Yossi Schwartz ISL RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 18.04.2022
According to the Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate, the (GUR) growing number of Russian soldiers refuse to serve in the military amid the imperialist invasion of Ukraine. This refusal has been observed specifically in the 150th Motorized Rifle Division of the 8th Army of the Southern Military District. The report claimed that in several units 60%-70% of all soldiers are refusing to serve.
If a soldier did go with their unit as they went into Ukraine but refused to take part in the fighting, the Russian military would note in their file that they “evaded military service and combat missions.”
This has become a real problem for the Russian army, with commanders and officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) urging refusing soldiers to reconsider. The GUR claims that they go so far as to threaten to kill the relatives of refusing soldiers.
In late March, a report surfaced of a Russian general who was killed by his own soldiers due to the “boiling discontent among Russian forces deployed in and around Ukraine.”
During the war of Vietnam American soldiers made a deal with the Vietcong. The American soldiers will not patrol and the Vietcong fighters will not kill the American unit. If the American soldiers were forced to patrol in many cases they returned without the dead officer. This practice was known as fragging – the deliberate killing of a superior officer or non-commissioned officer (NCO). The word was coined by U.S. military personnel during the Vietnam War, when such killings were most often attempted with a fragmentation grenade. Sometimes making it appear as though the killing was accidental or during combat with the enemy.
During the 1905 revolution in Russia the Russian battleship became famous when the crew rebelled against the officers in June the mutiny later was used by Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin. One of the famous incidents of the October Revolution in Russia took place on the cruiser Aurora, which reportedly fired the first shot, signaling the beginning of the attack on the Winter Palace.
Trotsky in his account of the February revolution 1917 wrote:
“Meanwhile disarmament of the Pharaohs becomes a universal slogan. The police are fierce, implacable, hated and hating foes. To win them over is out of the question. Beat them up and kill them. It is different with the soldiers: the crowd makes every effort to avoid hostile encounters with them; on the contrary, seeks ways to dispose them in its favor, convince, attract, fraternize, and merge them in it. In spite of the auspicious rumors about the Cossacks, perhaps slightly exaggerated, the crowd’s attitude toward the mounted men remains cautious. A horseman sits high above the crowd; his soul is separated from the soul of the demonstrator by the four legs of his beast. A figure at which one must gaze from below always seems more significant, more threatening. The infantry are beside one on the pavement – closer, more accessible. The masses try to get near them, look into their eyes, and surround them with their hot breath. A great role is played by women workers in the relationship between workers and soldiers. They go up to the cordons more boldly than men, take hold of the rifles, beseech, and almost command: “Put down your bayonets – join us.” The soldiers are excited, ashamed, exchange anxious glances, waver; someone makes up his mind first, and the bayonets rise guiltily above the shoulders of the advancing crowd. The barrier is opened; a joyous and grateful “Hurrah!” shakes the air. The soldiers are surrounded. Everywhere arguments, reproaches, appeals – the revolution makes another forward step” [i]
That is why it is a criminal act to kill Russian soldier’s prisoners of war.
“Soldiers fighting for Ukraine appear to shoot Russian prisoners of war outside a village west of Kyiv in a video posted online. The footage was originally shared on social media app Telegram. The New York Times said it had verified the video and the BBC said it had confirmed the location north of the town of Dmytrivka and found satellite images showing bodies on the ground. In the video, at least three men in camouflage, including one with a head wound and his hands tied behind his back, can be seen lying dead next to a fourth man, who is breathing heavily with a jacket covering his head” [ii]
Down with Russian-US-NATO imperialism!
Victory for the Ukraine army!
No political support for Zelensky’s regime!
For revolutionary solidarity between the Russian and Ukrainian soldiers!
Endnotes:
[i] Leon Trotsky: The History of the Russian Revolution Volume One: The Overthrow of Tzarism Chapter 7 Five Days (February 23-27, 1917)
[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/07/video-appears-to-show-ukrainian-soldiers-shooting-russian-prisoners-of-war