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This text initially appeared at The Winery of the Saker
What I need to share with you at the moment is a promo film by Zvezda TV, the semi-official TV channel of the Russian Ministry of Protection, on the event of the eighty fifth anniversary of the Russian Airborne Forces. So don’t count on a hard-hitting documentary asking the powerful questions and making vital feedback.
Nevertheless, that is nonetheless a very fascinating video and after I noticed it, I begged Alena Scarecrow and Tatzhit to translate and subtitle it, which they very kindly did. Earlier than letting you watch the video, I wish to share with you a couple of ideas concerning the Russian Airborne Forces (known as ‘VDV’ in Russian) and about their navy, social, political and even religious position in fashionable Russia.
The Russian Airborne Forces
The Russian VDV are really a fully distinctive phenomenon and so they shouldn’t be confused with every other airborne power.
For one factor, the VDV are absolutely mechanized. So whereas they’re ‘paratroopers’, these paratroopers usually are not simply gentle infantry (like, say, the US 82nd AB), however a really cell power, absolutely mechanized and with a *lot* of firepower. Within the film you might be about to look at, you will notice a few of their armored automobiles and artillery items which, uniquely, can be delivered by parachute. What the film doesn’t present is the artillery of the VDV which incorporates such methods because the 2S9 Nona, the D-30 howitzer or the 2S25 self-propelled tank destroyer.
Second, the VDV are a numerically big power which at present totals 50’000 males and contains 5 Airborne Divisions and 6 Airborne Brigades (together with the forty fifth Particular Forces of the VDV Brigade). All of them air-deployable and on a top-level or readiness.
Thirdly, the VDV really are the embodiment of navy valor and tactical abilities and so they have performed a fully essential position in lots of Soviet and Russian battles, however most likely by no means extra so than through the worst tragedy of their lengthy historical past: the battle for Ulus-Kert wherein your entire sixth Airborne firm perished.
I don’t have the house and time to recount intimately what occurred on that day of early 2000 however to these inquisitive about this wonderful occasion I might advocate the article “ULUS-KERT: An Airborne Firm’s Final Stand” by Sergeant Michael D. Wilmoth, US Military Reserve, and Lieutenant Colonel Peter G. Tsouras, US Military Reserve, Retired, within the Army Assessment of July-August 1991, pp 91-96 (click on right here for this text reposted on this weblog). Take into account that this text was not written by the promotions division of Zvezda TV, however by two US navy consultants who’re very vital of many facets of what passed off that day (and rightly so).
What is completely essential for the understanding of the significance of this battle for Hill 776 in Ulus-Kert is that the yr 2000 marked absolutely the rock-bottom of the “democratic experiment” (aka the American colonization) of Russia. Sure, Putin has simply come to energy, however the nation was completely devastated by a decade of Soviet stagnation adopted by one other decade of “democratic reforms” and Putin was simply making his very first steps as a brand new head of state.
What the sixth firm achieved on Hill 776 was an immense wake-up name to your entire Russian nation saying “sufficient is sufficient” and “not one single step again”. The article by Wilmoth and Tsouras precisely describes all of the failures in command and execution which resulted within the tragedy of the sixth firm, however it’s exactly these failures which made the sacrifice of those males so wonderful: the nation had basically deserted its personal navy, however the younger males of the VDV didn’t hesitate to die, all of them, to withstand the face of evil (and, in these days, nothing embodied absolute evil as a lot because the Chechen Wahabis and their reign of terror and medieval atrocities).
It’s exhausting to over-estimate the contribution which the Russian Airborne Forces have made to the rebirth of Russia. However this goes even additional.
I strongly consider that it’s not a coincidence that the Russian Airborne Forces have even produced an Orthodox martyr and saint: Evgenii Aleksandrovich Rodionov. You may learn a brief abstract of the life and loss of life of Rodionov in the Wikipedia article underneath his identify.
What’s so vital concerning the case of Rodionov is that died as a martyr as a result of he refused to desert his Orthodox religion and that his podvig (religious feat) occurred away from all people at a time when, because the unhappy expression went, “each boy needed to change into a legal thug and each woman a prostitute” as folks used to say in 1996, within the midst of the “democratic hell” Russia had change into.
Although I can’t show it, I’m personally deeply satisfied that the truth that Rodionov was a solider of the Airborne Forces just isn’t a coincidence. I’ve met sufficient Airborne officers and troopers myself and I do know that their stage of patriotism and religious consciousness is exceptionally excessive as a result of they dwell by an honor code, a perfect, which has it roots in essentially the most historical Russian navy traditions which have all the time been immersed in religious and ethical values far past simply profitable a battle.
Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that each one the troopers of the VDV are some sort of invincible saints or something like that. Removed from it. It is sufficient to see the footage of the sort of foolish drunken nonsense these guys show every August 2nd (the day of the Holy Prophet Elijah, Patron of the Russian Airborne Forces) to lose any such illusions:
However on the identical day, this additionally takes place:
And one actuality mustn’t overshadow the opposite one: they’re each equally Russian and equally typical of the VDV.
What I’m attempting for instance by all the above is that the Russian Airborne Forces are a fully distinctive, and uniquely Russian, phenomenon and that they’re a very formidable power by any measure. Now for a extra US-style promo film, with lot’s of high-tech {hardware} and “cool” pictures, please see the next video.
It can present you that the Russian VDV are additionally very fashionable and ahead wanting navy forces with over 85 years of growth behind their again. And, having watched that video, ask your self this straightforward query: how impressed to you assume these guys are with the brand new multi-national NATO “spearhead” and “speedy response” forces?
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