How lies destroy armies - Lies, coverups, and Russian failures in Ukraine

[@PerunAU]

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).

[@jgfjfgjfhjf]

"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

[@PerunAU]

@@jgfjfgjfhjf don't blame him but please answer his questions :)

[@wutzibu]

@@jgfjfgjfhjf depends where you live. "Breitbandausbau" has been spotty at best.

[@jamesmcdougal2]

8:20 I'm thinking Enron haha

[@jgfjfgjfhjf]

@@wutzibu North Rhine-Westphalia, close to the NL border

[@marthas8108]

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.

[@RaptorJesus]

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.

[@ermirohri]

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

[@stevedavenport1202]

No, that is how a healthy culture functions. How you initiate change within such a deeply entrenched culture of lies is another story.

[@Omega0850]

@@ermirohri Why do you think likes translate directly to what people want to hear? Is that the way you think and act?

[@ermirohri]

@@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

[@davidcorriveau8615]

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.

[@RobBCactive]

Yep, they're going back to that with the fake economic figures

[@katinas1100]

I just wrote the same comment about this saying. I remember it as Lithuanian from soviet era in our country.

[@mgtowstanleyzoltanov9808]

Me too in Bulgaria. How come changes did not do good in Russia. I thought they learned...

[@alg7115]

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.

[@bronim7311]

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.

[@rockbutcher]

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.

[@CrazyFarseer]

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.

[@rabidspatula1013]

That careful highly sarcastic sense of humor that can only develop under an authoritarian regime.

[@jonson856]

1991? I thought the Berlin wall came down in 1989? Or are you talking about a different wall?

[@nicolaiby1846]

@@jonson856 Probably meant the Iron Curtain, not the Wall.

[@jonson856]

@@nicolaiby1846 ah yes makes sense 👌

[@Bob-qk2zg]

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."

[@RhaegarATT]

I don't get it?

[@tabula_rosa]

@@RhaegarATT dont join the russian military

[@Aarlaeoss]

@@RhaegarATT Because he didn't lie and make something up

[@MiniatureMasterClass]

@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.

[@FelixMeister]

And then they went into Afghanistan and the rocks started talking.

[@KingsandGenerals]

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.

[@Mradrianbailey]

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 !

[@stob82]

"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) 🙄

[@ChineseKiwi]

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.

[@shaider1982]

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.

[@martinneal5240]

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!

[@Артемий-л7д]

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

[@KeycoYT]

Sgt. Bilko (1996) ?

[@franklinkz2451]

I KNEW IT!!!! I was that inspector

[@SicariiD]

Cool to see that russians still hold on the the potemkin village idea..

[@glinrenkrenko9613]

Keeping the tradition from potemkin alive, I see.

[@johnathanh2660]

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.

[@geocb]

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.

[@veramae4098]

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.

[@Theiliteritesbian]

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.

[@geocb]

@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.

[@lairdcummings9092]

@@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.

[@talldude1412]

​@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.

[@kyrylosovailo1690]

I am actually impressed that you decided to translate "vranyo" not simply as lies, but as the whole culture of lying.

[@Askhat08]

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.

[@0thPAg]

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..

[@josephschultz3301]

@@0thPAg Yeah, yeah, and those shiny new T-14s are _totally_ on their way, right?

[@DuBaas007]

@@0thPAg The TB-2 is still doing work, just not as much anymore.

[@0thPAg]

@@josephschultz3301 did I say anything about T-14s ?

[@0thPAg]

@@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.

[@anonyshinki]

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.

[@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar]

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?

[@williamchristy9463]

@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar Yes, but you're thinking only of systems. Someone like an Amber Heard could also be described by the term.

[@osk9013]

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...

[@anonyshinki]

@@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar it's definitely a feature

[@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar]

@@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?

[@sushiping8206]

"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.

[@volters9561]

Yeah, anyone remembers those wildfires few years back?

[@SomeOne-nf9ir]

@@volters9561 Ahh yes, I do love it when the Prime Minister goes on holiday as his country burns.

[@oocares]

You mean like Climate Change predictions?

[@ShareThaFuck]

Could you elaborate? I don't know Australian politics very well

[@kremepye3613]

Amen. All Australian governments practice "vryano" to the extreme. It's wild.

[@camradrip3730]

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.

[@patthonsirilim5739]

that why absolute dictatorship always fails eventully you cant live a lie forever.

[@spinecho609]

Well, we know Putin scrolls twitter, a perfect reflection of reality

[@slaphappyduplenty2436]

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.

[@gerhardvanderpoll7378]

😂🤣

[@ticijevish]

Is it safe to assume you're Swedish, or have I gone and defecated in the blue cabinet?

[@nealbosher9293]

😄

[@awannagannaful]

In Russia it's called a "Yuri Freezurkokov"

[@jamesedwards6173]

Pull the cedar shakes off the roof and outside walls to burn in the fireplace to stay warm through the winter...

[@entertherat]

Netflix needs to produce a miniseries about Private Conscriptovich, Colonel Kleptovsky, and General Oligarkov. I would watch the crap out of it.

[@phantomkrieger2744]

Like Blackadder Goes Forth but Russian. In fact I’d cast Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

[@russelldavidovsky3028]

Love it. Sitcom series would beat popular allo allo :-D

[@useodyseeorbitchute9450]

Black LGBT+ Private Conscriptovich?

[@Kitiwake]

Nah... General Armageddon is the character to watch.

[@russelldavidovsky3028]

- Col. Kleptovsky "Conscriptovich !" - Private Consciptovich reporting armed and ready to assault ! - You bastard, stealing my vodka ! - Its not me. Its someone else. - You lie, I see it in your shining eyes. - I never lie, actually cannot. - I find it because my vodka tank become suspicious heavy ... - Its possible. It was light in the past and become heavier since someone refill it. - You thing I am idiot ? You refill it ! With water ! But you don't realize that water is more dense than vodka, and you refill same amount you steal and I check weight of course. - Yes Sir ! - I should set you down on the rocket and send you to Greenland. - Its not the way you think, Sir. I just need a little bit this fluid to tightly clean my weapon. Sgt Klamov recomend ... - What recomend ? - Recomend to distinctly clean weapons. - And cleaning it by vodka ?!? Its sacrilege ! - I know it, so I drink that vodka afterwards in vast majority. - At least that

[@h.a.9880]

There used to be a saying in WW2: "Loose lips sink ships" Now we got: "The General lies, his army dies"

[@krissteel4074]

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"

[@napalmholocaust9093]

Don't repeat propaganda.

