Simon Roberts // PHOTOGRAPHY / Russian Army
The Russian army is one of the most problematic and intriguing cornerstones of Russian society. As an institution, it functions almost as a microcosm of Russian society, facing the same challenges of social inequality, corruption, human rights abuses and financial and political uncertainty.
The Red Army’s victory over the Nazis in World War II is still celebrated with great pomp every year in towns and cities across Russia. Russian television programmes regularly idealise military life, portraying soldiers as glamorous heroes, partly in an attempt to lend some credibility to the national programme of compulsory conscription. Yet every year some 40,000 troops desert, approximately 200 soldiers commit suicide annually and new conscripts are paid as little as £1 a month. Many soldiers remain traumatized by the memory of the treatment they received at the hands of their dedovshchinas, or the ‘rule of the grandfathers,’ the nickname given to second-year conscripts who bully new recruits.
After fifteen years in the doldrums, new funds are pouring into the military as the Kremlin surfs a wave of energy dollars. This series of photographs were taken between 2004-2008 in Russian army bases across the country, from Moscow to Chechnya, and in the disputed territory of Abkhazia.
