XPost: rec.aviation.military, soc.history.war.misc   
   From: keithwillshaw@gmail.com   
      
   On 17/04/2023 20:24, Stephen Harding wrote:   
   > I spent quite a bit of time on Soviet fishing trawlers during the late   
   > 1970's and early 80's.  Their sonar, fishing net transducers and radios   
   > were really old school.  Even still vacuum tubes in some gear.  The good   
   > stuff went to the Soviet military.   
   >   
   > But while at UMass Computer Science Department, we had some really top   
   > notch Russian doctoral and post-doctoral students (one of whom is now a   
   > professor at a school in England I believe).  This was of course after   
   > the demise of the USSR.   
   >   
   > The Russians have always had top notch theoreticians, especially in   
   > mathematics, physics, cosmology and computer science and more.  Someone   
   > said the Russians could do great theory because they didn't have the   
   > infrastructure to do the engineering that might come from such   
   > theoretical research.  Don't know if that is really true.   
   >   
   > I was always more impressed with Russian (Soviet) resolve more than   
   > anything.  "Keeps a licking and keeps on ticking" seemed to say it all.   
   >   
   > Which makes me wary of confidently writing off the Russian effort in   
   > Ukraine!   
   >   
      
   The problem with the Russian Army is a combination of their old   
   weakness, the lack of a professional NCO corps and the new regime which   
   is basically a kleptocracy. The Russian military does have NCO's but   
   their role is basically just to ensure the rank and file does as they   
   are told.   
      
   In the 1980's I did a lot of work with the USSR in the oil and gas   
   industry, their main problem was a system which was very hierarchical   
   and positively discouraged initiative but was at least honest.   
      
   One Soviet Engineer I got on really well with explained how that works.   
   If you come up with a good idea your boss will take all the credit but   
   if there are problems you will get all the blame. At the worst that you   
   used to mean going to jail or being shot for economic sabotage but in   
   more enlightened times working permanent night shifts at a tractor   
   factory in Tomsk.   
      
   A bigger problem they now have to deal with is that when Putin announced   
   conscription the highest qualified young graduates simply left while the   
   going was good. I worked with a Russian software engineer based in St   
   Petersburg load his computers and server into the back of the car and   
   left. He is now based in Helsinki. The way they operate conscription is   
   insane, they just made a lost of everyone under the age of 40 and put   
   them on the list. The result is that industrial production is falling so   
   fast that they are buying munitions and weapons from North Korea and   
   Iran. This was made worse because all the consumer goods they were   
   making such as Renault cars have closed as they can no longer import the   
   engine management systems so its back to old designsfrom Lada   
      
   The only places they can sell oil to are China and India at a price   
   which means they are losing money.   
      
   Another example is the English Language paper The Moscow Times, they   
   now operate from Armenia having left Moscow to avoid censorship.   
      
   I like Russians but I hate to see what the gangsters running the country   
   I have done to it. I had a certain respect for the last Soviet leaders   
   like Yeltsin but Putin spen most of his career in the KGB spying on   
   students in Dresden.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)