The Hell of the Foreign Legion - behind the scenes of the world's toughest army. Kacper Musiał

Musiał describes that the physical selection in the Legion is not exceptionally difficult. He believes it's enough to be a healthy man who has some contact with sports. He gives an example of people doing 6-7 pull-ups passing through. The beep test involves running between cones at an increasingly faster pace. It's just an initial filter, and the real physical and mental challenge begins later, during training.

Musiał calls this interrogation the 'Gestapo'. He describes it as a conversation about one's entire life, during which the recruiter looks for weak points, provokes, and throws the candidate off balance. After an hour or two, they ask the same questions to catch inconsistencies. If the candidate says something differently, it's used against them. The recruiter deliberately irritates, asking e.g., 'Will you shoot someone who talks loudly on the bus?'. This is to check how the candidate reacts to psychological pressure.

Musiał describes the course in detail, which is the quintessence of the Legion's training philosophy. Although it is a technical course, 3/4 of the time is exhausting physical exercises, obstacle courses, swimming, and running. The goal is to bring the soldier to extreme exhaustion. In the 'survival' phase, soldiers are left to fend for themselves for three days. Musiał says that the areas where the course takes place have been exploited for 20 years, so there is no game or fish left. Some soldiers ate tree bark out of hunger.

Musiał describes that a soldier can be punished for anything: an unbuttoned button, clothes folded crookedly, speaking in their native language. Corporals often invent 'games' when drunk, e.g., ordering young soldiers to break bottles with their heads. Musiał says that 'there is no perfect soldier', and if there is no reason for punishment, one is found, e.g., ordering boots to be polished, then declaring the floor is dirty from the polish. This systemic humiliation aims to break resistance and create absolute submissiveness.

Musiał explains that singing is a key element of integration and discipline. Each section has its song, each company, and each regiment. They are sung during daily assemblies and Monday roll calls. A legionnaire must know by heart the song of his section, company, and regiment, and additionally, a corporal can order him to learn a few others. Musiał recalls that he once, out of boredom in Guiana, learned 15 songs by heart. The repertoire is eclectic – from German songs (allegedly from the SS era) to Russian and French ones.

Kacper Musiał explains that this rule is crucial for maintaining iron discipline in a unit composed of people of different nationalities and cultures. The recruitment process and the first months of service are entirely subordinated to teaching this unconditional obedience. He gave the example of the parachute regiment in Corsica, where soldiers jump out of a window as punishment, without questioning the order. This ruthlessness is meant to ensure that on the battlefield, the army acts as one organism, executing commands without hesitation. Musiał admits that he himself carried out stupid and dangerous orders, considering that the responsibility falls on the one giving the order, not on the soldier executing it.

Musiał confirms the thesis that the Legion 'breaks a person to rebuild them anew'. He explains that every course and exercise aims to bring the soldier to the point where 'either the muscles give out or the head gives out'. The moment of physical breakdown is desired because that's when mental strength is tested. If 'the head gives out', it means failure. He described that during the jungle survival course, he reached a state where he couldn't hold a machete in his hand from exhaustion. The goal is to create a soldier who has no illusions about his limits and is fully subordinated. Musiał emphasizes that he himself was not broken because he 'knew what he was going there for' and expected difficulties.

Musiał describes 'hazing' as a common phenomenon that intensifies after alcohol. Higher-ranking soldiers (corporals) organize 'games' at the expense of younger ones, e.g., ordering them to break bottles with their heads, sleep in the toilet, or on a wardrobe. He himself, being a corporal, admits he was 'a bit of a terrorist' and 'drilled them hard', but emphasizes he never ordered things that violated dignity, like sleeping in the toilet. His punishments were mainly based on physical exercises. He also described a situation where a corporal from Romania, who had a problem with Poles, ordered the whole group to crawl in the snow in just their T-shirts because he suspected Musiał of losing a weapon part. This shows how easy it is to abuse power.

Musiał gives examples of stupid orders. One of them concerned attaching pieces of equipment to a motorboat while sailing in Guiana, which threatened being pulled underwater in the event of a capsize. Another time, he was ordered to throw everything found in an illegal gold miners' camp into a fire, including a gas cylinder and a fridge, which ended in an explosion. He emphasizes that although the orders were stupid and dangerous, he 'washed his hands of it', shifting the responsibility onto the superior. This approach is a key mechanism for him to cope with the absurdity of service.

Musiał emphasizes that every occasion – holidays, initiations, Christmas Eve – is a pretext for drinking. On a mission in Niger, the Legion was the only army with access to alcohol. The problem is greater because in a closed environment, no one helps in fighting addiction, and colleagues provide 'support' in drinking. This leads to a situation where a soldier, after leaving for civilian life, 'can only operate a mortar and drink beers'. This is one of the main mechanisms of 'dumbing down' and 'making lazy' that he talks about.

Musiał describes how the DSPLE unit tracks soldiers' social media profiles. His own problems began with publishing photos and giving interviews. He was sentenced, among other things, for traveling to Barcelona without permission, which was proven based on the running route from his Instagram app. The punishments are absurd: 30 days of arrest for getting married without consent, for owning a fridge or a game console, and even for speaking in one's native language. The system aims for total subordination and elimination of individuality. Despite this, Musiał accepts it with humility, saying 'rules are rules'.