SOCIETY
Russian Soldiers’ Wives Put in Charge of Husbands’ Psychological Care
September 26, 2024
Vladimir RuvinskyJournalist
Journalist Vladimir Ruvinsky points out that despite the growing number of cases of violence by men returning from the war in Ukraine, the problem of post-traumatic stress disorder in Russia receives very little attention. Instead, psychologists are busy developing recommendations for veterans’ wives.
The original piece in Russian was published in the Moscow Times. A slightly amended version is being republished here with editors’ permission.
At the end of summer, a list of recommendations was released for the wives of soldiers fighting in the war with Ukraine. This is far from the first such document since the full-scale invasion in 2022, but it is interesting – for starters – because of the context.
The Kremlin is concerned about rising aggression and violence among men coming home after fighting in Ukraine. It is a job requiring many qualified psychologists, but the state does not have enough.
At the end of summer, a list of recommendations was released for the wives of soldiers fighting in the war with Ukraine. This is far from the first such document since the full-scale invasion in 2022, but it is interesting – for starters – because of the context.
The Kremlin is concerned about rising aggression and violence among men coming home after fighting in Ukraine. It is a job requiring many qualified psychologists, but the state does not have enough.
Street of the ruined capital Grozny after the First Chechen war, 1994-96. Source: Wiki Commons
‘Repudiating hysteria’ around PTSD
Russian psychologists are well aware of the problems faced by veterans of what the Russian government calls a “special military operation.” Researchers in Russia claim that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is “very widespread,” and not only among soldiers but also the civilian population in areas where battles have been fought.
During the first and second Chechen wars, 31% of the population of Chechnya, including children and adolescents, had PTSD. Now, PTSD is being recorded just as widely in Ukraine (it is being treated there), and it is probably the same in Russia. Increased personal anxiety was reported by 58% of the population in Russia’s regions bordering Ukraine – before the Ukrainian army’s raid into Kursk Region.
Though researchers are trying to draw attention to the problem of PTSD, there are some lobbying for a law regulating psychological services – which could lead to the emergence of a rigid vertical structure in the field of psychology (including disclosing medical secrets) – and they are much louder. It is a big prize: the size of the Russian market for psychological services, according to various experts, is estimated at anywhere from RUB 60 billion up to RUB 176 billion.
Meanwhile, some pro-Kremlin experts claim there is no reason to worry about psychological trauma among soldiers who have fought in Ukraine, and those who say otherwise are alarmists or saboteurs, or both. For example, the rector of the East European Psychoanalytical Institute, Doctor of Psychological Sciences Mikhail Reshetnikov, believes that “the hysteria around the possible number of post-traumatic disorders that is being whipped up in the mass press needs to be repudiated.”
At the same time, the number of violent crimes committed by war veterans, including former convicts pardoned by Vladimir Putin, is growing in Russia. Still, convictions are low relative to the country’s size: about 200, though most of the army, about 600,000-700,000 people, is still in Ukraine.
There is also a special category of crimes committed by men returning from the war: beating (here, here and here) and murdering their own wives, children and female strangers. More than 100 Russians have already died at the hands of special military operation veterans.
Russian psychologists are well aware of the problems faced by veterans of what the Russian government calls a “special military operation.” Researchers in Russia claim that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is “very widespread,” and not only among soldiers but also the civilian population in areas where battles have been fought.
During the first and second Chechen wars, 31% of the population of Chechnya, including children and adolescents, had PTSD. Now, PTSD is being recorded just as widely in Ukraine (it is being treated there), and it is probably the same in Russia. Increased personal anxiety was reported by 58% of the population in Russia’s regions bordering Ukraine – before the Ukrainian army’s raid into Kursk Region.
Though researchers are trying to draw attention to the problem of PTSD, there are some lobbying for a law regulating psychological services – which could lead to the emergence of a rigid vertical structure in the field of psychology (including disclosing medical secrets) – and they are much louder. It is a big prize: the size of the Russian market for psychological services, according to various experts, is estimated at anywhere from RUB 60 billion up to RUB 176 billion.
