How lies destroy armies - Lies, coverups, and Russian failures in Ukraine
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- čas přidán 1. 05. 2024
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A note on враньё "Vranyo" : In this video I use the term "Vranyo" to describe a particular pattern or type of lying. Consulting with many Russian speakers in preparation for this segment, i got many conflicting definitions of враньё with some suggesting it was derogatory, others that there was no difference between it and ложь, while others said it was the perfect term for the phenomenon described.
In the end I have used it because it is a neat term to describe a complex practice/phenomenon, but understand that it is being used as a label, not as an unambiguous code word for these practices of collective, knowing deception.
Description:
The performance of a military system is about more than the sum of its equipment, manpower, and training. Culture and practices are critical.
The Russian army appears to suffer from serious cultural issues. Corruption is a key one, while the practice of making up obvious lies to cover up the real state of affairs (which everyone then goes along with) and telling the boss what they want to hear at all costs - those practices enable corruption to thrive, and seriously undermine battlefield decision making.
In this episode, we look at the culture of deception in the Russian army, explore some of the common complaints, and discuss some ways it may (I am not a Kremlinologist) potentially impact or have impacted Russian decision making in Ukraine.
Patreon:
/ perunau
Caveats:
As noted below in sourcing, the existence of "Vranyo" is a cultural phenomenon that is hard to measure. While we can find evidence of it at a macro level, attestations for its prevalence are based on interviews, anecdotes, and complaints from former conscripts, serving personnel, and ordinary Russians.
As such this video should be taken as describing a phenomenon and some of the damage it can cause - but I do not make any assertion over exactly how widespread it is.
I also stress that this sort of lying appears in many organisations where people are encouraged 'to 'tell the boss what they want to hear'
I am also not a Kremlin whisperer - so my discussion of how Vranyo at that level is obviously purely hypothetical.
Sources and extra reading:
The Russian Way of War - Force Structure, Tactics, and Modernisation of the Russian Ground Forces (Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth)
www.armyupress.army.mil/porta...
Opposing force tactics, TC 7-100.2
armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pu...
Composite credits to the work of translators of Russian commentary like Dmitri of Wartranslated
wartranslated?ref...
TASS on Fake News Laws
tass.com/politics/1416591
Translation of alleged letter by the 155th regarding the incompetence and deception of Rustam Muradov
/ 1589298282085646337
Russian Denial of the above
www.reuters.com/world/europe/...
Discussion of the alleged purge of the FSB 5th Service:
• Христо Грозев: Новые р...
Kadyrov threatens to brief Putin
www.theguardian.com/world/202...
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Opening Words
00:01:31 - What Am I Talking About?
00:02:12 - SPONSOR: MORNING BREW
00:03:21 - "Vranyo" - A Culture of Lies
00:03:33 - What's in a Word
00:05:02 - Rejecting Reality & Substituting Your Own
00:06:33 - History & Collective Participation
00:08:46 - Stocks vs Soldiers
00:09:07 - Motivation
00:10:16 - Involuntary Participation
00:12:55 - Compounding Falsehood
00:14:42 - Militaries as Networked Systems
00:15:03 - War is not an RTS
00:16:37 - Information Flow Enables Decision Making
00:17:46 - Why is the Russian Army so Vulnerable
00:18:02 - The RUssian Way of War
00:18:38 - War as an Equation
00:20:38 - Forces and Means
00:23:33 - Echelonment (aka Leming Attacks)
00:26:06 - Rigidity and Commander Centric Decision Making
00:28:46 - Objective: Fortressgrad
00:30:25 - The Assault on Fortressgrad
00:31:46 - Start at the Bottom
00:33:35 - The Officers Get Involved
00:35:14 - A Fine Airforce Showing
00:36:08 - Garbage In...
00:38:17 - ...Garbage Out
00:40:52 - Smile For the Cameras
00:41:31 - A Doomed Venture
00:42:23 - Pervasive Complaints
00:45:23 - Vranyo All the Way to the Top
00:46:46 - Understanding Ukraine
00:50:07 - Understanding The Russian Army
00:52:12 - Understanding the Russian Economy & the West
00:53:55 - Understanding Progress
00:54:55 - Tragic Results
00:58:02 - Can You Fix It?
00:58:34 - Failure-Safe Systems
01:00:07 - Trust But Verify
01:01:04 - Entrenched Culture
01:02:16 - Conclusions
01:03:51 - Channel Update
Thanks to returning sponsor Morning Brew and their daily news briefing - sign up for free at morningbrewdaily.com/perun
Thanks also to those Russians and Ukrainians who put up with my questions of provided input into this and other segments - and thank you to those who have offered to be interviewed but who I have not yet gotten to. I am no more a journalist than I am a Kremlinologist, but I greatly appreciate your ongoing input.
I will note however that I was never given a consistent definition of vranyo. some said it was just lying with deliberate I'll intent, others said it was systemic I nature. I use the word as shorthand here for a culture of collective lying and deception, but bear in mind that it is not a clean "textbook" definition.
And, as always, thank you to all of you watching. I couldn't ask for a better viewer base and it was the success of the first video on Corruption that gave me the confidence to cover this topic rather than just sticking to, as they say, 'things that go boom.'
Finally - remember that as with corruption, we're talking about a cultural phenomenon here rather than a 'hard science' issue like system specifications, so please understand the inherent limitations around the evidence used (which is, out of necessity, at least partially anecdotal).
"Long Suffering Sound Guy" here, and I've a question to the Germans reading it - what mobile internet provider would you recommend? Looking for a (pre-paid) service to handle file exchange with Perun :) Thanks 👽
ps. feel free to blame me and my internet for the late upload
Had me waiting for a few more hours than usual, now I can't go to sleep 😂
@@jgfjfgjfhjf don't blame him but please answer his questions :)
@@jgfjfgjfhjf depends where you live. "Breitbandausbau" has been spotty at best.
8:20 I'm thinking Enron haha
To put the depth to which "Vranyo" is engrained in the Russian culture, I'll share this story. In 1991 when the wall came down, there were a lot of Russian Geologists suddenly available to work in other markets. Canada had a diamond rush going at the time and my company hired 3 of them, since Russians have experience with diamond production. One day, when I picked Victor up at the airport, I asked him, "How are things in Russia?" He replied, "Do you want the long story, or short story?" I asked for the short one, He said, "Good." Then I asked for the long version and he replied, "Not good." 🤣🤣 At least his sense of humor was intact.
That’s a very apt summary. Funny, but also… I can’t help but feel like I’d describe my life that way. That’s a little disturbing. Thank you.
That careful highly sarcastic sense of humor that can only develop under an authoritarian regime.
1991? I thought the Berlin wall came down in 1989? Or are you talking about a different wall?
@@jonson856 Probably meant the Iron Curtain, not the Wall.
@@nicolaiby1846 ah yes makes sense 👌
This video had one of my favorite lines from the 'old' Soviet era echoing through my head; 'They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work.' 30ish years later and the problem remains the same.
Yep, they're going back to that with the fake economic figures
I just wrote the same comment about this saying. I remember it as Lithuanian from soviet era in our country.
Me too in Bulgaria. How come changes did not do good in Russia. I thought they learned...
I do really feel sorry for the Russians. The rot caused by 70 years of Communism is going to take a long time to heal. And I dispair that the West is fast heading down a similar route.
Agreed except the problem doesn't remain the same. Lying is like an infection. You ignore the infection, it festers. Until one day you are septic and dying. Or dead. Infectious disease is a good metaphor for a lot of human behaviour.
Decades ago, I heard a story about a lowly aircraft-carrier sailor who lost his wrench. He'd been working up on the flight deck and knew he was supposed to report the loss -- if the wrench was sucked into a jet engine the results would be catastrophic. Though distressed, he reported his mistake to his chief, who reported it up the chain. Flight operations were immediately shut down, planes already in the air were told to circle, and a FOD (foreign object damage) walkdown was conducted, all at the cost of $millions in jet fuel, flight time, etc. Meanwhile, the lowly sailor checked his gear one last time and found the wrench in his overall pockets. Once again, he was distressed, but duly reported the find. Flight operations were re-started, the circling planes were brought in, and the sailor and his chief were called before the Captain... who THANKED and commended them for doing the right thing. Every sailor on the ship heard the story within about 5 minutes and understood that doing the right thing would be rewarded, not punished. THAT is how vranyo is defeated. THAT is leadership.
No matter how irritated those in command might be over having to stall operations or interrupting regular duties, they will always prefer irritation to having to replace equipment, to say nothing of having to see off flag-draped coffins.
Yeah my friend but you can easily check your story support and success in the amount of likes have received. That means people don’t really like the truth they want flattering and other things but not the truth
No, that is how a healthy culture functions. How you initiate change within such a deeply entrenched culture of lies is another story.
@@ermirohri Why do you think likes translate directly to what people want to hear? Is that the way you think and act?
@@Omega0850 you have have come to realize to fast what I think and people like you are those who I think that likes matters. And yes likes give an overall picture
Old Soviet joke:
Two cadets in military school graduated at the same time. Ten years later they met at a street corner. One was a captain and the other a general. "How did you make general so quickly?" the captain asked.
The general picked up a rock, listened to it, handed it to the captain and asked, "Tell me what this rock says."
The puzzled captain put it to his ear and exclaimed, " It says nothing."
"That is why you fail."
I don't get it?
@@RhaegarDefense dont join the russian military
@@RhaegarDefense Because he didn't lie and make something up
@InvictusCalix He failed because he told the truth - rocks don't talk. The General was successful because he would lie to his bosses earning promotions.
And then they went into Afghanistan and the rocks started talking.
There used to be a saying in WW2: "Loose lips sink ships"
Now we got: "The General lies, his army dies"
Nice, I guess the sum of all parts of this vid is more or less- "Russian doctrine is fine, except for the bit when Russians are involved in it"
Don't repeat propaganda.
@@napalmholocaust9093 Says a guy called "napalm holocaust", topkek.
You want to tell me that everything's still according to Russia's masterplan?
