Man at war, historical and psychological essays. Man at war. Historical and psychological essays. From the diary of a gunner-radio operator

"Without understanding the phenomenon of war, which has become part of the flesh and blood of generations, one cannot understand the course of subsequent history, the mechanisms of social behavior, the change in people's feelings and moods" (43),

The researcher claims and devotes a number of pages of his monograph to the socio-psychological aspects of the war, which had a huge impact on the formation of the post-war atmosphere.

As for the works of other historians working in this direction, two books by the author - "1941-1945. Front generation. Historical and psychological research" (1995) and "A man at war. Historical and psychological essays" (1997) - to date are the only monographic studies devoted directly to the psychology of participants in armed conflicts, and the second of them is in a comparative historical aspect (44).

The situation was completely different in similar branches of foreign science, both military and civilian. Beginning with the classical school of the Annales, historical psychology has been actively developed in a number of directions (45). As for the military branch itself, even the special term "war mentality" appeared, denoting the state of mind in war time, wartime psychology. One of the methodological examples of this kind of research can be the work of the English historian Max Hastings "Operation Overlord": how the Second Front was opened, where the author recreates the psychological atmosphere of the Allied landings in Normandy on the basis of "oral history" materials. The works of his compatriots John Keegan and Richard Holmes are devoted to the place of the ordinary soldier in modern warfare: his training, motives, behavior in a combat situation, hopes and expectations, feelings of the wounded and shell-shocked, etc. There are other similar studies (46).

In general, the state of historiography allows us to conclude that although there are separate methodological and narrowly applied developments in related fields of knowledge, there are practically no historical and psychological studies on the topic of the monograph. However, without the use of historical science in the study of military psychological problems, the picture cannot be complete and accurate. Due to its specificity, historical science alone is able to fill a number of gaps that are formed in the development of these problems by others. scientific disciplines. First, it allows one to study these phenomena in historical dynamics, to compare psychological phenomena in different periods of history. Secondly, only this science makes it possible to study military psychology in the most complete social context - event, spiritual and ideological, material and technical, etc. Thirdly, it is historical science that has such specific research tools as source study - its special an industry focused on developing analysis methods historical sources, that is, all kinds of information relating to the past. Finally, historical science is not bound by the rigid subject limits of narrow scientific disciplines and is capable of synthesizing the techniques and methods of other sciences, including, in particular, military psychology and military sociology. There are also a number of other advantages of the historical study of the "psychology of war", which allow us to consider the results of the study not only in a narrow scientific sense, but focusing on practice, including developing practical advice, relying on the results of comparing various wars, determining the main trends in the evolution of psychological factors with the development of material and technical means of warfare, with changes in social conditions, etc.

Therefore, the formation of such a direction in historical science how "The Psychology of War in the 20th Century" can undoubtedly both expand the horizons of military knowledge, qualitatively supplementing its psychological and sociological perspectives, and push the boundaries of knowledge of the historical itself. The study of the psychology of Russian participants in armed conflicts in this context acquires special meaning, because the human factor is precisely the core, the essence of socio-psychological and spiritual phenomena.

Goals and objectives of the study

Obviously, without taking into account psychological factor it is impossible to adequately scientifically comprehend the latest national history, and not only "military", but also civil, as well as modernity. Understanding this determined the main directions of our research.

In this monograph, for the first time in historical science, the psychological component of the main armed conflicts of the 20th century is considered; its comparative historical analysis is given in the large and small wars waged by Russia (USSR) during this period; mainly sources introduced into scientific circulation for the first time are used; substantiates and applies the methodology developed by the author for a comparative historical study of the psychological phenomena of armed conflicts.

The object of study is the Russian participants in full-scale external (interstate) wars of Russia and the USSR in the 20th century (Russian-Japanese 1904-1905, World War I 1914-1918, Soviet-Finnish 1939-1940, Great Patriotic War 1941 -1945 and the Far East campaign of 1945, Afghan war 1979-1989). The comparative historical nature of the study predetermined the need to compare events according to a number of parameters, in various historical and geopolitical conditions, and not only approximately equal-scale conflicts are compared with each other, but also those having other similar features (world wars, local wars on separate sections of the border, wars on one's own or foreign territory, etc.). In each case, a complex of other factors is also taken into account - socio-political, ideological, national and others.

