Russian soldiers often use drugs while fighting against Ukrainian soldiers. Photo/Sputnik
MOSCOW – There is no denying that drugs are doping used by Russian soldiers on the battlefield. Apart from reducing fear and pain when shot, drugs can also be an encouragement for soldiers to remain brave.
A May report from the Royal United Service Institute quoted Ukrainian military personnel as saying soldiers Russia those they encountered often appeared to be “under the influence of amphetamines or some other narcotic substance.” It is an observation that Ukrainian soldiers have made several times over the past year.
But it’s been said that Russian troops being drugged in Ukraine is just the latest in a long history of global militaries seeking to enhance the performance of their troops on the battlefield by any chemical means necessary. It was a tactic most famously used by Nazi Germany during the World War. II.
Norman Ohler, author of “Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich,” studied rare archival documents and spoke with first-hand witnesses to debate his 2015 book thesis: The drug – more specifically, a low-dose pharmaceutical pill similar to a modern drug. The drug fueled the Third Reich and played a major role in the early success of the German army’s blitzkrieg across Europe.
“Drugs often play a role,” Ohler told Insider of wartime strategy. “But the Nazis took it to another level and were really successful because of their drug use, which they probably wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
Here are 3 reasons Russian soldiers use drugs.
1. Learn from the Experience of Nazi Germany
Photo/Sputnik
The “miracle meth” pill, as Nazi Germany called it, was developed in the country in the late 1930s and hit the market as Pervitin, an over-the-counter drug that quickly took the country by storm. Small doses, equivalent to about three milligrams of modern crystal methamphetamine, Ohler says, make people more alert and happier.
Soldiers were supplied with Pervitin because the drug withstood the “first real military test” when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, according to a TIME report. The swift advance on Poland cemented Pervitin’s success and introduced a new form of Nazi warfare known as blitzkrieg, characterized by swift, surprising, and mechanized attacks on unsuspecting enemy troops.
“It allowed the Germans to blitzkrieg in the West. They didn’t need to sleep once they started attacking,” Ohler said. “They attacked through France and Belgium and Holland, fearless, not stopping, while the British and French troops were sleeping.”
2023-08-19 13:30:59
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