Abstract
The Russian military, like Russia as a whole, is experiencing a systemic crisis. Historically, the military was a favored institution that was given tremendous resources and enjoyed a position of high status in society. It was used as an instrument of youth socialization and uplift. Today it is no longer favored and has few resources at its disposal, but the need to socialize youth is greater than ever before. The military, because of institutional inertia, still sees the task of socializing youth as its mission, but it is incapable of handling even its own social problems, let alone addressing and ameliorating those of society’s younger generation. In fact, the military exacerbates the very social problems it believes it should address.
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Notes
Roy Medvedev, “Will the ‘Military Opposition’ Enter the Kremlin Uninvited?” Rabochaia Tribuna (Moscow), 21 March 1998, translated in Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), 26 March 1998. For an excellent overview of the health problems afflicting Russia’s youth, see Murray Feshbach, “What a Tangled Web We Weave: Child Health in Russia and its Future,” written for SAIC, Inc., July 1998.
Aleksandr Ovchinnikov, “Statistics and Basic Trends of Suicide in the Russian Armed Forces,” Noviye Izvestia, 12 March 1998, translated in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press (CDPSP) 50, no. 13 (1998): 13.
Dmitrii Iurov, “Predupredit’ bolezni legche…,” Krasnaia zvezda, 25 May 1999, 4.
V. M. Zakharov, “Military Education in Russia: How to Reform It?” Military Thought 6 (April 1997): 48.
Pavel Anokhin, “A ‘Division of Deserters’ Is on the Run,” Rossiiskie vesti, 26 December 1997, translated in CDPSP 50, no. 1 (1998): 15.
Ilya Bulavinov, “Draft Contingent Is Limited—Intellectually,” Kommer sant-Daily, 7 October 1998, translated in Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press 50, no. 40 (1998): 19.
John M. Kramer, “The Politics of Corruption,” Current History 97 (October 1998): 331.
Richard F. Staar, “Russia’s Military: Corruption in the Higher Ranks,” Perspective 9 (November–December 1998).
V. I. Lenin, “The Tasks of the Youth Leagues,” 2 October 1920, in V. I. Lenin Selected Works (New York: International Publishers, 1971), 609, 613 respectively.
For a more complete discussion of the military’s role as a socializing agent, see Deborah Yarsike Ball, “The High Politics of Soviet Socialization Policy: A Comparison of Civil-Military Relations Under Khrushchev and Gorbachev” (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1994), 61–83.
A. V. Barabanshchikov, Pedagogicheskie osnovy obucheniia sovetskikh voinov (Moscow: Voenizdat, 1962), 5.
M. S. Gorbachev, “O khode realizatsii reshenii XXVII s’ezda KPSS i zadachakh po uglubleniiu perestroiki,” 28 June 1988, in Izbrannye rechi i stat’i, (Moscow: Politizdat, 1988); “Revoliutsionnoi perestroike—ideologiiu obnovleniia,” 18 February 1988, also in Izhrannye rechi i stat’I, 6:70–72.
Vladimir Kaushanskii, “Otzovites’, deiateli kul’tury! ‘Kul’tura i bezopasnost’ otechestva’,” Krasnaia zvezda, 6 March 1998, 3.
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© 2000 Mark G. Field and Judyth L. Twigg
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Ball, D.Y. (2000). The Social Crisis of the Russian Military. In: Field, M.G., Twigg, J.L. (eds) Russia’s Torn Safety Nets. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62712-7_14
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