March 26, 2024 • 30 mins
"If you had a checklist of how to brainwash people, that checklist would include: Number one, isolate them from contrary influences. Number two, put them under a lot of stress. Number three, deprive them of sleep. Number four, involve them in a group that hammers home the same messages repeatedly."
Show Credits:
- Produced by Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeart Podcasts
- Host/Writer: Neil Strauss
- Guest: Aliia Roza
- Executive Producers: Neil Strauss, Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey
- Lead Producer and Editor: Tristen Bankston
- Additional Editing: Miles Clark and Christian Brown
- Supervising Producer: Tracy Kaplan
- Consultants: Nooshin Valizadeh, Chelsey Goodan and Jaime Albright
- Cover Art Design: Byron McCoy
- Original Music: Makeup and Vanity Set, with additional music by Ben Fleisch
- Mixed and Mastered: Dayton Cole
- Theme song: Killer Shangri-lah by Pshycotic Beats featuring Pati Amor
- Special thanks to: Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, Oren Segal, Rebecca Jensen, Rose Baruc, The Nord Group, Meredith Stedman, and Alex Vespestad
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All eight episodes of The Die For are available now
to bitch absolutely free, but for ad free listening and
exclusive bonuses, subscribe to tenorfoot plus at tendorfootplus dot com
or on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Warning, the following contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual
assault that may be too intense or triggering to some listeners.
Discretion is advised.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
He was the son of a high ranking Soviet Army
officer and he had an outstanding career with Novesty, which
was also up front for the KGB.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Ideological subversion is the slow process which we call either
ideological subversion or active measures actively miriapriatia in the language
of the KGB.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Or psychological warfare.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
What it basically means is to change the perception of reality.
Exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person
who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The
facts tell nothing to him.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Adamir Putin's former chief economic advisor, who had extensive access to.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
The Prussian president over the years, goes one on one
with our Joe Khalil.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
How much of the population actually is exposed to what's
really happening in your career?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I would say up to seventy percent of the Russian
population have been brainwashed, brainwashed completely.
Speaker 7 (01:45):
A few seventy percent, you think it's that high, it
would be I would say conservativefest to.
Speaker 8 (01:50):
Make Jana Agaalakova was one of the stars of Russia's
Channel one.
Speaker 9 (01:56):
Even now, when you're watching news in raw shirt, it's
like two different planets. In one planet there is ruins
and total disaster, death and tragedy. In another world it's
Russian militaries that was cheered by local population with flowers,
(02:18):
and this is only victories in these two worlds don't
mix up. And it's blown my mind how they do it,
how they brainwashed their population.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
To kill.
Speaker 8 (02:38):
Am really sorry, and how the.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Guts knows.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Busus Episode three, chapter six, the selection.
Speaker 8 (03:37):
There are not so many schools in Russia. It's like
maybe only three. One were put and studied and sunk
by the Petersburg another one in Moscow they would call
it like former KIGB school FSB was basically like they
renamed it. But my school, my academy, would be called
(04:04):
the Academy of Military Investigation.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
How do you said in Russia, Oh, it's.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
Some academia or Probvilinian ministers of Nutrin deal recipe.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
What happens once you walk in.
Speaker 8 (04:20):
When I saw that huge gray color building, looking like
all the Soviet Union buildings, where you cannot say a word,
and you understand there is no chance you could leave
a free life and have a free word, I just
(04:41):
wanted to run away, but I couldn't say no, and
I couldn't run away, and I had to go there.
And I just kept myself together, and I stayed silent
and just walked into that walls.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Lea Rosa Is described ivan her first day of formal
military training after her tragic internship. She was just eighteen
at the time.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
When I saw these thick, gray, cold walls with portraits
of that former officers or KGB agents, and I saw
that cold faces of all my teachers and my classmates.
(05:30):
There were no fun or there were no desire or
like ambitions or dreams. There were really cold blooded machines
or like zombie people.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
That first day at the academy would change the course
of Eleah's life. But before we get to that, here's
a little bit about the training of new recruits at
a Russian military academy.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
First, of my whole lifestyle has been changed. I would
wake up at four am because at six am you
had to have a morning report that would give you
a gender schedule, and you have to do marshing. From
six am in the morning, we would listen this big
(06:21):
words lecture about our country, that we have to protect
the country. We have to be real patriot. V fought Nazi.
We are the strongest country in the world. We have
the strongest nationality. We are the.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Purest.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
Nothing can be more powerful than us. You have to
do exercises, you have to do jogging, you have to
do shooting. They also had to do like cleaning and
cooking four hundreds of people, and six pm it's again
(07:02):
the report time, and again you have to do marching.
And then sometimes homework would be so much so it
would take till like two am or like one am.
