Maskirovka: Deception Russian-Style
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2015
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
'Maskirovka' is the Russian military strategy of deception, involving techniques to surprise and deceive the enemy. Lucy Ash looks back over its long history from repelling invading Mongols in the 14th Century, to its use to confound the Nazis in World War II, to the current conflict in Ukraine. Translated literally maskirovka means "a little masquerade", but it also points to strategic, operational, physical and tactical duplicity. When heavily-armed, mask-wearing gunmen - labelled the 'little green men' - took over government buildings in Crimea last year, was this a classic example of maskirovka in the 21st century? All nations use deception as a strategy in war, but Analysis asks whether any other nation has pursued guile as an instrument of policy so long and so ardently as Russia. Producer: Katy Hickman.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis. |
| 0:39.3 | This week, Deception, denial and disinformation. |
| 0:42.4 | Lucy Ash investigates the Russian military tradition of Masquerovka |
| 0:46.0 | and its role in the recent conflict in Ukraine. This is one of those songs guaranteed to get patriotic Russians mis-dy-eyed and on their feet. |
| 1:03.0 | Why does my motherland go the opening |
| 1:08.0 | with her many rivers, |
| 1:10.0 | go the opening words, |
| 1:12.0 | with her many rivers, fields and forests. |
| 1:15.8 | Last March, the motherland got that little bit wider with the acquisition of Crimea. |
| 1:21.4 | The annexation of Ukraine's Black Sea Peninsula caught almost everyone off guard, but the operation |
| 1:28.1 | in Ukraine was just the latest face of a time-honored Russian tradition, Muskirovka. |
| 1:37.0 | As soon as man was born and fought for his survival, as soon as he began hunting, he had to paint himself different colours so not |
| 1:46.8 | to be eaten by a tiger. From that point on, Moskirofka was a part of his life. Human history can be portrayed as the history of deception. |
| 1:57.0 | This is masked warfare, basically. |
| 2:00.0 | It's a game of smoke and mirrors. |
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