God, I'd love to see Putin's plan before the war:
1) Start a pointless war of aggression
2) become politically and economically isolated
3) Have every frontline stall within a few days
4) Fail to take any major city except Kherson
5) Withdraw from Kyiw and Sumy
6) Lose Snake Island
7) Lose my flagship in a land war against a nation without navy
8) lose Kharkiw Oblast, Iyum and Kupiansk
9) Announce annexation of Ukrainian territories that I don't even yet fully control on the same day Hitler announced annexation of territories in Czechoslovakia
10) Do partial mobilization, leading to massive amounts of people fleeing the nation
11) Send freshly mobilized men to the frontlines within a few days and watch them die by the hundreds
12) After months of fighting, the territories gained within a week should be smaller in size than an average soccer field
13) Get Kerch Bridge damaged on my birthday
14) Lose Kherson
15) Prepare abandoning of any military installation between Kherson and Crimea
16) ?????
17) Somehow take over all of Ukraine
Truly, a masterplan of a tactical genius to rival Sun Tzu, Julius Caesar, Von Clausewitz and Patton.
@@napalmholocaust9093 Don't repeat history?
Nice.
My father is a retired colonel of Russian rear services. It always amazed me how many stories that he shared with me were connected to corruption. Here is a classic example: an inspector comes to check a warehouse with some equipment. As everything seems to be right with this one, he leaves. At this moment all equipment is transferred to the nearby warehouse, which (for some mysterious reasons) is empty. The next day inspector comes to check it, and sees that everything is in its place.
World's second army? Yeah, sure
Sgt. Bilko (1996) ?
I KNEW IT!!!! I was that inspector
Cool to see that russians still hold on the the potemkin village idea..
Keeping the tradition from potemkin alive, I see.
Not quite the same but:
Wherever the Royal Family went the latest kit was sure to precede them.
(or, in Monty Python, "Quick, The Bursar, get the machine that goes 'ping'.")
And then there's the smell of fresh paint.
Netflix needs to produce a miniseries about Private Conscriptovich, Colonel Kleptovsky, and General Oligarkov. I would watch the crap out of it.
Like Blackadder Goes Forth but Russian. In fact I’d cast Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.
Love it. Sitcom series would beat popular allo allo :-D
Black LGBT+ Private Conscriptovich?
Nah... General Armageddon is the character to watch.
I bet this will go on as legends as monty python skits do
A Russian joke about two friends.
-When I was serving in the army, I was guarding a top secret missile system.
-Why are you telling me this if it's top secret?
-Secret is whether that thing is working or not.
Yeah.
Russian missile systems not working is why Ukraine has not much electric grid to speak of, the vaunted Turkish TB-2 drones don't fly anymore apparently and while Russian airforce isn't doing much, the Ukrainian one doesn't seem to be able to do diddly squat. Otherwise, we would have thermal videos of RU tanks getting blown up by UA helis, and I haven't seen many of those..
It does seem Russian missile systems do indeed work to some degree, after the troops have dusted off manuals and turned them on. They've also posted pictures of GMLRS missiles riddled with fragmentsm suggesting successful interceptions of 2 mach missiles..
@@IvanTre Yeah, yeah, and those shiny new T-14s are _totally_ on their way, right?
@@IvanTre The TB-2 is still doing work, just not as much anymore.
@@josephschultz3301 did I say anything about T-14s ?
@@DuBaas007 it's a drone. It's remoted operated. Everything it does is recorded in a computer system.
Were they still doing work, they'd be bragging about it online with their videos.
They aren't bragging anymore, hence, it's not doing work anymore.
There is a Russian saying atributed to various writers/intellectuals. Something like "They talk about patriotism again. Someone somewhere is stealing". Not a new phenomenon, but something deeply rooted in history since possibly before Ivan the Terrible.
Brilliant video, as always. You are #1 channel that I suggest people to watch when they ask me for more info on this conflict.
Kings and Generals your videos are equally as informative especially your video documentary series on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. Big Fan of both channels :) Slava Ukraini !
"A lie, trait of our patriotism" “We lie to deceive ourselves, to console others, we lie for mercy, we lie to fight fear, to encourage ourselves, to hide our and somebody else's misery. We lie for love and honesty. We lie because of freedom. Lying is a trait of our patriotism and the proof of our innate intelligence. We lie creatively, imaginatively and inventively." -Dobrica Ćosić (Father of modern Serbia) 🙄
The Kings (pun intended) of the conflict coverage meet! Your channel and Perun are the best sources as both of you wait until all the information is gathered and even then, you both still warn the audience it possibly isn't complete.
Wow, you guys need to have Perun guest in your Cold War channel. Would like him and Dave talk on their thoughts on the conflict in Ukraine.
Kings and Generals....why do you just blame the Russians for this....especially when the west has created so MANY more wars and death by using lying patriotism. I smell your entitled racism ....phew!
I served in the US Army is an intelligence unit, as a wheeled mechanic, that had a very limit number of vehicles, and those mostly consisted of soft top humvees used exclusively for stateside transport for training. I still remember the system the army had in place that once a significant fault is found, aka a deadlining fault that makes the vehicle NMC, you have 90 days to fix that issue. If you did not get that done then that issue would get reported all the way up the maintenance chain, even to people and leadership outside of the unit. This led to many many nights on day 89 where not one person would leave until that truck is fixed. Looking back it would have been real easy to say "Yeah that truck it's good to go", but this is how catastrophes such as this happen. One small lie snowballs out of control.
I was wondering how deep corruption runs in U.S. military .
Many members of Congress own stock (or their family members own stock) in the companies producing our military equipment. So, the more Congress gives to "defense" the bigger their profits.
Thats how our hospital works as well - the escalating chain of command part in particular - its such a fucking pain in the ass i just get it done. For instance, if i dont get my flu shot in by midnight tonight a bunch of admin i dont know (and who's unnecessary job function as chief pain in the ass is why your mri is $2000) will send me an email. As if i want the flu this winter.
@bLackstar I will say 9/10 it was also used as a punishment because the truck could have been fixed days or weeks prior to that but, what we call shitbags, would not get the work done. The guys who weren't working on that specific truck spent that time catching up on mandatory training or getting a head start on their next repairs. It does suck but you learn to embrace the suck, and everyone around you is in the suck with you so you make the most of it.
Edit: I also remember times where a group of us would volunteer to stay all night to get the work done so that others could go home. It wasn't just forced work it was also soldiers who understood their job and why it is important, and would do what it takes to make sure it gets done. The overall main idea is if we got into an all out war tomorrow we would need to be a full combat strength, and if there was not pressure to make sure the trucks are repaired quickly to mission capable status we could end up being in combat without any transport.
@@geocb this has a positive value, in as much as a unit that can "embrace the suck" is a unit that will perform better in adversity.
@bLackstar it doesn't force them to fix it on day 89, they could fix it day 1 if they had parts on hand. Unless you mean the maintenance team lead that requires everyone be there until it's fixed, that sounds like group accountability.
"If the weather bureau predicts a massive fire season ahead, the correct response is to thank them for their service and prepare for fire season. Not to fire them and find someone who will predict something a little less demanding that can be cheaply dealt with." Perun using good old Aussie politics as an example once again.
Yeah, anyone remembers those wildfires few years back?
@@volters9561 Ahh yes, I do love it when the Prime Minister goes on holiday as his country burns.
You mean like Climate Change predictions?
Could you elaborate? I don't know Australian politics very well
Amen. All Australian governments practice "vryano" to the extreme. It's wild.
As an Afghanistan veteran, this one is painful to watch. It is almost a perfect description of the U.S. military during the war. Mid to senior level officers and politicians continually painted the war in an overly positive light, but forbade others in the military from openly criticizing them, on penalty of criminal charges.
Interestingly, the Intelligence Community, separated from the pressure to achieve operational results, mostly predicted the general trajectory of the war accurately (though not always the timing), but they were ignored by politicians and senior military leadership alike.
the funny thing is many westerners pretend that only russia has that problem and ignore one of the most blatant examples of incompetence with kabul but its nothing new you just have to have less corruption than the enemy and good leadership
As someone who is formerly one of those intel personnel, I often wonder about just how bad the culture of bullshit everywhere else must be. If the chucklefucks I worked with were a part of one of the worlds most renowned groups, then I heavily pity the assholes who have to deal with anyone else. Every day I would submit a report about a thing, my report would be rejected based on not lining up with mission priorities or what have you, then two weeks later someone else in a three letter agency would submit a very similar report, and mission priorities would suddenly change. Getting actually passed over for promotion because too many of my reports were rejected was just icing on the cake.
Yet another similarity with the Vietnam War.
Good assessment of US culture: total bullshit all the way down, including here.
except that's not actually the same thing - we can point to exactly where the problem rose, and its was like that because the real reason to stick around was never nation building, it was to funnel money into PMC's, so any bad news outside of that is to be ignored because they didn't care. This is specific to some placs and times, not an overall problem with the US militarily.
As a native Russian speaker, I think a big part of враньё is that it's not just shameless lying, but also _chronic_ lying. You say it more often about people who are constantly lying.
So would it be fair to say it is "institutionalised," as we would say in English, that it is a feature of the institution/system/bureaucracy rather than an anomaly?
@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar Yes, but you're thinking only of systems. Someone like an Amber Heard could also be described by the term.
I translate it in my head usually as "tactical lying" (not a Russian but tried to understand the way how some people are thinking...). Like those two Russian words for truth: istina and pravda...
@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar it's definitely a feature
@@anonyshinki OK, thanks. One other question, if I may? Would you use the word about individuals unconnected with some kind of official structure, Amber Heard was suggested?
Having lived and worked in Russia for 4 years I can confirm that this is exactly how the place runs. The interesting point is that the average Russian recognises it but thinks it’s completely normal and that’s how the rest of the world works too so it’s all completely fine, everywhere is the same so there isn’t a problem.
Exactly why no one trusts Russians of any kind. It's in their DNA to be dishonest.
A very mundane personal example.
I worked in a grocery store, and they put me in charge of natural, organic, premium hippie foods. Well, when I started I had product on the shelf that had been expired for over five years. I started clearing it out and updating inventory, and I was counselled by my manager for my bad performance numbers because of all of the shrink (expired products being disposed of).
