Introduction

The brutal practice of dedovshchina, or systematic hazing in the Russian military, is more than just a relic of its imperial and Soviet past—it remains a defining feature of military culture today. Originating under Peter the Great in the late 17th century and persisting through centuries of war and regime changes, dedovshchina has institutionalized cycles of physical and psychological abuse, transforming the military into a space where violence is not only endured but expected. Despite reforms and official claims that hazing has been eradicated, reports of extreme mistreatment continue to surface.

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This paper will examine how the practice of dedovshchina in the Russian military fosters a culture where extreme violence, including rape and sexual torture, is utilized to control young Russian men. It will explore how sexual violence is not only perpetuated against conscripts but also used by soldiers against their fellow soldiers, reinforcing a cycle of institutionalized abuse. Furthermore, it will highlight the role of military leadership in sustaining this system, as officers not only tolerate hazing but, in some cases, exploit it for their own personal gain.

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History and Persistence of Dedovshchina in the Russian Military

To understand how dedovshchina continues to shape the Russian military, it is essential to examine its historical foundations and persistence over time. The practice has existed since the end of the 17th century when Emperor Peter the Great introduced compulsory military service.[1] While bullying existed under the tsarist regime, Soviet-era dedovshchina did not emerge until after World War II, when the military remained large due to wartime expansion.[2]

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Following the war, Soviet veterans were reluctant to perform routine peacetime duties, such as menial tasks like cleaning floors. Instead, they imposed these chores on new recruits while assuming the role of enforcers, punishing any perceived disobedience. As these veterans demobilized, their former victims took their place, who then conducted violence against the next generation of new recruits. Thus, the cycle of violence that characterizes dedovshchina was born.[3]

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This hazing continued through the Soviet Union, during which the Red Army was beset by a widespread culture of robbery, torture, and sexual assault stemming from the domination of junior soldiers by their elders. At the time, Moscow recognized that these conditions could result in catastrophically low troop retention levels. To counter this potential, it offered significant incentives for draftees to re-enlist. Notably, only one percent did so, signaling the overwhelming lack of desire to remain in the military.[4] 

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After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, dedovshchina only grew more prevalent and intense.[5] Set at 24 months, the conscription term for new conscripts was characterized by sleep deprivation, forced labor, theft, beatings, starvation, and rape by their seniors. This cycle of violence was only further reinforced by officers renting out their conscripts as laborers or, in extreme cases, as prostitutes, in response to low rates of pay.[6]

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As a result of this systemic brutality, fear and resentment of military conscription became increasingly prevalent. Men who had the resources to seek exemptions actively pursued them. By 2000, almost 90 percent of those eligible for conscription had some form of exemption, while the remaining 10 percent were often too poor to bribe their way out of their service.[7] Between January and March of 2004, fifteen Russian soldiers were killed as a result of excessive hazing. During that same year, another soldier was beaten so badly that the resulting gangrene led to the removal of his legs and genitals. Two years later, in 2006, around 40 percent of deaths within the military were ascribed to suicide, illustrating the psychological and physical brutality of the training process.[8]

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In 2008, reforms were introduced to reduce conscripted soldiers’ terms from two years to one. Their purpose was to combat dedovshchina.[9] These reforms also sought to change the military’s management structure and education system.[10] In 2019, Sergei Shoigu, then Russia’s defense minister, claimed that this hazing problem was no longer a large-scale issue in the nation’s military, going as far as to say: “There is simply no place for hazing in the army now.”[11] However, the reality is far different from these claims.

 

Today, conscripts still face extreme systematic abuse and violence. The cycle of violence persists as service members in the final months of their year of service use humiliation and beatings to bully new arrivals.[12] There also continue to be reports of cases of rape and forced prostitution.[13] However, the exact statistics on these practices are difficult to determine because the Defense Ministry ceased to publish data on violent deaths in the Armed Forces in the 2010s. Nonetheless, when they last shared this information in 2009, there were 30 such cases a month.[14] 

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The Institutionalization of Hazing

While the historical roots of dedovshchina provide context, its persistence is not merely a relic of the past; rather, it has been institutionalized as a deliberate mechanism of control within the Russian military. Survivors of this hazing describe the process as an intentional component of military indoctrination, not a simple byproduct of serving. The primary aim of dedovshchina is to break young men, making them submissive and obedient drones who will not ask unnecessary questions nor show any independent thought.[15]

