Rookie young men who had if any experience in military operation were stunned by the clueless mounty landscape, where they were throwing their lives like in some foolish game with only one try — one given life. And for… well, that was the question — for what exactly?

Returning home, if managed to survive, — many of them — actually ended up living on the streets, totally neglected. Many just couldn’t get back to normal life; sensing ignorance towards them, the apathy towards what was important (at least for them before), looking at themselves as the fifth weal, who came back from hell, saw so much of gruesome life-twisting stuff that could not be understood by normal “lucky” folks who silently fear them now. Its pity how this perception snowballed by misunderstanding. People stayed away from those traumatised post-war fellas only because they guessed those men are too sensitive or too quick-tempered to anything positive related to civil life — civilians looked like rookies that never seen the real world. That exact world that played with ’em in Afghanistan; The surviving place that never forgives, dare your mind and physical guts, push your limits (humane and inhumane deeds).  Normal folks thought that those solders look at them as complete opposite to ’em : innocent naive kids that deal with nonsense matters, silly and never suffered a bit of what they had to go through. Stereotype was easily made by dwellers — “they[post-afghan-war solders] hated everyone and everything for being put in that wrath Afghan desert. And this kicks this “keep-out” attitude in masses towards those solders, who were seen as unstable and not same people as they were before.

I would say this ‘no-bother’ treat of returned solders, loyal-to-the-oath warriors, had laid the main point for this anti-patriotic response to the military presence in the country; military policies, serving terms&conditions, recruitment system, retirement benefits — the centre of a focus for rebellious motives.

At that time (roughly the decade before 2000 and bit after) many men wanted to keep out of military services by any mean, even if it would make them as draft dodgers or cost ’em a fortune to evade and leave the country for good. Army’s reputation wether it was about the ruthless military commanders, or government inefficiency, or bullying in the army, all at once drew that repulsive image to an army as an institution for unlucky ones, excluded from other places, and had no other chance but put the military boots on.

Basically, all the army related jobs were thrown to the bin as smth past related no longer needed; Shutting down military schools and academies, cadet corps, factories and duly reducing state defence orders. Yeah it was back then, this time you wont see that in Russia, those “hateful” entities are flourishing now.