Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces Page 7

  and individuals. Even among the stariki not everyone is not on the same

  level: they also have their various levels of seniority. The more senior

  levels strive to keep the inferior ones under their control. The inferior

  ones try to extract themselves from that control. It is very difficult,

  because if a young soldier tries to oppose someone who has served half a

  year more than he has, the longer-serving man will be supported not only by

  the whole of his class but also by the other senior classes: the salaga is

  not only offending a soldier senior to himself (never mind who he is and

  what the older ones think of him) but is also undermining the whole

  tradition established over the decades in spetsnaz and the rest of the

  Soviet Army. In spite of all this, attempts at protest by the inferior

  classes occur regularly and are sometimes successful.

  I recall a soldier of enormous physique and brutal features known as

  `The Demon' who, after serving for half a year, got together a group of

  soldiers from all the classes and lorded it over not just his own platoon

  but the whole company. He was good at sensing the mood of a company. He and

  his group never attacked stariki in normal circumstances. They would wait

  patiently until one of the stariki did something which by spetsnaz standards

  is considered a disgrace, like stealing. Only then would they set about him,

  usually at night. The Demon was skilful at making use of provocation. For

  example, having stolen a bottle of aftershave from a soldier, he would slip

  it to one of his enemies. There is no theft in spetsnaz. The thief is, then,

  always discovered very quickly and punished mercilessly. And The Demon was,

  of course, in charge of the punitive action.

  But seniority in spetsnaz units is not determined only by means of

  fists. In The Demon's group there was a soldier known as `The Squint', a man

  of medium height and build. I do not know how it came about, but it soon

  became apparent that, although The Demon was lording it over the whole

  company, he never opposed The Squint. One day The Squint made fun of him in

  public, drawing attention to his ugly nostrils. There was some mild laughter

  in the company and The Demon was clearly humiliated, but for some reason he

  did not choose to exercise his strength. The Squint soon came to dominate

  the whole company, but it never occurred to him to fight anyone or to order

  anybody about. He simply told The Demon out loud what he wanted, and The

  Demon used his strength to influence the whole company. This went on for

  about three months. How the system worked and why, was not for us officers

  to know. We watched what was going on from the sidelines, neither

  interfering nor trying to look too closely into it.

  But then there was a revolution. Someone caught The Demon out in a

  provocation. The Demon again stole something and slipped it to one of his

  stariki, and he was found out. The Demon and The Squint and their closest

  friends were beaten all night until the duty officer intervened. The Demon

  and The Squint were locked up temporarily in a store where they kept barrels

  of petrol. They kept them there for several days because the likelihood of a

  bloody settling of accounts was considerable. Meanwhile the whole affair was

  reported to the chief of Intelligence for the district. Knowing the way

  things were done in spetsnaz, he decided that both men should be tried by a

  military tribunal. The result was a foregone conclusion. As usual the

  tribunal did not hear the true causes of the affair. The officer commanding

  the company simply put together a number of minor offences: being late on

  parade, late for inspection, found in a drunken state, and so forth. The

  whole company confirmed everything in their evidence, and the accused made

  no attempt to deny the charges. Yet there was some rough justice in the

  process, because they probably both deserved their sentences of eighteen

  months in a penal battalion.

  ___

  The silent majority can put up with anything for a long time. But

  sometimes a spark lands in the powder keg and there is a frightful

  explosion. Often in spetsnaz a group of especially strong and bullying

  soldiers will dominate the scene for a certain time, until suddenly a

  terrible counter blow is struck, whereupon the group is broken up into

  pieces and its members, scorned and disliked, have to give way to another

  group.

  In every company there are a few soldiers who do not try to dominate

  the rest, who do not voice their opinions and who do not try to achieve

  great influence. At the same time everyone is aware of some enormous hidden

  strength in them, and no one dares to touch them. This kind of soldier is

  usually found somewhere near the top of the platoon's hierarchy, rarely at

  the very top.

  I remember a soldier known as `The Machine'. He always kept himself to

  himself. He probably experienced no great emotions, and by spetsnaz

  standards he was probably too kind and placid a person. He did his job

  properly and seemed never to experience in his work either enthusiasm or

  resentment. Nobody, not even The Demon, dared touch The Machine. On one

  occasion, when The Demon was beating up one of the young soldiers, The

  Machine went up to him and said, `That's enough of that.' The Demon did not

  argue, but stopped what he was doing and moved away. The Machine reverted to

  silence.