It would have been better for my performance to keep that junk on the shelf and on the books, rather than get rid of possible dangerous product and get fresh product to replace it. My manager would have preferred that lie as well, because the shrink wouldn't appear on his reports, either.
There is an expression in Scandinavia about urinating in your trousers when you are cold. Everyone has done it when outside in a blizzard in kindergarten, and it feels great. For a minute. Then it feels not so great, and becomes outright dangerous fairly quickly.
Lying to your boss can be like urinating in your trousers in a blizzard.
😂🤣
Is it safe to assume you're Swedish, or have I gone and defecated in the blue cabinet?
😄
In Russia it's called a "Yuri Freezurkokov"
Pull the cedar shakes off the roof and outside walls to burn in the fireplace to stay warm through the winter...
"it's amazing how many problems you can solve once you are no longer tethered to reality" that sounds like a life philosophy
Replace "solve" with "create" and it's my mom.
Welcome to the republican party.
sounds like the past few years
Very true
Sounds like Swedish politics to me, by just agreeing to that everything is fine although the house they're sitting in is on fire.
I am actually impressed that you decided to translate "vranyo" not simply as lies, but as the whole culture of lying.
The idea that any significant amount of Ukrainians would “welcome” Russia taking over is bizarre, given that the past experience of Ukraine under the USSR, which included mass starvation, oppression and secret prisons for anyone speaking out, and nearly blowing up the country with Chernobyl, leaving a huge piece of Ukraine uninhabitable for the next 25,000 years or so. Those aren’t exactly the “good old days.”
You forget that Russian schools usually ignore or dismiss such events as "western propaganda". I'd imagine only a fraction of the Russian population could even tell you what the Holodomor was, and only a fraction of them would believe it actually happened and was the USSR's fault.
While I agree with what you say, I take issue with one detail. Only the small central area near Chernobyl will stay affected for any prolonged time, and certainly not 25000 years.
RUSI, which Perun has mentioned a couple of times here, released a report saying that internal Russian estimates was that they only needed 8% to collaborate, willingly or unwillingly, to succeed quickly. And they assess that it seems to have been about right in the south, and in Crimea in 2014. See static.rusi.org/202303-SR-Unconventional-Operations-Russo-Ukrainian-War-web-final.pdf.pdf
@@RuosongGaoi must respectfully agree by disagreeing. You are correct, it's not for 25,000 years.
It is much, much longer than that.
@@xanmontes8715 I would actually like to see your source. I'm not an expert in radioactive physics and biology, but I should have the STEM background needed to understand any report you throw at me, and I'm kinda curious about this.
Wake up babe, new Perun video just dropped!
‘scrubs eyes’ oh hell yeah
Thanks babe
Yes honey...
Hell yeah g
Time to get up out of bed, make coffee and enjoy a stimulating documentary on war ☕️☕️
"It is amazing how many problems you can solve, once you´re no longer tethered to reality" - dude, you made my day! highly appreciate your content!
This is basically why people take drugs :D
Also "Every lie told incurs a debt to the truth".
Trouble is that war is the ultimate reality check.
@@ebrim5013 "We have severely underestimated the Russians, the extent of the country, and the treachery of the climate. This is the revenge of reality." - Heinz Guderian, 1943
This is the Tory party's approach to brexit.
The NCO joke when I was in the US Army:
"The most important principle to remember when your supervisor has you write your own evaluation: 'godlike' and 'wonderworker' are single words while 'record-breaking' and 'quick-thinking' are hyphenated."
I might have eaten too many crayons; I don't get the joke.
@@keyabrade1861 The assumption is that you will use those four descriptions on your own evaluation report, so it's a reminder how to spell them. The joke is that naturally you'll have a very high opinion of yourself.
@@keyabrade1861 Oorah?
I once read about Chinese Emperors who lived in the Golden Palace, performing rituals and having little idea what was going on in the country. Up to the point where tribute to conquerors was called "gifts for the vassals".
I thought, well, that's the past. Now the ruler just can't get away from reality like that. I was wrong.
that why absolute dictatorship always fails eventully you cant live a lie forever.
Well, we know Putin scrolls twitter, a perfect reflection of reality
A funny story involving mathematics when I was in the Army. I was an armored reconnaissance specialist (aka Cavalry Scout). During a training exercise we marched to a railroad bridge. We were given instruction on how to make rough calculations of the load capacity of the bridge based on the size, number, and construction material of the bridge elements. At the end of the lecture, the instructor, our Plt Sgt, asked if the bridge can take the weight of an M1 Abrams tank. I immediately said yes. Everyone was in shock. There was no way someone should be able to do the calculations in their head so fast and they knew I was not joking. However, I was also the only soldier in my platoon with a 4 year degree in engineering, other than the Plt Leader, of coursr. Just maybe ... I did do some type of calculation. The option sergeant slowly asked how I go that answer. I said according to the map, this is the only b rail line heading east from Fort Knox. All equipment moving to the East Coast of the US to potentially reinforce NATO (this wss before the USSR collapsed) has to go over this bridge. Not only can it support a M1 tank, it can support several M1 tanks sitting on railcars.
And that is the an example of Art (in map reading) vs Science in the military.
As we said back when I went through training 'Scouts Out'
Brilliant. You screwed the whole lesson. Great story.
Gosh, let's hope it's still capable of supporting such weight. I mean, imagine deleterious effects of weather and elements wakening the structure through micro fractures, rusting, et al. Also, the thought we'd be relying on one rail line choke point gives me the heebie jeebies.
@@RaveYoda I think the US army is "rich enough" to have this under control. If it was the responsibility of a US state, I would be more worried.
Your lovely story highlights another aspect of vranyo. What if the contractor who built the bridge had decided to save money using sub standard steel beams and the maintenance budget had been spent on repaitning an ogligarch's holiday mansion? You knew you could trust it but imagine a Russian tank commander being asked to drive his 46 tonnes T90 across a Russian bridge. Would he trust it too? Vranyo only works if everybody in the decision chain think they can benefit from it but anybody will have their doubts when their life is at stake.
I studied medicine at a Russian university. The system was totally rotten, but we were literally forced to write about how amazing it is. For example, we were once ordered to write our feedback on the quality of our education. The person who gave us questionnaires told that we have to write that everything is fine because otherwise, she will just throw our answers to the garbage and write herself, how we all love the university
That's right. I have spoken to some ruZZians who have come to the US . Some were doctors, some were "engineers", and others were professionals. With a few exceptions most were working as janitors or similar low paying/low skill jobs.
@@joeblowe7545 That's often on the US not recognizing foreign credentials or placing work restrictions on people who are spouses on educational visa holders. (Physician) Residency spots are very limited so that qualified people are rejected, even when US born. Even if you are a good doctor abroad, that doesn't translate to the US system. Although engineer can mean something more like car mechanic in China than someone who designs car production all day.
@@richardarriaga6271 The most likely reasons for them not working as professionals here in the US is simply because of substandard education relative to our standards. Especially in the medical disciplines.
Which year , when did it happen?
@@Warszawski_Modernizm Nearly 10 years ago
- Ivan, what is the Russian world?
-The Russian world is when you live in poverty, without rights, you can’t do anything about it and don’t want to be able to, but you want to teach this to the whole world.
I'm not gonna lie, a lot of my neighbors in the US live in that world too.
I'll be honest, Russian G.I. Joe sounds like it'd make for a great adult commedy series - watching Private Conscriptovic, Sergeant Bicepski, Captain Bullshitski, Colonel Kleptovsky, and General Oligarkov try to run a military while everyone is screwing each other over could be the anti-M*A*S*H.
if you put it like that, and as an extreme fan of the M*A*S*H series.... mate you should really go and grab some netflix writer by the walls and make him **understand**!
@@TheWarriorofHonor I would love seeing sergeant Bicepski trying to keep young and green private alive while also attempting to screw with captain Bullshitski in subtle ways.
@@JM-mh1pp agreed!
I’m now imagining a Russian version of the ww1 blackadder
When someone asks what my favourite weekend hobby is, never in my life I would have thought watching a 1hr PowerPoint presentation would be the one. Looking forward to this Russian corruption sequel. Been a fan and a regular watcher since "All Bling No Basics"
Keep up the good work Perun 👍
I too am a fan but keep in mind hes not perfect as all people he makes mistakes, trying to differentiate between lož and vraņjo is one of those mistakes. As hes not an expert there he cant even speak russijan at all.
Also
ruskij = russijan
rusjaņi = [there is no english word for this]
All of these problems have been common for decades, try Drachs assesment of the 'Voyage of the dammed', the Imperial Russian Navies journey to Japan, czcams.com/video/9Mdi_Fh9_Ag/video.html
@@gunarsmiezis9321 I wholeheartedly agree with you👍 To Perun's credit, he points out caveats whenever he can about certain statements. Moreover, he calls out his shortcomings on topics he's not familiar with and allow other experts featured in his video to fill in the knowledge gap, and I respect him for that.
@@gunarsmiezis9321 interesting… my wife and I just had a long discussion about this. My wife is Ukrainian and a native Russian speaker, I am an Australian (native English) speaker who learned and spoke Russian in Kyiv and than Kharkiv for over 10 years. In the end we both agreed with his translations. Over ethnic and non-ethnic but citizens we were both in agreement, but as per vranyo… well she was more insistent that it was interchangeable lozh’ but more of a big lie. For her it didn’t mean ‘a culture of lies’… but after explaining the various meaning of the word ‘culture’ used in the context it is used here, she agreed.
So I am not saying your wrong, but am intrigued by your background (primary, secondary language etc) to have a different understanding of the words from us. Maybe you are from Sakhalin Island or something with would given you a different version of Russian with a different ethnic understanding like you find with the word ‘fanny’ in English… it has a very, very different meaning in English and Australian English compared to American English
@@saberint "Over ethnic and non-ethnic but citizens we were both in agreement" Its nationality versus citizenship actually. Tho the difference is often ethnicity as belonging to a nation requires belong to that ethnicity where as citizenship can be granted irrespective of ethnicity.
