Lithuanian Men in the Forced Soviet Army
An Alien World – “School of Masculinity”
Caught up in the vortices of war, the young people of Lithuania’s villages, towns and cities experienced painful tests of fate – the ones who chose to become partisans “in their own forest” wagered their lives in the unequal fight with the Red Army, the NKVD and other divisions, while others, forced to become soldiers in that very same Red Army, were thrown into a completely foreign world that the men had heard little of. All they knew was that they would have to die senselessly for the interests of a foreign country. In such cases, they tried to protect themselves and not get injured, and when they did get injured – to find the strength to bear the pain, not get sick, not be afraid of death, not to cry to friends, and not be afraid to kill.
“School of Masculinity”
After the end of the war, the Soviet authorities announced demobilisation, and up until 1950, Lithuanians were no longer called en masse for compulsory military service, because it was feared that young people would flee to the forests and become partisans. After 1950, many soldiers went into a state of shock after experiencing mushtra and bullying in the Soviet Army. Later, a kind of justification for the brutality in the army took hold – it was called a “school of masculinity”. It was assumed that a man had to go through that school of masculinity. According to contemporaries, dedovshchina particularly flourished in the Soviet Army under Brezhnev. To avoid internal upheavals, the pillar of the regime – the army – employed labour camp tactics, restraining the soldiers and breaking their spirit with bullying and a principle of the strongest being right. To control the soldiers, officers adhered to the principle of “divide and rule”. Soldiers were divided into castes according to how long they had been in the army. The “older” recruits used bullying and mushtra to control the “younger” ones. The long-standing legacy of dedovshchina had a plethora of ways to humiliate a person – everything from sticking newspaper between the fingers of sleeping soldiers and lighting them on fire or making new recruits clean the lavatories and wash the clothes of more senior soldiers, to gruelling formation exercises that sometimes ended in barbarism, including open violence and sexual abuse.
Division
The system divided and sorted soldiers according to their nationalities and religious beliefs. Europeans were pitted against the soldiers from Central Asia, the Caucasus and the North. They were given the name churban, which is the equivalent of “wog”. Everything that was not Russian was seen as foreign and worthy of contempt. Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians were called “fascists” or Germans. However, the education, self-awareness and honest work of Baltic soldiers earned them respect and favour.
Dedovshchina
Dedovshchina was based on a deep Russian medieval tradition. Russian princes seeking the favour of the Mongol-Tatar khans had to humble themselves, being ordered to crawl under the yoke of horses. The princes made up for this bullying by inflicting it on their subordinate nobles. These nobles then humiliated their subordinates and the kholops – feudal serfs. These control mechanisms were adopted by new generations as well. In the words of historian Rasa Čepaitienė: “The feeling of helplessness, experienced by a broken person, naturally forced him to look for a ‘strong hand’ to be controlled and to fear and humiliate himself before those who were stronger. However, as psychological compensation, he also needed the opportunity to humiliate and oppress those weaker than himself. The system graciously granted him this right. Thus began the cycle of abuse and lies.”* According to Afghanistan war veteran Zigmas Stankus, attempts by older soldiers to break the cycle of humiliation came with a risk of being relegated to the lowest levels of the dedovshchina pyramid.
Over time, young people increasingly came back from the Soviet Army with abusive behaviour patterns and a wealth of Russian phrases that they constantly used in their speech, as well as the inability to resist Soviet propaganda.
The System of Mushtra
Alongside bullying, there was the system of mushtra (harsh ordering around) that was based on law. Disobedient soldiers were suppressed by “confinement” arrests, and those who resisted were sentenced to hard labour for up to three years in penal battalions. After the penal battalion, a soldier had to continue his “service” in regular units. Men who were of draft age or in the reserve, refusing to fulfil their duty of “serving the Fatherland”, were threatened with prison sentences. After serving the sentence, the soldier had to go to serve in regular units.
Theft
Military mushtra and bullying were surrounded by a grayish everyday life. Torn clothes, shoes that caused blisters, and constant hunger were all frequent companions of soldiers, especially young ones. In canteens, breakfasts, lunches or dinners that had just started were often interrupted by the sergeant’s command to “finish receiving food and put on your hats.” The soldiers did not eat – they gobbled everything down as fast as they could. Otherwise, soldiers who ate faster or were stronger would take their food away. Even men, who served in some of the “prestigious” units or in the Afghanistan War, felt a shortage of food. This forced the recruits to steal and rob shops, farms and civilians. Even among their own, theft informally became a legitimised practice. Everything that could be stolen was stolen – from food and household items to fuel. This system was fateful for the soldiers. Many recruits – especially those who were more sensitive – would break; they would end up crippled or even dead, being killed by their fellow soldiers or dying due to criminal negligence. The relatives of the deceased often had to “move mountains” to bring their sons’ bodies back home. If they wanted to bury their sons according to Christian rites, in the presence of a priest, they would lose the material support, allocated by the authorities. The real cause of death was hidden and lied about. Can this really be called a “school of masculinity”?