Brian M Downing
Since the outset, Russia’s war has shown no regard for civilian lives. This isn’t simply Ukrainian propaganda. Russian artillery, airstrikes, and missiles target apartment complexes, theaters, and hospitals, as they did in Chechnya and Syria. Ukrainian troops are finding scenes of grisly executions and massacres as they recover territory north of Kiev.
Massacres may be partially attributable to the actions of poorly-trained troops but not the targeting of hospitals and leveling of cities. They’re rooted in an institution shaped by history. A Russian way of war is being inflicted on Ukraine.
Austere social order
Life has been hard, even cruel in Russia since the days of Mongol overlords demanding tribute from fearful landholders and brutalized peasants. As Russia emerged in the early modern period, a military-agrarian system (Pomestie) emerged based on a service-nobility and serfdom. The knout kept order. Rebellions occasionally swept the country but were cruelly put down.
Military service brought no respite. Indeed, it was worse. Army life entailed decades of harsh discipline and protracted dangers from enemies and disease. Upon departure from their villages, the unfortunate conscripts were given funerals.
Serfdom ended in the 19th century. Peasants got land but remained oppressed. By the next century, Stalin deemed a prosperous, independent rural class a threat. The new Muscovite prince liquidated them, instituted state-owned agriculture, and extracted surplus for rapid industrialization. Millions starved.
World War Two and its legacy
The war with Nazi Germany is a template for Putin and his generals. There were grueling battles, bitter cold, agonizing sieges, widespread starvation, and large-scale barbarity on both sides. No Russian today is without family lore of brave service, incredible suffering, and violent death. The four-year war cost 20-27 million Russian lives.
Victory brought power prestige and subjugated states on the periphery. Stalin, the new Muscovite prince, placed himself in the pantheon with Ivan IV and Peter the Great. But as Toynbee noted, greatness comes and goes. Russian greatness crumbled for decades and fell apart in 1991. Vassal states broke away, as did several SSRs. Army, state, and economy were in tatters. Russians were poor and hopeless.
A low-level KGB enforcer became Muscovite prince and convinced his people that it was Western machinations that laid them low. Resurgence and vengeance are his guiding principles and there are no morals attached. Ukrainians are enemies to be crushed and others will follow. The war is a redux of World War Two – a fight against Nazis and for restored power and renewed glory. This is the credo, deeply resonant in Russian life, that motivates soldiers and justifies their every action.
The war
The war against putative Nazis was expected to bring swift victory, national prestige, and personal glory. Instead, Russians see resourceful soldiers and hostile civilians in front of them, poor leaders and inept logistics behind them. There’s no glory at all.
Russian officers rely on harshness and brutality rather than on ability and camaraderie which imposes hatred and fear more than discipline. Lack of discipline means poor performance against the enemy and repeated atrocities toward civilians. Ukrainians in and out of uniform are Nazis to be annihilated. As Voltaire observed, “Whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
©2022 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.