"as per vranyo… well she was more insistent that it was interchangeable lozh’" Thats because it is.
"but more of a big lie." Thats her belief, its not a universal.
"For her it didn’t mean ‘a culture of lies’" Because it doesnt, that is the statement of Perun, a man who cant even speak russijan.
"but am intrigued by your background (primary, secondary language etc)" Pure blood latvietis. Native langauge latviešu, secondary language english, treciary language russijan.
"to have a different understanding of the words from us." Latvijas russijan largely uses lož for noun and vraņjo for verb, thats the local thing. Lož and vraņjo being syninims, meaning the same thing, is universal russijan.
"like you find with the word ‘fanny’ in English…" Ive spoken english since I was 6, so decades, and Ive never incountered that word.
I am from Romania, we never been part of the USSR, but we've been under a communist regime for decades. It's not about the army, but I think it shows well how countries under such regimes tend to collapse: my grandpa used to tell me that the people working on agricultural machinery would do very little work during the day and simply spill the diesel in the ditch because that's how they were being checked how much work they did...the level of diesel in the tank.
Yes that's a classic. Some warehouses I've worked in preferred me to focus on getting the paperwork right rather than the actual warehouse. After all, if the paperwork says everything is ok, it must be ok in reality right?!
Yes, communism is especially vulnerable to such internal rot, seeing as the whole ideology is built on denial of human nature.
It happens in other systems, true, but under communism self-deception is basically the founding principle. The rest flows from there...
As much I like to dunk on auth communism I see similar things happening in our beautiful capitalist system. For some reasons middle management likes to use this computer programs measuring your engagement in work. The do it by counting mouse movements and frequency of keys pushed. Those programs don't measure efficiency tho. You can do close to nothing but get a promotion because you moved your mouse a lot
Why does it happen? Well, maybe because middle management wants to feel like they're doing something
There're other examples of inefficiencies like the unwillingless of (certain) bosses to let their workers work from home. Idk why we (humans) have so many authodestructive tendencies. At least in soc dem system there's more freedom of speech tho I would love if the ever widening gap between the rich and poor got resolved without another bloody revolution
@pavan It's harder than that- once a metric is declared, it's not longer a useful metric because people (those pesky humans in the system) will work to improve that metric. This is true in every field I've worked. Track food waste (a measure of over-ordering) in a restaurant, the cooks will put questionable ingredients onto plates. Track help desk tickets resolved or time to close, the staff will cherry pick the easy ones and close the rest with "restart your computer and open a new ticket if that doesn't help." Even when the new ticket comes in, they've doubled number of tickets so the hard one won't look as bad.
@@bandit6272 Yes. It exists everywhere to some extent or other. That's the point really, it's not a question of utter perfection or utter corruption. Dichotomies rarely if ever exist in reality.
All totalitarian regimes suffer in this way because of their strong beliefs in absolutes, whatever the evidence might say to the contrary.
"What is the cost of lies?" This quote from the the series Chernobyl fits so well and even 34 later, Russia will pay this price again.
First thing I thought of, same issues, different era. Lies on top of lies.
The Great Chinese famine from 1959 to 1961 also seems to get so little attention. Mao believed some lying Soviet hack's agricultural theories which were nonsense, they screwed everything up, everyone was so terrified of admitting something was wrong doctor's were forbidden from writing starvation as a cause of death, and actions to resolve took forever. 50 million dead maybe. They basically admitted nothing until 1981 after Mao had been dead for five years and it was a factor in the one child policy.
So when will Russia punch out its’ last check and fully implode?
I caught a couple of Chernobyl quotes in this video: "Not great, not terrible" and "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth"
Such a great show. And it did a good job of showing how such a system sets the stage for disaster.
the hilarious thing is that Tom Clancy identified the problems in the Russian army 40 years ago in Red Storm Rising, this war has pretty much played out exactly along those lines.
Except that Red Army managed to be competent despite it's problems.
@@Burkutace27 it didn’t, the Soviet Union was a closed state and any footage of the Red Army training/fighting (just like Russia today), is strictly controlled by the state and thus create a false image of power projection when look from an outside perspective.
@@Burkutace27 Like VDV taking over and airfield huh
@@Burkutace27 competent at killing unarmed civilians perhaps. In the books you had to have some competent commanders to make the plot happen.
@@johnhughes2124 Well since it seems to have gone over your head, when I said "That red army" I was referring to the Red Army in Red Storm rising.
57:57 "Reality is always going to be on the side of the one who respects it more". That's a very good quote.
That line should have been in "Chernobyl."
Sun Zi (Tsu) said it well: 知彼知己，百战不殆。不知彼而知己，一胜一负。不知彼，不知己，每战必殆
If you know yourself and know your enemy, in 100 battles you will face no danger; if you know yourself but don't know your enemy, you'll win one and lose one; if you don't know yourself and don't know your enemy, you'll lose every time.
And knowing something that is not true may be worse than knowing nothing at all.
*New character unlocked unlocked: Sergeant Bicepski*
*Strengths:*
-Actually competent NCO
-Courageous in the face of overwhelming odds, will do anything for his men
-All round an actually pretty good dude
*Flaws:*
-Believes wholeheartedly in the Russia government
-Not a whole lot of power to change anything on his own
-Liable to get himself killed before his redemption arc
*New character unlocked: Captain Bullshitski*
*Strengths:*
-Relatively effective commander
-High-born upbringing, fairly well-off
*Flaws:*
-Cares more about power than his own men
-Knows exactly how the government works but also knows he can't do anything to change it, nor does he care enough to anyway
Sarge bichepski actually debuted somewhere around the corruption video.
Classic future meme names for Putler's stronk army tactics
Underrated comment, sire!
Great commwnt
I totally want some kind of meme comic or even RPG starring Conscriptovich, Bicepski, Bullshitski, Kleptovsky, and Oligarkov. As well as any others.
I enlisted in the US Army in 98 and hated PMCS and the time it took going through check list to see every point of failure was either combat ready, or if minor repairs are needed by the squad (like low tire pressure, grease point, fluid levels needing topped off, and of similar issues) or if needed dead lined for shop repair until it meets combat readiness standards. At no point was I ever in fear for reporting items as deadlined , in fact it was encouraged. You were only as effective as the equipment you needed worked properly. The US military in general supports us with the gear and equipment to reduce the chance of lost members. We’re well trained and a great asset that is becoming harder and harder to replace. Pilots are encouraged to eject a multi million dollar assets because they are more important to the cause. Now I’m a paramedic and same can be said of me. I’m only as good as the equipment I have and without it I’m really just a bystander that knows CPR. Companies recognizes that and provides you we new and better equipment to make our jobs better.
A paramedic is far better than a bystander who knows CPR, don't sell yourself short. However it does illustrate your point quite well. Thanks for sharing man.
I think the bigger problem in the US is the 'corporation mentality' of the military leadership. No body gets fired. US submarines are run by officers with bad fitness reports. A lot of PC and woke stuff is creeping into US readiness. Lowering standards so girls can pass. Equipment works - leadership sucks. Petraeus is and exception.
Yay for meritocracy! At least in concept…
David Lee Roth, lead singer of Van Halen rock band, is also a paramedic. He talks about in his Joe Rogan interview. He also went to Japan and studied martial arts.
That honesty to check the equipment, get it fixed, have it ready for use. It's essential.
It's easier to make a heli with broken engine to fly than to make imaginary, non-existing heli in perfect condition to fly. But it can only work if INSTITUTION is based on fundamental rules and regulations rather than whim of THE leader.
“It’s amazing how many problems you can solve when you are no longer tethered to reality” is my new life motto!
The return of Pvt Conscriptovic, Col Kleptovsky & General Oligarkov is fantastic. 10/10
Sergeant Bicepski was the real MVP! :D
10/10
Someone must make the comic strip!
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. And sooner or later, that debt is paid."
Crazy how a line from a series concerning the Chernobyl disaster can sum this situation up so well.
Imagine a Russian response to a modern nuclear disaster. No doubt everything is in far worse condition. Jesus ticking time bomb
@@mf3281 Sinking of the Kursk comes to mind, Russians didn't want to lose face or have other countries seize their submarine so they refused all help, and the sailors were left to suffocate in the dark knowing they had been abandoned by their country. And the fallout of that, which included a grieving mother who was shouting for answers being sedated with a needle and man handled right there in front of everyone.
I was actually thinking of this exact quote while watching, so glad he brought it up!
Good to see that nothing has changed in Russia's mindset, even 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet union.
I saw the same series and was thinking this at the very beginning of this video!
It's not just a line from the series. Valery Legasov was a real character and he really did commit suicide a few years after the disaster, leaving extensive written material behind. I believe that was a direct quote from his notes.
"If the weather bureau predicts a massive fire season, the correct response is to thank them for their service and prepare for fire season, not to fire them and look for someone who will predict something a little less demanding."
Australian Liberal Party: "I'm going to just ignore that."
SCOMO: "Why do I suddenly have the urge to go to Hawaii?"
That kind of subtle lying for promotion has always been an issue with military units and corporations. When I was active duty in the USAF, I was constantly getting pressure to "modify" airmen evaluations to look better. I was trying to be honest, and they wanted their unit to look good with lots of high-rated Airman Performance Reports (APRs), later called Enlisted Performance Reports (EPR's). But then they made it more interesting by determining what percentage of your unit could be good, bad, or outstanding and it went down from there (the lying got even more subtle). When it's a normal unit, that's not too bad. But if you're in an elite unit (everyone was handpicked), are you saying some people are not that good? So you punish a handpicked group of people by rating some down on the evaluation scale damaging their future careers. It could go either way depending on your unit. Sometimes, you did have a bunch of "interesting" bodies, and only one or two people really deserved a high rating. Personnel Evaluations are the biggest lie in any organization as it's really based on personal bias (and a certain amount of internal politics). I say this person is a great worker, because I like them or perceive them as some kind of wunderkind (but they're really not great according to company data). While the person or persons, I rate as "average" or "less than average" worker is doing more quality work than my "great" worker because I don't like their attitude or lifestyle. The "great" worker eventually becomes a boss, and the quality of the company goes downhill, and the cycle continues as the overblown "great" workers keep moving their proteges in important positions until the company collapses from bad management and lack of quality workers. The military (at least in the US) thankfully cycle people in and out of organizations on a routine basis so the rot doesn't necessarily go too far or sets in permanently. But in civilian organizations without a lot of turnover at all levels, the rot digs in deeper and deeper until the whole thing collapses.