It was really off and it was always cold. I
was so tired and exhausted because I slept only four hours.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I ask Leah if she thinks that all the marching,
the work, the lack of sleep, or not just about
training but also about brainwashing.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
Well, yes, of course the whole system is like that, right.
It's one of the important technique of manipulation. Where if
you want to train someone, you have to exhaust this
person with the physical activities so the brain becomes weak.
And when the brain becomes weak, there you can plant
seats built on patriotic romantic feeling like together we can
(08:01):
fight the whole world.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
In case patriotism wasn't enough to inspire someone to die
for their country, they were also financial incentives.
Speaker 8 (08:12):
So for example, if they would say, okay, so there
is a war in Chichen, second campaign, So who wants
to go there? Because if you go to the war,
first of all, you have salary much higher than usual,
you have better insurance, better benefits. If you will die,
then your family will get so and so much money,
(08:33):
which was higher than usual salary. People would risk their
life because it was beneficial for their families and they
would go to the war.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
It's still the same.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
As for leaving the military. Once you were there, you
had to fulfill your duties.
Speaker 8 (08:52):
Once you're there, you cannot go back. You cannot just
become civilian and said, Okay, I don't want to work
in military anymore. I want just to be a human
resource recruiter. You cannot do that. You know that once
you're there, you have to be there till the rest
of your life.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
In this toxic environment, the Leah's classmates competed with each
other for favor, sometimes cruelly and savagely.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
I try to make friends, but after a few months
I understood that wherever I would say to my girlfriends,
they would talk to our teachers. So you couldn't even
tell anyone's secrets or the way you think or.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
The way you feel. I had.
Speaker 8 (09:39):
Even my male classmates, they would call me bad names.
Some of them try to put me down. You understand
that you're there by yourself. You cannot have friends, You
cannot rely on anyone. You know that every single one
is your enemy. We say, if you live with wolves,
you have to become one of wolves.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
So with this context, we now returned to Elia's first
day at the academy. She was lined up for inspection
with the rest of the new students, and that's when
it all began.
Speaker 8 (10:33):
All of us we had to be outside, and I
remember there was one of the most powerful teacher at
that time, with the highest rank, and he particularly looked
at every single girl there. And I was the only
one who was eighteen years old. At the girls the
(10:54):
la starting from twenty to twenty three, twenty five thirty.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Even this high ranking commander, a Russian colonel, began whispering
to a female officer and motioning to Aliyah.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
But I understood the talk about me because they looked
at me and they discussed something I didn't know.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
Is it like bad or good? I didn't know anything.
Speaker 8 (11:17):
And then they also looked at some other girls.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Soon after, Aliyah was pulled aside and told that she'd
been selected to participate in a special program. This, of course,
was not an optional program.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
I will be studying additional subjects together with other four
girls every day after our main program.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
This additional coursework, as I'm sure you figured out, would
train Aliyah in the art of seduction, the exchange of
sexuality for secrets or lives. But what does it take
for a woman raised conservatively with no dating experience to
be willing to let this date use your body like this?
It would take a lot more fear and a lot
(12:05):
more brainwashing. Chapter seven, The Sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
There are lots of things that are involved in persuasion
every day. But when things become very stressful, and when
the stimuli are controlled and there are very few other stimuli,
other than what the perpetrator is trying to impose on you,
(12:47):
and when you are sleep deprived, these are settings that
make people very malleable, and you can see this in
many of the brainwashing events in twentieth century.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
This is doctor Joel Dimsdale, a professor emeritus of psychology
at the University of California, San Diego and the author
of the book Dark Persuasion, A History of Brainwashing from
Pavlov to Social Media. I tell doctor Dimsdale, what you
just heard about Aliah's training regimen at the military academy
meant to do this and sort of getting the party
(13:23):
line fed to her every waking moment. Is that a
form of what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So when she has been isolated from her family and
friends and only exposed to people who are constantly HARKing
on this one view of what the world is like
and what her task is, this begins to be a
(13:48):
setup for coercive persuasion, even if it's against her best interest.
Everything goes back to Pavlov at the.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
Doctor Dimsdale says, the modern history of brainwashing back to Russia,
specifically the fact that the work of doctor Ivan Pavlov
was taking place at the same time as the Russian Revolution.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
The odd thing in history is that, by virtue of
his prominence, Lenin visited Pavlov and spent hours talking with Pavlov,
asking him could Pavlov help Lenin remake the people of
the Soviet Union so that they would be better communists.
So the Soviets were always interested in behavior change, in
(14:37):
trying to be as scientific as possible about it, and
Pavlov was a perfect vehicle for exploring that.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I asked doctor Dimsdale about the science of this behavioral change.
What are the conditions that make this possible, not just
for Aleah, but for anyone who's being reprogrammed to lay
down their lives and their ethics for their country.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
If you had a checklist of how do you persuade
people so that you can guarantee behaviors that there would
be resistance to otherwise, that checklist would include number one.