[@h.a.9880]

@@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.

[@bazooka712]

@@napalmholocaust9093 Don't repeat history?

[@juliuszkocinski7478]

It's more of lying to general than general lying himself

[@JZ909]

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.

[@laisphinto6372]

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

[@Estoph11]

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.

[@antonnurwald5700]

Yet another similarity with the Vietnam War.

[@crb2061]

Good assessment of US culture: total bullshit all the way down, including here.

[@xBINARYGODx]

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.

[@johnthomas4229]

"it's amazing how many problems you can solve once you are no longer tethered to reality" that sounds like a life philosophy

[@Xezlec]

Replace "solve" with "create" and it's my mom.

[@jaserror]

Welcome to the republican party.

[@epicstyle1000]

sounds like the past few years

[@SergioRoguez]

Very true

[@felldin]

Sounds like Swedish politics to me, by just agreeing to that everything is fine although the house they're sitting in is on fire.

[@kostakatsoulis2922]

*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

[@massgunner4152]

Sarge bichepski actually debuted somewhere around the corruption video.

[@TB-zf7we]

Classic future meme names for Putler's stronk army tactics

[@Warszawski_Modernizm]

Underrated comment, sire!

[@markhawrylak]

Great commwnt

[@vandeheyeric]

I totally want some kind of meme comic or even RPG starring Conscriptovich, Bicepski, Bullshitski, Kleptovsky, and Oligarkov. As well as any others.

[@davidburton9690]

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.

[@joesligo1516]

That's the problem exactly I think. It reminds me of the show The Wire. It's pretty much all about that, every individual in the hierarchy playing their own game, juicing their own numbers, and the reality overall becoming so warped.

[@ohmanno1573]

"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!

[@dh1380]

This is basically why people take drugs :D

[@andreajr2021]

Nonsense! let see in december or january when Rusia demolish upto 90% ukraine energy facilty then this make ukraine/NATO colaps!!!

[@Gorboduc]

Also "Every lie told incurs a debt to the truth".

[@ebrim5013]

Trouble is that war is the ultimate reality check.

[@Gorboduc]

@@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

[@pridelander06]

"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.

[@mf3281]

Imagine a Russian response to a modern nuclear disaster. No doubt everything is in far worse condition. Jesus ticking time bomb

[@Bob_games103]

@@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.

[@adman4t]

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.

[@saquist]

I saw the same series and was thinking this at the very beginning of this video!

[@liquidrock8388]

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.

[@ycplum7062]

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.

[@shorttimer874]

As we said back when I went through training 'Scouts Out'

[@liammurphy2725]

Brilliant. You screwed the whole lesson. Great story.

[@RaveYoda]

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.

[@Frederiknshansen]

@@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.

[@tessjuel]

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.

[@Itried20takennames]

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.”

[@jakemitchell7786]

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.

[@RuosongGao]

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.

[@DavidVT23]

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

[@xanmontes8715]

​@@RuosongGaoi must respectfully agree by disagreeing. You are correct, it's not for 25,000 years. It is much, much longer than that.

[@RuosongGao]

@@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.

[@tommynguyen3400]

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 👍

[@gunarsmiezis9321]

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]

[@pdunderhill]

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, kzbin.info/www/bejne/b37HmpJ8nZ6Sd8k

[@tommynguyen3400]

@@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.

[@saberint]

@@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

[@gunarsmiezis9321]

@@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.

[@BrokenMedic]

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.

[@alexboccaccio5431]

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.

[@ligurian728]

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.

[@BuddyLee23]

Yay for meritocracy! At least in concept…

[@Google_Does_Evil_Now]

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.

[@kondziu1992]

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.

[@shaikon5617]

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.

[@LMB222]

It's a pity, though, because younger Russians seem to perfectly understand that this road leads nowhere.

[@shaikon5617]

​@@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...

[@Muchoyo]

Let's agree that Russia is a totally rotten society. Change my mind.

[@JonZiegler6]

@@shaikon5617 the sensible ones have been leaving for the past 15-20 years, so the statement isn't not ebitely wrong, nor right

[@warrenpeas]

and why truth and facts have to matter in society. we cant let ignorance leak into our professions especially the military.

[@mikebaker2436]

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."

[@keyabrade1861]

I might have eaten too many crayons; I don't get the joke.

[@Sora8740]

@@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.

[@r.k.5031]

@@keyabrade1861 Oorah?

[@Igor_lvanov]

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

[@joeblowe7545]

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.

[@richardarriaga6271]

@@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.

[@joeblowe7545]

@@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.

[@Warszawski_Modernizm]

Which year , when did it happen?

[@Igor_lvanov]

@@Warszawski_Modernizm Nearly 10 years ago

[@chipishor]

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.

[@jimb9063]

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?!

[@bandit6272]

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...

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

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

[@deanwoodward8026]

@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.

[@jimb9063]

@@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.

[@edwardkennedy6443]

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.

[@sugandesenuds6663]

not saying the ukrainian military doesent has a bit of the soviet mindet over. But they are waaaaaay more "Westernized".

[@thelcbond]

"They pretend that they pay, and we pretend that we work" - Ah yes, the great apathy that corruption encourage.

[@matthewbrightman3398]

I hope nobody in the west falls for Russians bullshit. The Ukrainian offensive must continue or accelerate until all Russia military is removed.

[@williewonka6694]

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.

[@KN-xl6lw]

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 🇺🇦✊

[@otakarbeinhauer]

57:57 "Reality is always going to be on the side of the one who respects it more". That's a very good quote.

[@typacsk]

That line should have been in "Chernobyl."

[@reedschrichte800]

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.

[@aslandus]

@@reedschrichte800 I'm partial to Mark Twain's quote about that last point: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

[@reedschrichte800]

@@aslandus How appropriate nowadays!

[@Pest789]

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.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

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.

[@thefarmerswifeknits6190]

There were other trucks with dress uniforms for the victory parade. Delusional.

[@hazzardalsohazzard2624]

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.

[@Zoroff74]

@@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. 🙄

[@Pest789]

@@hazzardalsohazzard2624 But they shouldn't be in the convoys on literally day one, should they? That seems preposterous to me.

[@TheNefastor]

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.

[@JonZiegler6]

Only for really crappy militaries.... Not sure what a Nato country could learn from the Russian side

[@emceha]

I highly recommend talk “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession”, from KZbin 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.

