Youth and the army in the USSR in the 1980s

Gross, Natalie

doi:10.1080/09668139008411882

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

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“…At the same time, local Komsomol organizations, whose members were permanently present at the draft boards, registered a loss of patriotic sentiment (Solnick 1998, 189). In the 1970s and early 1980s, draft dodging became increasingly common among better-educated and privileged social groups, while young men from rural Russia continued to view military service as an attractive option (Gross 1990). The metropolitan intelligentsia considered the army a punitive institution, and parents did their best to rescue their sons from it (Margolina 1994, 86-87).…”

Section: Arrival and Initiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dedovshchinaon trial. Some evidence concerning the last Soviet generation of “sons” and “grandfathers”

Maklak

2015

Natl. pap.

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The article analyzes violent practices – dedovshchina – among the recruits of the Soviet Armed Forces, which became commonplace during the late socialist period, but were not publicly discussed until the advent of glasnost'. By focusing on individual men's testimonies, it intends to capture male experiences and interpretations of this phenomenon as well as the significance and value they attached to it in the context of their individual life scripts. The study is based on 20 theme-oriented interviews with young, recently demobilized men conducted in the framework of a sociological project in 1988/1989. They are interpreted with the help of a narrative analysis. Having experienced various forms of violence as army soldiers, the young men's narratives embraced dedovshchina as a functional tool of self-organization within the otherwise dysfunctional military institution and stressed the values of endurance and maturation central to male identity. Considering the unprecedented concurrent discussion of dedovshchina in the Soviet media, which scandalized the phenomenon and raised moral and political questions concerning the state's failure to secure the physical wellbeing of its soldiers, these testimonies attain additional significance. They demonstrate attempts to contest the stories and interpretation generated by the media and to reassert individual morality in the face of personal involvement in practices now condemned as wrong.

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Section: Arrival and Initiationmentioning

confidence: 99%