Isolate them away from contrary influences. Number two. Put them
under a lot of stress. Number three. Deprive them of
(15:24):
sleep so they're not thinking clearly. Number four, involve them
in a group that hammers home certain messages repeatedly.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
We now know the steps that lead to brainwashing or
course of persuasion, as doctor Ginsdale prefers to put it,
but brainwashing for what Let's move forward to Russia in
the twenty first century.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
War was central to the Putin regime.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
This is Ian Garner, a Russian historian and author of
the book z Generation Into the Heart of Russia's Fascist youth.
Speaker 7 (15:57):
Right. We've seen that from the very first action Putin
takes when he's in power, and where we start to
see a real change is in what children are taught
in the school. Children learn war poems, children start to
dress up in military uniforms, so they start to be
taught that war is a good thing. War is something
we need to grow our society and become better people.
(16:20):
Joining the army, becoming a part of this military machine
in Russia is just a hugely respectable path.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
The propaganda that helps make this possible, Garner says, is
history lessons, revised history lessons, just like the ones that
Leah received during her training.
Speaker 7 (16:41):
This is not going to be lessons about real history.
This is going to be the Russian version of history
in which Russia is surrounded by enemies who are looking
to destroy it, and Russia has saved the world, and
you're going to be a hero if you sacrifice yourself
just like those folks Stalingrads eighty years ago.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Stalingrad, as he may recall, is the deadly World War
two battle that Leah's grandfather served in, and the monument
there with his name on it is practically a shrine
for Leah's family.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
There is this phrase by Siedel's up and Russian thank
you granddad for bringing us victory. And what they're talking
about is World War two. And all of this comes
down the myth of the Second World War as the
moment when a generation of grandfathers sacrificed themselves to save
the world and to save Russia, to save humanity from
(17:34):
the Nazi threat. Thus we respect them. It's a kind
of ancestor worship. The sacrifice is coded that the sacrifice,
the death, has to happen. It's a bit like the
Christian myth right it's Jesus. Jesus has to die to
save humanity. Russian soldiers have to die, the country has
(17:55):
to suffer so that it can be birth than you.
Speaker 10 (17:59):
Russia's President Vladimir Putin is in Volga Grat formerly known
as Stalingrad, to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Soviet
victory over German forces at the Battle of Stalingrad. He
later spoke at an event where he criticized Germany for
helping to arm Ukraine. He said, Russia is once again
threatened by Germany. This is his latest attempt to compare
(18:22):
Russia's war against Ukraine to the Soviet victory over Nazi
Germany in World War Two.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Russian news, Russian education, and especially Russian social media, Gardner explains,
have turned into an actual indoctrination program, teaching not just
a warlike way of thinking, but actual military skills to
the youth.
Speaker 7 (18:42):
Because they're so desperately rushed to get them to the front.
It is giving that training to children today and they
will be ready tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
To fund And at what age does that training start?
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Six years old?
Speaker 5 (18:58):
Wow, it's interesting again because her trains are from her
dad at I think age six or seven.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Yeah, So her experience then was exceptional and unusual. But
now that experience is being not just institutionalized and formalized
by this state, it's also being held up as the
ideal of what a young child can be.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Chapter eight, Death of a Patriot. We return now to
Eliah's first day at the military academy. Selected out of
the lineup along with four other women, she was told
she'd been chosen to participate in a special, top secret
(19:56):
program to serve her country. A few hours later, the
top commander at the academy, the colonel who'd chosen her
from the lineup, called her into his office.
Speaker 8 (20:06):
After a few hours, I was called to my teacher office.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
So I came there and he closed the door.
Speaker 8 (20:22):
And I did respect him a lot, because he was
much older than me that time. He was forty eight
and I was eighteen, and I was very innocent, as
I said, like I never kissed any man.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
As a Leah tells the story, you may hear some
laughter here and there, but note that there's nothing funny
about this. There are topics that bring up so much
trauma and are so uncomfortable to discuss that sometimes we
laugh in order to avoid the deep pain that these
events bring up. In an often cited research paper, if
I didn't laugh, I'd cry, doctor Kathleen Hand further explains
(21:01):
that quote laughter creates a sense of relief, usually from
stress both mentally and physically. That's giving way to a
sense of hope listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 8 (21:14):
And I looked at him and I asked him like hello,
like you know, like, yes, sir, you were calling for me,
so I'm here. And he was wearing his uniform, bit
medals and everything, looking so sophisticated and so powerful like
(21:35):
my dad when he was wearing uniform who was respected that.
He asked me, like, what do you really expect from
this education? And I said, well, you know my story.
You know whose daughter am I and I am here
to follow my dad's path and I'm ready to study
(21:58):
and learn anything. And he asked me, are you ready
to do everything for your country? I said yes, sir,
are you real patriot? And I said yes, sir. I
was raised by my dad to protect my country, my people,
and I'm ready to give, like to do everything for
my country. And he asked me like, are you ready
(22:19):
to do everything? Are you ready to give your life
for your country? And I said yes, sir, certainly, of course.