[@equsnarnd]

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?

[@lucidnonsense942]

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.

[@mchozen2958]

???

[@NanoBurger]

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.

[@XerrolAvengerII]

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%

[@rodiculous9464]

It's called face culture very common in oppressive regimes

[@MrDmitriRavenoff]

Damn. Well that's interesting. Thank you for your service.

[@NanoBurger]

@@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.

[@shorttimer874]

@@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.

[@UnnamedBridgeburner]

“It’s amazing how many problems you can solve when you are no longer tethered to reality” is my new life motto!

[@The_Dude_Rugs]

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

[@JG-ib7xk]

Was it your fault that everyone ate horse in their frozen lasagnas for a couple of years?

[@SavolaxMitsu]

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.

[@TheMrB]

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.

[@johnstaley6337]

@@SavolaxMitsu Oh, my … if I recall correctly, trump hired eastern European workers to build in New York & didn’t pay them.

[@scottmwilhelms2437]

Always a bad sign when one avoids a product they help create. 🥩🤢

[@DaniilVodopian]

As a Russian, i appreciate you taking the time to get into the finer details of our language

[@StephenRayner]

Language is really interesting

[@StephenRayner]

Sorry for all the bullshit your government is putting you through

[@lunachu8691]

Perun has no equals

[@ticijevish]

Could you add anything to the definition of Vranyo Perun stated, please?

[@apacheattackhelicopter8185]

@@ticijevish his definition is wrong, враньё (vranyo) is synonymous to lie.

[@dman001DDF]

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.

[@Afrologist]

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.

[@davidpnewton]

The NHS is a Stalinist organisation. What else do you expect from such an organisation except Commie-type problems?

[@allanchapman7986]

Having worked in the NHS I can only agree. Lol.... Management performance related pay gives no incentive for that manager to rock the boat.

[@bandit6272]

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

[@angela-qh8gl]

Probably started in the NHS once they changed it into a business model and brought in, unnecessary, middle managers……..

[@walther2492]

"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.

[@TheTheofrei]

First thing I thought of, same issues, different era. Lies on top of lies.

[@usul573]

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.

[@akumaking1]

So when will Russia punch out its’ last check and fully implode?

[@timothysugiura323]

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"

[@bandit6272]

Such a great show. And it did a good job of showing how such a system sets the stage for disaster.

[@lil----lil]

- 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.

[@typacsk]

I'm not gonna lie, a lot of my neighbors in the US live in that world too.

[@supreem29]

Wake up babe, new Perun video just dropped!

[@jimmartin2548]

‘scrubs eyes’ oh hell yeah

[@yumminator]

Thanks babe

[@mdioxd9200]

Yes honey...

[@brandonbrotherton9650]

Hell yeah g

[@alejandromolina5645]

Time to get up out of bed, make coffee and enjoy a stimulating documentary on war ☕️☕️

[@taufiqutomo]

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.

[@reneblom2160]

That definition could also be used in Russia: "As long as Vladdy's happy".

[@howmuchmorecanItake]

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

[@deansmits006]

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

[@petrihadtosignupforthis8158]

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.

[@richardg8376]

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.

[@jki808]

Lol. Sitting in a pmcs-ed humvee right in front of the jbcp.

[@treydogg77]

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.

[@Tzilandi]

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.

[@TheWarriorofHonor]

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**!

[@JM-mh1pp]

@@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.

[@TheWarriorofHonor]

@@JM-mh1pp agreed!

[@hazmatter0634]

I’m now imagining a Russian version of the ww1 blackadder

[@lolM88]

The return of Pvt Conscriptovic, Col Kleptovsky & General Oligarkov is fantastic. 10/10

[@GeluTavi]

Sergeant Bicepski was the real MVP! :D

[@munztere6426]

10/10

[@duanehirini2078]

Someone must make the comic strip!

[@Metalblowing]

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.

[@meilinchan7314]

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.

[@thornelderfin]

"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!

[@miscbits6399]

@@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

[@TroyHardingLit]

"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.

[@robmccord2583]

Well… I’m willing to try!

[@Validole]

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.

[@Dan-hx6ni]

@@capturedflame because the person presenting understands the titanic amount of work involved. He still points out flaws and things to improve

[@mgwaite10]

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.

[@cpthornman]

Exactly why no one trusts Russians of any kind. It's in their DNA to be dishonest.

[@namesurname624]

As a Russian who left russia 10y ago, man... it took a while to even believe that the place I am in doesn't run like that, years actually.

[@jonsanborn6849]

"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.

[@anonyshinki]

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.

[@dewayneweaver5782]

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.

[@HonISfirE]

it;s result of modern school system and winner take all bullshit

[@Djamonja]

@@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.

[@kfusei]

I immediately felt reminded of a joke we had in the GDR, where a production number is embellished as it is reported up the chain and by the time it reaches the top it has doubled. So it is decided that half that number goes into export and the rest is kept for domestic consumption.

[@buddermonger2000]

So of course all of it goes to export since that "half" is the entire production right?

[@TheFeldhamster]

Hahaha, as someone who got to hear a lot of wild stories about life in GDR by my parents, that sounds absolutely true.

[@sld1776]

Same joke with piglets in Cuba. Half the pigs go to reward the Communist party apparatus or for the tourist sector. And the last half, Fidel Castro declares, the last half for the people.

[@kfusei]

@@sld1776 Part of the joke is that the GDR was always desperate for foreign currency to keep their economy afloat.

[@Jermdizzle]

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.

[@j.f.fisher5318]

This.

[@duanehirini2078]

Second this

[@willbxtn]

I dare say none of us watch this channel specifically for speed, but because it's really, really good.

[@duanehirini2078]

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.

[@Prawnsly]

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!

[@gregsquires6201]

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.

[@KurtisIsley]

Yeah!! So much this!! ^ It's the deep analysis of this channel that can't be found anywhere else.

[@TheGeeoff]

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.

[@danielhill9080]

Except Russia are winning convincingly, just annexed 20% of Ukraine.

[@chad3232132]

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.

[@danielhill9080]

@@chad3232132 You realize this guy's entire narrative is complete garbage, that Russia are winning convincingly, Ukraine never stood a chance. You idiots are completely brainwashed by Western msm propaganda, who're simply publishing whatever horseshit the US puppet regime in Kiev asks of them.

[@craigshagin5506]

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….

[@maka6134]

What was the company or organization you worked for?