We have the exact same problem in the Army. It gets mentioned in “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession”.
The Jack Welch model: fire the bottom 10%
Christ, Hackworth points out the exact same problem... in the 1960s. Nice to know the military wants more Vietnams. At least they're restricting Ukraine to a proxy war, and not trying to run it themselves. That's probably why Ukraine is winning!
How to introduce Vranyo to your organisation with this one wierd trick
As a person of Russian/Soviet background - I'll say:
This is the most important video you made so far. It explains perfectly why things in russia 2022 look the way they do. Not just in the military - everywhere.
It's a pity, though, because younger Russians seem to perfectly understand that this road leads nowhere.
@@LMB222 Do they really ? When you consider russia in it's majority ? I'm not sure...
When they show videos from russia with young people being interviewed it's almost always from Moscow where on average the population is more educated and of higher socio economical background - and even there in the environment of semi-liberalism and abundance of opportunity the culture of systemic lying is deeply rooted.
Extrapolate it to the depressed regions where transparency is much lower than in the center...
Let's agree that Russia is a totally rotten society. Change my mind.
@@shaikon5617 the sensible ones have been leaving for the past 15-20 years, so the statement isn't not ebitely wrong, nor right
and why truth and facts have to matter in society. we cant let ignorance leak into our professions especially the military.
As a Russian, i appreciate you taking the time to get into the finer details of our language
Language is really interesting
Sorry for all the bullshit your government is putting you through
Perun has no equals
Could you add anything to the definition of Vranyo Perun stated, please?
@@ticijevish his definition is wrong, враньё (vranyo) is synonymous to lie.
There's an excellent exploration of Vranyo in Soviet culture in HBO's Chernobyl mini series.
"We lie and lie until we cannot remember the truth is even there. But it is, still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth - sooner or later, that debt is payed."
Now imagine lines like that delivered by Jared Harris with brilliantly chilling atmospheric music backing him up, and go watch Chernobyl!
Things destroyed by lies so far:
*Trust
*Relationship
*RBMK-reactor
*Army
"RBMK-reactors cannot explode.
Change my mind" - Komrade Dyatlov
We must all thank Russia for providing us with a comprehensive encyclopedia of everything that one should do in order to lose a war. The lessons Russia is teaching will be part of the curriculum of every military school in the world for many generations to come.
Only for really crappy militaries.... Not sure what a Nato country could learn from the Russian side
I highly recommend talk “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession”, from CZcams channel The USAHEC , run by The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center Army War College.
It’s based on the 2015 paper by Army War College about not just everyday dishonesty, but about falsifying reports, caused by unrealistic requirements, how it relates to US culture and so on.
Amazing to see something like this. I love American ability to openly share information about
problematic issues. While everyone agrees it’s a painful process and coverups happen, but once it’s up, changes are made.
It's sad that a culture that has produced so much beauty is so politically ugly. If Trump had been reelected we might be trading goods with Russia to our mutual benefit instead of bombs. This is the universal problem with one party/one man rule. How many times do we have to learn this lesson?
Vranie is also a problem for the West, USA paid trillions to military contractors to write reports about how well trained and equipped they made the Afghan military. People in the chain new it was BS, but money was being made and nobody wanted to rock the boat, Western soldiers propped up the false hood with their blood in a forever war... the rich got richer. Till one day a president decided to act on the information that was presented in Western reports; a week later, the Taliban were in Kabul.
???
49:50 One of the craziest things I remember seeing when the war first broke out was a burnt out truck full of riot shields. Imagine you're invading a country and you place riot gear as a top logistical priority above food, fuel, and ammunition. Yeah, someone definitely told Putin Ukraine was going to roll over.
Of course, the spies likely were bragging about the hundreds or even thousands of Ukrainians they had ready to raise up and join the Russian Army once they arrived, when in reality they'd been spending their whole budget on booze and hookers.
There were other trucks with dress uniforms for the victory parade. Delusional.
As much as Russia has made mistakes constantly, I don't think bringing riot shields was a mistake. If you have an angry, but unarmed civilian population, which I think the Russians expected, you don't want to send in infantry with rifles to deal with them.
It would be a gigantic propaganda disaster for them. Riot shields and batons wouldn't be so bad.
@@hazzardalsohazzard2624 - You have a point, while I fail to recall the russians having any riot shields when they actually did temporarily occupy any cities. Does seem typical of the orcs somehow... 🤔
One other point for the extreme optimism is the alleged finding of victory parade uniforms in the logistics leftovers. 🙄
@@hazzardalsohazzard2624 But they shouldn't be in the convoys on literally day one, should they? That seems preposterous to me.
I was raised in an authoritarian abusive household, and you absolutely *have* to lie under authoritarianism. You either play the game of telling the higher ups what they wanna hear, regardless of what's actually true, or you suffer immensely. Short of overthrowing the entire system, you really have no other options.
That gets me thinking, a text based strategy game would be a really interesting idea, where you make decisions based on reports, and other forms of indirect data, as a top level commander.
That's actually a good idea for a game!
You can de that with chat gpt. I’ve tried
This is almost the game that would Lucas Pope do (creator of Papers please and Return to Obra Dinn)
I saw this first hand when I worked at Sarah Lee bread company. I was responsible for plant reporting at a plant in South Carolina. My boss would tell me that the real numbers did not "tell the story we want to tell". Then the CEO, Brenda Barnes, had a massive stroke. Auditors came in, the whole upper management was replaced and the company was broken into pieces, sold off and no longer exists. They were lying about numbers, collecting performance bonuses and getting promoted. That was never covered in the news. Now the Mexican company Bimbo owns most of what remains of Sarah Lee.
You can buy pre-toasted bread from Bimbo!
My dad told me a story about this and said there's no shame in walking off a job that demands you lie to cover your coworkers, because any company with this kind of culture won't last long enough to pay you your retirement.
That's what we need in Russia, for the whole upper management to be replaced and the country broken into pieces and... well, not sold off, certainly. But given new owners (their citizens).
@@Bill_Garthright Break Russia up by Religion, Ethnic background and Native Languages and those separate nations won't be a problem to their neighbors!
Always thought bimbo was Spanish...
"Your news consumption probably can't be made up of one hour long power point presentations."
If all the topics I cared about had someone like you making a one hour long powerpoint presentation each week, then it certainly would be.
Well… I’m willing to try!
Ukraine? Perun.
Gaming and social media? WAN Show (podcast, but eh)
Integrated circuits and Asia? Asianometry.
Space? Scott Manley (shorter though).
Electric cars and global electrification? Fully Charged
Machine vision and learning? TwoMinutePapers.
@@capturedflame because the person presenting understands the titanic amount of work involved. He still points out flaws and things to improve
I remember playing a shareware copy of an RTS military game in the late 90s that had a for the time very sophisticated reluctance/refusal feedback from the NPCs - if you sent them on a frontal assault, they'd just dig in and stay put until they were ordered to retreat or relieved. I was impressed at the time and im surprised it's not something that was picked up and taken forward.
Would you remember what it’s called?
I'd defintely like to know what game that was.
I too want to know what the game is
So what was the game called?
Guys I think the CIA whacked him before he could tell us.
When I was in Russia, I fully understood the saying: "They pretend that they pay, and we pretend that we work." This applies not only to the military sphere, but even to everyday life. I would like to say that in Ukraine we were very different in this regard, but in fact we ourselves were in a similar position no more than eight years ago. The terrible state of military equipment, the understaffing of units (sometimes up to 50%), the lack of personal protective equipment (I remember we had one body armor per company and it was at headquarters in a safe), Soviet procurement systems (for example, artillery units bought fodder for horses because that no one since the 70s has thought about the fact that they don’t even have horses anymore) and so on. It was very difficult to overcome this system and it cost a lot of blood and lives. Russia's main problem is that they don't even try. They are so used to the myth of their invincibility that they are simply unable to readjust. Of course, Putin is now trying to pretend that he is ready for negotiations, but I think everyone who has an IQ above 60 understands that this is just a way to buy time for rearmament and training of reservists, who are now simply thrown to the front. In such a position, any normal person would have already calculated the losses and got the hell out, but normality and the Putin regime have long lost contact. In any case, thanks to the author for another excellent job and hello to everyone from Kherson, especially to those who told me how we failed the counter attack here and how the Russians will surround us in Nikolaev by September. Peace to all and good luck.
not saying the ukrainian military doesent has a bit of the soviet mindet over. But they are waaaaaay more "Westernized".
"They pretend that they pay, and we pretend that we work" - Ah yes, the great apathy that corruption encourage.
I hope nobody in the west falls for Russians bullshit. The Ukrainian offensive must continue or accelerate until all Russia military is removed.
Suspect this culture developed because there is little reward for labor since its confiscated. It's just cheaper to lie. Rephrased; they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.
Someday the story will be told about how the AFU🇺🇦 changed the engines, the crew, the wings and the landing gear all without crashing the airplane.
Glory to Ukraine and the heroes defending her 🇺🇦✊
I work in the British NHS and am amazed at how much of this is true in that organisation. The allocation of budgets and promotions of people fits the pattern well.
Corruption isn't unique to Russia. The entire state government where I live is crippled by corruption, yet laymen are simply too stupid/politically bias to see it.
The NHS is a Stalinist organisation. What else do you expect from such an organisation except Commie-type problems?
Having worked in the NHS I can only agree. Lol.... Management performance related pay gives no incentive for that manager to rock the boat.
I trained with the NHS for about 6 months when I was doing my clinical rotations. My takeaway was that I was generally very impressed with the individual providers, but they were working in a system incentivised towards inefficiency.
