The social aspect of russian military culture: before and after the georgian war

The current academic piece ‘The Social Aspect of Russian Military Culture: before and after the Georgian war’ focuses on Russia‘s military from a different angle in contrast to most popular accounts. This work primarily studies Russian military culture, more specifically, its post-Georgian War transformation. While most academics examine the change of military power in terms of technological, strategic, or tactical advantages, very few authors analyse the social evolution in the Russian military. What is more, most of those analyses had been produced before the Russo-Georgian War hence presenting a somewhat outdated picture of the Russian Army. The main aim of this paper is therefore to determine whether there have been any visible changes in the country’s military culture and military ethics and if so, how those changes affected Russia’s military and its relationship with the civil society. The current study also attempts to challenge the dominant view on the Russian military culture that denies occurrences of any significant transformations since the collapse of the Russian Empire. The discussion starts by providing a suitable theoretical approach, definitions, and causes of military culture and military ethics. As stated in the paper, military culture is a complex subject, which forms the professional ethos of a soldier and military in general, becoming not only a rule to abide by but also embedded in culture of the nation. Afterwards, the discussion goes on towards a theoretical approach for the research and examines two theories of a professional soldier developed by Samuel Huntington and Morris Janowitz. These are supported by a theory of principal-agent, adjusted to comply with a civil-military relations theory by Peter Feaver. The given theoretical matrix is completed by Dima Adamsky and his culturally sensitive theory of strategic patience of the Russian society and military in particular. In the process of the research, the study finds some significant transformations of the Russian military culture – thus dismissing the dominant approach towards it described earlier – and therefore achieves the aim of finding some meaningful evidence of military culture’s dynamism. The findings suggest that the shock of the Georgian War has finally managed to move Russian military culture towards modernisation and make it more professional in terms of what has been described by the theories used in the research process. Even more significant is the conclusion of this paper that suggests that such authors as D. Adamsky and others have become irrelevant in the context of Russia’s current military culture and its relationship with the civil society. The study also recommends rethinking and analysing carefully the ongoing changes in the Russian military and culture before making any forecasts of the country’s political course domestically and internationally