Torture and threats of rape. Discipline in the Russian army is maintained through constant violence (VIDEO)

In total, we found 25 videos documenting brutal methods of maintaining discipline in the Russian army. We do not know how centralized such practices are: whether someone gives such orders from above, or whether it is an initiative on the spot. However, many prisoners have reported that Russian soldiers who fail to carry out orders to storm a position face execution.

The geography is broad. Some groups from the army of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a regiment from Primorsky Krai, and a brigade from Samara Oblast in, which, ironically, according to documents, «specializes in peacekeeping missions», have been spotted in such practices.

Barrels

Cruel abuse in the Russian army is no secret. Dozens of videos and photos are being shared on Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels. They show Russian soldiers putting their colleagues in so-called barrels and pits, starving them, tying them half-naked to cars and dragging them across fields, beating them, humiliating them, burying them, and leaving them chained to trees until they freeze to death.

The most popular forms of torture are barrels and pits, where the victim is isolated both physically and mentally. At the same time, they are starved or thirsty. This is usually how deserters are punished.

One of the videos about the barrel begins with the words, «Let’s go feed the animals who tried to f*ck off from us».

One of the soldiers in the video, trembling, tries to catch crumbs of cookies from his «enforcer» to eat at least something, while the others do not even react. They have huddled in the corners and do not show their faces.

The soldier who was catching crumbs is named Ivan. The 22-year-old from Omsk signed a contract to fight in the war with Ukraine. According to an anonymous Telegram channel, Ivan's relatives contacted its administrators after coming across the same video.

Texty.org.ua found information about Ivan. He is indeed 22 years old, and he lived in Omsk, Russia. At the age of 17, the youth disappeared from his dormitory. Local media reported his disappearance.

Allegedly, according to relatives, after getting to the front, Vanya quickly understood what the real «Special Military Operation» was, and tried to escape. He was caught.

The story of Russian Ivan has a positive ending. He did escape, but this time he went in the other direction and surrendered to Ukrainian captivity. We found a video where Ivan, already on Ukrainian territory, talks about extortion and beatings and tries to convince other Russians not to go to war.

Pits

The stories of other deserters do not have a happy ending. Russians can use pits instead of barrels to punish or torture others as a lesson to others. One of the videos that went viral is particularly cruel.

It shows two Russian soldiers. They are in a pit. A voiceover informs them that only one of them will survive. They will decide for themselves who will be the «lucky one» in a fight. Without hesitation, one of the soldiers begins to beat the other, then strangles him for a minute and a half until he stops moving and gasping for air.

It is difficult to say whether the Russian soldier died. After such a long period of suffocation, a person would definitely lose consciousness, as can be seen in the video itself.

Chains

Another form of punishment was to be chained. An arm or leg was attached to metal chains and then dragged along, humiliating the victim: «Shut up, you crazy motherf*cker», «We brought you a f*ggot».

Often this is merely a prelude to the main punishment — being put into pits or barrels. Again, for attempting to desert the Russian army.

Cold

Russian soldiers are not only tormented by hunger and thirst. They also suffer from the cold. In one such video, lasting only 12 seconds, we see a soldier chained to a pole, frozen to death.

Beating

The punishment for drinking and selling alcohol is lighter than for attempting to escape. Mostly, it's just plain old beatings and humiliation. But even here, some of the humiliation is reminiscent of the Middle Ages. For example, in one photo we found, a Russian soldier is wearing a metal collar with a big sign attached to it that says «drunkard».

Most likely, the soldier cannot raise his head because of the weight of the sign and remains in one position for a long time, as if bowing before the others.

For other offenses — such as failure to complete tasks or unwillingness to go into battle due to simple fear — they are also beaten and humiliated. Sometimes the beating is just a prelude, followed by being hung from a tree or placed in a pit or barrel.

One such beating received unusual publicity. Russian soldiers filmed their comrade with a bloodied face. Why he was beaten is unknown. They hang him from a tree and threaten to break his arms if he refuses to answer their questions. One of the soldiers threatens that the whole community will find out about these misdeeds, saying that «the country must know its heroes».

The community found out about this and even recorded a video expressing their outrage. The fellow villagers of the beaten soldier stated that such actions allegedly «discredit the Russian army». However, in the third year of the war in Ukraine, there is nothing left that could further discredit the Russian army.

Cages

Russians use specially prepared cages for torture, where soldiers are suspended and beaten with their hands or metal rods. The origin of these cells is unknown to us, as is the systematic nature of such repressive disciplinary practices. However, the cages may resemble those described by former Ukrainian prisoners.

We know that the abuse of Ukrainians is systematic and organized. Since similar instruments are used on their own soldiers, we can assume that torture functions as an integral system for maintaining discipline in the Russian army.

In one of the videos, a Russian soldier is chained to a crossbar. For attempting or planning to escape, he is beaten with a metal baton in the stomach and chest.

Army of coercion

Let's construct a logical line of origin for violence in the Russian military.

The first reason is to prevent the army from disbanding. Systematic abuse plays a special role here. Some Russian soldiers did not realize what they were signing up for when they enlisted in the military. Russian propaganda does not reveal the truth about the front, but instead present an attractive patriotic image. In addition, recruiters often promise service in the rear or in the kitchen.

The second reason is a deeply rooted tradition, one could even say a culture of the Russian army, which has been passed down for centuries. However, this particular aspect has been very little studied by scholars.

Even Ukrainian outstanding poet and writer Taras Shevchenko, while serving his sentence in the army of the Russian Empire, wrote in his diaries, «Soldiers are the poorest, the most miserable class in our Orthodox homeland. Everything that makes life rich has been taken from them: family, homeland, freedom — in a word, everything».

During the Second World War, the treatment of ordinary soldiers was not distinguished by any particular humanity either. And to prevent the army from dispersing, those who could not endure and wanted to flee were caught by blocking detachments. Modern Russians justify this practice

And in the Soviet army the abuse of young conscripts by those who have served longer, has long been the norm. During the period of perestroika, numerous exposes were published on this subject.

The USSR collapsed, but the old army traditions remained. Even reforms introducing contract service did not help.

«When the possibility of a contract army arose, we (human rights organizations — Ed.) encountered paradoxical behavior on the part of military commissariats, when yesterday's conscripts were forced to sign contracts. This is done so that the commander can then demand and receive money from these soldiers' salaries,» says former Russian human rights activist and now pro-Ukrainian volunteer Andrey Kalikh.

According to him, in the 1990s, people were forced to sign contracts by tens or even hundreds, by companies, entire platoons. Even then, in the Russian army, those who did not want to sign were beaten with particular inventiveness.

«I know of cases where half-naked boys were thrown out into the cold and kept there, constantly being beaten,» says Kalikh.

The Russian and Soviet armies have always been based on coercion, on the destruction of personal opinion, views, and will. Russian soldiers must become slaves and listen to everything that is said to them.

Bullying in the Russian army is just the tip of the iceberg of systematic violence aimed at creating an army of slaves who will never raise their weapons against the political leadership. Andriy Kalikh says that this is precisely how the Russian military was prepared for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, so that soldiers would have no rights, let alone any thoughts about their existence.

The legacy of the Golden Horde?

Renowned historian Timothy Snyder refers to the Muscovite Tsardom as «Mongol Rus» since the Horde ruled it for about 300 years. He describes in detail how this subjugation influenced the political culture of Muscovy. The influence of Mongol military practices and doctrines on the army of Muscovy, and later Russia, has not yet been sufficiently studied, but some researchers note that it exists.

Since cruelty toward their own has permeated Russian armed formations throughout their entire existence, we can assume that part of their culture was laid down back in the time of the Golden Horde and has been self-reproducing over the centuries.

In order to keep discipline among the large conquering horde, which consisted of representatives of various subjugated peoples, the Mongols resorted to physical violence that was excessive even for those times.

«If a khan’s guard was not present on duty, he was beaten three times with a stick. If he broke this rule twice, he was beaten seven times, and if three times, he could be struck 37 times,» states the book The Mongol Art of War by Timothy May.

Some researchers call the discipline in the Mongol horde «draconian.» Cruel methods, including beatings and deliberate public humiliation, were enforced. For some offenses in the Mongol army, a soldier could be beaten more than 100 times in a row. While in Western armies of that time, a court decision was usually required to punish a soldier, in the Mongol army, everything was decided by the commander.

And this is precisely what we see in videos filmed in the Russian army.

army eng russo-ukrainian war tortures violence