[@jer-in-ch]

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.

[@craigshagin5506]

@@maka6134 Governor Casey

[@bandit6272]

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

[@MrNicoJac]

Any extra tips on how I can learn to be (more) like this?

[@bonevgm]

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.

[@johanmetreus1268]

I'd love to see it.

[@bonevgm]

@@johanmetreus1268 It is available on KZbin, 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 kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqK1ZpmMabigY80

[@johanmetreus1268]

@@bonevgm Thank you! A pity the auto-texting feature is disabled, it did wonders on the Polish series Four tankers and dog.

[@bonevgm]

@@johanmetreus1268 I found the movie in a few other places, but unfortunately none have captions.

[@johanmetreus1268]

@@bonevgm A pity, but thank you kindly for making the effort, most appreciated!

[@Thukad]

"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?"

[@methanbreather]

Some commenters mentioned that this is a holdover from Soviet era. But if you look at Imperial Russia, it was the same in WWI, during Napoleon, etc pp. This systematic lying has been in place for hundreds of years. Also, Perun, I don't mind waiting for your videos. They are so good, they are absolutely worth the time.

[@platinumsun4632]

Where did you read this?

[@handles_are_a_bit_rubbish]

@@platinumsun4632 The Marquis de Custines "Russia in 1839" makes reference to it, which I admittedly learnt from Theodore Dalrymple's "Our Culture, What's Left of It".

[@danielgrant9213]

Yeah the systematic lying long predates the USSR, the term" Potemkin Village" is a reference to a minister/lover of Catherine The Great in the late 1700's. Ironically prince Potemkin's portable fake cardboard village was created to make the newly annexed territory of Crimea (annexed illegally in violation of a treaty signed with the Ottoman Empire) look more prosperous than it actually was.

[@joefkems8877]

All already mentioned in Tolstoy's GREATEST novel War&Peace, as repeated in the greatest film version: the SIX hour Film by Bundarchuk (with english subtitles FOR FREE and without adverts(!) on KZbin), in particular part 3, battle of Borodin, with Kutuzov knowing this, using this as an argument NOT to engage Napoleon, because the strength of the army is less than reported (and everyone is joking about it). Exactly the reason to go and see this GREATEST of Russian Films ASAP (and to understand the fickleness of the famous "Russian Soul"...)

[@namesurname624]

a great read for all those interested is a classic book "Dead Souls", where a crafty entrepreneur travels imperial russian mcmansions and helps commit subsidy fraud to the owners of said Dead Souls

[@garyswift9347]

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.

[@sakelaine2953]

You can buy pre-toasted bread from Bimbo!

[@psilobom]

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.

[@Bill_Garthright]

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).

[@khiem1939]

@@Bill_Garthright Break Russia up by Religion, Ethnic background and Native Languages and those separate nations won't be a problem to their neighbors!

[@superconfort]

Always thought bimbo was Spanish...

[@adolfolerito6744]

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 🎩 👌🏻

[@KurtisIsley]

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.

[@adolfolerito6744]

@@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!

[@justicedemocrat9357]

Why do you need to have all-encompassing knowledge of russia's milliatary?

[@adolfolerito6744]

@@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.

[@lilacscentedfushias1852]

@@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 😄

[@marks1638]

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.

[@joebob293]

We have the exact same problem in the Army. It gets mentioned in “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession”.

[@reedschrichte800]

The Jack Welch model: fire the bottom 10%

[@Melody_Raventress]

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!

[@spinecho609]

How to introduce Vranyo to your organisation with this one wierd trick

[@iwantsomecookies08]

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!

[@jerome1lm]

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.

[@chaosXP3RT]

Sarcasm?

[@literalantifaterrorist4673]

@@chaosXP3RT Sarcasm isn’t serious.

[@whynot64928]

Is that not unlike " the emperor has no clothes "

[@gunarsmiezis9321]

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.

[@uniformsixfour]

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.

[@joebob293]

There’s a bit of Vranyo in social media metrics as well. Define “view”.

[@dimitargenchev]

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 :)

[@ProtonCannon]

Your comment wasn't THAT long but it was insightful.

[@chubbymoth5810]

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.

[@spiritofthetime]

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.

[@jooot_6850]

Would you remember what it’s called?

[@TammoKorsai]

I'd defintely like to know what game that was.

[@KRJ893]

I too want to know what the game is

[@theprophetofthepastagod5633]

So what was the game called?

[@jooot_6850]

Guys I think the CIA whacked him before he could tell us.

[@rulu1828]

"Reality is on the side who respects it more." Great quote.

[@shaheeralam4948]

"Every lies told incurs a debt to truth". -chernobyl HBO Perfect line to describe both disaster

[@shaheeralam4948]

@@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

[@connorkenway09]

@@shaheeralam4948 echo* chamber

[@shaheeralam4948]

@@connorkenway09 English is not my first language but still, thankyou for pointing that out, i have corrected my mistake

[@derzauberer8605]

Perun even brings the quote in the video. I had to laugh out loud when I heard it. XD

[@shaheeralam4948]

@@derzauberer8605 you have to give it to Perun, the man does his research so wide nd deep that it even includes tv shows

[@lorax8172]

The first step in fixing a lying problem, is admitting you have a lying problem.

[@sstff6771]

@scabthecat 😂😂

[@lorax8172]

@scabthecat I didn't know fixing it would be so easy, brilliant

[@DogeickBateman]

@@lorax8172 It's easy, you don't have a problem if you perceive no such problem!

[@lorax8172]

@@DogeickBateman This isn't the problem you're looking for

[@DogeickBateman]

@@lorax8172 These aren't the problems you are looking for. These aren't the problems we're looking for, move along now

[@johnhughes2124]

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.

[@Burkutace27]

Except that Red Army managed to be competent despite it's problems.

[@dannyzero692]

@@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.

[@tomaskovarik7966]

@@Burkutace27 Like VDV taking over and airfield huh

[@johnhughes2124]

@@Burkutace27 competent at killing unarmed civilians perhaps. In the books you had to have some competent commanders to make the plot happen.

[@Burkutace27]

@@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.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

"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.

[@ErzengelDesLichtes]

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.

[@np8139]

@@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.

[@hylje]

@@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.

[@JonZiegler6]

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)

[@jaywulf]

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.

