Dear Readers:
Today I have this very patriotic piece about a little-known group of Russian Spetznaz called the “Maroon Berets”. If you think that sound silly in English, then the Russian is actually Кра́повый бере́т (krApovy berEt); sounds like “crappy beret” except it’s not. These guys work really hard to get one of these things, as you can see in the photo, where the soldier is literally sobbing with joy because he passed the test and now is a member of a very elite brigade.
According to general scientific knowledge, the color maroon is a mixture of red and brown. It’s hexadecimal code on the color wheel is #800000. The English word, dating back to 1789, comes from the French marron meaning “chestnut”. The Russian word, in its turn, was borrowed from the German Krapp (from Proto-Germanic *krappô – “hook”), the common name for the plant Rubia tinctorum which has hook-shaped thorns but provides a nice reddish pigment for dye. Although you wouldn’t know that from the picture, because I only see yellow and green stuff… oh wait, maybe those are tiny red berries on the leaves? Well, don’t look at me, because I’m not a botanist.
But back to our Russian soldiers, they probably don’t care about botany either, they just want to wear one of these things on their head because of what it represents: Manhood, heroism, hard work and toughness. Being a member of an elite subculture, which is a great feeling!
The reporters of SILA followed a group of men in the Felix Dzerzhinsky Division of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, as the men tested and underwent many trials to earn their maroon berets. International delegations attended and observed the trials, these included the People’s Militia of the Republic of Iraq, the Main Commanders of the Guard of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the internal troops of the Republic of Belarus. These international guests were impressed by the way the trials were organized, and at the readiness of the Russian Spetznaz warriors to carry out their assigned tasks.
On the eve of the Finals, the candidates took standard tests on such topics as military and political basics, firing weapons, physical, mountain, high-altitude, special tactical, engineering, military medical training, communications and military topography. The decision as to passed and who didn’t, was made by General Viktor Zolotov and General-Colonel Alexei Vorobyov.
Vorobyov noted that it is a great honor to wear the maroon beret of a Spetznaz soldier, and these tests and exams provide a motivation for the troops.
The trials started initially with 58 candidates who had to perform a running march fully loaded with all their equipment and weapons, in a way that simulated actual war conditions; after which they had to work their way through a simulated enemy fire.
After this, the candidates underwent a weapons inspection, and then performed some exercises in climbing and shooting. The finale consisted of four 3-minute rounds of hand-to-hand fighting, in which the candidates fought each other and also fought their instructors:
In the end, of these 58 candidates, only 7 won the right to wear the maroon beret. The berets were handed out by Major-General Vasily Semin.
At the end of the day, Major-General Nikolai Kuznetsov congratulated the winners on their excellence; but also consoled the losers, counseling them not to fall into despair, but rather to work harder, correct their mistakes, and try again next time. Then Colonel Alexander Beloglazov, who holds the title of Hero of Russia, gave a speech to all of the participants. He declared that the discipline, loyalty, and professionalism of the Maroon Berets are a model and inspiration for the younger generation, and for all of the troops of the Russian National Guard.
Awful Avalanche 
Maroon berets, green berets, SAS, navy seals, commandos,, blah, blah, blah, blah. The “my country right or wrong” empty-head brigade.
Every country produces morons so slavishly devoted to their patriotic cause that rational thought is abandoned. Special forces full of automatons. Crying because he made it through impossibly difficult training? Give me a break. It’s real all right, just monumentally stupid and blinkered..
If one is anti-war, then all these special forces dopes epitomize the exact opposite. Self-deceived brainwashed devotees of, I say again, “my country right or wrong”. Being Russian makes not one jot of difference, because the whole concept of warrior elites is crap from beginning to end, and a feature of the human race the elites proffer as ideals to the masses. And here you are, yalensis, perpetuating this myth of wonderfulness. I am not impressed.
Got no time for mindless patriotic chest-thumping, yalensis. It’s not the same as quiet pride in one’s village, town, city or country and one’s willingness to fight off invaders. I will not look up to some mindless dope of a drone warrior. Ever.
When I was a kid in England at a private school in ’57 or ’58, they dragged in a buffoon of a Commando to our class. This murderer told us of a raid he participated in on a German outlook post over the English Channel in Northern France. He gloated about tossing a grenade into a room full of startled radio operators and clerks on night duty in a tower, and killing them all. Claimed it was over thirty souls. Sickened me. Made up my mind never to work in the weapons industry, for any reason whatsoever in my life — which I accomplished. And I’m proud of that because it was a conscious decision, all because of that immoral fool.
