- 2 days ago
Why do Russians trade their lives for a war they don’t understand—and a car they’ll never own?
👉 What happens when Russia’s war ends—and the soldiers come home? The truth may shock you: https://youtu.be/QTQwzULbO7Q&playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
One of my subscribers asked me: “Why don’t Russians value their own lives? Why are they willing to die in a war they don’t even understand?” In this video, I'll explain why they voluntarily go to war and why they are willing to sell their lives and health for the price of a moderately expensive car.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Why Do Russians Sacrifice Their Lives So Easily?
00:47 The People Who Had Never Seen the World
04:57 The War Changed Everything—For Some
06:55 The Life That Breeds Soldiers
09:39 The Worlds That Never Collide
12:41 The Realities of War
15:22 Why Commanders Don’t Build a Better Army
👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/
MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES
➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War) https://amzn.to/43PutaM
➡️ The White Ghosts' Empire (a historical novel abou
👉 What happens when Russia’s war ends—and the soldiers come home? The truth may shock you: https://youtu.be/QTQwzULbO7Q&playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
One of my subscribers asked me: “Why don’t Russians value their own lives? Why are they willing to die in a war they don’t even understand?” In this video, I'll explain why they voluntarily go to war and why they are willing to sell their lives and health for the price of a moderately expensive car.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Why Do Russians Sacrifice Their Lives So Easily?
00:47 The People Who Had Never Seen the World
04:57 The War Changed Everything—For Some
06:55 The Life That Breeds Soldiers
09:39 The Worlds That Never Collide
12:41 The Realities of War
15:22 Why Commanders Don’t Build a Better Army
👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/
MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES
➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War) https://amzn.to/43PutaM
➡️ The White Ghosts' Empire (a historical novel abou
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00One of my subscribers asked me,
00:02why don't Russians value their own lives?
00:06Why are they willing to die in a war they don't even understand?
00:11Technology has advanced to the point
00:14where we can witness these senseless attacks in near real time,
00:20seeing Russian soldiers move forward like characters in a video game,
00:25only to be mowed down.
00:28My name is Alvira Berry.
00:30I am an author born in the USSR,
00:32and today I will explain the mindset of these people,
00:37why they voluntarily go to war
00:39and why they are willing to sell their lives and health
00:43for the price of a moderately expensive car.
00:52To understand how Russians perceive life
00:55and how much value they place on it,
00:58we first need to understand the conditions they live in.
01:03By 2022, at the start of the war in Ukraine,
01:0841% of Russians claimed to have traveled abroad.
01:12But there is a catch.
01:13With an internal passport,
01:16Russian citizens can only visit a handful of former Soviet republics like Armenia and Belarus.
01:22To travel beyond that, they need a separate international passport,
01:27which only 29% of Russians actually possess.
01:31That means the vast majority have never set foot outside Russia.
01:37Their knowledge of the West comes through translations,
01:41primarily movies, books, and news reports filtered through the lens of state propaganda.
01:46They don't speak foreign languages.
01:50Only about 20% of Russians know even basic English,
01:54barely more than hello and goodbye.
01:56Most have no idea how to use Google Translate to find independent sources of information.
02:02But the biggest difference is not language or travel.
02:06It's poverty.
02:08Most Russians are far poorer than people in Western Europe or the US,
02:12and this shapes everything – their worldview, priorities, and opportunities.
02:17In my hometown, Nizhny Novgorod, earning $1,000 a month is considered a great salary.
02:25A teacher makes $500 a month.
02:27An engineer's pension is $250.
02:32Think about that.
02:34Imagine surviving day after day, year after year on these wages.
02:39A luxury three-bedroom apartment in downtown Nizhny Novgorod costs around $250,000.
02:45A modest apartment in a less prestigious area is about $50,000.
02:51But these are prices in a city of 1.2 million people, a major urban center.
02:58Most Russians, however, don't live in big cities.
03:01They live in small towns and villages where salaries of $300 or $400 a month are the norm.
03:09And their costs are often higher.
03:12Because they must travel to larger cities for medical care, building materials, car services, etc.
03:19Housing in these small towns is shockingly cheap.
03:23An apartment can cost as little as $5,000, maybe $10,000.
03:29But the condition of these homes is another story.
03:34Much of the housing stock is crumbling Soviet-era construction.
03:38Infrastructure is failing and utilities frequently shut off.
03:44Finding good teachers or doctors is nearly impossible.
03:48I once heard about a drunken pediatric surgeon who showed up intoxicated for work every day.
03:55He was fired multiple times yet always reinstated because there were no other pediatric surgeons.
04:01Social problems in these towns are rarely solved because there's no money or specialist to fix them.
04:09It's hard to find jobs and almost impossible to build a career.
04:13Young people try to escape to bigger cities.
04:16But many end up in low-paying jobs as store clerks, construction workers or drivers.
04:22They rent shared apartments, living not with families but with roommates, just to afford the roof over their heads.
04:31The Russian world is inherently unjust.
04:35Your place in life and future opportunities are largely determined by where you were born.
