Dedovshchina (, ) is the informal practice of hazing and abuse of junior conscripts historically in the Soviet Armed Forces and today in the Russian Armed Forces, internal troops, and to a lesser extent FSB, Border Guards, as well as in other armed forces and special services of former Soviet Republics. It consists of brutalization by more senior conscripts, NCOs, and officers. It is a form of non-statutory dominant-status relations between military personnel; the most common form of non-statutory relations, which is a violation of the statutory rules of relations between conscripts, based on the informal hierarchical division of soldiers and sergeants by enlistment and length of service.
The cultural basis of dedovshchina is made up of traditions, customs and rituals that are passed down from conscript to conscript. Often (but not always), these traditions and rituals are associated with the humiliation of the honor and dignity of servicemen of the later conscription by servicemen of the earlier conscription. Dedovshchina encompasses a variety of subordinating and humiliating activities undertaken by the junior ranks, from doing the chores of the senior ranks, to violent and sometimes deadly physical and psychological abuse, such as bullying, torture, sexual torture, and anal rape. There have been occasions where soldiers have been seriously injured or killed.
Etymology The term is derived from "ded" (), which is the Russian Army slang equivalent of gramps, meaning soldiers after their third (or fourth, which is also known as ( or "DMB" )) half-year of compulsory service, stemming from a vulgarization of the word "demobilization" ( – this word is erroneously used by soldiers to describe the act of resigning from the army); soldiers also refer to half-year of conscription, with the suffix 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 yefreitor ranks.
Torturing techniques Here's some techniques as documented by Vice after the Sychyov's torture case:
The Elephant: Soldiers had to wear a mask that blocked out oxygen and had to recite army regulations, sing patriotic Soviet war songs, or run laps until passing out. If the soldiers try to take off the mask to gasp for air, the torturers would hit them in the solar plexus.
The Television: This was the method that led to Andrey Sychyov's amputations of legs and genitalia. Soldiers sit on a stool and are handed another stool with a cup of water balanced on it. Then, the stools the soldiers are sitting on get yanked underneath and if the cup of water spills, the soldiers will be beaten. The name comes from the act of soldiers staring intensely at the stool and anticipating the stool being yanked.
The Birdie: Using field telephones that are charged by cranking, the torturers would wrap the telephone wires around soldiers' big toes and send electric shocks. The faster the torturers crank the telephones, the stronger the electricity.
Billiards: Torturers put a pool ball in the soldiers' mouth and then start whacking it with a cue. At best, the soldiers get chipped teeth. At worst, the game progresses to the anal torture.
Features as an offense Non-statutory relations are a broader concept than . Non-statutory relations include the entire range of relationships between servicemen that are not described in the general military regulations (including the relationship between a superior and a subordinate, a subordinate and a superior). Dedovshchina in its narrowest sense covers only those violations of regulations that are related to the relationship between senior and junior enlisted personnel.
In addition, the modern science of criminal and administrative law distinguishes between crimes committed within the framework of the so-called and "barracks hooliganism". The distinguishing feature here is the subjective side of the offense. In the first case, the intention of the offender is aimed at asserting his status as an old soldier, forcing a young soldier to perform household chores, performing certain rituals related to the " traditions", etc. In the second case, the offender's unlawful actions are motivated by personal hostile relations, national, ethnic, religious hostility, property relations, unexpectedly arising hostile relations, etc.
Thus, violations of the statutory rules of relations between servicemen that do not involve relations of subordination within the framework of can be qualified as an encroachment by senior servicemen on the rights, honor, dignity, and personal integrity of junior servicemen.
Often, the phenomenon of is directly related to the ratio of physical and moral strength of the "grandfathers, granpas, veterans, old men, dembels" (slang for "masters") and "devils, spirits, , chekists, , salabons, thingmen, young, elephants" (slang for "slaves").
One of the major negative effects of as a phenomenon is that this army subculture seriously undermines the authority of the army among young people of conscription age and is one of the main reasons for evading military service.
A similar phenomenon, however, not as pronounced as in the army, is also observed in some Russian schools, boarding schools, and other educational and social institutions. Victims are usually physically weaker, insecure, or simply younger. is not typical for the higher education system, and there are no recorded cases of phenomena resembling in civilian higher education institutions. This is due to the lack of an economic basis for in universities and other civilian higher education institutions.
