ABSTRACT
The informal culture in the Russian barracks, known as the system of dedovshchina (commonly translated as bullying), is already well described and documented in both the scientific literature and the politically inspired writings of human-rights activists.1 What is common in this literature is the descriptive, as well as the normative, character of it. This means that moral outrage motivates these publications and that the spectacular character of dedovshchina is highlighted. In this overview of the soldiers' informal culture, I use the theoretical framework of total institutions to go beyond a purely descriptive analysis of the soldiers' informal culture. The concept of total institutions will therefore be shortly summarised in a first part of this chapter. By using the idea of total institutions, I will not focus on the moral aspects that go together with this organisational phenomenon; nor will I highlight the violence and other cruel violations of the physical and mental integrity of the soldiers.2 Moral preoccupations hinder scientific analysis and make assessment and identification of the precise underlying structural elements more difficult. However, in this chapter I will use the results of interviews I conducted with Russian soldiers at the end of the 1990s. These soldiers were mainly visitors of the Soldiers' Mothers Organisation of St Petersburg. The soldiers' voices will give realistic illustrations of the theoretical concepts proposed in this contribution. In short, I will touch upon the following aspects of the Russian soldiers' informal culture: after a theoretical overview of total institutions and a structural overview of the phenomenon of dedovshchina, I will make some comments concerning the origins and evolution of dedovshchina, and, finally, I will suggest some possible solutions for this phenomenon that, apparently, stubbornly refuses to go away.
