Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast Episode 61 - Soviet Afghan War 7: Fear and Loathing in Afghanistan
Jul 29, 2019
A gritty look at conscript life in the Soviet Afghan war. Shortchanged recruits, brutal institutional hazing, and systematic theft. Widespread substance abuse and makeshift drinking hacks. Racism, criminalization of units, and who actually fought versus who occupied. Unsafe vehicles and combat failures that fed desertion, fragging, and lasting stigma for returnees.
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Draft Was An Informal IQ Test
- Nick argues Soviet conscription favored the educated and connected, making drafting more an intelligence test than universal duty.
- Rural poor and peripheral republics supplied most conscripts, skewing army composition and competence.
Training Left To Chance
- Nick explains the Soviet army left basic training to individual units, producing wildly uneven preparedness.
- Many infantry conscripts rarely fired weapons or left barracks during two-year service.
Prison Culture Entered The Ranks
- A 1967 law change brought ex-convicts into the ranks, importing brutal prison culture into the army.
- That shift helped institutionalize extreme hazing and predatory hierarchies among conscripts.