Responsibility Violations of statutory relationships are categorized by degree of public danger into:
disciplinary offenses criminal offenses
The latter category includes violations that objectively fall under the disposition of the current articles of the Criminal Code (battery, torture, actions that grossly offend human dignity, robbery, etc.). Responsibility is incurred under the general criminal procedure. Actions of a serviceman who allowed non-regular relations, which do not fall under the definition of a crime, should be regarded as a disciplinary offense (violation of the order of coming on duty for a shift, coercion to perform household chores (if it is not associated with physical violence), coercion to perform non-regular rituals (also without physical violence), etc.). In this case, the responsibility comes in accordance with the requirements of the Disciplinary Regulations of the Russian Armed Forces.
as a phenomenon involves the existence of unofficial hierarchical relationships that parallel the main formal ones, not excluding cases where officers are not only aware of but also use it to maintain "order."Pronoza Andrii Viktorovych (2005). Dedovshchyna' as a socio-cultural phenomenon: mechanisms and form of reproduction". A dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Sociological Sciences. Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv. UDC 316.354:355.1 + 316.75
In official statements, some high-ranking military officials speak about the ills of society that have been transferred to the army. For example, such a statement was made in a TV interview by Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, former commander of the Northern Fleet, now a member of the Federation Council and member of the Defense and Security Committee.
Objective studies show that is a product of non-statutory economic activity in the armed forces.Vakhnina L. V. (2006). «Ежедневный журнал». Всероссийская коалиция общественных организаций "За демократическую альтернативную гражданскую службу" ["An extra soldier". Illegal use of the labor of conscripted servicemen for purposes not conditioned by the performance of military service duties]. . Moscow. At the same time, is an auxiliary tool in the hands of the leadership, which can shift most of its responsibilities for maintaining order to the leaders of the informal hierarchy, offering them some benefits in return (early dismissals, lenient attitude to guilt, reduced physical activity, etc.)
Often, informal relationships are accompanied by humiliation and physical violence (assault). The direct victims of the phenomenon are team members who, for one reason or another, have a low status in the informal hierarchy (status can be determined by seniority, physical, psychophysiological characteristics, nationality, etc.). The basis of the status is physical strength and the ability to insist on one's own way, as well as conflict resistance.
According to Amangeldy Kurmetuly, happens because the modern Russian military is primarily composed of men who did poorly in school and could not enter a university, and they repay the "pressure and harassment" they often received from authority figures onto those weaker than them.
Manifestations of can be very different. In its milder forms, it does not involve threats to life and health or serious humiliation: recruits perform household chores for old men and, from time to time, their household tasks. In its extreme manifestation, reaches the point of group sadism. Manifestations of in the Russian army include forcing recruits to fully serve their "grandfathers" (for example, to wash their laundry), taking away money, clothes and food, subjecting them to systematic abuse and even torture, beating them severely, often causing serious bodily harm. Recently, extortion of money to credit a cell phone account has become very common. Recruits are forced to call home and ask their parents to top up their "grandfather's" account or buy a recharge card, which will then go to the same account. Conscript service in the Russian Armed Forces is often not very different from the procedures and relations between prisoners in penitentiaries ("zones").Армия преступников: Генеральный прокурор признался, что ничего не может поделать с преступностью в вооруженных силах [An army of criminals: Attorney General admits he can't do anything about crime in the military]. Lenta.ru. 3 February 2006. "Grandfathers" will often initially extort money from recruits by threatening to kill them. This is to test if the recruit has money, and the "grandfathers" will extort more money from the recruit if he obeys their initial demand.
is the main reason for regular desertions of conscripts from units and suicides among them. A significant part of violent crimes in the army is associated with : in some cases, these are crimes of "grandfathers" that have been brought to court. In others, the actions of recruits in retaliation, such as the "", when a Lithuanian private, after being nearly raped, murdered five fellow military servicemen, as well as the head of the guard, his assistant and the train conductor on 23 February 1987.
There have been cases where recruits who went on guard duty with military weapons shot their fellow soldiers who had humiliated them beforehand, including the case that formed the basis of the 1990 film The Guard.
History
The phenomenon of hazing has been described as far back as Eton College in the 16th through 18th centuries, where the authority of fellow students was even more cruel and capricious than that of teachers. The school community was of all ages. The age at which boys were sent to school ranged from 8–9 to 16–17 years old. The inequality in strength, age, and length of schooling created a rigid "vertical of power".