I was trained by my dad and I love my
country and I love my people. And then he came
closer to me and he said, then suck my cock.
(22:47):
I was like sorry, what I just couldn't even understand
what did he ask me? And I was sitting at
the chair and he came closer to me, and I
was my heart was right in front of his.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
That part, so I was.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
I didn't know what to do, and he came so
close that I couldn't really just stand up and leave.
I just had like one thing in my head that
wait a minute, he knows that who is my dad,
and yet he just asked me to suck his cock, Like,
how is that possible? I thought that the name of
(23:30):
my dad will protect me from this kind of stuff,
and he kind of like he almost like he read
my mind, and he said, yes, I know who is
your father, and you know that I have much higher
ring than your dad. So everything depends from my word.
(23:50):
And if you want to study here and graduate with
no problem and have a good job, then you have
to do what I say. And if you want, I'll
make sure your life will become hell here and you
cannot just drop off because of your dad. And I'll
make sure you will have a lot of the mirrits
(24:12):
with a lot of duty and hard work outside cleaning
toilets and cleaning garden and just be a bully here.
What do you prefer.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
And he opened his.
Speaker 8 (24:28):
Zip and he took his spinnis off just in front
of my mouth, and he said, like, suck it.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
What are you waiting for.
Speaker 8 (24:42):
At the moment, I were thinking, all right, so I
cannot do anything bad to him right now. I cannot
bite it right even though I'm on greenside from this
man for doing this to me right now, to disrespect
my father, who disrespect my principles, my beliefs, in my country,
in my people, who came here to basically sacrifice my life,
(25:07):
not for sucking his cock, but for protecting people and
doing really good for this country. But I told myself,
you know what, I'll make sure that one day he
will pay for it. And when he did come, I
had that I made this decision. I stand up from
(25:29):
the chair and he asked me, I want you to
swallow it, and I pretended that I did. Is like,
go to your lesson. So I took my back and
I left. But then when I left, I went to
(25:52):
the toilet and I washed my mouth and I looked
at the mirror and I started to cry because it
was just so I was disgusted, but I was.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
You know, like that.
Speaker 8 (26:08):
Feeling when you know you like your dreams and everything
is just like everything's just gone in one second. And
then I said to myself, okay, so so now what
I obviously couldn't tell anyone about this act because I mean,
come on, who am I supposed to tell it to,
like to move to my dad?
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Oh you know that, Like, I mean, I know my dad.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
He would go crazy and then it would be all
I don't know, like he might he would might kill
him and then go to jail or like it would
be such a drama. So I know my dad, and
I was like, no, this is definitely I cannot tell him.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
So who do I say?
Speaker 8 (26:44):
So this colonial teacher, he is the highest level. So
whom do I go? There is no one to go to,
there is no one to complain to, Like whom do
I go to?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Police?
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I mean he is like this is the power. I mean,
whom do I go? Whom do I say?
Speaker 8 (26:58):
And it's already was the second time when I was
actually abused in the military by the people who supports
to be like, you know, to stand for justice. How
I mean, like all my romantic feelings, all my dreams,
all my you know, like these words by my dad
(27:20):
telling me from early age that I should be the
one who protect people and love my my my country,
love love government, you know, love police, and love military.
My dad who was worrying this military uniform every single day,
(27:44):
and I would look at him and then exactly the
same military person just abused me.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
How is that possible? I mean how.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
In the days that Eliah learned that her special training
was about learning the art of sex fionage, she also
learned that the exploitation of the academy would continue indefinitely,
and that the male officers expected the female seduction students
to have sex with them for what they claimed was
training and desensitization purposes. So Eliah thought, if these techniques
(28:26):
work on enemies of the state, then perhaps they will
also work on the state as well.
Speaker 8 (28:32):
And that moment I created a plan. I thought, what
if I will seduce this colonel. What if I will
seduce him the way that he would fall in love
and then he can do what I want him to do,
and he will protect me from things which I don't
(28:55):
want to do, like, for example, sleeping with all of
those teachers. So that if I would manipulate him the
way he would feel that I'm his girl and nobody
is allowed to touch me, then it will help me
to go through that education.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
I thought it's better I would have sex only with
one teacher rather than.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
With all of them.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
And he had the strongest position among all of them,
so for me, it was easier to become his lover
rather than just being a whore for everyone.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
And that's when, with nowhere else to turn, Aliah took
justice into her own hands.
Speaker 8 (29:44):
And I'll be fucking so good. I'll learn so much.
I'll make sure that I'll become the best. It's funny
how these seation techniques work, because eventually he've told me
that he wants to do worse his wife in order
(30:04):
to marry me.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Leah's story continues in episode four, where she takes us
inside the classroom to experience Russian seductions by training. The
episode is available now. Keep listening for free on Apple Podcasts.