Neither you nor anyone else can persuade me with blandishments or bullshit that I’m wrong or that you’re right. But come at me with weapons and be assured I’ll hit back as hard as I can to protect me and mine. So cut the mindless patriotic horseshit because it is never justified.
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In the banal fashion of the elite, you sashay about wearing your sense of entitlement for all to see. Your lifelong “rebellion”…against a society that has coddled you throughout your life is the perfect reflection of that self-assumed superiority. As a faithful follower of upper-class fashion you preen about for all to see. The common man can not afford to wear such garb…good on you for effortlessly sallying forth in such splendid attire.
Below is a fellow who was a real rebel. A rebel who made Ranger, a rebel who started in the NFL, a rebel so “inconvenient” that the US Military arranged his death. Imagine that?
Your “rebellion” could never rise to such a level. You could never be that brave, you could never be that man. And so like so many of your class, you diminish. With the broadest brush strokes, you put down the ordinary man who, through great exertion, rises above his peers and then, most annoyingly, above his “betters”. As any English schoolboy will gladly tell, “a man should know his place”…no? Those who are “better” are taught at an early age how to elevate themselves through the diminishment of “others”.
Being of Irish heritage and most unforgivably, for having used my military service to gain an engineering degree, I’ve managed to earn the trifecta of English put downs..as any of the manner-borne [or aspirant] will gladly tell.
Thanks for sharing.
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Pat Tillman! I remember reading how his mom got the runaround from the army. The thing is, it was not even necessary to lie to her, all they had to do was tell her the truth, that he was a victim of friendly fire, that’s all she needed to know!
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Army concluded it was friendly fire but I have my doubts. Seems like their poster boy was having doubts about America’s mission and becoming openly critical of the foreign policy. So they had him taken care of.
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Dunno about that Y,
Pat Tillman was shot three times in the head. Though I served, I’m not a “military-expert”, that said, I can’t think of a single military reason for a normal US Army Soldier to repeatedly shoot somebody in the head three times. If nothing else, it’s a waste of ammo. That type of shooting isn’t unknown* to me but, I hope, it’s the stuff of my nightmarish past.
*WARNING: Story below isn’t for “sensitive-types”.
https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/may-2023/the-last-gamble-of-tokyo-joe/
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Tillman was indeed shot three times in the head at apparently near-point blank range. This raises suspicion that he and his platoon were deliberately set up in a scenario that was sure to be confused and confusing to all those participating in it.
Also, Tillman’s personal belongings and diary were never returned to his family. The Army burned everything he had.
Football Star Murdered in Afghanistan
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Wow, I was not aware of all of these incriminating facts. No wonder his family was so determined to get to the bottom of it. That’s a horrible story.
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Although I think Beluga’s remark is rather extreme, especially to Yalensis, I think your criticism is too harsh. I remember Bertrand Russell reminding a critic once that he, Russell, had no say in the fact that he was born an aristocrat, and Beluga equally had little say in what school he attended. The incident the commando described was awful, as was his likely reason for describing it, so I sympathise with Beluga’s reaction. (I was told similar stories by a teacher as an 8 year old in an Australian school and I continue, now nearly 70 years later, to have a very negative view of the teacher’s behaviour, which was to titillate the kids with the horrors of war.) War fascinates most men to some extent. There is a famous scene in the Soviet production “17 moments of spring”- the dialogue between Stirlitz and the Wehrmacht general, that hints at some of these ambiguities when discussing the subject. I would recommend it if you could find a good translation. (Yalensis might be able to help here.) Even at the beginning of 2022 when all the logic said that Russia would go to war over Ukraine I thought that they wouldn’t, at least partly because I thought the Russian population would not have the emotional energy to do so. I was wrong and have since realised that Russia contains, as Dmitry Trenin commented, elements of a “warrior culture”- other nations think that they have a warrior culture, but I suspect some are quite mistaken. I observed long ago that military officers were often civilised men- surprising to me at least since the business of the military is to kill the “enemies” of one’s state. (The standout comment related to this comes from Vasilevsky’s autobiography wherein he remembers Stalin saying to him:
“Comrade Vasilevsky, you are in charge of such an enormous number of troops, and you don’t seem to do it badly, but I should think you, personally, wouldn’t hurt a fly.”)
Of course most of the men who do the fighting and dying don’t come from the privileged echelons of society, and there in lies a quandary.
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Thank you for your balanced comment, David. That is a very interesting point that you raise, whether or not Russia is a “warrior culture”. It’s tricky to make blanket statements about an entire culture or civilization, especially one that is 1,000 years old.
