The Scarlet Letter

[izmeina]

Of course war is not funny. But I could not resist this one because I am a bit peeved that Putin has done such a job of trashing one of my favorite letters.

I am currently reading one of Anna Politkovskaya's books.  "Putin's Russia" from 2005 just a year before his minions murdered her.

AP was an investigative journalist in Russia. This book had a lot of stories about corruption and abuse in the Russian army.
All armies are full of bullying, hazing and all sorts of nasty macho monstrosities but this is all above and beyond that.

Soldiers getting frost bite because their boots had been sold on the black markets, starving because the same was happening to their food.
Soldiers killed in battle just left to rot and the bodies not even returned to their families but then the families are treated like criminals when they try to find out what happened to their sons.

That was way back in 2005. The corruption must have gotten much worse since then.

So it is strange to walk the line that the Russian soldiers are people too. Many of them are conscripts as it turns out.
Just like in USA, the rich kids always manage to weasel their way out of service. Some of them as many as 5 times. Bone spurs are a terrible thing.


But when you go invading a foreign country, the rules are simple. Most locals will hate you so kill them or be killed. The defenders of that land are following those rules too.
I am not so sure what happens to soldiers who don't believe the brain washing and refuse to play along. I guess they get the bullet or a kangaroo court martial and 20 years in Siberia.

So my sympathy is going to be with the defenders, people who were minding their own business until the tanks turned up. Not least because their grandparents had told them horror stories of the Holodomor during the Great and Glorious Good Old Days of the Soviet Union.

I had a vague awareness of the murderous days when Stalin ordered the farms to be collectivized. I have read Animal Farm at least ten times after all. But not until seeing the movie  www.thereviewshub.com/film-review-mr-jones/ in 2019 did I realize just how bad it was. The Ukrainian equivalent of The Irish Potato Famine but with an even bigger body count.
The Potato Famine of 1848 still casts a giant shadow over Irish history so I can only imagine the fall out of a famine that took place only 90 years ago.
After seeing just a hint of what happened in this 90 minute movie, I could see why the Ukrainians want freedom from their former Russian overlords and will die trying to keep it.

I can't get the link to the movie review to work so will just post it raw.

https://www.thereviewshub.com/film-review-mr-jones/

Also

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-ukrainians-fear-the-russians