I was a fly on the wall after a meeting where department heads and senior consulting physicians discussed especially difficult cases, and when they fell to small talk the problems within the NHS and how helpless they all felt about it was striking. It seemed so obvious to them how bad it was, but they seemed very pessimistic that anything would be done, or that solutions were even possible. They freely admitted that the general public had no idea how bad it was getting. This was several years ago and it seems to be even worse.
I take that lesson with me back to the US Healthcare system, which to be fair has plenty of its own problems. But I just roll my eyes when some lay person says that if we just copied the NHS everything would be better. Lol
Probably started in the NHS once they changed it into a business model and brought in, unnecessary, middle managers……..
An uncle of me served in the east German NVA (late 70s). During a joint exercise with the soviet "friends" he noticed that the best German marksmen got dressed up in soviet uniforms and then participated as soviets in a shooting contest. Thus ensuring that the motherland would win the exercise.
Somehow the Afghans never bothered to be such good hosts to their erm "liberators".
I'm a little late to the party, but this video reminds me (again) of my favorite Russian joke:
A man is walking home one night, after having a few too many drinks with the fellas. As he's walking, he steadies himself against the fence that runs along the road. After a little while, he comes across another man, also drunk, lying on the ground.
The first man says "Look at yourself! Wallowing in the gutter like a pig! Aren't you ashamed?"
The second man says "Just keep walking, asshole. Sooner or later, that fence is going to end."
As someone who worked in quality assurance at a meat processing plant staffed mainly by Eastern Europeans I was constantly fighting a culture of lies even in my own team, “vranyo” is a very good way to describe such a culture of lies, everyone lies to cover each other and themselves because if there’s a problem you actually have to work to fix it, needless to say it drove me insane
Was it your fault that everyone ate horse in their frozen lasagnas for a couple of years?
My father is superintendent and I remember how he tell how eastern european construction workers almost make him insane because this culture, but he fixed this old Finnish army way, if one team member screw up / lie, everybody will suffer. And he also used old school stasi method and recruited couple informer from work team for extra pay.
He got a nickname Ivan the Terrible from his russian and baltic workers.
It’s exactly the same in Asia. They will look you in the eye and lie and lie. When you prove them to be lying. They blowup like a viola Anno and blame you. It’s insane. So nobody questions the idiotic lies, and everyone goes round fuckin over the next guy.
@@SavolaxMitsu
Oh, my … if I recall correctly, trump hired eastern European workers to build in New York & didn’t pay them.
Always a bad sign when one avoids a product they help create. 🥩🤢
I worked for an organization that had scheduled audits and a passing rate of 95%. Everybody knew when their audit was and would basically shut down for a week to get ready. A new boss came in and announced a passing rate was now 75%, but the audits were unannounced. Most of the organizations failed.
This lecture in a nutshell xD
I work for a fairly small company that has become successful despite having to compete directly with huge companies with massive workforces and budgets. There is a sort of disbelief among the competition at how much is accomplished with so little. I believe that a large part of this comes from a complete absence of "Vranyo" in the company culture. Sure, people will use the most optimistic way of describing how their work is going, but 1) outright lying is rare and would be cause for punishment, and 2) being proactive and honest about problems is rewarded, or at least not punished.
Hey Perun, Im not sure if you remember me, but I once criticised you over a sloppy statement which seemed some what biased. But I really have to say that you improved so much! Im really impressed! You really try to be as accurate as you can be and not just state any biased information out there. You try to be fair in your assessment and that is very important. Like I said to you then; "There is no need for you to sacrifice your objectivity by making the Russians look bad since they are doing it well on their own." I hope you keep on doing your fine work and dont lose the sight of fairness its sadly losing more and more ground.
Cheers mate, much appreciated.
Only thing more corrupt than Russia is the Video Game Industry
Putin and Activision-Blizzard deserve each other
I am Bulgarian and we have a great movie from the soviet era (1969) about this. The movie is called "Whale" and it's released was held up for a few years and was released heavily censured only in 1 theater. It's a comedy describing how some fishermen catch a Sprat fish (very small fish) and then report it up the chain slightly exaggerated. Then it's reported up the chain by people, each one exaggerating it. Until it reaches the highest echelons of the party it's reported that they were able to catch whale, despite there being no whales in the Black Sea. It's a fun comedy that shows this issue in a great way.
I'd love to see it.
@@johanmetreus1268 It is available on CZcams, but unfortunately I cannot find it subbed anywhere. The first 3 minutes show the censure documents ordering what needed to be censored in the movie. Here it is czcams.com/video/xqR5fV4Sm-k/video.html
@@bonevgm Thank you! A pity the auto-texting feature is disabled, it did wonders on the Polish series Four tankers and dog.
@@johanmetreus1268 I found the movie in a few other places, but unfortunately none have captions.
@@bonevgm A pity, but thank you kindly for making the effort, most appreciated!
The first step in fixing a lying problem, is admitting you have a lying problem.
There is no lying problem.
@@scabthecat 😂😂
@@scabthecat I didn't know fixing it would be so easy, brilliant
@@lorax8172 It's easy, you don't have a problem if you perceive no such problem!
@@DogeickBateman This isn't the problem you're looking for
Over all my years of trying to explain to people my culture this is the best explanation I've ever seen. Lies on top of lies on top of more lies and this goes through literally every part of life. Just lie all the problems away and there is no real way to escape, resist or break the system from within.
I have gotten SO MUCH mileage out of the word "vranyo" in the context of software project management.
I don't watch your videos just for the topic itself, but because what you discuss has a lot of relevance in any organization working at scale.
Re: you not being on the cutting edge of the time line.
Perun, you know and we know that your strength and value has very little -- to nothing, to do with breaking the story to its viewers. You fill a more important, if possibly a bit more niche, role of helping those who care to truly understand a topic to fully digest it.
Keep doing what you're doing. No one needs another "breaking news: a thing happened, this is an ongoing story" type experience. Your punctuality matters only in the broadest sense. As long as the topic you're expounding upon is a current event, I'm happy to wait a week or month in order to ensure that you're able to access and present the best data possible. That's not possible with something that happened halfway around the world 72 hours ago.
This.
Second this
I dare say none of us watch this channel specifically for speed, but because it's really, really good.
As a maori who lives in Australia, when I first heard Perun speak it made me proud. Then it made me think hang on I'm a kiwi....
This is how confusingly awesome he is.
Hello Perun and All that decide to read this comment. This will be the longest one i have ever written. You have hit the nail on the head so hard it vaporized and let me explain why. I am a Bulgarian (for those who do not know ex communist country but not ex USSR). They actually made a movie about this which is called whale. Main plot is a small fishing ship goes out and catches some small ship and of course they reported a slightly bigger catch. By the time the news hit the head of the "Company" it was a whale (again for the challenges in geography Bulgaria is on the black sea. We do not have a lot of whales there.) But there is another thing even more telling than the movie, and how this one even was made and released during the communist days is still a mistery btw, we have a saying which in direct translation is: "I am lying to them that i am working and they are lying to me that they are paying me". This is the culture and this mind you is in a country that has abolished communism 33 years ago and is a member of EU and NATO. I am pretty sure that every person here who comes from post communist country will have the same or similar saying on their own language. The reason i started watching your videos is your ability to understand not necessarily the big picture (i hope you do but i am not qualified to say if you do) but the culture and the difference between a trench in France for example and one in deep depp eastern Europe. This is indeed not only an Army fenomenon. Throught my career i have met such behaviour on all levels and the only reason i had some measure of success is that i had a really good 1-st boss when i was 23 and he thought me that this line of thinking is not sustainable and does not lead to success. At the end i just grew tired and moved to Belgium. So this was my long winded post and for you who managed to get to the end i salute you :)
Your comment wasn't THAT long but it was insightful.
Some habits take a long time to die off. They are also highly contagious when operating in such a culture or being exposed to it. For this very reason, critical thinking and questioning authority should be part of any curriculum.
All I could think of the entire time was the scene in this anime (Saga of Tanya the Evil - the movie specifically) in which the Soviets are attacking a critical German rail road hub.
The Officer on the ground huddled in a trench gives a surprisingly honest report of: "Main attack barely continuing advance. Lack of heavy artillery is a huge problem!"
The Political Officer on the other end in the rear then communicates up the chain to central command: "Situation on ground is difficult by manageable. Heavy artillery support would be helpful."
A general then tells the Comrade Secretary: "Victory is almost in our grasp. Main force advancing with overwhelming advantage. Heavy artillery is unnecessary."
The Comrade Secretary then thanks the general for the good news.
Lmao that's a great comparison
Thinking the same think
Quick and dirty simulation on what it's like to actually command military units on a battlefield: Start up Company of Heroes or something, and then turn the screen away from you and turn off the sound, and then have your friend look at the screen and describe the situation to you, and try to play the game like that... also never touch the pause button.
There was a battle report in White Dwarf of a multi-table 40k game. Three tables reporting to a 'supreme commander' on their own table running a smaller battle. The only intel the supreme commanders got was camera phone pictures taken above the tables, and reports from their subordinate commanders.
Key moments was an airstrike hitting a building that was full of weak, harmless goblins, and two opposing commanders reporting up the chain that all was lost and they desperately needed reinforcements. . ..while they were fighting on the same table against each other.
There was a quote by a famous Russian writer (name escapes me): "If I fall asleep for a hundred years, wake-up and get asked "what is happening in Russia", my answer will be: drinking and stealing. That kinda sums up a lot of their war doctrine.
Though my family lives in Ukraine, my dad was born in Russia (a city 1 day away from Moscow). He was transferred to Lviv in mid 80s and decided to stay here. One day the USSR collapsed and this huge military base, where my dad worked, became "unassigned goods" territory overnight. People started selling military trucks to farmers, stealing wiring from radio-equipment, opening-up ration reserves and other stuff. Funny thing... it was all happening before. But the falls of USSR put it in the open (and even Hollywood movies). To this day I remember how huge territories were walled & assigned to ministry of defense but once you went over the fence... it was empty fields, empty lots, and rusty, broken equipment.