For full credits, check out our show notes. If you
or a loved one are a survivor of sexual assault,
(30:36):
you can visit rain dot org that's r AI n
N dot org, or call one eight hundred sixty five
six four six seven three for free confidential twenty four
to seven support
All eight episodes of The Die For are available now
to bitch absolutely free, but for ad free listening and
exclusive bonuses, subscribe to tenorfoot plus at tendorfootplus dot com
or on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Warning, the following contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual
assault that may be too intense or triggering to some listeners.
Discretion is advised.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
He was the son of a high ranking Soviet Army
officer and he had an outstanding career with Novesty, which
was also up front for the KGB.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Ideological subversion is the slow process which we call either
ideological subversion or active measures actively miriapriatia in the language
of the KGB.
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Or psychological warfare.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
What it basically means is to change the perception of reality.
Exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person
who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The
facts tell nothing to him.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Adamir Putin's former chief economic advisor, who had extensive access to.
Speaker 6 (01:27):
The Prussian president over the years, goes one on one
with our Joe Khalil.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
How much of the population actually is exposed to what's
really happening in your career?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I would say up to seventy percent of the Russian
population have been brainwashed, brainwashed completely.
Speaker 7 (01:45):
A few seventy percent, you think it's that high, it
would be I would say conservativefest to.
Speaker 8 (01:50):
Make Jana Agaalakova was one of the stars of Russia's
Channel one.
Speaker 9 (01:56):
Even now, when you're watching news in raw shirt, it's
like two different planets. In one planet there is ruins
and total disaster, death and tragedy. In another world it's
Russian militaries that was cheered by local population with flowers,
(02:18):
and this is only victories in these two worlds don't
mix up. And it's blown my mind how they do it,
how they brainwashed their population.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
To kill.
Speaker 8 (02:38):
Am really sorry, and how the.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Guts knows.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Busus Episode three, chapter six, the selection.
Speaker 8 (03:37):
There are not so many schools in Russia. It's like
maybe only three. One were put and studied and sunk
by the Petersburg another one in Moscow they would call
it like former KIGB school FSB was basically like they
renamed it. But my school, my academy, would be called
(04:04):
the Academy of Military Investigation.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
How do you said in Russia, Oh, it's.
Speaker 8 (04:11):
Some academia or Probvilinian ministers of Nutrin deal recipe.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
What happens once you walk in.
Speaker 8 (04:20):
When I saw that huge gray color building, looking like
all the Soviet Union buildings, where you cannot say a word,
and you understand there is no chance you could leave
a free life and have a free word, I just
(04:41):
wanted to run away, but I couldn't say no, and
I couldn't run away, and I had to go there.
And I just kept myself together, and I stayed silent
and just walked into that walls.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Lea Rosa Is described ivan her first day of formal
military training after her tragic internship. She was just eighteen
at the time.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
When I saw these thick, gray, cold walls with portraits
of that former officers or KGB agents, and I saw
that cold faces of all my teachers and my classmates.
(05:30):
There were no fun or there were no desire or
like ambitions or dreams. There were really cold blooded machines
or like zombie people.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
That first day at the academy would change the course
of Eleah's life. But before we get to that, here's
a little bit about the training of new recruits at
a Russian military academy.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
First, of my whole lifestyle has been changed. I would
wake up at four am because at six am you
had to have a morning report that would give you
a gender schedule, and you have to do marshing. From
six am in the morning, we would listen this big
(06:21):
words lecture about our country, that we have to protect
the country. We have to be real patriot. V fought Nazi.
We are the strongest country in the world. We have
the strongest nationality. We are the.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Purest.
Speaker 8 (06:42):
Nothing can be more powerful than us. You have to
do exercises, you have to do jogging, you have to
do shooting. They also had to do like cleaning and
cooking four hundreds of people, and six pm it's again
(07:02):
the report time, and again you have to do marching.
And then sometimes homework would be so much so it
would take till like two am or like one am.
It was really off and it was always cold. I
was so tired and exhausted because I slept only four hours.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I ask Leah if she thinks that all the marching,
the work, the lack of sleep, or not just about
training but also about brainwashing.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
Well, yes, of course the whole system is like that, right.
It's one of the important technique of manipulation. Where if
you want to train someone, you have to exhaust this
person with the physical activities so the brain becomes weak.
And when the brain becomes weak, there you can plant
seats built on patriotic romantic feeling like together we can
(08:01):
fight the whole world.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
In case patriotism wasn't enough to inspire someone to die
for their country, they were also financial incentives.
