Red Army racism and shortages!

The problem
It was not a overt or heavily disestablishing phenomena, but did occur in a more corrosive and sub-conscious form. This type of discrimination had been declining amongst the Slavic, Moldavian and Baltic groups since the 1960s, unlike in the American army were beating up Blacks and Coloreds was seen as cool until the mid to late 1970s.

The 'order of reliability'
 * -The term Belorussians predates the Belorussian SSR, but was brought to prominence by the anti-communist White Russians having one of there major strong holds out there (others were in Central Asia, the Kuban and the Caucuses Mountains).
 * 1) Russians were the majority group, provided most of the manpower and run everything with the help of the East Ukranians. This is especially true for the KGB, Interior Army and Strategic Missile Force personnel. The GRU, national police, navy, special forces and  airforces were also run and dominated by these gorups to.
 * 2) East Ukrainians are the most trusted, have the same rights as Russians and play a major role in the Red Army.
 * 3) Western Ukrainians are of suspect loyalty since most was not Soviet held until 1939 and the rest was a nationalist hot bed at various times.
 * 4) Belorussians* were purged of most nationalist and all Tsarists/White Russian elements by World War 2. They showed there loyalty to the USSR in WW2 and are a close second to the East Ukrainians.
 * 5) Poles are suspected of unreliability and those who kept there language and customs are considered a extremist security hazard. Poland was regarded as crap, economically useless, subversive and a major security hazard.
 * 6) Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Azeris are regarded as less well assimilated, under educated, backward, lazy and fixated with their pre-communist Turkic cultures and religions. It was noted by Slavic officers that did lead these people that they are less demanding and hardier people. Kazakhs were more reliable, trustworthy and assimilated in the bigger cities, so they were given greater status in the region and held higher ranks than the other Turkic and Central Asian people. Turkmen, Kergiz and Tajik are regarded as less reliable, un-assimilated and untrustworthy than the Kazakhs, Azeris and Uzbeks.
 * 7) Tartars were considerably suspect in the minds of Russians since many of the Tartars fought with the Germans in WW2.
 * 8) Siberians were considered to be badly under educated and less well assimilated than the Central Asians, so they were not regarded as very trust worth beyond in some cases there rather naive and child like love of communism. Some like the Chukchi rebelled against Russia well in to Victorian times and were subject to a degree more dist trust than others like the Yakuts and Tuvans.
 * 9) The Moldovans, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians were considered with some suspicion and possibly unreliable due to the fact they were annexed in 1939. None the less, they are prized in technical and certain other intellectual and lower level leadership roles due to there higher level of education and intrinsically greater intelligence. Romania was regarded as primitive, dictatorial (even by Soviet standards), untrustworthy and economically weak due to corruption.
 * 10) Armenian regarded as unreliable crooks who get rich by subverting the Soviet legal system. Armenians contributed heavily to the Soviet cause in WW2 and get some leeway compared to the Georgians.
 * 11) Georgians are regarded as unreliable crooks who get rich by subverting the Soviet legal system. Georgians are disliked, as is the culture of offical bribery, known as 'Blat'. Stalin was a Georgian.
 * 12) Chechen are openly discriminated against due to some of them fighting with the Germans in WW2. They are considered to be more poorly educated and less well assimilated than the other peoples of the Caucus Mountains.
 * 13) Jews did fight on the communist (Red) side in the Russia Civil War and WW2, but became more Zionist ans the Russians began to dwell on there historic hobby of rampant antisemitism. They are despised by the Russian for these reasons.
 * 14) The Volga Germans are virulently persecuted. They were never relay liked by any of the Slavic peoples and openly hated after joining the German's side in WW2!

Roles in the army

 * 30% of ground forces were of non Slavic origins.
 * The Strategic Missile Force is 90% Russian. Only Russians can do technical, political and security roles. Non-Russians get lesser roles as cooks, labourers and alike.
 * Turkics were the heaviest minority in the infantry, construction and tank forces.
 * 50% of construction troops are Central Asian (mostly rural and with at best a poor understanding of Russian) and 20% are from the Caucasus Mountains. The latter do minimal roles and get negligible training beyond learning to use a hand gun and picking up some Russian.
 * West Ukrainians, Balts (the Baltic States) and Jews are also a large part of construction and support forces. They are mostly urban, well educated, intelligent and speak a degree of Russian, so can soon end up as NCOs or move on to more responsible post else were.
 * Ultimate power and ideological controlle lay with the Russians.

Poor heath

 * Barrack toilets were crap, so disantery and hepatitis broke out in some of the less well developed regions. Uzbeks and Yakuts regarded this phenomena with disgust.
 * Food was in short supply. Every one was hungry, but those from remoter regions were already used to it before singing up. Some times even cabbage and potatoes ran out!
 * Glasses were only issued to those with very poor eye site since the army did not believe young males needed glasses and considered claims by any that needed them as a scam to evade duties.
 * Slavic junior offices got enough pay to afford booze and were not as well disciplined as the senior officers, so they got a reputation for being a bunch of drunks. Some privates also stole some vodka or made moonshine behind there officers' backs. The Mohammedan groups such as the Tartars and Uzbeks rarely drank and those who did kept it low.
 * NBC suits were primitive and made users ill with heat exhaustion if worn for long periods.

Languages
Every one in the military had to learn the common and majority language, Russian. They either learnt it before joining or picked it up as they went along in the armed forces.

Army barracks

 * Stifling bureaucracy, political rhetoric, race, language and rank dominated life.
 * The various ethnic and linguistic groups tended to stick together out of kinship, ease of communication and for self defense if they come one of the more hated groups. Central Asians are the most likely to be bullied.
 * A few offices have sleeping bags, but most troops actually regard sleeping rough on hey, branches, piled sand and so on as expansible. Some even regard sleeping bags as effeminate and sissy.
 * Alcohol was banned.

Also see

 * 1) Exercise Zapad-81
 * 2) Soviet "Era of Stagnation"
 * 3) Exercise Dnepr 1967