Another story is from certain warehouse in Odessa (which one I have no clue). It was a stockpile for various missiles. Local guys would take rockets that are EOL, take # plates off them, put those plates on new rockets. Basically, the process would leave old/EOL rockets at base while the new rockets went to Middle East or Africa. On paper, the rocket Capability was high, in practice 50% of rockets wouldn't fly.
My far relative is an active Russian Army member. Well before the war we still kept in touch. He's function in the military is to ensure that military bases are compliant with Russian Army's living standards. The fun part is that it's impossible to "fail" those. You get orders to verify living conditions in camp-X, you travel to camp -X, you take a bribe, you return and sign a document that everything is good. Sometimes those camp would not have windows inside the barracks and people had to use duck-tape + other crap to hide from the wind. On paper, the living Capability was high, in practice people sometimes lived worse than homeless drug addicts. And once again, the high command has no interest in you finding issues, they are interested in "successful" reports. That's it. If you find a problem, then you are the problem.
I think it all stems from dictatorial, single ruler mentality. Look back at Russian history... Ivan Grozniy, Peter The Great, Kathrine The Great, bunch of nameless Golden Horde vassals... it was always do or die. There wasn't a single year of democratic rule in Russian. What do can you expect from its citizens? Lying, hiding, drinking, and stealing.
After decades, Francis Fukuyama's book "Trust" is still valid, and this war in Ukraine has only illustrated just how frighteningly relevant it is to this day.
"If you find a problem, then you are the problem"
Exactly my experience with Russian occupation of my country while I was growing up. You nailed it!
@@thornelderfin It's certainly a problem in a number of countries. I accidentally uncovered a rats-nest of corrupt behaviour in New Zealand in 1998 and almost immediately became persona non-gratia in my own country
If you dare go against the established doctrine (propaganda) then the masses will shoot the messenger. In the realistic version of the Emperor's New Clothes, the small boy was immediately killed by those standing around him, fearful that the Palace guard would hear and kill everyone within earshot
I was a chemical officer in the US Army which meant that I was responsible for readiness reporting at nearly every level of my career. I did the Unit Status Report (USR) when it was transmitted on teletype, through floppy discs, through the SIPR-net, and finally as an application in the SIPR cloud. It was a constant battle to keep it accurate since commander's always wanted to over-exaggerate their accomplishments. Luckily, most of the report was based on hard, verifiable, and audited data (days mission capable for example). There were still some subjective assessments though....mostly with the training resource area. However, the army constantly tried to quantize that resource area as well. Especially after some embarrassing NTC rotations for Reserve and National Guard units before operation DESERT STORM. As flawed of a system as it was, it was light years ahead of some other militaries I interacted with over my career. Especially in societies that value reputation and "honor" highly.
I talked with a foreign tank company commander about his participation in DESERT STORM. He was notified that he would be fighting in the upcoming armored assault and I joked that he must have had fun living in the desert, training up to the second it kicked off. I was surprised to learn that his unit didn't do any additional training because that would indicate to his superiors that his unit wasn't combat-ready at all times.
this is fascinating, you would think that the economics would suggest troops be kept at a balanced state where there is not excess resources spent to keep a unit at excess readiness, and that before serious commitment of troops that effort should ramp up to 110%
It's called face culture very common in oppressive regimes
Damn. Well that's interesting. Thank you for your service.
@@XerrolAvengerII The Army managed that with the readiness rating. C1 was full combat readiness while other units were only authorized to be at C2 or C3. Once they were call up, they were given additional resources to get up to C1 before deployment.
@@XerrolAvengerII Operating tanks for training is expensive. Not just for fuel, it takes quite a bit to keep them combat ready.
I was in an armored battalion in Germany during the Vietnam draw down. There was obviously very little money available to us for training, everything sat in the motorpool most of the time, except for the year we were part of the two week Reforger exercise, the occasional alert drill where we went out to our staging area where again we would sit for a while, and the annual trip to Graf for gunnery qualification.
We used to drag our deadlined M114s to Graf with us, the maintenance priority went up and we could get them repaired.
Wait, so you're telling me that Russia hasn't destroyed 300 % of Ukraine's armed forces by now?
As a Soldier who spent his last few years as the NCOIC of a Brigade Fires Integration Center, this guy is very well versed and spot on with his assessments.
This video dropped less than a week ago and I've already watched it 3 times.
Massive props to @Perun , his channel is one in a million.
In Indonesia, we call that vranyo culture ABS, Asal Bapak Senang, meaning "as long as daddy's happy".
It took me more than an hour before that realization finally dawned on me.
That definition could also be used in Russia: "As long as Vladdy's happy".
Russian commander: sir, we have -12% casualty rate, with a 12% margin of error.
Russian captain: ... You are saying we either have no losses or we learned to raise the dead?
Russian commander: yes.
Russian captain: good job, you get a promotion
Actually, ability to raise the dead would give a tangible military advantage!
@@artman40 could be a problem for some
HOI4 on times 10 mod, field hospital tech be like:
*500% of casualties are recovered*
oh you are so funny.. not
It happens on much smaller scales in other militaries... including the US. The big thing we've got going for us, though, is that a BN commander, a BDE commander, they're only around for anywhere between a year or three. That LTC, that COL, their moral compass will be the defining factor. Some will accept the fudge, some will not. It's a mixed bag! Point is, we're ALL subject to the allure of "Vranyo"
What if the Russian military pulled out of Ukraine and just told Putin they won?
He would die happy.
15:20 makes me wish there was a strategy game where your units are actively lying to you 😂
The problem is that such a game would soon degenerate into 'how quickly and creatively can the player punish liars?'
Radio Commander on Steam might be interesting. I don't know if the AI units also give false reports, but the game does go into how much harder commanding units is when you don't have a top down view with immediate line of sight to everything all your troops can see.
Aired 54 minutes ago... 24k views. The people have spoken. Perun will never be able to satisfy my thirst for his content. This is Robert Sapolski lecture level stuff.
There’s a bit of Vranyo in social media metrics as well. Define “view”.
"Real war isn't like an RTS"
FINALLY someone said it. it seems that the people in charge thinks human beings are simple units that they can control easily.
I wonder what a real war game would look like. You get text reports, you give text orders, then the computer does some fuzzy AI stuff off screen and sends you text reports that may or may not be accurate.
Wouldn’t be fun, that’s for sure. But it would be educational.
@@ErzengelDesLichtes I feel like there's a niche audience that would really enjoy this. I'd probably buy it on sale just to compare to more exciting strategy games.
@@ErzengelDesLichtes Text orders are probably overkill, when you can just have a “normal” strategy game where you receive information and send orders on a map view as usual and familiar, but both scouting information and orders take a while to propagate to the “ground” and back to you, and plenty of RNG/plan-Bs to yank control out of your hands on every step of the way.
I'd say this comment is more germane to many other yt analysts, msm, and the original Russian plan (select all units, click on middle of enemy base)
The Yook battlefield management system does look more and more like an RTS. There is an app for everything. They have sophisticated fire mission apps, one of which actually works as SMS commands ("XXX" = Abort fire mission).
What also impressed me, the Yooks use battle modelling to determine strategic decisions.
This is such a profound, SS+ tier informative video, please consider giving a lecture or a TEDx talk on the subject. This is absolutely spellbinding to hear you explain
It is quite likely that most people in the chain of command do not actually know what the truth is (and thus whether or not they are being lied to), and choose not to find out because that would render them liable to fix any problems they found. The line "my underlings lied to me" is a much safer bet than "I failed to fix problems which cannot be solved".
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" is often used in corporate circles. I've been thinking about that quote in relation to Russia's invasion and military performance stemming from its own culture. I spent several years in Russia in the 90s. Although there are good people there and some are really trying to do the right thing, lying is intrinsic to living there. Everyone cheats through school Businesses carry two books, one for the auditors and one for reality. The military culture which you describe so well is no different than the culture as a whole.
When you need to get into a university to escape conscription (which in Russia is full of bullying / dedovshina, physical harm, pneumonia, and possibly death from some accident or the aforementioned bullying), you're not above cheating if that will help you, as otherwise someone else who is likely also cheating will take your place. Not everyone does it of course, not even a majority, but indeed it's usually not looked down upon by peers, because "everyone understands everything", as the saying goes.
Many if not most large American Companies use 2 sets of books too. One for the IRS and one for the CEO and Board of Directors. That doesn't mean Corporations don't pay taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, use taxes are harder to avoid.
it;s result of modern school system and winner take all bullshit
@@dewayneweaver5782 The books they prepare for the IRS and CEO/Board of Directors are well known even if they are using them to try to get around paying taxes.
I eagerly look forward to more adventures of Private Conscriptovich, Colonel Kleptovsky and general Oligarkov. Those guys are a riot.
Don't forget their new members. Sergeant Bicepski and Captain Bullshitski !!!
I see a TV show in the near future; a mix between Soldier Sveik, MASH and Monty Python.
@@miguelarribas9990 I would totally bingewatch that one!
This should have been your first video. It puts so much into perspective and connects so many other issues to the greater picture.
Very interesting analysis. Do NOT be afraid of going slowly with your analyses and posts. One of the great problems with the inadequacy of our main stream media is their desire to be "first" -accuracy be damned! Proper analysis and factual presentation take time. You are building credibility. The only thing any of us has to offer anyone is our credibility.
I did want to point out something that Perun mentioned around 16:00 - not only is information flow out of the battlefield not instantaneous, there are some indications that the relative slowness of information flow in actual combat may be a good thing.
See, in the late 90s and early 00s, the US Army attempted to field this system called Land Warrior - a 10 lb mass of cables and cameras, which acted almost like a "tactical map" and radio combo. A soldier equipped with it would (in theory) have access to a real-time satellite view map of the area, with dots (indicating the real-time location of friendlies) superimposed over the top. They'd be able to easily switch between squad, section, platoon, and company level radio nets. The real coup de grace of the whole system, though, was the ability to switch between the helmet and gun cameras of each individual soldier - real sci-fi stuff for the time.
