Russians attitude towards russians soldiers through history?

Question

Hello, first a little story, i am german and i just saw some minutes ago a documentary from a german television brodacaster about traveling in russia today. And they traveld to sibiria too and interviewed some people there. And they also mentioned Stalins prision camps. A young girl said, it`s sad no monument or just a shield don`t mention the camps, because she said russia don`t have money for that. The german teleivision team interviewd a survior. A sympantic old russian. He said "he was in german pow and because he didn`t die in germany he was inprisoned in one of Stalins gulag camps as a betrayal of the russian people, just for the fact he didn`t die in germany. he also said he suffer under the fact his own people tortured him and made him pains. In germany, he said, it was clear, he was an enemy to the germans and the germans were his enemy, thats war, but he never get along the fact his own people did this to him too after the war. He said hardly anyone tried to escape and if someone did, the guardsman caught him soon and brought him back, but only dead. The lacerated body by the dogs, was laid in the winter for a week or longer at the entry of the camp, so the prisoner had to walk in the moring to work and in the evening from work to camps, beside the dead body. Nodbody thought then to escape. At the end of the docu he dressed his old prison clothes and walked to the remains of his old camp, which were some stones in the middle of nowhere and "talked" to his dead comerades. he excused he visited his comerades last time in october, but couldn`t came earlie because of the weather, he spoke that people from germany visited him, the ex-enemies, but everybody believed in something and everybody suffered in the war. he said nobody gives a **** about us in russia today. its good, that foreigners come from time to time, so at last someone come to who we/he can tell our stories. today it`s crazy in russia, nobody knows whos fighting for and we today forget what once we had fight for, nobody knows it anymore. Putin supossably thinks why care about them, they are old and are going to die soon. you my comerads, already died a long time ago, i will follow you soon" So, my question is, why is it the way it is? I thought about the thing, russian soldiers had to run against the germans and if went back, got killed by russian officers. maybe it wasn`t every time this way, but i saw the finish movie talvisota, and thought thats similar. a scene is, a crowd of russians storming in open fire of the fins. And i readed somewhere the same thing was common in zar`s army in ww1. And it seems the russian soldier isn`t much worth today also.

a training of russian paratroopers from 1998

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0k1zvHX88A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb6-a8h8X0I

I readed an german article reporting a young russian soldier got castrated in a casern by russian officers. The video above was hiddenly recorded. Anohter soldier told the officers kicked a recrut such badly, the recrut broke his chest and spit blood. It`s a relict of soviettimes and is called "dedowtschina".

I don`t understand that attidude. especially that one with stalin. i know the russian soldiers sufferd a lot in german pow and alot died. Thats why i can`t understand putting somebody in prison because he didn`t die. He had suffered enough, why again prision? What the **** is this?! I feel really sorry for the ordinary russian infantryman. :/ And it seems it didn`t get much better today. Is this special russian or do you know other armies who handled it in that mass and still handle it today?

thank you. sorry for my spelling mistakes.

Answer 1

Yup, sorry to say, that kind of thing really happens; Russians treat their soldiers badly.  There were about 3 million defectors from the Russian campaign in Eastern Europe during ww2, upon their return they were all executed, hence I believe what you've said.  Disdain for their soldiers may be typical thru their history; in the average Russian village before the USSR, soldiers would be conscripted away - taken by force - and the rest of the village would act as if he were already dead.

Answer 2

Stalin killed more Russians than Hitler ,Stalin was a Georgian,life was cheap see the Movie "Enemy at the Gate"

Answer 3

Being a German, have you also researched what happened to German POW's in Russian concentration camps? There are these days not too many "historians" who write about this plight.

Regarding your observations under the Stalin regime. It is a known fact that the totalitarian communists were very schizophrenic vis-a-vis traitors and "enemies of the fatherland". They didn't trust their own families. This reflected on their attitude towards Russian POW's. They assumed that everyone was vulnerable to commit treason and side with their enemies. In general their treatment of common soldiers was pretty much the same as they had done for centuries. Common soldiers were considered redundant and cannon fodder. Only officers were more worth. This attitude has slightly changed these days, since even common soldiers are better educated and not easily replaced.

Regarding your English. I have the impression that you are working hard to improve it. You should use the "spell checker" and can eliminate some mistakes.