Where does the brutality of Russian soldiers come from

Many Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine come from regions of their country that have been left behind. For many, brutality is an everyday form of communication that they have practiced since they were young. A guest post.

Dhe world is shocked by the brutality of the Russian soldiers, it asks itself: Where does so much animal in people come from, so much anger, so much hatred? Who are these soldiers that we rarely see but read about extensively. They didn’t come to Ukraine from Moscow, Saint Petersburg or Novosibirsk – they came mostly from deprived regions in the Far East or central Russia. From areas that are, to put it mildly, uninviting.

I can well imagine the life of these soldiers before they came to Ukraine. I lived on the island of Sakhalin for 33 years, from where conscripts were also sent to Ukraine. Violence as a form of communication was widespread in the 1990s. Society was suddenly impoverished, overnight divided into strata that differed only in property, including work, normal everyday envy was replaced by social envy. When my parents bought their first Japanese car – before that everyone had to support the Soviet auto industry – it was burned in front of our house. Just so we don’t start living well.