In 2007, they slimmed it down a bit (essentially cutting it down to GPS transmitters for the individual soldiers, O3s and up with the actual map software), trained an infantry battalion up with it, and deployed them to Iraq. Higher ups loved it - they could quickly and easily see where everyone was and get a good idea of what they were doing! Anecdotally, though - I know a few people that were in 4-9 INF when they deployed, and they bemoaned the system. See, commanders tend to want that level of control that RTSes provide - they think they know best, so they want to be able to very specifically control the positioning of each unit. According to the guys I know, this very high level of information provided to commanders (when coupled with the e-lag most electronic GPS reporting systems have) led to situations where squad leaders wouldn't be able to direct their men - they'd be too busy on the radio, trying to tell some O what was going on and why, exactly, he hadn't ordered PVT Doe to loop around the east side of the building yet.
I, personally, saw something similar to that. NATO forces are fielding something that acts similarly to the way Land Warrior did, but primarily for vehicles, called a blue force tracker. It has maps and dots, and updates fairly quickly, and there were many times at CTC rotations where my PL would end up talking directly to a full bird because the Colonel in charge didn't like how the formation looked.
Essentially, I posit that, at some point and in some cases, it's detrimental to allow senior leaders perfect information regarding troops - in my experience, higher ranking officers tend to not trust their NCOs, which leads to those Os micromanaging their units, which can have horrible effects in combat.
Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted talk
Something to learn from this war is that the Ukrainians have had some success in having units fairly autonomous. Unsure if that is only out of necessity, or if it's ingrained
I believe this has been one of the lesson learned and why there is heavy focus on on NCOs operational autonomy these days.
Not sure when this switch to more devolved combat leadership was implemented, but out of memory it was around late 00s.
It is as you say, NCO on ground has the best visibility and knowledge, both on mission parameters, requirements and on what is truly happening out there.
From listening to recent veterans or on leave personnel, it is praised approach.
My expectation on UA is that partly it is necessity (new units formed quickly, equipment and skillset was low in Feb). Partly it is what all these NATO trainers are telling them.
I hope. There is some information to above effect. Some notes. But I am not sitting in those meetings nor I am part of military.
I've seen similar situations in my career in data and analytics. I've had to talk clients out of wanting real time analytics in the past, because it is a really horrible idea to make strategic or even tactical decisions based on the last hour or so of activity.
It leads to knee-jerk reactions and encourages short-sightedness. I can totally see how that translates to the military world as well.
Lol. Sitting in a pmcs-ed humvee right in front of the jbcp.
Your statements above, is the exact reason I never joined the military. I would not listen to upper command when I know the situation is not in my/our favor and or a death sentence. I never knew the military had tracking and almost live data on a war front.
This was excellent. When young I worked for a powerful man. He told me that the most powerful person in the room would know the least unless he knew how to get information. This was his superpower. He could
Be in a meeting of twenty people and know the three who did not speak. He would call on them. Also, he never asked what they thought. He would pose the question like this. “Well John I see you’ve been quiet. You heard what everyone has said here. I want to know what those Down in the bowels of Department x are going to react. You deal with them. What do you think the reaction will be? What are they seeing that I may not be aware of?”
He always made it Easy to tell the truth not
Just because he would not punish you, but he could get you to tell what you think without angering or embarrassing your own bosses who you might disagree with. Also, he always said who he wanted in the meeting so that his direct underlings could not bring yes men. No leader, no Secretary, no general, no department head could ever tell him he was misled by his agency. It was their job to know and cut thru the sycophants and incompetents …. I wish we could bottle his skill….
What was the company or organization you worked for?
Reminds me a very successful industrialist - at his death, the company he had founded counted 15'000 people for an annual turnover equivalent to more than 4 billion USD.
He used to walk into his factories, talked with the workers.
Then only he attended management reports. And management knew that cheating could not work.
@@maka6134 Governor Casey
I had a couple really good officers when is was in the military. When you're paying attention, good leadership is a joy to behold.
The trick seems to be putting good people where they need to be, and getting the best out of them. Then of course you need to make sure you have the information you need and ensure all the moving parts interact as smoothly as possible with one another. Impressive to see it in action
Any extra tips on how I can learn to be (more) like this?
That Russian TV presenter is pretty courageous. He could have just said “the army has withdrawn from Kherson, in other news a kitten drank a liter of vodka” but, no, he actively pointed out the absurdity in a very clever fashion.
Great lecture. Most important question I have after listening is; How far down the road of corruption, lies and a culture of fear have we gone, the western world. The last 25 years we are constantly seeing glimpses of those things in an accelerating amount. Corruption, lies and incompetence, followed by the suppression of critics, has never in my lifetime been so open and shameless as in the last couple of years.
Which country you refer to?
@@sarasamaletdin4574 I live in the Netherlands. But I see it everywhere, the UK, the US, Belgium, Canada, Australia, the European Union isn't exactly a bastion of integrity. The western world is moving back to a modern form of feudalism.
That's capitalism, baby!
i remember working with russians in the past and encountering "vranyo" when speaking casually with some. it's an incredibly irritating and anti-social phenomenon, and ive tried at length to describe it to others (lying but with no intention of convincing the target, like one insisting it's raining outside on a clear, sunny day)
thank you for finally putting a name to it!
It must be similar to puting an alcoholic beverage bottle into a paper bag so that the police can pretend that you don't drink in public. Everybody is in on it.
Sarcasm?
@@chaosXP3RT Sarcasm isn’t serious.
Is that not unlike " the emperor has no clothes "
His name is wrong. Varaņjo just means lying, it doesnt mean what he says it does.
And yes most russijans suck, as do the masses of every nation, but youre just used to your own.
In the 1980s a Russian defector, writing under the name 'Viktor Suvorov published a number of books about the Red Army, at the time many in the West thought he was telling the story that his readers wanted to hear i.e. corruption, nepotism, incompetence et. al. since then I've watched and read accounts of Russian military operations and nothing I've seen or read has led me to believe he was telling anything but the truth. Another interesting and well researched film, I look forward to more mate.
Hi, Charlie!
I have a few of his books. They're a very good read.
His claims about the Russians realistically planning out to invade Europe pretty much around the start of WW2 (his 'Icebreaker' argument) have been mostly discredited though. He definately did some writing 'for the audience'.
The failure there by 'Suverov' isn't so much in the intent Stalin had (the first mentions of Russians invading Europe are from 1922 discussions on Red Army budget), but in saying it could've realistically been done by 1941, which is as David Glantz summed it up: Untenable.
The 'Icebreaker hypothesis' fit neatly into how the war ended and into Domino Theory, so became quite popular.
@@nvelsen1975 Yes quite agree, there was no way the Russians intended to attack the Germans in 1941. Stalin was playing for time and well aware of the Red Army's weaknesses.
If I fall asleep, wake up 100 years later and somebody asks me, what is going on in Russia, my immediate answer will be: drinking and stealing.
Great content as always man. Keep it coming plz!!
The Chernobyl series has a pretty brutal representation of Vran'ye at all levels
Not brutal. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible.
@@nvelsen1975 he knew exactly what he was saying lol
Who the hell is Varnya?
@@justicedemocrat9357 You didn't watch the video did you
@@1894db I'm not 100% sure because these people were sitting around in extremely dangerous levels of radiation proclaiming everything was fine. Were they really willing to poison themselves and their families for the sake career advancement or were they legitimately in complete denial? The magnitude of the disaster was such that it was difficult to comprehend.
This channel doesn't need to apologize for addressing events a week or two after they happen. There are many, many sources I can go to if I just want current events. This channel's strength is the deeper analysis of the situation which helps to make sense of the other sometimes conflicting news sources.
Yeah!! So much this!! ^ It's the deep analysis of this channel that can't be found anywhere else.
Exactly! I was going to make the same content.
This is not about today's news. This is about in-depth analysis of long-term underlying factors.
- but it'll be funny when you come back in 2 months, or 2 years time ?..
Except Russia are winning convincingly, just annexed 20% of Ukraine.
Back a few weeks into the war when Russia was clearly falling short at taking Kiev and most other major targets, I recall thinking there must be some massive corruption going on in the Russian military.
I find myself rewatching Perun's videos time and again. There's just so much insightful information here.
He was wrong every time lol
@@Max_Da_GOnly in your delusion-land my friend.
This all likely explains why so many Russian generals fell afoul of snipers and whatnot. A general will keep well away from an active warzone where snipers are likely if he has any sense. However, if his subordinates have lied about the current state of the battlefield, the general may head over for a quick propaganda photo op that ends with a rather different kind of head shot than they expected.
"Every lies told incurs a debt to truth". -chernobyl HBO
Perfect line to describe both disaster
@@chooseyouhandle i think 2-3 generation down the line, people will say the same thing about our post-truth-echo-chamber of a social media we have created nd gave free reign to
@@shaheeralam4948 echo* chamber
@@connorkenway09 English is not my first language but still, thankyou for pointing that out, i have corrected my mistake
Perun even brings the quote in the video. I had to laugh out loud when I heard it. XD
@@derzauberer8605 you have to give it to Perun, the man does his research so wide nd deep that it even includes tv shows
This video really has to be the PEAK of Perun’s work. Literally nothing that I watched has been able to give me the same detailed, precise, all-encompassing knowledge of how the Russian military functions, and for that I tip my hat to Perun 🎩 👌🏻
I agree. Combined with his earlier video about corruption, these two videos are all you need to know about why things are going so badly for Russia.
@@KurtisIsley exactly!
Plus, hearing the story of general Kleptovsky, colonel Bullshitsky and private Conscriptovic (whose name has the Croatian style “final c” nonetheless) is just the icing on the corrupt cake!
Why do you need to have all-encompassing knowledge of russia's milliatary?
@@justicedemocrat9357 because I’m a curious person who likes military history, geopolitics, and takes joy in understanding how complex things work. And I bet I’m not alone.
@@adolfolerito6744 snap! Except I don’t have the military interest, I just like to know things 😄I’m quarter Ukrainian too, so I’m learning a lot about armed forces 😄
I used to have russian teacher and on one class we watched news and Putin had his yearly speak to the people telling how well the nations was doing and my teacher said that all or atleast most were straight up lies that were told.
Your production value and content is awesome dude. Great hearing other Aussies explaining this epic mess....