Local armed conflicts (both official and unofficial) are not considered in the monograph, since they were, as a rule, short-term, a very limited contingent of troops was involved in them, and the psychological patterns characteristic of full-scale and prolonged hostilities could not be fully manifested. . Since the study is largely of a comparative historical nature, we make an exception only for the events on Lake Khasan in 1938 and near the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939, since they provide material for a comparative analysis of the same historical enemy of Russia - Japan - in a number of armed conflicts of the 20th century, allowing us to consider in dynamics one of the aspects of the problem that is important for our study - the formation and evolution of the image of the enemy.

When considering the First World War, we confine ourselves to pre-revolutionary times, since the revolution brought many specific moments both to the course of the war and to the consciousness of people, going beyond the framework of a purely external armed conflict. We deliberately do not include the Civil War of 1918-1922. (like others internal conflicts) into the object of our study, since it refers to the radical forms of confrontation within society itself. If in interstate wars the subjects of the conflict, the composition of the participants, their interests and goals are quite clearly traced, then the civil war, in addition to its extreme bitterness, is also distinguished by the uncertainty of these parameters. Not only dividing front lines are characterized by extreme inconsistency, "blurring", these contradictions also pass through the souls of people. So, one of the key concepts for understanding the psychology of the war and its participants, the concepts of "friend or foe", turns out to be tragically torn and at the same time intertwined, because in a civil war they go against each other former citizens one state, representatives of one nation, countrymen, recent friends, and often members of the same family. Therefore, the psychology of civil wars is a special object for historical and psychological research and requires special self-study using a fundamentally different methodology, research approaches and even tools.

A special place in the system of armed conflicts is occupied by guerrilla warfare or an insurrectionary movement, that is, the action of irregular formations that can acquire independent significance (the struggle of "mujahideen" against Soviet troops in Afghanistan), and subordinate to the general strategy and tactics regular army (partisan movement in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War), or even an auxiliary value (the action of sabotage detachments and groups, etc.). We also exclude this category of combatants from our study as an extremely specific one, operating not in open battle, but behind enemy lines, as a result of which it is very difficult to define it as a military legal entity, to draw a clear line between combatants recognized by international law and saboteurs. , infiltrators, spies and terrorists, who, if captured, are not considered prisoners of war and can be executed as common criminals. The special conditions for the actions of partisan and insurgent detachments also give rise to an extremely specific psychology of the "partisan freemen", other forms of struggle than those of the regular army and, as a result, norms of attitude towards the enemy, the laws and customs of war, etc. Thus, even the Soviet partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War and the psychology of its participants should be considered as a special subject of study, as well as the study civil war requiring its own approaches and methods.

Man at war. Historical and psychological essays 1455K
published in 1997
Added: 12/18/2010

annotation

Senyavskaya E.S. Man at war. Historical and psychological essays. M.: Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1997. - 232 p. - Circulation 300 copies.

The book is devoted to one of the key problems of Russian history at its critical stages - the role of the psychological factor in the armed conflicts of the twentieth century (on the example of two world and Afghan wars).
On the basis of rare archival documents and “oral history” materials, the author examines the self-perception of a person in war; factors influencing his behavior in extreme situations; features of front-line life; problems of getting out of the war, including the "Afghan syndrome"; the evolution of the concepts of "friend or foe" and the formation of the image of the enemy in different wars; everyday religiosity in the war; the phenomenon of mass participation of women in the wars of the XX century.
For specialist historians, psychologists and anyone interested in the history of the Fatherland.

In 2001, E.S. Senyavskaya was awarded a medal for the monograph "A Man at War" Russian Academy Sciences.

Introduction

Chapter I
1. War as a historical and psychological problem: key concepts and subject of study
2. War - extreme situation. (Soldier's fatalism and attitude towards death.)
3. Front-line life
4. The problem of getting out of the war
5. Small war - big problems. ("Afghan Syndrome")

Chapter II. FORMING THE IMAGE OF THE ENEMY AS A HISTORICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM
1. The image of the enemy as a subject of historical and psychological research. (The problem of "friend or foe" in war conditions)
2. The image of the enemy in the minds of the participants in the First World War
3. The image of the enemy in the minds of the participants in the Great Patriotic War
4. The image of the enemy in the minds of participants in two world wars: general and special
5. The Islamic Society of Afghanistan through the eyes of "Afghan" warriors

Chapter III. RELIGIOUSNESS IN WAR
1. Faith and atheism in war as a socio-psychological problem
2. Soldier's superstitions as a form of everyday religiosity