Speaker 8 (08:12):
So for example, if they would say, okay, so there
is a war in Chichen, second campaign, So who wants
to go there? Because if you go to the war,
first of all, you have salary much higher than usual,
you have better insurance, better benefits. If you will die,
then your family will get so and so much money,
(08:33):
which was higher than usual salary. People would risk their
life because it was beneficial for their families and they
would go to the war.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
It's still the same.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
As for leaving the military. Once you were there, you
had to fulfill your duties.
Speaker 8 (08:52):
Once you're there, you cannot go back. You cannot just
become civilian and said, Okay, I don't want to work
in military anymore. I want just to be a human
resource recruiter. You cannot do that. You know that once
you're there, you have to be there till the rest
of your life.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
In this toxic environment, the Leah's classmates competed with each
other for favor, sometimes cruelly and savagely.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
I try to make friends, but after a few months
I understood that wherever I would say to my girlfriends,
they would talk to our teachers. So you couldn't even
tell anyone's secrets or the way you think or.
Speaker 6 (09:37):
The way you feel. I had.
Speaker 8 (09:39):
Even my male classmates, they would call me bad names.
Some of them try to put me down. You understand
that you're there by yourself. You cannot have friends, You
cannot rely on anyone. You know that every single one
is your enemy. We say, if you live with wolves,
you have to become one of wolves.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
So with this context, we now returned to Elia's first
day at the academy. She was lined up for inspection
with the rest of the new students, and that's when
it all began.
Speaker 8 (10:33):
All of us we had to be outside, and I
remember there was one of the most powerful teacher at
that time, with the highest rank, and he particularly looked
at every single girl there. And I was the only
one who was eighteen years old. At the girls the
(10:54):
la starting from twenty to twenty three, twenty five thirty.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Even this high ranking commander, a Russian colonel, began whispering
to a female officer and motioning to Aliyah.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
But I understood the talk about me because they looked
at me and they discussed something I didn't know.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
Is it like bad or good? I didn't know anything.
Speaker 8 (11:17):
And then they also looked at some other girls.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Soon after, Aliyah was pulled aside and told that she'd
been selected to participate in a special program. This, of course,
was not an optional program.
Speaker 8 (11:32):
I will be studying additional subjects together with other four
girls every day after our main program.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
This additional coursework, as I'm sure you figured out, would
train Aliyah in the art of seduction, the exchange of
sexuality for secrets or lives. But what does it take
for a woman raised conservatively with no dating experience to
be willing to let this date use your body like this?
It would take a lot more fear and a lot
(12:05):
more brainwashing. Chapter seven, The Sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
There are lots of things that are involved in persuasion
every day. But when things become very stressful, and when
the stimuli are controlled and there are very few other stimuli,
other than what the perpetrator is trying to impose on you,
(12:47):
and when you are sleep deprived, these are settings that
make people very malleable, and you can see this in
many of the brainwashing events in twentieth century.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
This is doctor Joel Dimsdale, a professor emeritus of psychology
at the University of California, San Diego and the author
of the book Dark Persuasion, A History of Brainwashing from
Pavlov to Social Media. I tell doctor Dimsdale, what you
just heard about Aliah's training regimen at the military academy
meant to do this and sort of getting the party
(13:23):
line fed to her every waking moment. Is that a
form of what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So when she has been isolated from her family and
friends and only exposed to people who are constantly HARKing
on this one view of what the world is like
and what her task is, this begins to be a
(13:48):
setup for coercive persuasion, even if it's against her best interest.
Everything goes back to Pavlov at the.
Speaker 5 (13:58):
Doctor Dimsdale says, the modern history of brainwashing back to Russia,
specifically the fact that the work of doctor Ivan Pavlov
was taking place at the same time as the Russian Revolution.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
The odd thing in history is that, by virtue of
his prominence, Lenin visited Pavlov and spent hours talking with Pavlov,
asking him could Pavlov help Lenin remake the people of
the Soviet Union so that they would be better communists.
So the Soviets were always interested in behavior change, in
(14:37):
trying to be as scientific as possible about it, and
Pavlov was a perfect vehicle for exploring that.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I asked doctor Dimsdale about the science of this behavioral change.
What are the conditions that make this possible, not just
for Aleah, but for anyone who's being reprogrammed to lay
down their lives and their ethics for their country.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
If you had a checklist of how do you persuade
people so that you can guarantee behaviors that there would
be resistance to otherwise, that checklist would include number one.
Isolate them away from contrary influences. Number two. Put them
under a lot of stress. Number three. Deprive them of
(15:24):
sleep so they're not thinking clearly. Number four, involve them
in a group that hammers home certain messages repeatedly.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
We now know the steps that lead to brainwashing or
course of persuasion, as doctor Ginsdale prefers to put it,
but brainwashing for what Let's move forward to Russia in
the twenty first century.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
War was central to the Putin regime.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
This is Ian Garner, a Russian historian and author of
the book z Generation Into the Heart of Russia's Fascist youth.
