A Question for our Russian Members

[Werewolf13]

There seem to be a number of Russian members and maybe some - now defunct - Warsaw Pact nation members participating on this forum and that got me to wondering, thinking about the past and my experiences in the US Army.

I served during the Cold War and when ever the subject of it going hot came up the term we used for our potential opponents was always, "The Commies". Russian, Warsaw Pact, Chinese. Didn't matter - they were, "the Commies". It was never said in a derogatory way - we knew they'd be tough opponents.

A recent thread I read here on the AB forum used that exact term to describe the game opponent, Commies, and it got me to wondering; what did the Russian army troops call us Americans, the Germans and the Brits? What about Warsaw Pact troops? What did they call us.

I am truly interested in knowing. And don't pull any punches. I'm very curious?

[Blond_Knight]

In a similar vein, Ive always been fascinated with Soviet equipment since an OPFOR class in AIT at Benning.
Id like to know about what it was like to be a Soviet tanker and be an AT3 Sagger operator.

[Rosseau]

I think the tankers were generally uncomfortable in the cramped Soviet tanks of that era. David Isby's "Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army" (circa 1985) is very dated, but does shed some light on early '70s to '80s.

[ivanov]

I can only speak from the Polish perspective. During the Cold war, propaganda used to call the West "imperialists" and the Americans were just the "yanks". But in the 80's, the regular soldiers of the WP satellite armies, would be just too happy to cross the line and defect to the imperialists [:D]

[fritzfarlig]

the east germans call you "die Amis" the polish just say "kurwa" [:D]

[kevinkins]

[/quote]

WP satellite armies, would be just too happy to cross the line and defect to the imperialists

I am surprised the informal code name was not "Santa Claus".

[DwarfHeretic]

Probably russian forces mostly understand american forces as only real opponent if situation became hot. I'm don't surely know, but i asked my grandad and he answered, that they say yankee if meant NATO, even if they meant other members of pro-american alliance.

[Blond_Knight]

ORIGINAL: Rosseau

I think the tankers were generally uncomfortable in the cramped Soviet tanks of that era. David Isby's "Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army" (circa 1985) is very dated, but does shed some light on early '70s to '80s.

I actually have that book.
But I remember in Viktor Suvorov's books he talks about training in the 60's, Id just like to have another voice confirm or elaborate on things first-hand like how reliable were the armored vehicles?
What was training like?

[PoorOldSpike]

I read a book some 30 years ago (sorry can't remember the title) which quoted various NATO and Warsaw Pact commanders, and one comment that's stuck in my mind was by a Russian General(?) who said something like-
"The American serviceman is a technician, used to operating complicated high-technology equipment at the touch of a button with the aid of onboard computers which could blow a fuse at any time, whereas the Soviet serviceman relies more on his own hands to operate his rugged and tougher tanks and vehicles."

[Sorrow_Knight]

ORIGINAL: Werewolf13

There seem to be a number of Russian members and maybe some - now defunct - Warsaw Pact nation members participating on this forum and that got me to wondering, thinking about the past and my experiences in the US Army.

I served during the Cold War and when ever the subject of it going hot came up the term we used for our potential opponents was always, "The Commies". Russian, Warsaw Pact, Chinese. Didn't matter - they were, "the Commies". It was never said in a derogatory way - we knew they'd be tough opponents.

A recent thread I read here on the AB forum used that exact term to describe the game opponent, Commies, and it got me to wondering; what did the Russian army troops call us Americans, the Germans and the Brits? What about Warsaw Pact troops? What did they call us.

I am truly interested in knowing. And don't pull any punches. I'm very curious?

As I know (I probably may mistake in details, cause i was born in 1987 and I was only 4-5yo when USSR crushed) there was "Possible Enemy" (official propaganda), "Yankee", "Amers" (second still in use)... Mostly NATO forces associate with US Army as the main opponent, so, i haven`t heard any nicknames for french, west german or british armies, but I think, that there was some in certain armies\divisions.

[Sorrow_Knight]

ORIGINAL: Blond_Knight


I actually have that book.
But I remember in Viktor Suvorov's books he talks about training in the 60's, Id just like to have another voice confirm or elaborate on things first-hand like how reliable were the armored vehicles?
What was training like?

I can say only that Suvorov is heavily antisoviet in his books. I haven`t read any of him about Cold War period, but, I`ve read his WWII books, and think, that he barely changed his mind when wrote about later periods... so... there was not so bad as he may write =)

[CCIP-subsim]

The closest counterpart in Russian would be "burzhui" (буржуи) - meaning "bourgeois", a catch-all term for Westerners. It is still just as commonly used to refer to foreigners today [:)]

For Americans specifically - the already-mentioned Yankee and Gringo, the derogatory "amerikos" (singular; plural is "amerikosy"), "amerikashka" (pl. "amerikashky" - a portmanteau that could be translated as "ameriturd") "pindos" (pl. "pindosy" - weird etymology with this one, it's a word that originally referred to Greek settlers in the Black Sea region, but today specifically means "american soliders" and sounds derogatory).

In general, it obviously depends on the soldiers and their units themselves, but I never got the impression that Soviet soldiers in the Cold War were particularly indoctrinated against American/NATO troops, and overall probably had a somewhat better (but still very limited) understanding of their opponent's culture than vice versa.
My dad, for example, when he served in the Soviet army in the 70s as a radio man mostly spent his days at a remote outpost on the Kola Peninsula, using government-issue receiver equipment to listen to rock music on the BBC (Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Queen, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and so on) without having to deal with the radio jamming that was always a problem for that in civilian life. That was the only part of his service he actually enjoyed [:D]

[altipueri]

Uriah Heep ? I bought an album by them about 1970 because I liked the tank on the cover.

[Red2112]

The album is called "Salisbury", great album by the way, I still have it. Related this album with a YT video I did of Avalon Hill´s "Panzer Blitz", basically because both are clasics of the same era [:)]

[Dreamslayer]

But I remember in Viktor Suvorov's books...

OMG [:D]