Remember “Yosef Rockovich”, the Russian soldier?

There’s an old saying in card games: “If you can’t tell who the sucker is at the table, it’s you”. Just like in the military– if you something messed up being planned, and you can’t figure out what poor unlucky soul is going to be picked for it, then you’re likely it.

A few months ago, the Russian Army in Ukraine rolled out a bunch of old T-62 tanks to send to the front. No one was really sure why, because T-62s are pretty much relics that don’t stand a chance against modern armor or anti-armor rockets.
Then, a few weeks ago, even older T-55 tanks were being sent to Ukraine. This seems to be a bit of a desperate move, although it should be noticed that there is a lot of spare parts on the T-55 that will work on the T-62. So it may not be an expectation of direct combat, but as a depot for reserve parts.

Still, the fact that tanks that served in the early decades of the Cold War –tanks in service when folks like Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy were the leaders– are being brought out of storage at all is pretty sobering.

Is it really a cynical move to get the Ukrainians to waste limited and expensive anti-tank ammunition on old relics so that more modern tanks will have an easier time when they follow up? The Russian Army was historically never shy about throwing people at a problem until the enemy is exhausted, so maybe. But the situations are not comparable any more.

In 1905 a Russian war of choice that led to massive, unexpected casualties eventually led to a pretty drastic change in leadership in 1917. Maybe we’ll see if the lessons of history repeat themselves. It won’t be pretty and the ordinary Russian people will not be in an enviable position, but it is not impossible.