Convicts Recruited into the Russian Army

foreign ers in times of War Desperate Measures are sometimes needed to be taken and nations would turn to the criminal elements of society to swell the ranks of their Armed Forces whether coerced motivated by patriotism or by a sense of redemption or something darker those convicted of crimes have played an important role in Warfare even to the current day using incarcerated criminals to contribute to the war effort is nothing new with precedent going back to the ancient world and continuing well into the modern day usually prisoners would be utilized to work in factories on farms and other industrial establishments freeing up the men of fighting age for military service prison production facilities would be converted for military use with the inmates providing a readily available labor force during World War II prisons and their convict population would produce millions of tons of goods for the war effort and in 1941 alone American prisons produced 27 million dollars worth of equipment for military use with numbers increasing every year sometimes however they would take a more active role in combat positions during the first world war it soon became apparent to Great Britain that the small land forces available to them from their empire were not sufficient enough for a conflict of such an epic magnitude men from all walks of life entered into the military service as the whole of society was geared up to the war effort on an industrial scale the authorities soon realized that there were further resources that could be utilized as the Great War continued such as emptying the prisons of minor felons who could be given the choice between a prison cell or Frontline service throughout the history of the British Empire military service especially in the rank and file often had a significant amount of criminals vagabonds and other undesirable elements of society in it the Duke of Wellington famously referred to the soldiers of the British army during the Napoleonic era as the scum of the Earth by the first world war these attitudes had changed and the military was seen as an honorable profession but the precedent of using criminals remained there were still concerns however as it was believed that those with a tendency for unlawful Behavior lacked the moral character for the self-sacrifice needed for service or the discipline needed for the military to function properly still prisoners joined the ranks many of whom fought honorably and with distinction William Mariner for example won the Victoria Cross in 1915 for destroying the German Machine Gun Nest single-handedly even though before the war he was convicted of burglary in addition to gaining their freedom many prisoners would also be motivated by patriotism and a desire to redeem themselves in the eyes of their countrymen during the second world war American convicts were given the opportunity to serve in the armed forces in a combat capacity these men were Petty criminals who would receive an early parole and were quite often dishonorably discharged former servicemen who hope to recover their honor through combat those with life sentences or convicted of severe violent crimes would be excluded from this process in Oklahoma many incarcerated inmates appealed directly to President Franklin Roosevelt asking to be sent on particularly dangerous missions that's a job that would just suit us stated one man in a letter to Roosevelt speaking on behalf of his fellow inmates please help these men to redeem themselves in their own eyes as well as in the eyes of the world meanwhile thousands of miles away on the Eastern Front prisoners were also used on the front lines the Titanic struggled between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union required massive amounts of Manpower which were quickly being depleted due to the appalling attrition rates as the losses on both sides spiraled they both made extensive use of penal battalions these units would be made up of political prisoners criminals deserters and in the wake of Joseph Stalin's Infamous order 277 commonly known as the not one step back order soldiers who had retreated without orders or broke discipline due to cowardice or instability these men would be placed in the most difficult and hopeless situations or used on suicide missions where their lives were seen as expendable clearing minefields spearheading advances against enemy strongholds and other tasks that had a high mortality rate these men were seen as little more than cannon fodder a resource to be used and expended by their commanders as they saw fit the men however fought as a chance to redeem themselves in the Soviet box a soldier that was seriously wounded was seen to have paid for his sins with blood and was allowed to return to his previous life there were other darker reasons for using criminals on the front lines one of the challenges of turning civilians into soldiers is breaking a lifetime of social conditioning training the average person into someone who was willing to kill their fellow man and Performing other tasks that are unacceptable in peacetime Society one of the main functions of basic training is to rid the recruit of these Notions while many had concerns that the criminal's Nature Made Them unsuited for combat roles as they lacked the required discipline and self-control many others argued that they made the perfect soldiers