Morale: Who Do You Trust
24th October 2022
There was a violent incident between new Russian recruits on October. Men recently mobilized were on a firing range when two Moslem recruits opened fire on the Slavic (ethnic Russians) recruits and killed eleven and wounded fifteen before they were killed. The two shooters were Moslem and sought to avoid hitting other Moslem troops. About ten percent of the men “mobilized” for army service during late September were Moslem. Currently about 20 percent of the Russian population consists of ethnic minorities, most of them Moslem. These “Russians” do not want to die for Russia or even live in Russia. Many Moslems were conquered and incorporated in the Russian empire over the last few centuries. Most of them formed their own nations when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. There was still a significant minority of Moslems remaining and most would prefer to be anywhere but Russia. During World War II the percentage of Moslems in combat units was low early in the war because Russia did not trust large groups of armed Moslems. In the closing months of the war, most Moslem, and often non-Slavic, troops were found in combat units. Slavic troops had made up most of the combat troops until then but by the end of 1944 the army had to replace losses with Moslem troops. The loyalty of these non-Slav troops was assured by the fact the Russians were winning and about to enter Germany, where all the troops were allowed to loot and rape civilians when they weren’t killing the few remaining German troops. After 1945 the Russian army returned to its policy of keeping most non-Slav men out of combat units. There were plenty of support units where Moslem recruits could safely (for Slavic troops) serve out their conscription service. This discrimination against non-Slav soldiers continued after the Soviet Union dissolve but there were some changes.