Diary of a Russian soldier - Устинович Андрей Владимирович

Андрей Устинович

Diary of a Russian soldier

Introduction

When I was 18, like all guys my age, they tried to conscript me. As a teenager, I dreamed of being a military man, I wanted to be a movie hero, participate in special operations, and if I died, then in battle, as a warrior. But over the years, I realized that something had taken me in the wrong direction, and I began to live my life to the fullest.. I evaded service in every way I knew how.

But then, at the age of 22, I was still drafted into the army, an engineering regiment.

I heard that lawlessness and harsh hazing were going on in the army, and I really thought that either they would kill me there, or I would go to prison because I myself would have to kill someone to save my life.

I decided that I would write a diary every day and when I returned home, I would publish it. Each of you will be able to find out what the life of a conscript soldier is in Russia and in the post-Soviet space as a whole.

The course of a Young fighter.

My first day in the army was November 20, 2017. Everything turned out to be completely different from what I thought.

We were gathered near the military enlistment office and taken to a unit 350 kilometers from the city. We handed over all our things, took a shower, and were given a uniform. There were no usual underpants and T-shirts. We were given 2 sets of some kind of pajamas, one thin, the other thicker, they were all torn, it is clear that the old underwear is already there. A military uniform was put on top of it. This underwear was called "beluga". This is such underwear for the winter period.

Everything seemed too formal and strict, the attitude was like to animals.

Lawlessness, as it seemed at first glance, was not there.

But I can say that the army is like a new and completely different world. New rules, new concepts, new atmosphere. What previously seemed somehow stupid and funny is the norm there and quite important for someone or something. It was really a new and wonderful world. It reminded me of the movie "avatar" when the Earthlings arrived on another planet. I was constantly stupid, like many others, I was always lost and did not know what to do, because life seemed completely new. It was necessary to constantly obey someone and for me it was wild. You can't leave there like you don't like your job, you're there for a year and a half and that's it. You're just like a puppet. We had a course for a young fighter, we studied the statutes and other legislative acts. We were forced to constantly do the cleaning, straighten the beds, wash the floors and shave regularly.

Shaving was stressful for me, I never shaved outside, I had a beard. And here, after each shave, there was terrible irritation, and there was very little time for shaving, and the quality was demanded.

I didn't keep a diary for the first 2 weeks, because I didn't understand what was going on there at all, we were always in a hurry and there was always not enough time.

Our daily routine was something like this:

6:00 a.m. rise

6:10 building for charging

6:40 the cleaning starts. Make the beds, wash the barracks, level all the beds by thread, wash yourself. 8 washbasins for 100 people.

7:00 building for breakfast

8:00 the beginning of classes (theory and sometimes practice. They learned the rules, went to the drill and a little bit of combat tactics).

13:00 lunch

14:00 classes. We learned a lot in the classroom. It was necessary to memorize the text verbatim. It was torture.

18:00 dinner

19:00 we are filing 1 and in general we are preparing for tomorrow.

20:30 news viewing

21:20 evening walk. They walk in the army in formation and sing songs.

21:40 evening verification 2

22:00 lights out

Meal. There was always enough food, except for dinner. The food was not greasy and half an hour after eating, you always wanted to eat no matter how much you ate. There was also little meat, only bones, as the cooks stole the meat, and their leadership too, and only bones reached the soldiers. For dinner, 100 grams of mashed potatoes and a piece of fish, 30 grams so. It's good that many people didn't like fish and gave away their piece.

Heming1 is to sew a piece of white cloth to your collar, in the morning its cleanliness and the quality of fastening are always checked, it is very important, although in fact it is nonsense.

What was it even invented for? In wartime, you usually don't have time to wash your face and you walk around dirty. Your collar becomes dirty and hard and begins to rub your neck, pimples, redness, discomfort appear. But in peacetime, when we wash 2 times a day, this is not necessary, but all the same, great attention is paid to this and the quality of the "filing" is always checked.

Verification 2 has been a sacred ritual since the war. This is how the number of soldiers who survived the battle was checked. Now they check the availability of personnel, who is on duty, who is sick, who is on vacation. This can be said to be a roll call. The attendant calls your last name, and you say "I". Verification is carried out in the morning and evening.

December 3, 2017

Today I came out of the squad1, I was a day officer in company 2. There were 2 idiots in the outfit with me. 2 inspections came to us, and I, as the only normal person, stood on the bedside table for 4 hours and waited for the inspectors. It was difficult.

After lights out, we went to wash the toilets and the barracks in general. They left one on the bedside table3 and the two of them went to clean up. My partner turned out to be lazy. After 2 hours, I had almost everything cleaned up. Yes, for a long time, since I was doing everything alone while my partner was doing some bullshit. I was immediately sent to bed, and my partner was left to teach the duties of the day. The third one went to sleep too. While we were cleaning, he learned the duties on the bedside table and was able to answer them. It's customary here to know them by heart. After all, if you don't know your duties, then how can you fulfill them? But to demand to tell them verbatim is stupid, the main thing is to understand.

The guy who stayed to learn the duties was dumb and taught them for 3 hours standing at attention. Thanks to this, I was able to sleep longer. During the day, there were many calls from other posts, such as "headquarters" and "checkpoint". The company officer on duty was in a bad mood and constantly said what a moron I was. He is the same soldier as me, only he has served for a year. It was Sunday, the day when they give out phones and you can call your family. Just like that, soldiers don't go there with phones in everyday life. But still, I was able to communicate with my family and even cried. I missed you. I have a very bad headache and I want to sleep. I'm waiting for when I can finally go to bed.

Outfit 1-this can be said to be on duty. You step on it at 17 o'clock and stay on it for a day. Depending on which outfit, the tasks are different. No more than four hours of sleep are allowed in each outfit. Well, you can not sleep at all. There were 3 types of them in total, and I will tell you about each one in the process.

Day-to-day by company or battalion is a type of outfit. 3 people take over this outfit. The duty officer (chief) and 2 day workers (subordinates). On the course of a young fighter, 3 day soldiers take over, not 2. The task of the day soldier is to stand on the bedside table at the entrance to the barracks and next to the weapons storage room and greet everyone who comes in and, if necessary, call the duty officer. It's very difficult to stand in one place for a long time. My back and legs are starting to hurt. The second day watchman must always put things in order or carry out other orders from the duty officer or management. They sleep for a maximum of 4 hours in turn. There should always be someone on the bedside table, even at night.