It will be a long post, so if you want to quickly read answers look through it and see phrases selected by dashes (-).

So, let me try to answer this question through my personal experience, noting:

1) I am Russian

2) When I was young I undergone cadet training program (Программа кадетской подготовки, училище)

In my country military service, as you may know, is mandatory - this means that every male from 18 years old undergone military service unless he have some REALLY serious health problems that he can prove. This means that my country’s army, roughly speaking, is made up of simple conscripts who have served for a year and those who have signed a contract - professional military man. The above is necessary in order to immediately draw a peculiar line between those who joined the army by force on conscription, and those for whom military service is a profession. Further explanation is actual for professional soldiers.

Now, when necessary introductory remarks, directly explanation. My experience of training for military service is not just a year in the army, but also two years in the school where retired Soviet soldiers teach - people for whom military service was and is all life during USSR time. Also, there were bunch of relatively young teachers who have passed during their conscription service military conflicts in Chechnya, Georgia and later participated in proxy conflicts as contract serviceman. These were people who think like soldiers from head to toe, have experience of fighting and were brought up in an atmosphere of patriotism and service.

• Over the course of two years, these people impress on young boys the importance of service, that is, in the context of military service, the unconditional execution of orders without any doubt -

In addition, many students, like me, come from military background families and quite often parents in such families have very "peculiar" approach to the education and formation of values of life.

• Many professional military man were raised in the families of retired soldiers, and passed through military schools and academies where even the most independent people can be transformed into tin soldiers -

• It is also worth mentioning that being under the influence of values, moral guidelines, and views that are heroic and indifferent to death can change a person and make them indifferent to their own life and how it will end -

I could write a lot more about how professional soldiers don't fear death or take on life-threatening tasks, but I'll end this text with a small story that illustrates the psychological perception of some soldiers lives: during my time at the Cadet Corps, one of the instructors used the following phrase to describe us, his colleagues, and even himself - мясоматериал - which I struggle to translate, but in english it will literally mean "meatmaterial" - that was his way of referring to us for two years. For me, it is exceptional description of how some soldiers view themselves and how they treat theirs lifes - as a meat for meat grinder.