Speaker 7 (15:57):
Right. We've seen that from the very first action Putin
takes when he's in power, and where we start to
see a real change is in what children are taught
in the school. Children learn war poems, children start to
dress up in military uniforms, so they start to be
taught that war is a good thing. War is something
we need to grow our society and become better people.
(16:20):
Joining the army, becoming a part of this military machine
in Russia is just a hugely respectable path.
Speaker 5 (16:30):
The propaganda that helps make this possible, Garner says, is
history lessons, revised history lessons, just like the ones that
Leah received during her training.
Speaker 7 (16:41):
This is not going to be lessons about real history.
This is going to be the Russian version of history
in which Russia is surrounded by enemies who are looking
to destroy it, and Russia has saved the world, and
you're going to be a hero if you sacrifice yourself
just like those folks Stalingrads eighty years ago.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Stalingrad, as he may recall, is the deadly World War
two battle that Leah's grandfather served in, and the monument
there with his name on it is practically a shrine
for Leah's family.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
There is this phrase by Siedel's up and Russian thank
you granddad for bringing us victory. And what they're talking
about is World War two. And all of this comes
down the myth of the Second World War as the
moment when a generation of grandfathers sacrificed themselves to save
the world and to save Russia, to save humanity from
(17:34):
the Nazi threat. Thus we respect them. It's a kind
of ancestor worship. The sacrifice is coded that the sacrifice,
the death, has to happen. It's a bit like the
Christian myth right it's Jesus. Jesus has to die to
save humanity. Russian soldiers have to die, the country has
(17:55):
to suffer so that it can be birth than you.
Speaker 10 (17:59):
Russia's President Vladimir Putin is in Volga Grat formerly known
as Stalingrad, to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Soviet
victory over German forces at the Battle of Stalingrad. He
later spoke at an event where he criticized Germany for
helping to arm Ukraine. He said, Russia is once again
threatened by Germany. This is his latest attempt to compare
(18:22):
Russia's war against Ukraine to the Soviet victory over Nazi
Germany in World War Two.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Russian news, Russian education, and especially Russian social media, Gardner explains,
have turned into an actual indoctrination program, teaching not just
a warlike way of thinking, but actual military skills to
the youth.
Speaker 7 (18:42):
Because they're so desperately rushed to get them to the front.
It is giving that training to children today and they
will be ready tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
To fund And at what age does that training start?
Speaker 7 (18:55):
Six years old?
Speaker 5 (18:58):
Wow, it's interesting again because her trains are from her
dad at I think age six or seven.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Yeah, So her experience then was exceptional and unusual. But
now that experience is being not just institutionalized and formalized
by this state, it's also being held up as the
ideal of what a young child can be.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
Chapter eight, Death of a Patriot. We return now to
Eliah's first day at the military academy. Selected out of
the lineup along with four other women, she was told
she'd been chosen to participate in a special, top secret
(19:56):
program to serve her country. A few hours later, the
top commander at the academy, the colonel who'd chosen her
from the lineup, called her into his office.
Speaker 8 (20:06):
After a few hours, I was called to my teacher office.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
So I came there and he closed the door.
Speaker 8 (20:22):
And I did respect him a lot, because he was
much older than me that time. He was forty eight
and I was eighteen, and I was very innocent, as
I said, like I never kissed any man.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
As a Leah tells the story, you may hear some
laughter here and there, but note that there's nothing funny
about this. There are topics that bring up so much
trauma and are so uncomfortable to discuss that sometimes we
laugh in order to avoid the deep pain that these
events bring up. In an often cited research paper, if
I didn't laugh, I'd cry, doctor Kathleen Hand further explains
(21:01):
that quote laughter creates a sense of relief, usually from
stress both mentally and physically. That's giving way to a
sense of hope listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 8 (21:14):
And I looked at him and I asked him like hello,
like you know, like, yes, sir, you were calling for me,
so I'm here. And he was wearing his uniform, bit
medals and everything, looking so sophisticated and so powerful like
(21:35):
my dad when he was wearing uniform who was respected that.
He asked me, like, what do you really expect from
this education? And I said, well, you know my story.
You know whose daughter am I and I am here
to follow my dad's path and I'm ready to study
(21:58):
and learn anything. And he asked me, are you ready
to do everything for your country? I said yes, sir,
are you real patriot? And I said yes, sir. I
was raised by my dad to protect my country, my people,
and I'm ready to give, like to do everything for
my country. And he asked me like, are you ready
(22:19):
to do everything? Are you ready to give your life
for your country? And I said yes, sir, certainly, of course.
I was trained by my dad and I love my
country and I love my people. And then he came
closer to me and he said, then suck my cock.
(22:47):
I was like sorry, what I just couldn't even understand
what did he ask me? And I was sitting at
the chair and he came closer to me, and I
was my heart was right in front of his.