[@emotingtanooki6405]

First, once again another great video Perun 👍 Second, I have some personal experience on how this sort of problem can start in the first place. I was hired to do support in a company while it was ramping up growth. When first hired there was a great team from top to bottom and we had an ethos of if a customer brought us a problem we'd find some way to handle it. This was helped by having a great VP who was good at keeping everyone together. Then in the middle of an overhaul and expansion that VP left, and now middle management was responsible for fixing any odd problems and any problems they couldn't handle would have been going to the CEO directly. Since regularly telling the CEO about issues would look bad their reaction to problems quickly fell into a pattern of "if we don't have a system in place to fix the problem, then it's not our problem to fix" so a lot of problems simply weren't being reported. If you tell the customer "I'm sorry, we can't help you with that" and don't log what the problem is then the department could maintain a close to 100% closure rate, on paper at least. When I was hired most of the people I'd been working with had been there for a few years, within 6 months of the VP leaving I was only one of maybe three people who had been there even a year. A lot of people saw that what their immediate boss wanted and what the upper management wanted couldn't be reconciled and transferred to other departments or other jobs. Those that stayed soon found that anyone who spoke up about the problems would get fired over any excuse, and as I eventually found out, if a legitimate excuse couldn't be found the managers weren't above lying to invent one out of thin air. Since middle management were the people hiring new employees, they were both hiring people who wouldn't rock the boat and making sure they weren't trained in a way to cause them problems (one of the earliest people to transfer out were the previous training team). More than once I had to show new hires that the way they were doing things (which was how they were shown to do them when hired) wasn't just bad but was directly against specific written policy. Within a year basically the only people in the department were those that either A) were perfectly fine with going along with the middle managers or B) were new and didn't recognize there was anything wrong with what was going on. The reason why I keep saying middle management instead of management in general is that during that time the upper management clearly weren't aware of what was going on. Over the course of a year customer satisfaction drastically dropped (our contract retention team by the time I left looked like war survivors, they were so stressed out and overworked), the company started seeing decreasing income, other departments were passing on problems that would escape support (sales people were getting called because we wouldn't help people for example), and occasional problems were too big to hide. This meant the CEO and other upper managers could tell Something was wrong but since they were still in the habit from when the company of smaller (and therefore problems were harder to hide) of trusting what was reported to them they weren't getting any of the details and most importantly THE MANAGERS THAT WERE THE PROBLEM WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE THEY WERE TALKING TO. Those managers had been there for years, were on friendly terms with upper management, and basically had backed themselves into a corner. If they admitted to the problems they were hiding, then they would have to admit to hiding them, which would get them fired. So, all because they initially tried to cover up a few small things to look good on their evaluations they had unintentionally formed a professional murder/suicide pact to take the company with them. A new VP was eventually hired and was starting to look into how to fix things when I left the company, but they had the issue of by then they would basically have had to fire EVERYONE in the department. Like I said, the only people left were either too new to be of use in fixing things or were actively participating in ignoring what upper management was asking for in order to keep middle management happy. I just figured I'd share my real world story of how systemic lying can take root. This happened in a western company in the United States, so it's not just a problem in former Soviet nations, it can happen anywhere.

[@shorewall]

@@froggymusicman And you don't get rewarded for it.

[@ferney2936]

@@froggymusicman pretty much bound to fail. There are always a few 'prefect world' focussed junior employees who do directly approach higher management asserting the everything is being done wrong in their department but higher management are sceptical & don't really understand what's supposed to happen in that department anyway, so they refer the subject down to middle management who will understand it better. Whatever middle management say is easily accepted. If this is repeated a few times then any further 'whistleblowing' reports are assumed to be baseless & are ignored. In my experience, the only subject that can't be muffled in this way is Health & Safety related issues & these are often buried in a blizzard of reports, usually from expensive independent consultants.

[@CrazyFarseer]

It’s scary how quickly you describe that happening. Thank you for taking the time to share that story.

[@davidk.8434]

If you're in this situation, get fired, how do you explain it to the next boss in an interview? There's a presumption that no such skullduggery ever happens.

[@charlieclark5838]

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.

[@tamlandipper29]

Hi, Charlie!

[@RealityDysfunction]

I have a few of his books. They're a very good read.

[@nvelsen1975]

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.

[@charlieclark5838]

@@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.

[@tacitdionysus3220]

Absolutely outstanding. Can’t help thinking there is a softer version of Vranyo in western industry. There’s an awful lot of people on certain sites constantly telling me how awesome their team is, how everything that they do is so successful, congratulating each other about their posts, and posing for happy snaps at their conferences and meetings.

[@nvelsen1975]

And you'll find that among businessmen, that's greeted as a sign that you're desperate, not respectable and probably in deep trouble. It's a lesson I learned the hard way. Trumpeting our awesomeness hoping to get new work, gave me a hard time getting into business clubs and the reception was rather cold. The few times I saw an opportunity and explained how we could help, we didn't get it. Ever since I just explain what we do and what we don't and have a very dry summing-up of results on our website (for people who listen to me, then check it out), people give us a ton more recognition. People bring up situations themselves and if they ask if we could do it I ussually just reply 'probably', then tell them to mail the situation. The only hooks I put on it is to operationalise their situation like saying "You'll need someone to fit it into the zoning laws" if they mention wanting to build an extension to their business or something. If you operationalise their problem out of hand like that, you don't need to say "ooh, hire me! hire me! I'm awesome". The less you say the better it works.

[@gussie88bunny]

Social media posts by western mums ....... apparently every household, child and partner is perfect .... Edit: I'm exaggerating .... but still .... there's a lot of happy families/jobs/holidays/food posts we 'like' whilst knowing the author is not as happy/satisfied as the post presumes.

[@erratum1980]

We usually call that as BS, I think

[@matso3856]

Well its not working as good in the West as in the east , most despise it as others have commented. If someone can lie so openly to your face you would be the idiot for beliving in anything they have to say.

[@tacitdionysus3220]

@@matso3856 That's true. Mind you, when the ones I'm thinking of here link in with enough people, there will be quite a few who start believing them. Some out of naivety, some to reciprocate admiration with them. I quietened a few down by asking them if they would prefer to get their performance reviews on their social media, instead of face to face. They thought I was serious in spite of it being April 1st.

[@reganmahoney8264]

I love the fact that Perun has 441K views of an hour long presentation in 24 hours of dropping a video speaks volumes of how well respected he is becoming as an analyst. I wonder how many mil analysts are in those views…. I think if Tom Clancy we’re alive he’d be a huge Perun fan.

[@mashdown3]

All them I should think.

