Why So Many Russians Volunteer for the Deadly War in Ukraine?

What drives Russians into the war in Ukraine?

To understand why Russians continue to enter the war in Ukraine despite heavy losses, it’s essential to grasp one crucial aspect. This requires some historical knowledge and an understanding of the cause-effect relationships shaped by the Russian mentality.

For decades, Russians were taught in school that the USSR was the main victorious country in World War II and that the Soviet people, mainly Russians, had overthrown Hitler’s Nazism.

A Russian citizen grew up on heroic tales of Soviet Russian heroes of World War II. I put it in a simple example: while Swedes in the 1950s-70s were inventing useful things for living, Russians were passionately reading the feats of the Soviet WWII heroes Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Alexander Matrosov, and the Panfilov division.

I was born in 1981 and grew up in a small town in northern Ukraine. Nine years of my life, I was raised in the Ukrainian SSR. I remember my school years, teachers, and first primer well.

“Ukraine is not Russia,” as the country’s second president, Leonid Kuchma, once wrote in his book. And he was right. Yet at the same time, it’s impossible to ignore the deep imprint left by Moscow’s elite on the Ukrainian SSR — the result of more than 300 years of Russian dominance long before the Soviet Union was even established.

Now, back to my first primer, the first book I read as a Soviet Ukrainian pupil at school. The book’s central theme revolved around the childhood and youth of a diligent boy, Volodya Ulyanov. The one known in history as Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary leader who overthrew the Russian tsar and established a new state order.

Every primary school pupil dreamed of growing up like Volodya Ulyanov and later, by the fifth grade, being inducted into the Young Pioneers (Scouts). Helping the elderly and collecting waste paper was a true and indisputable authority of a Pioneer.

Pioneer Organization (Scouting) was a mass communist organization in the USSR for children aged 10 to 15. There was also a communist unit for children 7-9 years old called Oktyabryata.

It was like a preparation stage before they could join the Pioneer Organization.

Soviet Childhood Shaped by WWII Heroic Tales

I joined the Oktyabryata in the fourth grade of primary school, but didn’t become a Pioneer member. In 1991, when I was 9, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and Ukraine became independent. Pioneers and Communist ideology were canceled.

Yet, I vividly remember history lessons. Our teacher was passionate about World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, as it was called in the Soviet Union and still is in the Russian Federation.

Wake me up in the middle of the night at my 42 years, and I’ll recite from memory the Barbarossa plan – Directive # 21 of December 18, 1940. Hitler’s sinister plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union. I will name the first cities where bombings occurred on June 22, 1941: Ukrainian cities – Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sevastopol, and the Lithuanian Kaunas.

Soviet Russian and Ukrainian children grew up on heroic stories of Soviet people’s feats against Nazi Germany. Hence, for decades, the image of a soldier-hero was nurtured in the minds of millions of boys.

Back in Soviet times, boys loved playing a “war game” (“voynushka” in Russian). The game involved splitting into two teams, with the leaders drawing straws to decide who would be the “Whites” or “Germans”, that is, the bad side, and who would be the “Reds” or “Russians”, the good side.

These games often turned into neighborhood competitions, challenging boys from nearby courtyards. They used all sorts of “weapons,” from plastic toy guns to wooden handmade pistols.

The Cult of War: How Russians Perceive Soldiers and Conflict

For Russians, a man who went through the war automatically becomes a hero, regardless of his life before or after the war. War veterans occupy the highest rung of society, receiving respect, honors, benefits, and privileges.

Dying as a war hero is seen as even more noble – the widow gets money from the state, children get free university education, and a tall monument with a star adorns the hero’s grave – with the inscription: “We remember, mourn, and love our hero.”

Russia and its citizens, raised on legends of the military feats of Soviet World War II heroes, know no other values than being heroes returning alive from war.

The current war that Russia has started in Ukraine has shown one terrifying concept – for Russians, it doesn’t matter if it is a war to protect their homeland or be an aggressor. Like they did with the invasion of Georgia, Chechnya, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Russians don’t differentiate these fundamentally opposing concepts. 

For Russians, war is a chance to achieve a higher standard of living, earn money, escape poverty, and take their family on exotic trips. They can also buy a new car and pay off debts.

But this is just one category of Russians eagerly going to war in Ukraine nowadays.

The Indoctrinated Generation: How 1990s Russian Youth View the World and War

There’s also a younger generation — those who were children in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and who grew up in the Russian Federation.

In school, they were taught that Russia is the largest and most powerful country in the world, that every American secretly dreams of seeing Russia destroyed and enslaved, and that Europe is a decadent place where, as the propaganda goes, people are “born gay.”