  It was clear to everyone that The Machine's dislike of The Demon had

  not been given its full expression. And so it was. On the night when the

  whole company beat up The Demon and The Squint, The Machine lay on his bed

  and took no part in the beating. Finally his patience gave out, he went to

  the toilet where the sentence was being carried out, pushed the crowd aside

  with his enormous hands and said, `Let me give him a punch.'

  He gave The Demon a blow in the stomach with his mighty fist. Everyone

  thought he had killed the man, who bent double and collapsed in a heap like

  a wooden puppet with string instead of joints. They poured water over him

  and for half an hour afterwards did not strike him. They were afraid of

  finishing it off, afraid they would be tried for murder. Then they saw that

  The Demon had survived and they continued to beat him. Quite aloof from the

  squabble for top position in the company, The Machine had gone straight back

  to bed.

  In the same company there was a soldier known as `The Otter'; slim,

  well built, handsome. He was not very big and appeared to have little

  strength. But he was like a sprung steel plate. His strength seemed to be

  explosive. He had amazing reactions. When, as a recruit, he first jumped

  over the towel, he was subjected to the usual treatment by the stariki.

  `Drop your pants and lie down,' they said. He took hold of his belt as

  though he was ready to carry out their orders. They dropped their guard, and

  at that moment The Otter struck one of them in the mouth with such a blow

  that his victim fell to the ground and was knocked senseless. While he was

  falling The Otter struck another one in the teeth. A third backed out of the

  way.

&
nbsp; That night, when he was asleep, they bound him in a blanket and beat

  him up brutally. They beat him the second night, and the third, and again

  and again. But he was a very unusual person even by spetsnaz standards. He

  possessed rather unusual muscles. When they were relaxed they looked like

  wet rags. He suffered a lot of beatings, but one had the impression that

  when he was relaxed he felt no pain. Perhaps there were qualities in his

  character that put him above the standards we were used to. When The Otter

  slept he was then in the power of the stariki and they did not spare him.

  They attacked him in the dark, so that he should not recognise his

  attackers. But he knew all of them instinctively. He never quarrelled with

  them and he always avoided groups of them. If they attacked him in the

  daylight he made no great effort to resist. But if he came across a stariki

  on his own he would punch him in the teeth. If he came across him again he

  would do the same again. He could knock a man's teeth out. He would strike

  suddenly and like lightning. He would be standing relaxed, his arms hanging

  down, looking at the ground. Then suddenly there would be a frightful,

  shattering blow. On several occasions he punched stariki in the presence of

  the whole company and sometimes even with officers present. How beautifully

  he punched them! If there were officers present the company commander would

  admire The Otter and indicate his approval with a smile on his face -- then

  sentence him to three days in the guard room, because they were not allowed

  to hit each other.

  This went on for a long time, until the stariki became tired of it all

  and left him alone. Nobody touched him any more. Six months later they

  offered him a place at the very top. He refused, still keeping his silence.

  He never got involved in the affairs of the platoon and had no desire and no

  claim to be a leader. When the whole company was beating up The Demon The

  Otter did not join in. Some years later I met a spetsnaz man I knew and

  learnt that The Machine had been offered a job with the professional

  athletic service. He had refused and had gone back to some remote Siberian

  village where his home was. But The Otter had accepted the offer and is now

  serving in one of the best spetsnaz formations, training for the ultimate

  job of assassinating key political and military figures on the enemy's side.

  ___

  There are other ways in which a spetsnaz soldier can defend his

  position in the hierarchy, apart from punching people in the face. Spetsnaz

  respects people who take risks, who have strength and display courage. A man

  who will jump further than others on a motorcycle, or one who will wait

  longer than others to open his parachute, or one who hammers nails into a

  plank with the palm of his hand -- such people are assured of respect. A man

  who goes on running in spite of tiredness when all the others are

  collapsing, who can go longer than others without food and drink, who can

  shoot better than the others -- such people are also well thought of. But

  when everybody is thought highly of, there is still a struggle among the

  best. And if there is no other way for a man to show that he is better than

  another, physical violence will break out.

  Two soldiers in leading positions may fight each other secretly without

  anyone else being present: they go off into the forest and fight it out. A

  conflict may begin with a sudden, treacherous attack by one man on another.

  There are also open, legal encounters. Sport is particularly admired by

  spetsnaz. The whole company is brought together, and they fight each other

  without rules, using all the tricks that spetsnaz has taught them -- boxing,

  sambo, karate. Some fights go on until the first blood is drawn. Others go

  on until one person is humiliated and admits he is defeated.

  Among the various ways of finding leaders a very effective one is the

  fight with whips. It is an old gypsy way of establishing a relationship. The

  leather-plaited whip several metres long is a weapon only rarely met with in

  spetsnaz. But if a soldier (usually a Kalmik, a Mongolian or a gypsy) shows

  that he can handle the weapon with real skill he is allowed to carry a whip

  with him as a weapon. When two experts with the whip meet up and each claims

  to be the better one, the argument is resolved in a frightful contest.