Speaker 6 (23:06):
That part, so I was.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
I didn't know what to do, and he came so
close that I couldn't really just stand up and leave.
I just had like one thing in my head that
wait a minute, he knows that who is my dad,
and yet he just asked me to suck his cock, Like,
how is that possible? I thought that the name of
(23:30):
my dad will protect me from this kind of stuff,
and he kind of like he almost like he read
my mind, and he said, yes, I know who is
your father, and you know that I have much higher
ring than your dad. So everything depends from my word.
(23:50):
And if you want to study here and graduate with
no problem and have a good job, then you have
to do what I say. And if you want, I'll
make sure your life will become hell here and you
cannot just drop off because of your dad. And I'll
make sure you will have a lot of the mirrits
(24:12):
with a lot of duty and hard work outside cleaning
toilets and cleaning garden and just be a bully here.
What do you prefer.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
And he opened his.
Speaker 8 (24:28):
Zip and he took his spinnis off just in front
of my mouth, and he said, like, suck it.
Speaker 6 (24:39):
What are you waiting for.
Speaker 8 (24:42):
At the moment, I were thinking, all right, so I
cannot do anything bad to him right now. I cannot
bite it right even though I'm on greenside from this
man for doing this to me right now, to disrespect
my father, who disrespect my principles, my beliefs, in my country,
in my people, who came here to basically sacrifice my life,
(25:07):
not for sucking his cock, but for protecting people and
doing really good for this country. But I told myself,
you know what, I'll make sure that one day he
will pay for it. And when he did come, I
had that I made this decision. I stand up from
(25:29):
the chair and he asked me, I want you to
swallow it, and I pretended that I did. Is like,
go to your lesson. So I took my back and
I left. But then when I left, I went to
(25:52):
the toilet and I washed my mouth and I looked
at the mirror and I started to cry because it
was just so I was disgusted, but I was.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
You know, like that.
Speaker 8 (26:08):
Feeling when you know you like your dreams and everything
is just like everything's just gone in one second. And
then I said to myself, okay, so so now what
I obviously couldn't tell anyone about this act because I mean,
come on, who am I supposed to tell it to,
like to move to my dad?
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Oh you know that, Like, I mean, I know my dad.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
He would go crazy and then it would be all
I don't know, like he might he would might kill
him and then go to jail or like it would
be such a drama. So I know my dad, and
I was like, no, this is definitely I cannot tell him.
Speaker 6 (26:43):
So who do I say?
Speaker 8 (26:44):
So this colonial teacher, he is the highest level. So
whom do I go? There is no one to go to,
there is no one to complain to, Like whom do
I go to?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Police?
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I mean he is like this is the power. I mean,
whom do I go? Whom do I say?
Speaker 8 (26:58):
And it's already was the second time when I was
actually abused in the military by the people who supports
to be like, you know, to stand for justice. How
I mean, like all my romantic feelings, all my dreams,
all my you know, like these words by my dad
(27:20):
telling me from early age that I should be the
one who protect people and love my my my country,
love love government, you know, love police, and love military.
My dad who was worrying this military uniform every single day,
(27:44):
and I would look at him and then exactly the
same military person just abused me.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
How is that possible? I mean how.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
In the days that Eliah learned that her special training
was about learning the art of sex fionage, she also
learned that the exploitation of the academy would continue indefinitely,
and that the male officers expected the female seduction students
to have sex with them for what they claimed was
training and desensitization purposes. So Eliah thought, if these techniques
(28:26):
work on enemies of the state, then perhaps they will
also work on the state as well.
Speaker 8 (28:32):
And that moment I created a plan. I thought, what
if I will seduce this colonel. What if I will
seduce him the way that he would fall in love
and then he can do what I want him to do,
and he will protect me from things which I don't
(28:55):
want to do, like, for example, sleeping with all of
those teachers. So that if I would manipulate him the
way he would feel that I'm his girl and nobody
is allowed to touch me, then it will help me
to go through that education.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
I thought it's better I would have sex only with
one teacher rather than.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
With all of them.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
And he had the strongest position among all of them,
so for me, it was easier to become his lover
rather than just being a whore for everyone.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
And that's when, with nowhere else to turn, Aliah took
justice into her own hands.
Speaker 8 (29:44):
And I'll be fucking so good. I'll learn so much.
I'll make sure that I'll become the best. It's funny
how these seation techniques work, because eventually he've told me
that he wants to do worse his wife in order
(30:04):
to marry me.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Leah's story continues in episode four, where she takes us
inside the classroom to experience Russian seductions by training. The
episode is available now. Keep listening for free on Apple Podcasts.
For full credits, check out our show notes. If you
or a loved one are a survivor of sexual assault,
(30:36):
you can visit rain dot org that's r AI n
N dot org, or call one eight hundred sixty five
six four six seven three for free confidential twenty four
to seven support
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