Meanwhile, some pro-Kremlin experts claim there is no reason to worry about psychological trauma among soldiers who have fought in Ukraine, and those who say otherwise are alarmists or saboteurs, or both. For example, the rector of the East European Psychoanalytical Institute, Doctor of Psychological Sciences Mikhail Reshetnikov, believes that “the hysteria around the possible number of post-traumatic disorders that is being whipped up in the mass press needs to be repudiated.”
At the same time, the number of violent crimes committed by war veterans, including former convicts pardoned by Vladimir Putin, is growing in Russia. Still, convictions are low relative to the country’s size: about 200, though most of the army, about 600,000-700,000 people, is still in Ukraine.
There is also a special category of crimes committed by men returning from the war: beating (here, here and here) and murdering their own wives, children and female strangers. More than 100 Russians have already died at the hands of special military operation veterans.
“Chats of veterans’ wives are full of complaints about how their husbands returned from the special military operation different people, had become rude, abandoned their family, were drinking and were abusive.”
‘Do not sneak up on your husband from behind’
The guide on how wives should behave around their veteran husbands was developed by the Kazan-based project We Value Life (Tsenim zhizn’), headed by junior army medic Ilnar Zinnatullin. It is currently being given out to soldiers in Tatarstan and Chelyabinsk Region, but there are plans to distribute it throughout Russia – through the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University.
The guide’s authors include professional psychologists – apparently, they have come up with these rules. They come from a Moscow center for mental health services called Gagara, which, among other things, offers crisis counseling to “special military operation soldiers and their families.” Judging by the information on its site, its director previously worked at Rosatom and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
There are 12 rules given in the guide. For example, the authors advise wives not to sneak up on their husbands from behind (since the husband may interpret it as an enemy attack); to agree with their husbands about everything; and not to contradict or criticize him.
If you make any comments, then only in the voice of a loving wife – no teachy or preachy tone.
The guide on how wives should behave around their veteran husbands was developed by the Kazan-based project We Value Life (Tsenim zhizn’), headed by junior army medic Ilnar Zinnatullin. It is currently being given out to soldiers in Tatarstan and Chelyabinsk Region, but there are plans to distribute it throughout Russia – through the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University.
The guide’s authors include professional psychologists – apparently, they have come up with these rules. They come from a Moscow center for mental health services called Gagara, which, among other things, offers crisis counseling to “special military operation soldiers and their families.” Judging by the information on its site, its director previously worked at Rosatom and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
There are 12 rules given in the guide. For example, the authors advise wives not to sneak up on their husbands from behind (since the husband may interpret it as an enemy attack); to agree with their husbands about everything; and not to contradict or criticize him.
If you make any comments, then only in the voice of a loving wife – no teachy or preachy tone.
“The authors say: a woman should not succumb to negative emotions – she should react sympathetically ‘even to the slightest signs of irritation’ from her husband so there are no conflicts.”
And if the husband does not want to see a psychologist or psychotherapist – “a specialist should come to him.” The main message: you support him.
It turns out that if a man who has returned from the war commits violent acts against his family, beats his wife and children, it is not because there is something wrong with him – the woman is to blame – she is behaving incorrectly. This begs the question: who will support the wives?
If women were being publicly informed that many men come back from the war with severe psychological trauma, then they would understand that violence is not normal and help from a specialist should be sought out.
But the authors of the guide have a different view. Special military operation veterans must be supported psychologically (which heads off a rise of social discontent in society), so wives should bite their tongue. As in Domostroy, a Russian 16th-century set of household rules, women are to be kind, hardworking and quiet.
Hoodwinked by the government
Russian women are presented with a fait accompli: the government does not want to deal with special military operation veterans. The authors stipulate the option of “bringing home a psychologist,” but this is unrealistic. And if PTSD is not treated, over time it will make life in the family unbearable.
