Our colonel, the brigade commander, complains that new equipment is unavailable, that the tanks, the troop carriers, everything in general is getting older and needs repairs. A general arrives to inspect the base, see a parade and rewards some soldiers with prizes: televisions, other electronic goods, money. The general is upset at the bad discipline during parade, the bad uniforms, the irregular marching.

What is the marching for? Why the fences? Why the barbed wire around this Saratov base? Is it perhaps to prevent the soldiers from deserting, to make more difficult the all-pervasive pilfering and theft of equipment, weapons and uniforms? More to the point: what is this entire army for?

We listen to one soldier complain that because of abuse by the “grandfathers” he could not sleep for a few nights. Then he fell asleep during guard duty and was punished with four days in the stockade. He thought many times about turning his submachine gun at the “grandfather” who abused and punched him.

We are shown a major trained in the old school, who tries to battle the system of “dedovschina” (abuse by the “grandfathers”), searches for those guilty of physical abuse and demands that the younger soldiers point out their tormentors. The soldiers are silent, too cowed to speak up. Finally the major finds an abuser, lines a squad of soldiers up and tries to explain the injustice and illegality of these relationships.