XPost: rec.aviation.military, soc.history.war.misc   
   From: smharding@verizon.net   
      
   On 4/18/23 7:54 AM, Keith Wills haw wrote:   
   > 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 anndia 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.   
   >   
      
   I never saw the "pass the buck" behavior when I was aboard Soviet   
   fishing trawlers, but I would have little opportunity to do so.   
      
   I did note however that the large BERT trawlers had an essentially   
   military chain of command, although the First Officer was actually the   
   political officer and wasn't responsible for running the ship.  He was   
   sort of like a union shop steward who would act as an intermediary   
   between deck and factory crew (the blue collar workers) and the officers   
   (white collar).  Some of them were quite good but others were constantly   
   trying to score points against you or hiding as much as possible what   
   the ship was doing, even when operating legally.   
      
   Overall, a very secretive bunch.  Even watching the movies they showed   
   the crew at times, if they weren't WWII movies, were dark with   
   characters constantly plotting against one another or listening behind a   
   door.  Seemed to do a lot of leering as well.   
      
   But I felt that crew could easily come off that fishing trawler and   
   become a destroyer crew in a moments notice.   
      
   Given what we know about the current Russian Navy, seems a Midwestern   
   farmer might do just as well!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)