The fact that human nature is complex, ambivalent, we know for a long time. The great Dostoevsky has repeatedly spoken about the global confrontation between the ideal of Sodom and the ideal of the Madonna, and the human soul has always been the battlefield. The ingenious Tolstoy compared people with rivers, the waters of which either flow widely and majestically, sometimes boil over mountain rapids, then drag them with whirlpools and whirlpools, or shine through them with shallows. And a man himself sometimes does not fully know himself, does not look into the most remote corners of his nature. Until some life situations take him out of the usual range of things.
Fear to kill
One of these shocks is war. At the dawn of mankind, violence and murder were commonplace. But the more centuries the human race was separated from their prehistoric ancestors, the more difficult it was to raise weapons on their own kind. A lot of psychological studies and works of fiction have been written about how the worldview of a person changes in war. What, first of all, should any normal person experience when they give her arms and order to kill her? The horror of having to take someone's life.
Remember how the worldview of a person in a war is changing in Sholokhov’s novel “Quiet Don”! When Grigory Melekhov sheds the enemy’s blood for the first time, everything protests in him, his inner self resists violence, and for a very long time the hero walks on his own. Melekhov faces a choice: either he will kill, or they will destroy him. But even the very fact of his possible death is not an excuse for him. Hence the first conclusion about how the worldview of a person changes in war: he begins to clearly recognize the fragility, defenselessness and great value of life. Not only his own - life in general, everyone! Therefore, the commanders during the fighting tried to risk their people as little as possible.
And the hero of yet another work on the front-line theme - Fedor Vaskov from "And the Dawns Here Are Quiet ..." Vasilieva - feels his personal guilt and responsibility for every anti-aircraft gunner who was killed during the capture of enemy saboteurs. And how the worldview of a person in war is changing: he perceives silence, a state of security, and the absence of anxiety so familiar in peacetime in a completely different, more reverent and tender way.
Fear of being killed
Leo Tolstoy called the war the most unnatural for people, the most monstrous occupation. Why? Because in itself the extermination of man by man is nonsense, a tragic misunderstanding that has no right to exist. Although it is believed that man belongs to the species of animals, he is still a rational being, living with reason and emotions, and not blind instincts. And the fear of being killed overshadows the mind, pushes to unjustified cruelty. What is the significance of war for man in this regard? Oddly enough, it becomes a kind of
litmus test, with the help of which the degree of maturity of a person is checked. Whether the soldier can curb his fear, whether he can suppress the instinct of destruction, stop to spare the enemy, or destroy everyone and everything in a panic, what other psychological properties and moral qualities he will show - everything is revealed by the war.
Self destruction process
It is no secret that participation in hostilities sometimes awakens the most base, dark, bestial instincts in people. When the first shock passes, when the sensations become dull, many stop reacting sharply and painfully to the killings. Moreover, they even experience a certain euphoria from their own omnipotence, permissiveness. Alas, during the war many people lose their sense of reality. And then they experience something similar to psychological breakdown, trying to adapt to a peaceful life. Those who went through Afghanistan and Chechnya, participants in other large and small local conflicts often need rehabilitation not only physical, after wounds, but also mental, moral. For mental injuries are treated much longer and more complicated!
Takeoff feat
War is not only a test of man for humanity, but also for personal courage, self-sacrifice, will and fortitude. Why, under the same conditions, some become heroes, and others - traitors, what is the nature of the feat - such questions are asked by the authors of works on a military theme. There are no definite answers, of course. But much depends on the person himself, his moral rules and attitudes. From motivation - why, for what, for what purpose a weapon is taken into the hands and a person is at risk. If above all else is the desire to save yourself, your life - a step is taken towards betrayal. If in the first place there is a desire to protect the homeland, home, relatives, comrades - a person takes a step into immortality.