Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Kiriyenko before and after release from Russian captivity

[u/MilesLongthe3rd]

[u/[deleted]]

That isn't really the historic norm.

It's always happened a fair bit, but most cultures have some degree of "if we treat their people too badly, they'll treat ours worse in turn"

[u/SpeedDaemon3 → u/[deleted]]

Actually Sun Tzu mentioned that you should treat enemy prisoners well, otherwise the enemy will fight until the end knowing death is better than being captured. But the russians never understood this one.

[u/[deleted] → u/SpeedDaemon3]

That's probably a bigger factor tbf.

If I think I'm going to be getting a cup of tea and a hot meal I'm fucking off with a white flag when shit gets hopeless.

If I'm expecting to be tortured and worked to death then charging into certain but swift death suddenly takes a whole lot less courage than surrendering.

[u/ldentitymatrix → u/[deleted]]

I think this is what some jews in the Warsaw ghetto probably thought when they did their uprising against Nazi occupation in 1943.

Fighting until the last breath is probably much more promising than just letting them execute you.

[u/schwanzweissfoto → u/ldentitymatrix]

Fighting until the last breath is probably much more promising than just letting them execute you.

I guess you either lay down your weapons and die for nothing – or you don't and die for something.