The fact that the human nature is complex, ambivalent, we know for a long time. Great Dostoevsky repeatedly spoke of a global confrontation of the ideal of Sodom and the ideal of the Madonna, and the battlefield was always the human soul. Genius Tolstoy compared people with rivers, whose waters flow widely and majestic, then boil over the mountain rapids, then tighten up whirlpools and whirlpools, then shine through the shallows. And the man himself sometimes does not know himself to the end, he does not look into the remotest corners of his nature. While some life situations do not lead him out of the usual range of things.
Fear of killing
One of these shocks is war. At the dawn of humanity, violence and murder were phenomena common. But the more centuries the human race separated from their prehistoric ancestors, the more difficult it was to raise weapons on their own kind. About how the attitude of a person changes in the war, a lot of psychological research and works of fiction have been written. What should first of all any normal person experience when she is given weapons and ordered to kill her? The horror of having to deprive someone of life.
Recollect, how the attitude of the person on war in Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Don" changes! When Grigory Melekhov first sheds the enemy's blood, everything protests in him, his inner "I" resists violence, and for a very long time the hero does not go his own way. Melekhov faces a choice: either he will kill, or destroy it. But even the very fact of his possible death is not an excuse for him. Hence the first conclusion about how a person's worldview is changing in the war: he begins to clearly perceive fragility, defenselessness and the great value of life. Not only his own - life in general, everyone! Therefore, commanders during military operations tried as little as possible to risk their people.
And the hero of another work on the frontline theme - Fyodor Vaskov from "A dawn here is quiet ..." Vasilieva - feels his own guilt and responsibility for every girl-gunner killed during the capture of enemy saboteurs. And how the attitude of man in the war is changing: he completely different, more tender and more tender perceives such usual in peacetime silence, security state, absence of alarm.
Fear of being killed
Leo Nikolayevich 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 a person refers to the species of animals, he is still a reasonable being, living by reason and emotions, and not by blind instincts. And the fear of being killed eclipses the mind, pushes against unjustified cruelty. What is the significance of war for man in this respect? Strangely enough, it becomes a kind of litmus test, by means of which the degree of maturity of a person is checked. Can the soldier curb his fear, can he suppress the instinct of destruction, stop to spare the enemy, or will he destroy everyone and everything in panic, what other psychological qualities and moral qualities will manifest-everything is revealed by the war.
The process of self-destruction
It's no secret that participation in military operations sometimes awakens the lowest, darkest, bestial instincts in people. When the first shock passes, when the sensations are dulled, many cease to react sharply and painfully to murders. Moreover, they experience even a certain euphoria from their own omnipotence, permissiveness. Alas, many people lose their sense of reality during the war. And then they experience something like a psychological breakdown, trying to adapt to a peaceful life. Those who have gone through Afghanistan and Chechnya, participants in other large and small local conflicts often need rehabilitation not only physical, after wounds, but also spiritual, moral. Because mental trauma is much longer and more difficult!
The rise of exploit
War - is not only a test of humanity for humanity, but also for personal courage, self-sacrifice, will and strength of spirit. 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 the military theme. There are no unequivocal answers, of course. But much depends on the person himself, his moral rules and attitudes. From motivation - why, for what, for what purpose does the weapon take up arms and the person goes to risk. If the desire to save yourself, your life is above all, a step is made towards betrayal. If in the first place there is a desire to protect the homeland, the home, relatives, comrades, a person makes a step into immortality.