towards the recruits who had the opportunity to leave "for civilian life" before they themselves. The situation was aggravated by the conscription of a criminal element into the army. Due to this, the problem of a decrease in the number of conscripts was solved, which arose as a result of the demographic failure caused by the Second World War.

To one degree or another, all branches of the armed forces were exposed to hazing. Units classified as elite: special forces, reconnaissance, missilemen, border guards, airborne forces - less; construction battalion, motorized rifle and automobile troops, logistic services - to a much greater extent. The most harmless manifestations of "bullying" were jokes and practical jokes, doing chores for the "old people". But there are also known outrageous cases of bullying, beatings, coercion into perverted sexual relations.

There was a strict hierarchy among the soldiers. The most disenfranchised and oppressed caste were the "spirits". They were obliged to carry out any, often humiliating, assignments of old-timers and the dirtiest work in the barracks. After a year of existence in an atmosphere of constant psychological and physical pressure, the “spirit” became a “scoop”. Often, in order to recoup the humiliation they had experienced, the "scoops" began to mock the recruits stronger than the old ones. Six months before demobilization, the soldier received the status of "grandfather". It should be noted that the “grandfathers” often protected the “spirits” from the brutal “scoops”.

A special phenomenon in the Soviet army is the community, which were formed first on territorial grounds, and then on national grounds. In the national communities there was no humiliation of the younger ones, the relationship was akin to mentoring. Such groups were more common among immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus, less among the Slavs.

The question of the nature of bullying has been raised for many years. Scientists name psychological, cultural and social factors among the reasons for its occurrence.

By the way, in medieval collectives, mainly students, something was practiced worse than bullying.