Just to add in case it’s interesting: you can’t compare modern US soldiers to early 20th century Russian soldiers. In the Russian Empire, soldiers were drafted against their will. There was a long tradition of avoiding draft, sometimes men from a village would hide in a forest, secretly supported by their families until the drafters leave the area. Service was extremely long, 25 years in the 19th century (although much shorter in the 20th). The service could take you anywhere in the Russian Empire which was huge with virtually no roads or transport connecting many areas. You could be discharged anywhere, thousands of miles from home, without money or means of getting back to your family. Many settled where they were discharged, others walked home, surviving by doing odd jobs on the way - this could take years due to having to take up work on the way, mountain ridges inaccessible in winter, etc. A soldier walking home was one of archetypes of Russian folklore - by the way, in Russian folklore the Kulak and the Priest were greedy villains oppressing the villages while the traveling soldier was the hero, using his cunning and wit to scam the greedy rich out of things he needed to get by. In the revolution, soldiers were the backbone along with the workers and the peasants, with revolutionary Soviets organised in factories, villages, and army units.
Russian soldiers did not demand a thank you for their service, they rebelled and dismantled capitalism.
Every time you learn more about imperial russia you think “surely it can’t be worse than that” but no, there’s always something more. recently I learned about the workers barracks where they lived crammed in dormitories (can’t find a picture unfortunately) around the turn of the 20th century, and the land captains who were nobles tasked with keeping the peasants in line by punishing them severely around the countryside. Doesn’t take a whole lot to understand why a revolution happened.
Were the Russian soldiers demanding a ‘thank you’ for their service and spreading anti-communist, Islamophobic propaganda?
Just to add in case it’s interesting: you can’t compare modern US soldiers to early 20th century Russian soldiers. In the Russian Empire, soldiers were drafted against their will. There was a long tradition of avoiding draft, sometimes men from a village would hide in a forest, secretly supported by their families until the drafters leave the area. Service was extremely long, 25 years in the 19th century (although much shorter in the 20th). The service could take you anywhere in the Russian Empire which was huge with virtually no roads or transport connecting many areas. You could be discharged anywhere, thousands of miles from home, without money or means of getting back to your family. Many settled where they were discharged, others walked home, surviving by doing odd jobs on the way - this could take years due to having to take up work on the way, mountain ridges inaccessible in winter, etc. A soldier walking home was one of archetypes of Russian folklore - by the way, in Russian folklore the Kulak and the Priest were greedy villains oppressing the villages while the traveling soldier was the hero, using his cunning and wit to scam the greedy rich out of things he needed to get by. In the revolution, soldiers were the backbone along with the workers and the peasants, with revolutionary Soviets organised in factories, villages, and army units. Russian soldiers did not demand a thank you for their service, they rebelled and dismantled capitalism.
Edit: a classic tale every Russian child knew: https://detskie-skazki.com/en/russian-fairy-tales/porridge-from-an-axe.html
Every time you learn more about imperial russia you think “surely it can’t be worse than that” but no, there’s always something more. recently I learned about the workers barracks where they lived crammed in dormitories (can’t find a picture unfortunately) around the turn of the 20th century, and the land captains who were nobles tasked with keeping the peasants in line by punishing them severely around the countryside. Doesn’t take a whole lot to understand why a revolution happened.
So the answer is ‘no’, I assume.
Ukraine needs a Lenin right now.