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Highlighting the brutality associated with dedovshchina, there are parallels between it and ponyatiya, the sadistic regime of Russian prison culture.[16] The goal of ponyatiya, like dedovshchina, is the victim’s humiliation through dominance. Under both practices, these acts of dominance often employ sexual violence to enforce hierarchies. Journalist Kristaps Andrejsons expands upon the parallels between dedovshchina and ponyatiya: 

 

Some of the ways to dedi, or break, the young conscripts are genuinely disturbing—and those who’ve served seldom want to talk about the worst experiences they’ve had. This isn’t surprising, because oftentimes it’s on the same level as the worst punishments in the prison culture, and parallels incidents in today’s police torture cases in Russia.[17]

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There are reports that, as punishment for misbehaving, individuals are placed in torture pits for days after being beaten by the military police.[18] These practices have been documented in the training of Russian troops as recently as the war in Ukraine.[19] In extreme cases, there are reports of conscripts’ superiors forcing them into prostitution and profiting off the subjugation of conscripts. Further abuses extend to the infamous “sitting on a bottle” punishment. This form of torture is often associated with the Chechen units of Ramzan Kadyrov, the current Head of the Chechen Republic, due to their use of it to punish individuals who oppose them.[20]

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Beyond individual punishments, dedovshchina also employs collective punishment to further instill obedience among service members. A notable example of this practice is “punching the plywood.” Characterized as a toughness training exercise and a form of collective punishment, this exercise requires that service members stand in a single-file line. A soldier of higher rank passes by this line, using an assault rifle to hit each soldier in the chest until the rifle’s bolt jerks in the frame. Individuals subjected to this practice often suffer chest bruising that lasts for at least a week.[21]

 

Further complicating dedovshchina is zemlyadstvo, or hazing on national or regional grounds.[22] This specific form of hazing, much like the larger practice of dedovshchina, has its roots in the Soviet Union, when the various nationalities of the USSR clustered together to deal with those deemed to be “outsiders.” Except for the disappearance of a few select nationalities once involved in the Soviet military, such as the Armenians, the practice of zemlyadstvo has remained largely unchanged – conscripts of ethnic minority backgrounds have an increased likelihood of experiencing more intense violence and hazing.[23] This entrenched system of sexualized abuse has had devastating effects on individual conscripts, as evidenced by numerous documented cases of extreme hazing and violence.

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The Human Cost of Hazing: Case Studies

The conscription term is a systematically brutal experience for service members, with sexual violence operating as an institutionalized mechanism of control. The experiences sustained by Ivan Katlinskikh, Mikhail Pashchuk, Ramil Shamsutdinov, Artyom Pakhotin, and Pavel demonstrate how this system of control manifests in extreme psychological and physical suffering. 

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In September 2021, 20-year-old private Ivan Katlinskikh and 19-year-old Mikhail Pashchuk, serving at the same military base, both died in apparent suicides. According to anti-conscription lawyer Alexandr Latynin, the two deaths had a shared motivation: to escape the everyday cycle of violence in their unit.[24] 

 

Two years prior, in 2019, Ramil Shamsutdinov, a Russian conscript, opened fire on a military base, killing six soldiers and two officers. His father placed the blame on the military’s culture of brutal bullying.[25] Some Russian media outlets quoted Shamsutdinov as saying that he had been threatened with rape, highlighting the sexualized nature of this hazing.[26] 

 

Private Artyom Pakhotin committed suicide in 2018, two weeks after a razor blade was used to carve the Russian word for “cock” on his forehead. This punishment occurred after he was found smoking a cigarette in the toilet of his barracks. In his last text message to his mother, Pakhotin wrote, “They’re bullying me here, exhausting me psychologically and extorting money…I don’t see how I can go on. I’m already very tired. I’m sorry it all turned out like this.”[27] 

 

A case from 2007 reinforces the long-term, pervasive nature of this sexualized system of hazing in the Russian military. Pavel, a conscript from Siberia, was forced into male prostitution by his superiors. It should be noted Pavel is a pseudonym–the conscript requested that his real name not be used in the publication. It is reported that after beating him, his superiors gave Pavel a telephone for him to arrange a meeting with the client and set a price. After completing the exchange, he returned with the money and gave it to his superiors.[28]

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The experiences of these individuals are not anomalies; rather, they exemplify a broader pattern of violence that military leadership not only tolerates but, in many cases, plays an active role in facilitating.

