Dedovshchina Rates

From the MT:

“High Suicide Rate Plagues Russian Military, Lawmaker Says”

Suicides and fatal road accidents make up a high share of deaths in Russia’s military despite declining overall figures, according to Defense Ministry data cited by lawmakers Tuesday. Overall deaths in the Russian Armed Forces have decreased by 29% between 2015-2019, State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin told Interfax without providing figures for each cause of death. The Russian military is concerned about the high rate of suicides and traffic accident deaths, as well as deaths from safety rules violations, plane crashes and drownings, Rashkin said. The Mother’s Right nonprofit estimates that up to 44% of deaths among military conscripts are suicides, while only 4% happen in the line of duty. Official data puts the number of Russian army personnel at 1.9 million, about 80% of whom are conscripts. Rashkin said he obtained the data from Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov as part of an official request. Gerasimov’s report comes amid renewed focus on the Russian military’s hazing culture that has survived despite widespread reforms introduced over a year ago. Last year, a Russian conscript blamed his shooting spree that killed eight fellow soldiers on hazing. Around 12% of all crimes committed within the ranks in 2019 were related to hazing, Rashkin said, noting that these tend to be the most high-profile crimes.

^ The Russian Military has been plagued with countless issues over the years – including the more recent years. Since Russia still uses Conscription (where every Russian man 18-33 is supposed to spend 12 months in military training) these issues affect the majority of Russian society.  Дедовщина (Dedovshchina) is the general term used for all of these major issues in the Russian Military. According to Wikipedia it is the “informal practice of initiation (hazing) and constant bullying of junior conscripts during their service, 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. 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, including sexual torture and rape. When not leaving the army seriously injured, conscripts can suffer serious psychopathology for their life time. It is often cited as a major source of poor morale in the ranks.” Suicide by soldiers is often the direct result of the hazing and abuse they have received under Dedovshchina. The Russian Government and the Russian Military need to do much more to stop the abuse and give help to the soldiers that need it (suicide prevention resources, etc.) A country like Russia can not simply use their citizen-soldiers in places like: Georgia, annexed Crimea, the Donbas, Syria, etc. and not give them resources they need and deserve. If Dedovhschina is allowed to continue unchecked then those abused citizen soldiers will go back into Russian society at the end of their enlistment period and simply take matters into their own hands (like the citizen-solider who shot and killed 8 other soldiers in November 2019 because he claimed his fellow soldiers were abusing and threatening to rape him.) ^

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/02/18/high-suicide-rate-plagues-russian-military-lawmaker-says-a69334