Chapter IV. WOMAN IN WAR - A PHENOMENON OF THE XX CENTURY
1. Pre-revolutionary situation: an exception to the rule
2. Soviet era: from equality in civilian life to equality in war
3. Afghan experience and modernity: the evolution of the phenomenon

Conclusion
Notes

DOCUMENTARY APPENDICES

I. FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918
Annex 1.1. A.N. Zhiglinsky. "I am proud that I can be useful to Russia" (Letters from a Russian officer)
Annex 1.2. I.I. Chernetsov. "We will have to meet Christmas at the forefront" (Letters from the front of the First World War)
Annex 1.3. The Case of General Forsel
Annex 1.4. Cornet runs to the front

II. GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945
Annex 2.1. Yu.I.Kaminsky. "There are more earthlings here than fire..." (Letters from the front)
Annex 2.2. G.T.Mironenko. From the diary of a gunner-radio operator

III. AFGHAN WAR 1979-1989
Annex 3.1. The program of historical and psychological examination of the participants in the war in Afghanistan.
Questions for interviews with participants in armed conflicts of the 20th century
Annex 3.2. Excerpts from interviews with participants in the Afghan war
3.2.1. Information about respondents
3.2.2. War as an emergency
3.2.3. Formation of the image of the enemy and attitude towards him
3.2.4. Features of front-line life
3.2.5. The problem of exit from the war and post-traumatic syndrome
Dictionary
List of archives

A separate chapter of the book entitled "Man and War" is devoted to the impact of armed conflicts on human evolution. Here the author examines the role of war in social selection; its impact on human physiology and demography; influence on the strengthening of social solidarity, mobility-mobility and communication of people; importance in the socialization of a person, the formation of his civic qualities; the relationship between war and the development of intellect, consciousness and behavior of a person, his aesthetic feelings and experiences, etc. According to the author, a sociological study of the impact of war on a person social qualities person, as well as in various aspects of his life, activity and behavior. Another issue that is explored in this chapter is human behavior in the course of armed struggle, the role of the personality of the commander and private in achieving victory, and the study of the evolution of people's combat activity. The author focuses on the methods of determining the cost of war and victory, analyzing the quantitative sociological measurements of the phenomena of armed struggle, the possibility of using statistics to identify the laws of dynamics of the morale of the fighting masses and people. And finally, in the general series of problems, the attitude to the war of personalities is considered, social groups, society as a whole and the factors that determine it; a typology of people according to their attitude to the war is given; the problem of military order is highlighted, including the responsibility of military personnel for refusing to obey it, on the one hand, and for carrying out a criminal order, on the other.

To date, the work of V. V. Serebryannikov is perhaps the only generalizing work in the field of military sociology, where research problems are solved in a methodological and practical way, based on the materials of armed conflicts of the 20th century.

Another category of works related to the topic of our study belongs to the one that has been poorly developed in domestic science areas historical psychology . Here, unfortunately, only the works of B. F. Porshnev and his students can be mentioned, since research in this direction, starting from the late 1970s. stalled for a long time. Only recently has there been a renewed interest in psychological direction in historical science, as evidenced by the conferences held at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences “ Russian history: problems of mentality" (1994) and "Mentality and political history of Russia" (1996), a round table "Russia and the world: problems of mutual perception" that has been constantly operating since 1994, dissertations and publications in journals that have appeared. Among them there are individual works on mass psychology in the conditions of wars of the 20th century. At about the same time, the works of foreign specialists, including emigrants, previously inaccessible to the general reader, were returned from the special depository. Among them, the work of V. M. Zenzinov “Meeting with Russia. How and what they live in the Soviet Union. Letters to the Red Army. 1939–1940".

Of the monographs, to one degree or another affecting the “near-war” subjects, one can note the work of E. Yu. Zubkova “Society and Reforms. 1945-1964" (1993), where attention is paid to the psychology of "a kind of new society" - front-line soldiers who returned from the war to civilian life. And although, according to the author, war as such is not the subject of her study, in the book it is defined as a milestone, a starting point, an initial chronological (and socio-psychological) milestone of those social processes that developed in the country in the post-war years. “Without understanding the phenomenon of war, which has become part of the flesh and blood of generations, one cannot understand the course of subsequent history, the mechanisms of social behavior, the change of feelings and moods of people”