04:41Growing up in Moscow is one experience.
04:44Living in Nizhny Novgorod, 440 km away, is another.
04:49And life in Yurkivets, Ivanova Obelest, a small depressed town, is something else entirely.
05:02Things have shifted since the war in Ukraine began, at least in towns with military factories.
05:08Salaries have skyrocketed.
05:11And big retailers are considering opening stores in small towns.
05:16They expect war-related industries to thrive even after the conflict ends.
05:21Russia is preparing for long-term confrontation with the world and businesses are betting on it.
05:28But in towns without military or resource-based industries,
05:33The local economy depends entirely on government salaries paid to bureaucrats, teachers and retirees.
05:40These places are aging, decaying and emptying out, with few opportunities to those who stay.
05:47And yet, even in these towns, almost everyone has a smartphone.
05:53They spend hours online, watching how others live.
05:57They see the chasm between their lives and those of successful people.
06:01People who buy their kids iPhones, vacation in Turkey and Thailand,
06:05drive new cars and build vacation homes.
06:08They understand that they will never have that life.
06:13They don't even have the tools to change their fate.
06:16And for many, this isn't just an economic divide.
06:21It's also an ethnic divide.
06:24Many of the poorest communities are in Russia's national republics,
06:28places where people don't look like ethnic Russians and speak Russian with an accent.
06:34And the great Russian world is in no rush to embrace them.
06:39They are outsiders in their own country, poor, isolated and without a future.
06:45And when a recruiter offers a chance to fight, to earn money, to matter, what other choice do they have?
06:59Most of the people who go to the Ukrainian war aren't brainwashed fanatics.
07:04They are men who see no other way out.
07:08For them, life itself is cheap because it has never been worth much to begin with.
07:14Imagine this.
07:15You are a 30-year-old man living in a small Siberian settlement.
07:21Most of the population consists of elderly women,
07:24leftovers from their 1960s when they arrived to build socialism and never left.
07:29There are no jobs.
07:31The houses are falling apart, but you can't sell them because no one wants to buy.
07:36The men drink.
07:37Half have been to prison.
07:38No one has the money to live.
07:40There is only one school and you can guess the level of education there.
07:46The nearest hospital is 40 km away in the district center,
07:51where medical care is stuck in the 1960s, if not worse.
07:55Every person craves respect.
07:58In places like this, patriotism is not just a political tool.
08:02It's a lifeline.
08:04When your own life feels worthless, being part of a great and powerful country
08:09is the only way to feel like you matter.
08:12Men especially need to feel needed, to be seen as providers and protectors
08:16by the women and children around them.
08:19Now imagine that every day, TV and social media bombard you with one message.
08:25You have a chance to change your fate.
08:29You see strong, heroic men in military uniforms.
08:33They look powerful.
08:34They call you to join them.
08:36They promise adventure, honor and money, huge money by your standards.
08:41You don't know what a Ukrainian Nazi is.
08:44And you don't care.
08:45You've never met one.
08:46You just want to become a hero.
08:48To finally earn the respect of your family.
08:51To stop being a drunken nobody and instead become part of the elite
08:55that the television keeps talking about.
08:58Are you afraid of dying or being crippled?
09:01You try not to think about it.
09:03You don't want to ruin the dream before it even begins.
09:07If nothing changed, you'd probably end up dead or crippled anyway
09:11just from living the life you already have.
09:15Besides, people like you never learn to think ahead.
09:19No one taught you how.
09:20Not your parents.
09:21Not your teachers.
09:23Decision-making is a skill.
09:25And for generations, the Russian state has systematically crashed it.
09:29For men like you, war is a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
09:34A social elevator that would finally lift you out of poverty.
09:44Among my childhood friends from Nizhny Novgorod, not a single one went to war.
09:50But I grew up in a different world.
09:53My friends either immigrated or became highly paid professionals.
09:58Some even work in government.
10:00But my friend Lena, her world is completely different.
10:03She knows many people who went to war.
10:06Two of her cousins are already dead in Ukraine.
10:09Others are wounded, missing or deserters.
10:12Lena was born in a small town near the Belarusian border.
10:16And the life she describes is unimaginable to me.
10:20In her town, violent crimes is not shocking.
10:24Going to prison is just part of life.
10:26Almost all men drink.
10:29Some are already full-blown alcoholics.
10:31Others just drink a few beers every day.
10:34No one cares about a healthy lifestyle.
10:37Men die 15-20 years younger than women.
10:40Seatbells?
10:41No one wears them.
10:43Safety regulations?
10:45Ignored.
10:46Smoking?
10:46Normal.
10:47Drugs?
10:48A common pastime.
10:49In Lena's stories, death is always present.
10:52Someone fell off a roof and broke their neck.
10:55Someone drowned.
10:56Someone got into a fight and died.
10:58She doesn't even realize how horrifying this sounds.
11:01Because for her it's normal.
11:03This way of life didn't appear overnight.
11:06Under the Soviets, and before that, under the Tsars, a village man's fate was the same.
