Low Morale Cited in Red Army Units

Morale has been low in many Red Army units in Afghanistan, with widespread instances of ethnic friction, suicides, drug use and murders of officers by their own troops, according to a study released Monday by the RAND Corp.

The study, conducted for the U.S. Army before the start of the Soviet withdrawal, said at least 100 soldiers are known to have deserted. It found that “the war in Afghanistan has shown that ethnic cleavages in the Soviet armed forces continue to be deep,” particularly between Muslims and ethnic Russians and other Slavs.

However, the author, Alex Alexiev, cautioned that many of the Red Army’s problems stemmed specifically from the Afghan situation and “would not be likely to play much of a role in other war scenarios.”

Indeed, Alexiev found much good news for the Kremlin during his research, which included interviews with 35 Soviet military defectors who had served in Afghanistan and a review of more than 300 articles published in the Soviet press since the 1979 invasion.

“Soviet military performance in Afghanistan showed improvement, particularly in its counterinsurgency dimension, as long as air dominance was maintained,” Alexiev wrote.

Many analysts say that U.S-made Stinger and British-made Blowpipe anti-aircraft weapons, which were shipped to the Muslim guerrillas starting in 1986, denied the Soviets command of the air, turned the war around and forced the withdrawal, which began May 15.

RAND said morale problems among the occupation troops appeared to stem from three main sources: the high number of convicted criminals among draftees, friction between Muslims and Slavs and the brutality of officers and older enlisted men toward recruits.

Many Soviet officers volunteered to serve in Afghanistan because it meant higher pay, swifter promotion and such benefits as guaranteed entrance into prestigious military academies, the report found. Many draftees, it said, volunteered for Afghanistan as a way to avoid prison.

The problem of “fragging,” or the murder of officers, often with fragmentation grenades, stemmed from the cruelty often shown toward new enlisted men, the report said. Half the former Soviet soldiers interviewed by RAND said they defected because of the brutality.

Many soldiers in the occupation forces are of the same ethnic background as the Afghans, such as Tajiks, Turkomen and Uzbeks, and often engaged in brawls with the Russians, RAND reported.

The report also said, “There is good reason to believe that a majority, perhaps even a substantial majority, of Soviet forces (in Afghanistan) use drugs on a fairly regular basis.”

RAND Corp. is a private think tank based in Santa Monica, Calif.