However, I do believe that, deep down, Russia IS a warrior culture, in a rather Asiatic sense. Of course, all civilizations go through periods of decline and “softness”. After the end of the Cold War, Russian leaders from the Liberal and pro-Western intelligentsia thought they could cut corners on security. They systematically underfunded the military for many years, and later paid the price when time came to finally react to NATO’s aggressive expansionism. But after the decision was made, and once the Russian people finally had their eyes opened and saw what was really happening, then everything clicked into place.
Not that there are not still a certain number of dissenters and pacifists, and the like; because Russia is not a monolithic society, it is a class society. However, it is understood that the vast majority of this crew are not actual pacifists but are actually rooting for the other side. Well, maybe that’s part of the “warrior culture” too, the traitors are also warriors, it’s just that they work for the other side!
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I eventually found the “17 moments of spring” scene that captured my attention, though it is a little abbreviated- of course I needed th English translation. So just in case you are interested here it is
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As Mueller entered his private car in the train, unlocking the door with his key, he was astonished to find Stierlitz inside his compartment, rooting around under the mattress of his sleeping bunk.
“Stierlitz!” he barked. “I know exactly what you are doing here!” Stierlitz froze. Never before had his situation been this dire.
Mueller continued: “You always seem to know where I keep the good stuff…” He retrieved the bottle of expensive Schnapps from underneath his pillow. “Sit down, sit down, I don’t mind sharing if I can have some company. We will discuss many philosophical issues about the nature of man, and how poorly the war is going for our side… Heil Hitler!”
“Heil Hitler!” Stierlitz repeated mechanically, settling himself in for a long bout of drinking and philosophizing. “Never shall I be so bored as in this next hour,” he mused to himself…
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What a pile of complete dogshit and personal attack, based on fuck all. America is great because you got educated on the GI Bill? I’m accused of being upper class because I happened to get a college education, which I paid for with scholarships and summer jobs. But you, claiming to have been a po’boy for whom the boundless generosity of America came through to help you get a degree, are pure as the driven snow compared to me. That’s your useless line of logic, so far as I can see. You run around with a giant chip on your shoulder, poor class versus middle class, and when that gets so heavy you cannot bear it and cannot think straight, why, you pull out the ultimate old hoary chestnut Irish card — all Brits are despicable. Yeah that explains it all, you’re a downtrodden Paddy and I’m Oliver Cromwell. What a sorry life you must lead in your head, Brennan.
You come on here daily, multipost off-topic comments and generally assume you’re brilliant and what you say is the real truth and the only truth. I’m glad to have drawn your ire, your burning need to be seen as correct on everything. Me, I don’t give a damn what you “think” — so I’ll be happy to continue posting and raising your blood pressure. There’s more than one way to look at things — excuuse me for not seeing things your blinkered way, bossy guy — go yell at the neighbours or something.
Where’s your defence of brain dead folk who wanna be special ops tools of the state? Yalensis thinks they’re great, IF they’re Russians because Russia is indisputably the horse’s ass. While he lives the comfy IT well-paid life of an seasoned pro, in America.
Both of you need to be a lot less precious, in my view. Since that is about 100% unlikely to happen, here we are. He keeps publishing, you habitually thread jack and I’ll say what I damn well please. Live with it.
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My..my, a highly amusing blend of anger, self-contradictions, projection, deceptive untruths, logical fallacies, with an astounding number of straw man arguments, [bravo…world class effort], all regurgitated by a turgid, self-absorbed mind that appears to be failing.
Too much to unpack individually and frankly, not worth the effort because, you’re unable to comprehend that your incessant depreciation of others paints an accurate portrait of your being.
Good luck with that old chap.
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Sadly, Brennan, it’s the Internet. Where every person with access to a computer has a voice. Even if that voice is not worth hearing! Fortunately, ignoring is easy. As you say, “not worth the effort.” I developed the ability to ignore ranting ravers when I worked in mental institutions. As long as they weren’t about to punch on with me or another patient, I would notice the tenor of what they were going on about, in case they were about to escalate, but I wouldn’t “take it onboard my soul.” As you have wisely chosen to do here. Best thing to do is take the attitude of “isn’t THAT person unusual? It takes all kinds…” and let the wasted words fly by your ears. Just make sure you don’t become a cranky old man yourself! It’s hard, when someone realises their best years are behind them, and all they can do is grizzle.
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Oi yoi, Beluga having a mental breakdown, right in the middle of my blog… What did I do to deserve this… Paging Nurse Ratched! Our patient needs a hot and then cold bath, followed by a screwdriver-assisted lobotomy.
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Your belligerence is inappropriate, beluga. I respect your pacifism, but you are wrong to attack me. I was not “celebrating” these commandos, merely “reporting” (or perhaps “conveying”) on an interesting story from the Russian press.
