Pig-Sticker, a Song of the PMC Wagner Mercenaries

Readers of the blog know what side I support in the Russia-Ukraine war, so unsurprisingly most of the songs of the war that I've blogged have been pro-Ukrainian, since they're the ones that most struck me. (Here's an exception.) Still, my point in these posts is to pass along things that may offer some indirect insight into the sentiments of the people who are actually in this war, so I think it would be a mistake to omit the other side's perspective.

Here, then, is "Pig-Sticker" ("Свинорез"), which I believe refers to a knife in Russian as well as in English; it's billed as a song of the Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner (ЧВК Wagner), and I assume that it's an authorized recruiting video, which reflects what Wagner thinks its target audience wants to hear. In various copies it's amassed about 1.5M views in the last six days, so I take it that it's resonated with some people; again, these are not my sentiments, but I thought they were worth observing. (Naturally, the Russian lyrics are rhymed and metered, and from a technical perspective strikes me as quite effectively done.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxlkY7aSfsQ

The order arrived at night
We fly out that very hour
It means there are problems somewhere
Apparently not for the first time

There, where the soldiers can't pass,
PMCs will lay the path
Just throw us the coordinates
We'll get rid of the enemy right away

[Refrain, sung by an anime girl:]
Uno, dos, tres
I'll get the pigsticker
Where'd you come from, little boy?
Why'd you climb over here?
Quatro, cinco, cinco, seis
I'll wipe off my pigsticker
Better that you run away to the West
And suck dicks in the EU

The PMC's life is short
Which is why it's so sweet [*]
Are you an animal or a man?
You'll understand by the sound of the bullet

We send our autographs on the rockets
We drink our fill of the goblet of life
Two grenades on our vest
For the enemy and for ourselves

[Refrain]

It's all about the truth, the truth is in the action
Our task is always right
We work so our grandchildren
Told us, "Grandfather, well done!" [#]

Well, and if we die,
We'll get to Valhalla
We'll quickly regroup
And then go fuck the enemy again

[Refrain]

[*] This may be an allusion, deliberate or subconscious, to the Song of the Cavalry Guard, by the great Bulat Okudzhava—a songly vastly different in mood and meaning.

[#] Literally, "Grandfather, you're beautiful," but I think "well done" is probably closer here to the actual sense.

Comments

[John F. Carr]

The first half of Свинорез is cognate with "swine" and related Germanic words.

[Eugene Volokh]

Also with the Latin sus. Apparently it goes back to Proto-Indo-European suH-.

[Mr. Bumble]

Your blog, but really....

[Eugene Volokh]

Really what?

[Nige]

Stab stab stab stab
stabbity stab
stab stab stab stab stabbity stabbity stabbity stab!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

This is becoming one strange, sad blog.

[Hugo S. Cunningham]

What a strange, sad comment.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

So . . . fitting?

[Currentsitguy]

Not sure why you would say that on this post. It's critical to understand the mindset of what is most definitely our enemy here.

Remember your Churchill:

“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.”

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

It's a recruiting song for disgusting mercenaries.

Posted by someone who originally couldn't quite decide whether Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a bad thing.

Carry on, clingers.

[Currentsitguy]

I know it's a recruiting video for Wagner, and yes they sicken me. Would you disagree that it offers insight into the kinds of messages and imagery that seems to appeal there now?

If you ever hope to defeat your enemy you have to know them better than they know themselves.

Look at Putin. He has figured out exactly how to drive wedges into the US public, and I'll join you in criticism and ridicule. We need to learn how to do the same.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I attended a Klan recruitment rally as a child.

I did not sense that it provided much insight (although the free candy was great!). I thought those bigots were strange then and I think they are worthless assholes (and registered Republicans in good standing) now. I don't much care about their songs.

[Carl_N_Brown]

To Rev RLK:
In reviewing an ambiguous anti-war song about the conflict, "You Forgot Brother" by Vitaliy Aksenov, Eugene Volokh noted "... (I think the situation is quite unambiguous, and Russia is clearly in the wrong. ..."
https://reason.com/volokh/2022/04/21/you-forgot-brother/

Volokh's immediate family left Ukraine while it still was officially a republic in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and may still have living relatives in Ukraine or Russia or both and for their sake may be keeping a low political profile on the subject. Volokh has posted reviews of songs that are anti-Russian and/or pro-Ukraine.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Carl_n_Brown:

When Prof. Volokh first wrote about the invasion he couldn't quite decide whether that invasion was justified.

Perhaps he is reading the room better these days.

[Eugene Volokh]

Carl_N_Brown: Just to be clear, I've been on the side of the Ukrainians ever since the start of the invasion; see, e.g., this Feb. 26 post:

[M]y heart goes out to the Ukrainians, the victims of what appears to be a senseless, unjustified attack by a dictator on a flawed but basically free and democratic country. In the annals of human history, this will not go down as one of the great atrocities; the Putin-Hitler rhetoric strikes me as ridiculously overstated (though, who knows, it's early days yet). Nor is Putin a Stalin or a Lenin, and, thankfully, the Russia of today is not the USSR of 1938 or even 1970 or 1980. And the reality is that powerful countries invading their feeble neighbors, for no better reason that to grab territory or enforce obedience, is pretty much the norm of human history; the attempt (however imperfectly successful) to reject that norm over the last several decades has been the marked exception.

