Russia has taken to chemically lowering its soldiers’ inhibitions to guarantee these ill-trained civilians and convicts continue to fight no matter the odds in the ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a UK defense think tank.
That’s been Russia’s MO for quite a few wars now.
“The foremost weakness across Russian infantry units is low morale, which leads to poor unit cohesion and inter-unit cooperation.”
This is a common thing in conscription armies. Worse in Russia because they don’t have supplies.
Though not all conscripted armies. The Finnish army, which has been doing conscription forever, has excellent esprit de corps.
My guess is that it comes down to how you treat the conscripts. I’ll admit that I don’t know much about the Finnish army, but I’d wager that conscripts are treated decently, are supplied with everything they need, and get clear instructions from their superiors. Contrast this with Russian conscripts where they’re given no supplies, get conflicting orders, and are treated like garbage.
I have a friend I studied with who is Finnish and what I heard from him of his time serving the level of training, supply and esprit de corps was very high. A world away from the russian conscript experence.
It appears that Finland is one of those small countries that has compulsory military service for all adult males. I feel like that’s a different situation because it’s just a routine part of being a citizen and you grow up knowing it’s going to happen. In contrast, Russia’s conscription was sprung on the populace in actual wartime (with the war going badly, no less), so it’s easy to see how the conscripts would be a lot more upset about it.
No, Russia has conscription to this day, and had it since it came out of the USSR. They just don’t conscript everyone.
They just don’t conscript everyone.
I think that might be the important distinction. Or at least, that it depends strongly where along the spectrum of routine-ness it falls. For example, technically speaking, the US has had conscription to this day too (in the sense that the Selective Service is a thing), but since the annual draftee quota has been zero since 1972 it doesn’t really count.
Wikipedia says that “as of 2021, all male citizens aged 18–27 are subject to conscription for 1 year of active duty military service in the armed forces, but the precise number of conscripts for each of the recruitment campaigns, which are usually held twice annually, is prescribed by particular Presidential Decree,” but nothing in that article mentions how large those precise numbers of conscripts tended to be in the decades leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, so I still don’t really have a sense of scale for how Russia falls on the “peacetime draft exists only in name” <-> “literally everybody spends a year in the military” spectrum.
They maybe shouldn’t mention that at their recruitment centers.
Depends on who they are trying to recruit
russia’s version of uncle sam comrade methh head
Maybe they should! The survival rate wasn’t very good to begin with, might as well get some free drugs.
Not unbelievable and sad
Another WW2 tactic, check.
Only difference being that the Nazis to an extent looked after their soldiers. Probably because they realized the supply wasn’t unlimited, but still.
We all did it, but Nazis were the biggest users: https://time.com/5752114/nazi-military-drugs/
They should run at their officers instead.
I really don’t care as long as they keep ceding ground to Ukraine.
Real life Terran Marines on stim packs.
ahhh that’s the stuff
when did Russia hire Zap Barnign
You see, killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men at them until they reached their limit and shut down.
That’s pretty much always been Russia’s strategy…
They just hope their enemies run out of bullets
I should know that reference
They did start the war using Zapp’s “Element of Surprise” tactic. In Futurama, Zapp explained that the key to victory was the element of surprise. Then he yelled surprise, opened a trap door, and dumped his soldiers into an active battle zone.
Russia, told their soldiers that they were just doing patrols until they had crossed into Ukrainians territory. Then, they let the troops know that they were actually in a war (or whatever nicety they called it early on). “Surprise! You’re getting shot at now!”
That headline is the most propaganda-ey headline I’ve read so far this war and anyone believing it at face value is a fucking idiot that never does any critical thinking about anything.
The good ol’ human material strategy! Works like tying 2 Yakovlev YAK-40 turbojets to a train and see where this is going…
Didn’t Russia raise a stink because Brittney Griner accidentally took weed to Russia?
What a bunch of hypocrites.
Taking recreational drugs for enjoyment or to help a medical condition? 👎
Forcing someone to take drugs so that they’ll charge into machine gun fire quicker? 👍
Straight out of Hitler’s playbook with Nazi stormtroopers being forced to take Pervitin when invading Paris. History is repeating itself. Ugh.
Amphetimines are pretty common in war iirc. For any country. You are sleeping less, on the ground often, and need to maintain awareness. And the long term health risks…arent really as important.