[@JTown-tv1ix]

An hour long presentation where i was sad when it was over because it was so damn interesting

[@firstmkb]

Over 900,000 views now!

[@poisondaggerbrush4680]

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

[@artman40]

Actually, ability to raise the dead would give a tangible military advantage!

[@marklalonde7996]

@@artman40 could be a problem for some

[@高若嵩-t6r]

HOI4 on times 10 mod, field hospital tech be like: *500% of casualties are recovered*

[@qefewfwdcwdc]

oh you are so funny.. not

[@tiamat_023]

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"

[@samh2340]

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.

[@jameswhite153]

I'm so sorry you went through that

[@cyrilio]

I wrote my thesis on the factors that affect a countries Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). When looking at the data of all G8 countries, BRIC, and some other developing countries it was the best indicator for explaining how high a countries FDI was. Corruption can literally halve what a country could get in foreign funds. Clearly showing how good business know the cost of corruption.

[@Alpha___00]

Becaus they pay it firsthand. Literally.

[@singularityraptor4022]

Is there a way to access that report?

[@danielbarnes3406]

Also note how China is faking their FDI by routing Chinese funds through Hong Kong back into China.

[@MrNicoJac]

Do you have an URL to your thesis? (my uni has a thesis repository, I'm assuming yours does too)

[@davepratt9909]

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.

[@Warszawski_Modernizm]

This lecture in a nutshell xD

[@1894db]

The Chernobyl series has a pretty brutal representation of Vran'ye at all levels

[@nvelsen1975]

Not brutal. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible.

[@1894db]

@@nvelsen1975 he knew exactly what he was saying lol

[@justicedemocrat9357]

Who the hell is Varnya?

[@1894db]

@@justicedemocrat9357 You didn't watch the video did you

[@Edax_Royeaux]

@@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.

[@live_free_or_perish]

This one has a broader, more interesting scope than the title suggests. It has applications to organizations in general. Fascinating look at information quality, flow, and management. You never disappoint. I'm glad to be a donor 🙂

[@PeterJavi]

This is an excellent disguised lesson in management as well. Don't ever punish someone for telling you something is fucked, or a system isn't performing to standards. Ultimately as a manager, you want to be able to accurately manage expectations. You never want to get caught trying to sell a turd as a bar of gold.

[@NaturalLanguageLearning]

Yeah, from kids lying to their parents and teachers about homework, to workers and managers of both the private and the public sector. This happens everywhere to some degree.

[@leonardmilcin7798]

Every good leader knows that getting good information from your own people is one of the hardest challenges. I work with many managers and C-level executives to help their failing projects and departments and usually the first observation I have is that these people do not even have the information to make good decisions. They kind of sit in a middle of an information bubble. Some very striking, easily remediable problems are immediately apparent to almost every person in the department save for the department head, because nobody wants to break the bad news fearing punishment from the boss or others, because maybe they are responsible a bit, because people will assume the boss knows or will assume the boss even if knew would not fix it anyway. It is therefore a major job of any leader to keep actively demonstrating to his people that they can and should speak to him frankly about any problem.

[@jasonnugent963]

You are correct, this is critical. It'd also fundamentally critical that supposed "Leadership" actually genuinely listens to its employees. The organization I'm currently in, we're stuck in a loop (for literally YEARS now) of giving feedback and we either get complete radio silence or told we're wrong (or "it can't be THAT bad") or other dismissive responses. Our decades of "in the trenches" experience is being discounted and ignored.

[@leonardmilcin7798]

@@jasonnugent963 The funny thing is that I have many times been hired to help a manager with his problems only to repeat what his people were telling me. Somehow many managers take what you say more seriously when it comes with a large invoice.

[@emotingtanooki6405]

I just dropped a large comment with the story of a company I worked at that could have used you it sounds like. Basically, after a VP left the company middle management started hiding problems instead of stepping up and fixing them during the power vacuum. Since the CEO and other upper management had worked with those middle managers for years in most cases they trusted them and never independently looked into things. So as the department figuratively fell apart they kept getting "everything is fine" from middle management and trusted that over everything else. Meanwhile middle management was pushing out anyone who would rock the boat so things just got worse and worse. It sounds like the smart thing to do would have been get someone like you to come in and give them an unbiased evaluation, but again, they trusted their middle managers too much.

[@KRIGBERT]

This can be an advantage with having union reps on the job, though, and leaders who listen to and respect them.

[@bosoerjadi2838]

There's a mythical story about a USN admiral inspecting an aircraft carrier. He noticed that a fire extinghuisher was only half full. He checked the status sheet and discovered that the extinghuisher has been half full for years and each inspection round it was duly registered as such. He then found out it wasn't an outlier. A large proportion of the fire extinghuishers was half full and each has always been honestly registered. Getting only true, accurate and reliable information is just one of the essential building blocks of a capable organization. The fairness, quality and speed of the response to information by leadership on all levels is the cap stone. If leadership mostly does not react or very slowly, good information does not matter and a culture of slacking will set in. If leadership mostly reacts poorly, a corrosive culture (such as vranye) will soon dominate. Responding well to information is one of the hardest leadership skills to master.

[@mongke1000]

I eagerly look forward to more adventures of Private Conscriptovich, Colonel Kleptovsky and general Oligarkov. Those guys are a riot.

[@qbi4614]

Don't forget their new members. Sergeant Bicepski and Captain Bullshitski !!!

[@miguelarribas9990]

I see a TV show in the near future; a mix between Soldier Sveik, MASH and Monty Python.

[@katarinawikholm5873]

@@miguelarribas9990 I would totally bingewatch that one!

[@kyoto9916]

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.

[@xlerb_again_to_music7908]

This is important for all militaries and should be compulsory viewing at all training levels.

[@jantschierschky3461]

Excellent comment

[@jantschierschky3461]

@@doodlebug1820 I agree, but you need an awareness level

[@MarcosElMalo2]

It would be beneficial to show to any organization. And you handle Doodlebug’s objection by prefacing the viewing with, “Substitute our organization for ‘Russian Military’”.

[@g0679]

Please… Only the ones we are friendly with.

[@pansepot1490]

I think some of you missed the fact that Perun didn’t come up with these concepts. He specifically referenced research papers on Russian military and military manuals. Which imo means that military professionals (in the west at least) are taught and are aware of these issues.