Thus, America is evil, and Europe is doubly evil because, for Russians, being gay is the worst fate.

These people aren’t particularly interested in the history of Russia’s relations with neighboring countries. They know Ukraine as a bordering country with a common 2295 km border. They know that Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire for 300 years.

And that their state’s leadership started a war in 2022 to seize more Ukrainian territories doesn’t amaze them much. These people might not even have a strong opinion about this war. They certainly lack sympathy for Ukrainians, but don’t have specific hatred towards them either.

In school, they were taught that Ukraine and Russia were once one country and that Ukrainians and Russians are the same Slavic people, with Ukrainian being a derivative dialect of the great Russian language.

So, why not bring the rebellious brother back into the family?

Thus, they easily enlist to fight in Ukraine, indifferent to killing Ukrainians or other nations, believing it’s all for the homeland and the good money they can earn.

The typical Russian PoWs captured in Ukraine fit this profile – often jobless or an alcoholic from the provinces or someone in dire financial straits, aged 30-47. 

Their choice is simple: remain in their village and die an inglorious alcoholic in poverty, or go to war in Ukraine, earn money, and return a hero. 

What will the average Russian citizen choose? No doubt, the second option.

Payouts to Russian Military Personnel Enlisted in SVO

Let’s take a look at some digits. 

I did some research in Russian, and here is the information on the salaries of military personnel after enlisting in a Special Military Operation (SVO) – this is what Russians call the Russia-Ukraine war.

While looking through the following amounts, please keep in mind these statistics –

The median salary in Russia in February 2023 was 42,024 RUB per month (≈ 473 USD).

Payments to the Russian military personnel who participate in the Special Military Operation (SVO):

• 60% of Russian regions offer volunteers enlisted in the war more than 1 million rubles for signing a contract. (≈ 10,317 USD)
• Contract military personnel – from 210,000 RUB per month (≈ 2,364 USD), plus a one-time payment of 195,000 RUB (≈ 2,215 USD).
• Mobilized military personnel – from 195,000 RUB per month (≈ 2,215 USD).

Additional payments:

• from 50,000 RUB up to 1 million RUB for the destruction or seizure of enemy weapons and military equipment; 
• 8,000 RUB daily for participation in active offensive operations; 
• 50,000 RUB for every kilometer of advance as part of assault troops.

Wounded soldiers are entitled to 3 million rubles (≈ 30,953 USD)

The family of the deceased SVO participant receives a one-time 5 million RUB payment (≈ 56,275 USD).

We can see how essentially high the payments for the Russian war conscripts are.

Let’s take a look at the benefits and social guarantees that Russian war conscripts and their families have:

• purchasing housing at the expense of the Russian Ministry of Defense; 
• free treatment and rehabilitation in military medical institutions;
• life and health insurance at the expense of the federal budget;
• the right to a preferential pension after 20 years of service;
• combat veteran status and related benefits and payments;
• deferment of loan payments;

For the family:

• free universities studying for their children;
• free recreation for children in summer health camps;
• payments to family members of the survivor’s pensions in the amount of 50% of the military personnel’s allowance;
• repayment of loans issued by deceased military personnel and their spouses.

From July 2023 to June 2024, payments to Russian military personnel involved in the war with Ukraine, as well as to wounded soldiers and the families of those killed, may have amounted to between 2.75 and 3 trillion rubles, according to estimates by the Re:Russia project.

From Poverty to “Heroism”: The Real Motivations Behind Russian Soldiers

Now, we do not doubt that this war is an income source for millions of Russian families who could barely make ends meet before this bloodthirsty, inhuman war. In addition to that, the glory of war heroes haunts the minds of Russian men. After all, one can become a real hero, receive medals, a lot of money, social benefits, and respect from the neighbors.

While anti-Ukrainian state propaganda in Russia plays a role, it’s not the main factor. It merely has an additional impact on the Russians who decided to enlist in the war in Ukraine after being brainwashed for dozens of years.

It’s not the imperial ambitions of the Kremlin spewing from TV screens 24/7 that drive Russians to war. 

They go to this war VOLUNTARILY with basic and straightforward needs – to earn good money, become war heroes, and finally, live decent lives if they come back alive, of course.

About the author:

Hello and welcome! My name is Victoria, and I’m a private tour guide in Kyiv. Since 2016, I have been offering private tours on various topics for visitors to the capital of Ukraine. I speak fluent English and love sharing stories. When not guiding, I write about Ukraine on my blog and my travel experiences and insights in Sweden and the Baltics.