  ___

  When we speak about the customs observed within spetsnaz we must of

  course take into account the simple fact that spetsnaz has its own standards

  and its own understanding of the words `bad' and `good'. Let us not be too

  strict in our judgement of the spetsnaz soldiers for their cruel ways, their

  bloodthirstiness and their lack of humanity. Spetsnaz is a closed society of

  people living permanently at the extreme limits of human existence. They are

  people who even in peacetime are risking their lives. Their existence bears

  no relation at all to the way the majority of the inhabitants of our planet

  live. In spetsnaz a man can be admired for qualities of which the average

  man may have no idea.

  The typical spetsnaz soldier is a sceptic, a cynic and a pessimist. He

  believes profoundly in the depravity of human nature and knows (from his own

  experience) that in extreme conditions a man becomes a beast. There are

  situations where a man will save the lives of others at the expense of his

  own life. But in the opinion of the spetsnaz men this happens only in a

  sudden emergency: for example, a man may throw himself in front of a train

  to push another man aside and save his life. But when an emergency

  situation, such as a terrible famine, lasts for months or even years, the

  spetsnaz view is that it is every man for himself. If a man helps another in

  need it means that the need is not extreme. If a man shares his bread with

  another in time of famine it means the famine is not extreme.

  In the spetsnaz soldier's opinion the most dangerous thing he can do is

  put faith in his comrade, who may at the most critical moment turn out to be

  a beast. It is much simpler for him not to trust his comrade (or anybody

  else), so that in a critical situation there will be no shattered illusions.

  Better that he regards all his fellow human beings as beasts from the outset

  than to make that discovery in an utterly hopeless situation.

  The soldier's credo can be stated in a triple formula: Don't trust,

  don't beg, don't fear. It is a formula which did not originate in spetsnaz,

  but in prisons many centuries ago. In it can be seen the whole outlook of

  the spetsnaz soldier: his practically superhuman contempt for death, and a

  similar contempt for everybody around him. He does not believe in justice,

  goodness or humanity. He does not even believe in force until it has been

  demonstrated by means of a fist, a whip or the teeth of a dog. When it is

  demonstrated his natural reflex is to challenge it immediately.

  Sometimes in the life of a spetsnaz soldier he has a sort of

  revelation, a sense of complete freedom and happiness. In this mental state

  he fears nobody at all, trusts no one at all, and would not ask anybody for

  anything, even for mer
cy. This state comes about in a combination of

  circumstances in which a soldier would go voluntarily to his death,

  completely contemptuous of it. At that moment the soldier's mind triumphs

  completely over cowardice, the vileness and meanness around him. Once he has

  experienced this sensation of liberation, the soldier is capable of any act

  of heroism, even sacrificing his life to save a comrade. But his act has

  nothing in common with ordinary soldiers' friendship. The motive behind such

  an act is to show, at the cost of his own life, his superiority over all

  around him, including the comrade he saves.

  In order for such a moment of revelation to come on some occasion, the

  soldier goes through a long and careful training. All the beatings, all the

  insults and humiliations that he has suffered, are steps on the path to a

  brilliant suicidal feat of heroism. The well-fed, self-satisfied, egoistic

  soldier will never perform any acts of heroism. Only someone who has been

  driven barefoot into the mud and snow, who has had even his bread taken away

  from him and has proved every day with his fists his right to existence --

  only this kind of man is capable of showing one day that he really is the

  best.

  --------

  Chapter 5. The `Other People'

  Although the vast majority of spetsnaz is made up of Slavonic

  personnel, there are some exceptions.

  At first glance you would say he is a gypsy. Tall, well-built, athletic

  in his movements, handsome, with a hooked nose and flashing eyes. The

  captain plays the guitar so well that passers-by stop and do not go away

  until he stops playing. He dances as very few know how. His officer's

  uniform fits him as if it were on a dummy in the window of the main military

  clothing shop on the Arbat.

  The officer has had a typical career. He was born in 1952 in Ivanovo,

  where he went to school. Then he attended the higher school for airborne

  troops in Ryazan, and he wears the uniform of the airborne forces. He

  commands a company in the Siberian military district. All very typical and

  familiar. At first glance. But he is Captain Roberto Rueda-Maestro -- not a

  very usual name for a Soviet officer.

  There is a mistake: the captain is not a gypsy. And if we study him

  more carefully we notice some other peculiarities. He is wearing the uniform