[@Markfr0mCanada]

Perun, I've been following you since "All bling, no basics". This episode was a banger and a bomb shell. One word "Vranyo" covers so much that I have ranted for many hours about without ever being able to properly articulate. As I have stated in comments on your previous videos I was in Canada's navy for well over a decade. I had a mouth which kept me at the rank of leading seaman, or killick, or E3, whatever you prefer, yet expertise which had me attending meetings well beyond where that rank belongs. For example, post fire ex the commanding officer, executive officer, cox'n, chief engine room artificer (CERA), and leading seaman [myself] are in a post exercise debrief. Reports are given from low rank to high, this is normal. Leading seaman [myself] says, "we're dead, here are the pages I filled on how and why we're dead", CERA says "great exercise, everyone performed well!", cox'n says the same, XO says the same, CO says the same. Then the ship is deployed for its mission with no further training. I can guess what the CO's report to the admiral said. My disgust with the amount of Vranyo was why I ultimately made the choice to terminate my own career. This subdivision of the word lie, where all involved know that the lie is a lie, yet pretend they don't and willfully pass on the lie, this was what I could not stomach. Yet when dozens or more have agreed upon a lie and one man tells the truth, well, one man is causing trouble and is a 15 year E3.

[@JustinRM20]

Were there no decent senior officers that would stick with you? Was your ship an isolated event or did you encounter it navy wide?

[@Markfr0mCanada]

@@JustinRM20 There was variability from unit to unit, but by now the vranyo culture has taken hold well enough that anyone who's had any promotions in the last few years has their hands in it at least somewhat. The unfortunate reality is that while many butts have sat in the chair in recent years, the CAF hasn't had a leader since Rick Hillier. Harper fired him for speaking out and replaced him with a CDS who would publicly agree with the governing party of the day, a new tradition which Trudeau has happily continued with scumbags like Vance. The CDS is a partisan office now, birds of a feather flock together, the CDS surrounds himself without people who behave like himself who surrounded themselves with people like themselves and the rot trickles down the ranks.

[@luxborealis]

Reminds me a bit about my workplace, my department keeps sending reports about dropping customer satisfaction, loss of revenue due to failure to update rents with inflation, and faulty maintenance off into some sort of godforsaken void between the stars, while in our reports to the board it’s all great jubilant reports about the great organizational streamlining (mass layoffs) and brilliant research achievemrnts we have (digging up some half century old machine typed pages informing us about how one of our machines actually works).

[@JustinRM20]

@@Markfr0mCanada Thanks for your detailed replies. Is there anywhere I can find more info on the subpar state of the CAF (navy)? It's quite interesting to hear a nation deal with the same issues we as fellow small size military NATO member deal with. It bothers me more so when I read mindless patriotism and bragging of the military when in reality it's turned into a heap of shit, living off of past prestige.

[@obsidianstatue]

In 2014, China started a series of military exercises at Zhurihe training ground, where Division sized units were pitted against the newly formed blue OPFOR unit The result surprised everyone, of the 7 divisions that took part fighting the OPFOR unit (based on the US division) only one division achieved a pyric victory, every other division were beaten Before that, exercises in were scripted, with REDFOR (units representing China) winning consistently, mainly due to favorable condition set ups And ever since 2014, REDFOR pretty much lost every time they go to Zhurihe, the word from the PLA is that they were actually happy to see the results, because it exposed problems, and in 2016 the PLA embarked on the biggest military reform in decades. So it's very interesting to see similar problems resolved in China but not in Russia.

[@kurousagi8155]

The Russians had a similar wake up after the 2008 invasion of Georgia. Their forces performed very poorly during the invasion which kicked off a round of much needed reforms. Reforms that we see did not gain much traction.

[@Niskirin]

This is not necessarily good news though. The last thing the world needs right now is an actually strong chinese military doing military expeditions. It would be so much better if they just collapsed like the russians do once they hit even a modest roadblock.

[@Zoroff74]

So the Chinese are smart, that's partly worrying...

[@Londronable]

@@kurousagi8155 I think I heard that at one point a militairy leader took the big brush and started solving shit in the Russian militairy. Could be as a result of what you described. His actions hurt a lot of officers. Do not worry, he was fired and the man that used to be in charge got put back in charge, basically saying "don't worry, the corruption can continue". In short, Russia tried. Officers did not appreciate it and got rid of him.

[@Noble713]

@@Londronable I think that was Shoigu's predecessor as Minister of Defense, Anatoly Serdyukov. Basically the thieving officer corps felt he was screwing up their illicit money flows and made sure he got canned.

[@slapbass9125]

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.

[@Bruh-jz1se]

That's actually a good idea for a game!

[@Mynameisnotjoe]

You can de that with chat gpt. I’ve tried

[@madkoala2130]

This is almost the game that would Lucas Pope do (creator of Papers please and Return to Obra Dinn)

[@davidlanders2853]

This episode may have been one of the most important segments that I have listened to, not only on your channel but in places like the Economist or other respected newshour outlets. Perun thank you for taking the time to bring to light why things happen. This may not be a sexy topic, but it is vastly more important to understand what is really happening. Once again thanks from all of your viewers here in California, and around the world. By the 140K in 7 hours and on a sunday morning...............thanks.

[@LMB222]

It's not "on a Sunday morning", because the viewers are all over the world. And it was evening where he lives.

[@davidlanders2853]

​@@LMB222Wow that's all you have..........chuckle

[@keesosable]

"'It is amazing how many problems you can solve when you're no longer tethered to reality." I will use that line. A lot.

[@sarakajira]

A fantastic video. Yet another excellent explainer. I used to work for a private management education school, and it was our job to go in and try to help companies that promoted from within, and often had managers with no formal management training: to try and improve their leadership skills, and soft skills. Our leadership training courses were the product we sold. And the truth is, some of the companies we went to simply had cultures that were so toxic that despite repeat visits to them, and repeat course sessions: there was simply no helping them. "Culture" is one of the most difficult things to change in any organization. And as the old saying goes, "the fish rots from the head." The culture doesn't change, because top leadership isn't mature enough to bring about that change. The "level of maturity" of an organization can only go as high as the people in charge at the very top. And "people at the very top", often envision themselves as "capable people" who "know what they're doing", because after all, they're at the top. Egos, pride, ignorance, immaturity, and conflicting goals often are quite effective at stopping any change, no matter how necessary or positive the change may be. "Vranyo" is a great word. I wish there was also a word for a culture of immaturity, that flows down from the top. It explains a lot of problems that exist in many companies and organizations.