Aren’t you interested to know, as a reader of news, that patriotism is increasing in Russian society, as a result of this war? It’s a real phenomenon. I am not promoting it, just reporting on it.
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Beluga, special-forces ‘cultures’ vary from country to country. I don’t know much about Russia’s. But it seems unwise to attribute the same mindset to commandos serving an essentially defensive military establishment – Russia’s, fighting to keep NATO biolabs and missile launchers off its borders – that you have seen among western commandos. The latter, of course, really serve GloboCap, albeit via military chains of command that are mostly for show. It does require blinkers to risk your life for something that evil.
‘If one is anti-war, then all these special forces dopes epitomize the exact opposite.’ Yes, maybe. Sometimes. A caveat though: Don’t forget what Stalin said, ‘You may not want war, but war wants you.’ You may not like to fight, but you may have to. That is, you may be attacked, especially if like Russia, you have lots of natural resources that GloboCap wants.
Ideally, commandos of any nation are anything but ‘automatons’: They have to be able to operate independently, in small units, without much backup or supporting fires. People who prove themselves intelligent and resourceful enough for that are more likely, eventually, to question the narrative.
In the West, though, one generally gets selected for SF units by excelling at conventional soldiering. In other words, you have to prove your talent at being an automaton in order to try out for a mission requiring you to think on your feet. This selects for people less likely to question the narrative. The Israelis are different, they try and identify special-ops candidates right on induction and fast-track them – or they used to. If that has changed, it might help explain their recent struggles.
Finally … If I got a chance to chuck a grenade into a post full of Nazi clerks and radio operators, I’d do it in a heartbeat. (Clerks and RTOs are ‘force multipliers,’ they enable orders of magnitude more killing than individual infantrymen.) The real problem with the murderous commando they brought to your school is that today he’d be on the wrong side. By all accounts SBS and SAS are very active among the Ukronazis.
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Very well put, John, thanks for that comment! You made all the right points and put everything into perspective.
I am not claiming that Russians were always angels, but it is a fact that Russian civilization developed against the backdrop of mainly defensive wars. Since the dawn of time, being a continental landmass of Eurasia, Russia has had to protect its lands and peoples. Contrast this to the permanently aggressive NATO/colonialist mindset, which is all about stealing other peoples lands and resources.
I should mention that Russia’s national epic poem, “The Tale of Igor’s Regiment” is, in part (among many other themes) a warning against conducting “offensive” as opposed to “defensive” battle campaigns. Prince Igor sets out on a punitive mission against the Cumans without really thinking it through. Indeed, a part of his motivation is a corrupt one: To raid the Cuman camp and steal their cool stuff, including gems and fine brocades (and slave girls, of course). As a result of this ill-thought-out plan, Igor’s army is defeated and gets their ass handed to them, by the Cuman Khan.
Lesson learned. (Happy ending, though: Igor eventually escapes from captivity, and his son, Volodimir Igorevich ends up marrying the Khan’s beautiful daughter!)
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Though I have been critical of Russia’s High Command, with their slow, predictable and linear march east to west, “things they are a changing”. Whether their moves along Russia’s southwestern border and Belarus are faints, serious cats-paws or an incisive cut into the enemy’s flank is yet to be seen. But, the change in tactic/strategy forces the goosestepan Galicians to react regardless, they can’t just keep falling back to the “next-defensive-line” they have to move armor and men across long, open distances. The tactic forces the goons to undergo all the risks of modern-day “big-arrow” maneuver without hope of any meaningful gain.
Impressive.
Were reason to rule in western capitals, there would be a unanimous call to sue for peace at this point but, those voices are forcefully and sadly silent.
For the time being, Ukrainia’s men must continue to be needlessly sacrificed upon the bloody alter of DC and London’s deep state. The political timetable of DC’s denizens will cost, at least, a hundred thousand of Ukrainia’s conscripts their lives…all to no greater purpose than a career enhancing shifting of blame from an unworthy person’s resume onto to the resume of guiltless* party.
Disgraceful.
*Noting; rare is the resume in DC that is unblemished.
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I wonder how many pass the first time and how many in subsequent attempts? Do they deliberately fail people first time to test fire mental strength to do it all over again?
This seems to make Red Berets a super elite but small force. The problem with such small elite forces is that literally every soldier is a hyper trained, hyper motivated, hyper precious resource, who can’t be risked in combat unless in an absolutely vital situation. I mean, these aren’t the people you send into the meat grinder, even when it’s your side that’s doing 95% of the grinding.
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Good point. After making such an investment in training, I reckon they would save these guys for very tricky situations, they are not just ordinary cannon fodder.
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