Hardly all Russian psychologists agree with the recommendations. There is criticism in the press that the behaviors described in the guide are in fact symptoms of PTSD, which cannot be cured by patience and gentle treatment. Even a decade after the end of World War II in the USSR, veterans experienced anxiety, nightmares and excited delirium, and were often alcoholics.
In Russia, only 32% of women are for continuing the war with Ukraine (versus 52% of men). War inevitably has a detrimental effect on family relationships. There are husbands who have abandoned their families to go fight. There are wives who, motivated by money, have driven their husbands to go to Ukraine (they were lucky to come back alive). The authorities have forbidden wives from complaining publicly.
It turns out that if a man who has returned from the war commits violent acts against his family, beats his wife and children, it is not because there is something wrong with him – the woman is to blame – she is behaving incorrectly. This begs the question: who will support the wives?
If women were being publicly informed that many men come back from the war with severe psychological trauma, then they would understand that violence is not normal and help from a specialist should be sought out.
But the authors of the guide have a different view. Special military operation veterans must be supported psychologically (which heads off a rise of social discontent in society), so wives should bite their tongue. As in Domostroy, a Russian 16th-century set of household rules, women are to be kind, hardworking and quiet.
Hoodwinked by the government
Russian women are presented with a fait accompli: the government does not want to deal with special military operation veterans. The authors stipulate the option of “bringing home a psychologist,” but this is unrealistic. And if PTSD is not treated, over time it will make life in the family unbearable.
Hardly all Russian psychologists agree with the recommendations. There is criticism in the press that the behaviors described in the guide are in fact symptoms of PTSD, which cannot be cured by patience and gentle treatment. Even a decade after the end of World War II in the USSR, veterans experienced anxiety, nightmares and excited delirium, and were often alcoholics.
In Russia, only 32% of women are for continuing the war with Ukraine (versus 52% of men). War inevitably has a detrimental effect on family relationships. There are husbands who have abandoned their families to go fight. There are wives who, motivated by money, have driven their husbands to go to Ukraine (they were lucky to come back alive). The authorities have forbidden wives from complaining publicly.
A women's picket outside of the Ministry of Defense to bring mobilized men home. June 2024. Source: Wiki Commons
The Way Home (Put’ Domoy) project, where wives of soldiers are trying to bring their husbands home, has been labeled a “foreign agent” by the government. Its members, whose husbands are at war, have been fined and lost their jobs. In the Duma, domestic abuse is called “brainwashing… from America and England.”
Concerned about declining birth rates, the Kremlin has been actively encouraging women to give birth at younger ages and have more children (see Russia.Post about here). In Perm Region, the authorities have even introduced an additional payment of approximately RUB 128,000 ($1,412) for a child fathered by someone who served in Ukraine.
P.S. In late September, Verstka estimated that since the beginning of the war, about 500 people have fallen victim to special military operation veterans: at least 242 people have been murdered, with another 227 sustaining life-threatening serious injuries. Among war veterans, former convicts who were recruited into the army are the most likely to murder and commit crimes against women. For having served in Ukraine, the perpetrators of these crimes have their punishment softened. – Russia.Post
Concerned about declining birth rates, the Kremlin has been actively encouraging women to give birth at younger ages and have more children (see Russia.Post about here). In Perm Region, the authorities have even introduced an additional payment of approximately RUB 128,000 ($1,412) for a child fathered by someone who served in Ukraine.
P.S. In late September, Verstka estimated that since the beginning of the war, about 500 people have fallen victim to special military operation veterans: at least 242 people have been murdered, with another 227 sustaining life-threatening serious injuries. Among war veterans, former convicts who were recruited into the army are the most likely to murder and commit crimes against women. For having served in Ukraine, the perpetrators of these crimes have their punishment softened. – Russia.Post
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