Authors

Oona-Maaria Hyppölä¹;  ¹ National Defence University, Finland

Discussion

Russia’s protracted war against Ukraine and, as of latest, the all but composed response to Ukraine’s Kursk incursion illustrate how disarrayed the overall force structures and human resource management within the Russian Armed Forces continue to be. The legally questionable combat deployment of Russian conscripts to Ukraine in the spring of 2022, the seemingly chaotic partial mobilisation in September 2022, and as of latest, the uncoordinated initial response to the 2024 Kursk incursion with unprepared units, predominantly manned with inexperienced conscripts, have revealed grave problems and outright failures in the management of Russian military personnel. Age-old questions undoubtedly occupy the minds of Russia’s top brass as they are trying to get people to join the ranks and keep the war machinery combat capable despite severe losses: How to recruit, train, use and retain soldiers? Who serves and on what grounds? And, ultimately, who fights and on what grounds? Kremlin’s decision to, yet again, increase the size of its military, highlights the urgency for a new strategy to manage human resources both within the military establishment, as well as within society as a whole. Not least because of the general societal reluctance to participate in military service and to engage directly in Kremlin’s war initiatives.Research on quantifiable indicators of military strength far too often gain precedence over research on more intangible elements, such as the human factors within the military. However, reluctance to address the immaterial aspects of military effectiveness runs the risk of causing serious analytical misjudgements over the course of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

By examining some of the key developments of the Russian military service system, this paper contributes to the study of the more obscure elements affecting military performance. The analysis looks into military reforms in Russia since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The primary focus of the inquiry is on the objectives regarding the development of the human resource management and the non-material aspects within the Russian military. The implementation of such objectives as well as their relation – albeit equivocal – to military effectiveness is examined. Considering some of the main development trends and goals of the past reforms will help to better contextualise the current tendencies and military performance amid the war, as well as shed light on some of the possible future trajectories. The primary researcher question considers whether the Russian military service system is being developed or eroded. The main research question is broken into sub-questions asking (1) how the development of the Armed Forces’ human resource management is envisioned in the military reforms; and (2) what the main successes and, by contrast, failures of the reform implementation are; and (3) how do these aforementioned questions play out in the context of the ongoing war.