 

The Role of Military Leadership

Despite official claims that dedovshchina has been eradicated, military leadership allows for these acts of cruelty to continue, and in some instances, benefits from them. Reports indicate that officers frequently ignore or downplay extreme hazing, allowing violence to persist unchecked.[29] As previously discussed, some superiors exploit conscripts for forced labor and prostitution, profiting from the same abusive system that officials claim to have dealt with.

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The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, an NGO founded in 1989 as a response to the abuses occurring within the Russian military,[30] stated that it receives 15 to 20 complaints of humiliation, beatings, and theft in the army every day.[31] This estimate demonstrates that dedovshchina remains a deeply ingrained practice within the Russian military. It is important to note that this figure likely underrepresents the actual number of cases, as many go unreported due to service members’ fear of exposure and retaliation.

 

On a broader scale, the pervasiveness of this hazing is somewhat unique to Russia when compared to other Western nations. Most other Western militaries have actively sought to implement reforms that reduce hazing and bullying in their ranks and have ultimately experienced some success.[32] However, dedovshchina, with its intention of domination, has allowed sexual violence to become an institution in the Russian military. It is not only perpetuated against its own service members but also systematically used by soldiers against their fellow soldiers, allowing the cycle of violence to continue.

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Conclusion

Dedovshchina is not merely a tradition—it is an institutionalized mechanism of control that continues to shape the Russian military. Sexual violence, extreme hazing, and psychological abuse remain tools for breaking young conscripts, ensuring their submission and obedience. Unless changes are made to hold service members accountable and implement the systemic change necessary to dismantle dedovshchina, the Russian military will continue to produce soldiers who are both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence.

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Endnotes

[1].  Alexey Zhabin, “More than a Decade after Military Reform, Hazing Still Plagues the Russian Army,” The Moscow Times, February 17, 2020, https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/02/17/decade-after-military-reform-hazing-plagues-russian-army-a69309.

[2]. Kristaps Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty Begins with Its Own Conscripts,” Foreign Policy, December 10, 2023, https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/10/russia-military-conscripts-hazing-torture/.

[3]. Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[4].  Katherine Bayford, “The Russian Army’s Number One Problem? Hazing,” UnHerd, March 29, 2022, http://unherd.com/newsroom/the-russian-armys-number-one-problem-hazing/.

[5].  Bayford, “The Russian Army’s Number One Problem?”

[6].  Bayford, “The Russian Army’s Number One Problem?”

[7].  Bayford, “The Russian Army’s Number One Problem?”

[8].  Bayford, “The Russian Army’s Number One Problem?”

[9].  Bayford, “The Russian Army’s Number One Problem?”

[10].  Zhabin, “More than a Decade after Military Reform.”

[11].  Andrew Roth, “Russian Army’s Hazing Culture Drove Son to Kill Soldiers, Says Father,” The Guardian, November 6, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/06/russian-armys-hazing-culture-drove-son-ramil-shamsutdinov-to-kill-soldiers-says-father.

[12].  Zhabin, “More than a Decade after Military Reform.”

[13].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[14].  Andrew Getto, “Hazing Is Still Common and Deadly in the Russian Army,” FairPlanet, September 29, 2021, https://www.fairplanet.org/editors-pick/hazing-is-still-common-and-deadly-in-the-russian-army/.

[15].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[16].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[17].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[18].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[19].  Sonya Savina, “‘The Most Rowdy Ones Were Thrown into the Pit,’” Важные истории, October 24, 2023, https://istories.media/en/stories/2023/10/24/into-the-pit/.

[20].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[21].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[22].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[23].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[24].  Getto, “Hazing Is Still Common and Deadly.”

]25].  Roth, “Russian Army’s Hazing Culture.”

[26].  Reuters. “Russian Conscript Blames Fatal Shooting Spree on Military Hazing ‘Hell.’” The Moscow Times, January 9, 2020. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/01/09/russian-conscript-blames-fatal-shooting-spree-on-army-hazing-hell-a68853.

[27].  Zhabin, “More than a Decade after Military Reform.”

[28].  Chloe Arnold, “Prostitution Claims Shed Light on Hazing,” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, March 21, 2007, https://www.rferl.org/a/1075412.html.

[29].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

[30].  Juliane Fürst, “Soldiers’ Mothers Have Long Been a Thorn in the Kremlin’s Side,” The Moscow Times, March 8, 2024, https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/03/08/soldiers-mothers-have-long-been-a-thorn-in-the-kremlins-side-a84394.

[31].  Getto, “Hazing Is Still Common and Deadly.”

[32].  Andrejsons, “Russia’s Military Cruelty.”

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