Dedovshchina (Russian: дедовщи́на; [dʲɪdɐˈfɕːinə]; lit. reign of grandfathers) is the informal practice of initiation (see:hazing) of new junior conscripts, formerly to the Soviet Armed Forces and today to the Russian armed forces, Internal Troops, and (to a much lesser extent) FSB Border Guards, as well as the military forces of certain former Soviet Republics. It consists of brutalization by more senior conscripts serving their last year of compulsory military service as well as NCOs and officers.
Contents
Dedovshchina encompasses a variety of subordinating or humiliating activities undertaken by the junior ranks: from doing the chores of the senior ranks to violent and sometimes lethal physical and psychological abuse, not unlike an extremely vicious form of bullying or even torture. It is often cited as a major source of poor morale in the ranks.
Often with the justification of maintaining authority, physical violence or psychological abuse can be used to make the “youth” do certain fatiguing duties. In many situations, hazing is in fact not the goal. Conscripts with seniority exploit their juniors to provide themselves with a more comfortable existence, and the violent aspects arise when juniors refuse to "follow traditions". There have been occasions where soldiers have been seriously injured, or, in extraordinary situations, killed.
Etymology
The term is derived from "ded" (Russian: дед, meaning grandfather), which is the Russian Army army slang equivalent of gramps, meaning soldiers at their third (or fourth, which is also known as "dembel" (Russian: дембель) year of compulsory service, stemming from a vulgarization of the word "demobilization" (Russian: демобилизация demobilizatsiya) - this word is erroneously used by soldiers to describe the act of resigning from the army; soldiers also refer to this "dembel" or "DMB" (Russian: ДМБ)) half-year of conscription, with the suffix -shchina which denotes a type of order, rule, or regime (compare Yezhovshchina, Zhdanovshchina). Thus it can literally be translated as "rule of the grandfathers." This is essentially a folk system of seniority based on stage of service, mostly not backed by code or law, which only grants seniority to conscripts promoted to various Sergeant and Efreitor ranks.
History
The origin of this problem is often attributed to the change in conscription term brought about by the law of October 12, 1967, causing two different groups of conscripts to be simultaneously present in the army: those who were drafted for 3-year service and those only for 2-year service. During the same year, a decision was reached to draft conscripts with a criminal history into the ranks, due to a demographic crisis following World War II. While oppression by older conscripts has probably always taken place in the army, after that date, with the introduction of the four-class system (created by the bi-annual call-ups) it became systematic and developed its own rules and ranks.
Current situation
Many young men are killed or commit suicide every year because of dedovshchina. The New York Times reported that in 2006 at least 292 Russian soldiers were killed by dedovshchina (although the Russian military only admits that 16 soldiers were directly murdered by acts of dedovshchina and claims that the rest committed suicide). The Times states: "On Aug. 4, it was announced by the chief military prosecutor that there had been 3,500 reports of abuse already this year (2006), compared with 2,798 in 2005". The BBC meanwhile reports that in 2007, 341 soldiers committed suicide, a 15% reduction on the previous year.
Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia works to protect the rights of young soldiers.
In 2012, a draftee from Chelyabinsk region, Ruslan Aiderkhanov, was raped and tortured to death by his seniors. The one witness who was willing to testify against the alleged perpetrators, Danil Chalkin, was later found shot dead in his military base. A contract soldier, Alikbek Musabekov, was later arrested in this incident.
Government actions
Overall, the state has done little to curtail dedovshchina. In 2003, on the specific issues of denial of food and poor nutrition, Deputy Minister of Defense V. Isakov flatly denied the existence of such problems.
Since 2005, the Ministry of Defense has published monthly statistics of incidents and crimes including cases of death.
In 2011 the Russian parliament reduced the conscript service time from two years to one; dedovschina primarily occurs when second year conscripts abuse first year conscripts, this measure is partially intended to curtail the practice.
Dedovshchina in popular culture
Several Soviet and Russian films portrayed the dedovshchina despite the military's abstention from helping the production. Following is the selected filmography: