Dedovshchina is the informal practice of initiation and constant bullying of junior conscripts during their service, formerly to the Soviet Armed Forces and today to the Russian armed forces, Internal Troops, and FSBBorder Guards, as well as the military forces of certain former Soviet Republics. It consists of brutalization by more senior conscripts serving their last year of compulsory military service as well as NCOs and officers. Dedovshchina encompasses a variety of subordinating or humiliating activities undertaken by the junior ranks: from doing the chores of the senior ranks to violent and sometimes lethal physical and psychological abuse, not unlike an extremely vicious form of bullying or even torture, including sexual torture and rape. When not leaving the army seriously injured, conscripts can suffer serious psychopathology for their life time. It is often cited as a major source of poor morale in the ranks. Often with the justification of maintaining authority, physical violence or psychological abuse can be used to make the “youth” do certain fatiguing duties. In many situations, hazing is in fact not the goal. Conscripts with seniority exploit their juniors to provide themselves with a more comfortable existence, and the violent aspects arise when juniors refuse to "follow traditions". There have been occasions where soldiers have been seriously injured, or, in extraordinary situations, killed.
Etymology
The term is derived from "ded", which is the Russian Armyarmy slang equivalent of gramps, meaning soldiers after their third half-year of compulsory service, stemming from a vulgarization of the word "demobilization" ; soldiers also refer to "dembel" half-year of conscription, with the suffix -shchina which denotes a type of order, rule, or regime. 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 Efreitor ranks.
History
The origin of this problem is often attributed to the change in conscription term brought about by the law of 12 October 1967, causing two different groups of conscripts to be simultaneously present in the army: those who were drafted for 3-year service and those only for 2-year service. During the same year, a decision was reached to draft conscripts with a criminal history into the ranks, due to a demographic crisis following World War II. While oppression by older conscripts has probably always taken place in the army, after that date, with the introduction of the four-class system it became systematic and developed its own rules and ranks.
Current situation
Many young men are killed or commit suicide every year because of dedovshchina. The New York Times reported that in 2006 at least 292 Russian soldiers were killed by dedovshchina. The Times states: "On Aug. 4, it was announced by the chief military prosecutor that there had been 3,500 reports of abuse already this year, compared with 2,798 in 2005". The BBC meanwhile reports that in 2007, 341 soldiers committed suicide, a 15% reduction on the previous year. Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia works to protect the rights of young soldiers. In 2012, a draftee from Chelyabinsk region, Ruslan Aiderkhanov, was tortured to death by his seniors. The one witness who was willing to testify against the alleged perpetrators, Danil Chalkin, was later found shot dead in his military base. A contract soldier, Alikbek Musabekov, was later arrested in this incident.
Government actions
Overall, the state has done little to curtail dedovshchina. In 2003, on the specific issues of denial of food and poor nutrition, Deputy Minister of Defence V. Isakov denied the existence of such problems. Since 2005, the Ministry of Defence has published monthly statistics of incidents and crimes including cases of death. Beginning in 2007/08 the conscript service time was reduced from two years to one; dedovshchina primarily occurs when second year conscripts abuse first year conscripts, this measure is partially intended to curtail the practice.
Several Soviet and Russian films portrayed the dedovshchina despite the military's abstention from helping the production. Following is the selected filmography:
Also, in the novel The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy writes that veteran Soviet naval captain Marko Ramius refused to allow dedovshchina'' to be practiced anywhere on his ship, dismissing it as "low-level terrorism".