[@hungrymusicwolf]

I find myself rewatching Perun's videos time and again. There's just so much insightful information here.

[@Max_Da_G]

He was wrong every time lol

[@hungrymusicwolf]

@@Max_Da_GOnly in your delusion-land my friend.

[@schlirf]

We have this phenomena to a certain extent in the US Army, which is known as "Check the Boxes". It can only be removed by officers with brass balls who listen from the bottom up, and are willing to to change careers should Sloths at the top feel threatened.

[@sirslam2414]

My unit was exactly that before I, my fellow other Lt and a new commander came in. The previous commander was absolute dog shit and really the XO was doing everything. PL slots were empty for ages. No leadership other than one XO doing 3 jobs at once. As soon as the commander swapped out and the unit got actual PLs who listened to NCO leadership, shocking how fast morale and productivity flew up. Literally all butter bar me had to two was be around and make sure the guys had tools. Fuckin mind blowing.

[@voodoodummie]

I suspect a major difference between Russia's army and the US is that the latter has been involved in wars for years, so there wasn't any room to sign off on missed training or lost equipment. The superiors may wink and nod such things away but the enemy sure won't stop shooting.

[@schlirf]

@@sirslam2414 And people wonder why Dick Morgan (CSM Richard E.Morgan "First Sergeants") went effing ballistic at times.

[@emotingtanooki6405]

@@voodoodummie Another significant difference is that the US military is so widely dispersed it's a lot harder to create a significant group in which "everyone" is involved in above the very small unit level. Considering how many people get moved in and out of even the smaller bases, you would have to have literally tens of thousands of people willing to go along with it to had a major problem on a base. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen but eventually someone who isn't "in on it" gets involved and the problem short circuits before it spreads. Your current chain of command might want you to "go along to get along" but your next chain of command might look at your record and correctly draw conclusions as to why you got a positive evaluation from someone who was just involved in a scandal. On the flip side, if you get a negative evaluation from someone who later is involved in a scandal that looks good to some people because it shows you didn't bend to pressure. Basically, as large as the US military is it's dispersed enough that it's the System that connects everyone more than the People. That can cause it's own problems, but it's harder to have subtle corruption seep in because unlike people to change the system you have to make a hard record of changes to the System and that is a lot easier to review than human behavior.

[@voodoodummie]

@@emotingtanooki6405 Looking at the Russian type of corruption I wouldn't say that the dispersion is quite as relevant in a hypothetical long term where the US falls to the same culture of corruption. As it stands, that DOES make it very hard for corruption to start and take place, but the corruption within Russia is based on decades of disuse and lack of oversight. Russian corruption is exceedingly simple at its core. You just lie to the person above you, and from that you have a whole rotten ladder. The US army has loads of safeguards that prevents or stops corruption including the ability of a private to bypass their direct superior for complaints and a deep commitment of operation security downwards. This is to say that the US is not immune to corruption, but it would take half a century of absolute stagnation before it comes close to what we see on the white-blue-red side.

[@Jagrofes]

I find your breakdowns of the soft factors for their failure the most fascinating. They’re rarely talked about, let alone in this depth.

[@v8pilot]

Very interesting. My dad, as a naval scientist working for the MOD (UK) was involved in trials of sonar systems in the final stages of their development. He was often in bad odour for insisting on reporting on the limitations of these systems - important so that a ship did not rely on the sonar in circumstances where its output was unreliable. He told me that, for many of the senior people involved in the development, the purpose of the trials was to show that the correct decisions had been made. My dad said that, had he gone along with all of that and not mentioned the limitations, he'd have been promoted a grade or two prior to his retirement, with a better pension for the remainder of his life.

[@Alexthealright]

That sucks

[@v8pilot]

@@Alexthealright Yes, but on the other hand, it meant he was never promoted beyond his level of incompetence and so he had the satisfaction of always making a positive contribution which was appreciated by his peers.

[@LMB222]

And THAT'S exactly how communism works: it promotes the loyal, not the brave. Your old man may rest in peace that he at least didn't sell his soul.

[@andrewcraig-bennett3659]

There is a huge amount of « vranyo » in the British military industrial complex, and there has been for many years. This is because of the way in which MoD officials and serving officers find second careers with the BAE/RR/Babcocks/Thales oligopoly. A good working rule is « never believe anything the British Armed Forces say about their current equipment. Thirty years later, they will tell the truth ».

[@jughead88]

@@LMB222 That's how any authoritarian system works. The brave are seen as a danger to the ruling power.

[@jan-drake]

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.

[@jonathanvilario5402]

Perun videos dropping feels like waking up to Saturday morning cartoons

[@DutchSkeptic]

26:06 Very well explained! This applies to essentially all domains of society. In aviation, they call it Crew Resource Management (CRM), in shipping Bridge Resource Management (BRM) etc. but it all boils down to the same: the leader is not infallible, and needs others to correct them if they make a mistake. Authoritarian leaders who don't listen to advice, warnings or criticism put everyone in danger.

[@LewisPulsipher]

I haven't listened to the Corruption vid, but evidently I should. This was an OUTSTANDING discussion of how severely military suffers when they lose touch with reality. You can't fix problems if you don't know they exist.

[@defenstrator4660]

Do it. It is honestly the best lecture I have heard on the topic.

[@madhatter38m]

He's right, it's absolutely a must watch. I had no idea that what could start out as simple fibbing to hedge your bets could turn into the ultimate shitshow of watching Russian units obliterate themselves against Ukrainian strong points.

[@5peciesunkn0wn]

Oh yes. 11/10 recommended viewing. It's glorious.

[@grognard23]

Perun is able to take complex topics with lots of important points that need to be made and summarize it all very effectively without, to the best of my knowledge, sleighting any important points. I am still anxiously awaiting his oil video!

[@MrNicoJac]

Oh you absolutely should! I would say it was the best video he's done... *_was_*

[@comentedonakeyboard]

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".

[@adeptusjoker7176]

Hey Perun, I'm writing a fantasy book that involves math in wartime, and it's REALLY helpful that you brought up this "Russian Way of war' book. Diagrams of artillery procedures (Esp. when the mathematics is technically correct but ill-advised) is exactly what I needed.

[@kurousagi8155]

Also check out Battle Order for unit organization.

[@HibHab69]

Pootis!

[@airplanemaniacgaming7877]

@@HibHab69 His pfp is Heavy's reaction to seeing how badly his home country is doing in this "Special Military Operation."