But even putting things into perspective, Putin's actions strike me as inexcusable, and I very much hope that they will backfire. And while I would not have faulted the Ukrainians for accepting the inevitable and surrendering (just to use one indicator of what they're facing, the Russian active military is five times the size of the Ukrainian), I am deeply moved by the gallantry of the resistance we've seen so far.

In any event, I appreciate that all this is pretty banal, which is why my first inclination wasn't to write about it. My views on the subject are probably no different, and certainly no better informed, than those of millions of others. But some people had, as I said, written to me to express their sympathies, and I thought I'd write this in response.

I certainly have not been trying to keep a low political profile on the subject for the sake of relatives or anyone else (though I indeed haven't posted much about the details of the war, beyond my Ukraine war music series, chiefly because I don't have any real insights about it).

[Jazzizhep]

There is a simple solution. I get your infantile mind* hasn’t thought of it, but just leave. We won’t miss you.

*Based on post after post after post of nothing but calling people names: the same invectives over and over. If you can’t be smart, at least be creative.

[John F. Carr]

A web search for "Свинорез" found it used as a translation of the title of the 2010 movie Porkchop, a slasher movie in which (quoting IMDB) "a group of campers are stalked by a deranged redneck with a pig mask."

[gormadoc]

Vaporwave sequences and virtual dancing anime? I suppose the composer was one of the guys locked up in prison for the last five years. Oddly degenerate.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

Wagner Company, eh? Maybe Ride of the Valkyrie would be a better tune. Go full German.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

There's nothing a Russian nationalist would hate more than "full German."

[David Welker]

You know the war is going badly for Russia when even their recruitment videos are talking about having a short life, how one of your two grenades is for yourself, and regrouping in Valhalla after you die.

[Absaroka]

The war is going badly for Russia, but I dunno that singing dark songs is correlated with losing. E.g. 'Blood on the Risers', which was sung by some pretty victorious troops.

[David Welker]

This sounds like a song to remind people to hook their static line. (Whatever that is, I have never went sky-diving.)

I don’t think it is a song meant for recruiting.

[legalizeshrooms]

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

[David Welker]

I don’t think people want to die by the sword. They want to win and experience a glorious victory.

[legalizeshrooms]

If they are just now seeking the truth, the truth is that they should die in shame.

[Robert Efroymson]

There’s a lot of visual “war porn” coming out of this conflict, and I thought the battle scenes here were good examples of that line. The anime girl is out of sync with the music though, so minus one point there.

The music is rousing, and I suppose the lyrics do, as the good professor says, tell you something about who they are hoping to recruit. I found them rather nauseating.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

The anime girls should be driving the tanks.

They're so bad at anime, no wonder they lost to Japan in 1905.

[shawn_dude]

The Margrave definitely has it right here; the anime women should be driving the tanks.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

I saw this video a couple of days ago.

At 4chan.

I missed it at Stormfront, but only because I haven't visited Stormfront lately.

[Jerry B.]

I do find it hard to believe that a mercenary unit has tanks, heavy artillery, and attack aircraft.

[Bob from Ohio]

Russian government equipment because Wagner is a de facto government unit. So called "plausible" deniability when they get involved, though its pretty thin.

Of course being de facto works both ways. Killing them doesn't involve as much of an escalation risk, we smoked a couple hundred in Syria when they attacked a US position.

[John F. Carr]

Was there a golden age of mercenaries? They seem to be in decline. The fiction I read growing up had lots of them. For example, Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War. Mercenaries and end user certificates.

[Bob from Ohio]

Yes, the 1400s.

[Jerry B.]

I thought of Arthur Conan Doyle's "The White Company".

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Blackwater certainly cashed in.

[John F. Carr]

According to Ukrainian sources Wagner is getting untrained recruits fresh out of conscription or prison and sending them in advance of the real soldiers to draw fire. I think you would be better off joining the regular army. The regular army is seeing less intense combat on average. Good luck, you get sent to a quiet part of the front. Gad luck, you end up in the relief force for Lyman. Still better odds than being most likely sent to Bakhmut.

[AnimixPlay]

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[John F. Carr]

Russians are complaining about poor training of recruits. I considered the Ukrainian report plausible enough to mention. The allegation was reported by the New York Times, admittedly not observed directly by the reporter: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/world/europe/ukraine-donbas-russia-lyman-bakhmut.html

[shawn_dude]

People still think eating carrots helps your eyesight.

[legalizeshrooms]

"Tell my son...tell him what time his father died..tell him that I..."
"No."
"He won't even know your name."

https://youtu.be/yoN56mHkSJw?t=168

[Sarcastr0]

Many people say that, but when the NYT agrees with their priors, or is cited by their prefers media, they are all in citing ‘even the liberal Times!’

Selective and hominem versus the media is just another excuse to keep your reality smooth and clean and easy for your ideology.