11:12He was powerless, unable to provide a better life for his family, and dreaming of an escape.
11:18For generations, military service was that escape.
11:22It was still a way out.
11:24At the very least, it meant seeing the world beyond your village.
11:28It's important to know that not all Russian soldiers in Ukraine ended up there out of
11:33desperation or poverty.
11:34Lena, my friend, knows a man who was a high-ranking factory manager in her hometown.
11:40His wife cheated on him, and he decided to go to war to get revenge.
11:45Not on Ukrainians.
11:47He had nothing personal against them.
11:50But on his wife.
11:51If he died, she would regret it.
11:54If he survived, he would return home with a fortune and she would regret it even more.
12:00In this world, moral arguments don't exist.
12:03Right and wrong only apply to their own.
12:07Strangers are irrelevant, automatically seen as enemies.
12:11I have an entire video on how in Russia black has become white
12:15and morality has been turned upside down.
12:18Watch it if you want to understand more.
12:20Of course, there are also Korea soldiers, nationalists who dream of fighting for the
12:25Russian world, and conscripts, 18 to 20-year-old boys forced to serve under the law.
12:32Officially, conscripts should only be stationed in the rear.
12:37But in reality, some of them are thrown to their front lines.
12:46When Russian officers receive recruits like this,
12:49they know full well that they will never become real soldiers.
12:54At least not in the time frame the high commanders demand.
12:58Most of the soldiers aren't physically strong or particularly healthy
13:02because health care and sports facilities in Russia's rural areas are terrible.
13:07So, how do they make up for this?
13:10Human wave attacks.
13:13Soldiers are expendable.
13:15Throw them forward, count the bodies and request more.
13:19They advance only because there are so many of them.
13:22While the Ukrainians are few, the casualties are catastrophic.
13:26Why do they keep going forward?
13:28Because the Russian army has perfected the art of persuading.
13:33Its methods mirror those of the Gulag, where prisoners were broken into submission.
13:39I have an entire video on this, be sure to watch it.
13:43The army is divided into unofficial casts.
13:46Privileged units, close to the commanders, supplied with decent food and safety.
13:52Expendables, cannon folder, whose only dupie is to die when ordered.
13:57Those at the top stay safe only as long as others keep marching forward.
14:01It's the same system as in Russian prisons, where high-ranking criminals brutalize others to
14:07maintain their own privileges.
14:09Soldiers who hesitate are shamed.
14:12You are letting your brothers down.
14:14You are covered.
14:15Everyone is a hero.
14:17Why are you a disgrace?
14:19Or they are beaten, robbed of their food and warm clothing, or outright executed.
14:25Sometimes, officers create punishment pits, a hole in the ground or a basement where
14:31disappearing soldiers are thrown and publicly humiliated.
14:35This torture ensures that others obey out of sheer horror.
14:39If you've watched Game of Thrones, think of Theon Greyjoy and Ramsay Bolton.
14:45No matter what Theon did, Ramsay always found new ways to dangle hope in front of him,
14:51only to rip it away, breaking him completely.
14:55That's how Russian officers break their men.
14:58A soldier can't go home.
15:00He can't refuse orders.
15:02He depends entirely on his commanders, who control his food, fuel, ammunition,
15:06and even his ability to call home.
15:08He has only two ways out.
15:10Don't get a serious but non-lethal wound and be evacuated.
15:15Or climb the ranks of brutality by tormenting your recruits and sending them to die in his place.
15:27Wouldn't Russian officers want a stronger, more effective army?
15:31Maybe.
15:32But they don't have the option.
15:34Moscow keeps sending them defective human material.
15:38They are ordered to produce quick results.
15:41And they don't have time for proper training.
15:44So they focus on survival and personal gain.
15:48Some loot.
15:49Some collaborate with drug dealers.
15:51Some sell weapons and fuel, arming criminal groups instead of their own men.
15:56And some sell the most valuable privilege of all – access to women.
16:02Prostitutes from across Russia have flooded military camps,
16:06making insane amounts of money.
16:09Lena's acquaintance, the man who joined the war to get revenge on his wife,
16:13told her that prostitutes earn $200 an hour.
16:17And soldiers gladly pay, knowing they might not live to see another day.
16:22Are there any exceptions?
16:24Probably.
16:25Some units may maintain a sense of humanity,
16:28especially in walls that require highly trained specialists rather than expandable bodies.
16:34And there must be resistance within the ranks.
16:38Some officers have surely been killed by their own men,
16:41but we'll never hear about it.
16:43It was a stray Ukrainian bullet.
16:46Oops.
16:47The system will continue as long as the war continues.
16:51Even after the war, not much will change,
16:53because this has always been the Russian army under the Tzors, under the Soviets, and now.
16:59If you found this video valuable, consider supporting my channel by giving a super thanks
17:04or clicking the join button.
17:06If you are interested in historical fiction about the Russian Civil War,
17:10check out my novel Russian Treasures on Amazon.
17:13It offers a deep look into the Russian way of waging war.
Comments