there would be no need to break their social conditioning as a willingness to cause harm to others was already a part of their nature or so it was believed many less scrupulous militaries took advantage of this deliberately placing those convicted of crimes into Frontline positions none were as Infamous as the dulwagner Brigade attached to the Waffen SS these men were drawn from German Germany's prison population their leader Oscar donfagna was a convicted criminal and rampant alcoholic who formed his Brigade on the express orders of Heinrich Himmler himself their mission was to hunt down and Destroy partisans operating in Nazi occupied Eastern Europe at first the unit was recruited from imprisoned poachers men whose skills would be useful in hunting down insurgents though over time more criminals would join their ranks regardless of the nature or severity of their crimes initially they were sent to the Lublin District in Poland a place reserved for deported Jews almost immediately the unit began its long history of atrocities with lootings arson assault and murder becoming almost a routine occurrence The Doodlebug number Brigade was then sent to Belarus where they began anti-partisan operations in order to combat the growing threat of these resistance Fighters the Brigade was heavily involved in creating dead zones where entire Villages and towns would be depopulated which meant either being killed or moved on to concentration camps during their operations the Brigade is reported to have killed 15 000 people in a 15-month period many of them being partisans but no doubt the majority were civilians though any official report failed to mention any distinction between the two groups one of their favorite tactics was to round up civilians and force them into Barns and then set the building on fire anyone who tried to escape would be shot by the men waiting outside they were also utilized in 1944 to put down the Warsaw Uprising where once again they used indiscriminate violence murdering assaulting and abusing civilians and combatants alike participating in the infamous vola Massacre where between 40 and 50 000 poles were killed the men of the dilwagner Brigade were selected not for their abilities but rather their anti-social personalities which suited the Nazi government's aims perfectly using prisoners to fight is a practice that continues to this day as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues on the formers allegedly tapping into its prison population to fill the ranks of the army recently footage has been leaked of jagevny pagosan the alleged leader of the Wagner group who was seen visiting several Russian prisons offering the inmates their freedom and a pardon for their crimes in exchange for a six-month term with the organization the Wagner group is a private military contractor with close ties to Vladimir Putin and is reported to have operations in Africa Georgia and Ukraine according to one prisoner who was approached anyone willing to fight Ukraine will be allowed to regardless of the crimes he committed and the only restriction being the physical fitness of the inmate he then went on to state that once in Ukraine the prisoners will be allowed to act with complete impunity there he continued stating that prison turns you into an animal their hands will be untied there spite of the promise of Freedom pregosian made it clear that the men were not likely to survive much like the penal battalions of the Soviet Union the men drawn from prisons would be considered Expendable he promised we would be free if we fought for six months but he warned that few of us would come back stated One inmate another said he wasn't trying to sweet talk us he said we were going to hell there are reports that prisoners are not only joining Wagner but also the regular Russian military according to one NGO an alleged 11 000 convicted criminals have agreed to join the military as the war in Ukraine continues to drag on Russian prison population has been utilized to plug some holes in order to make up for Manpower shortfalls being employed in combat roles but also on logistical support duties such as trench digging and construction while this move has faced some controversy pregosian has stated that it's better for criminals to be sent to the front lines over civilians as either them or your children decide for yourself while some of these criminals who have been sent there have been effective in combat others were less than enthusiastic there have been reports of former inmates who have surrendered to Ukrainian authorities at the earliest opportunity using service in the Wagner group or the Russian regular military as a way to achieve freedom from the brutal conditions in Russian prisons and not for any ideological or patriotic reasons whether on the home front or the battlefield a nation's incarcerated population of convicted criminals will no doubt be utilized again as a readily available source of Manpower in the conflicts of the future

Channel: Simple History

Views: 482,667

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, Prisoners Were Used as Soldiers, Prisoners as soldiers, convicts as soldiers, Duke of Wellington, William Mariner, Oklahoma, President Franklin Roosevelt, Eastern front, Order 277, Oskar Dirlwagner, Dirlwagner brigade, Wagner, battlefield, ww2, ww1

Id: ApxMBwsRYMY

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 20 2022