MOSCOW Andrei has kept a low profile since the end of September, when the so-called partial business launch was announced in Russia. Andrei does not want to go to Ukraine to fight.
– First of all, I don’t understand the current conflict, which is why our elites couldn’t come to an agreement on both sides. In addition, I have a family, Andrei says.
For security reasons, we will not use his full name in the article.
The authorities sought Andrei both from his parents’ home, where he is registered, and from work. However, he did not receive the invitation letter. According to the law, the letter must be handed over and a receipt must be received.
So Andrei decided to wait for the situation to pass. He tried to live otherwise normally and even worked remotely and his colleagues helped him.
– Of course there was fear, but my wife supported me excellently at that moment and other close ones as well.
I do not understand the current conflict, why our elites on both sides could not agree. Besides, I have a family.
Andrei, fleeing the summons
He also applied for university studies, based on which you can get a deferment. Andrei laughs that there were clearly more young men than women among those applying for these studies.
The beginning of the so-called military special operation in February came as a shock to Andrei. Then the war dragged on and it began to become clear that the Russian armed forces could not survive with only the forces of contract soldiers.
– Some of my comrades were ready and traveled abroad. I had a job, a wedding planned, I couldn’t leave. It was a big worry.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians left the country because of the movement. Andrei didn’t want to do it.
Military mothers: New scale of problems
Valentina Melnikova is a long-term human rights activist and the corresponding secretary of the Union of Soldiers’ Mothers’ Committees.
Soldiers’ mothers help soldiers and their families. The organization became famous especially during the first Chechen war in the 90s. Valentina Melnikova has seen many wars.
– The problems are the same: the situation of the captured, wounded and fallen families and the state’s responsibility – or rather the irresponsibility, the unwillingness of the military leadership to take care of its soldiers and officers, Melnikova says.
This is all familiar.
– It has never been to this extent. Not as a result of the war in Afghanistan, not in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1990, not in the wars in Central Asia, not in Chechnya, says Melnikova.
If the people themselves do not resist, nothing more can be done for them.
Valentina Melnikova, corresponding secretary of the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers
What is also new is how quickly events develop. Melnikova says that the soldiers’ mothers already suspected that war would come in October-November last year.
– We tried to warn the people, but no one believed, Melnikova said.
Finding things out, helping or finding the soldiers is difficult because Russia is now waging a war on another country’s territory. War has not been officially declared, so there are no corresponding military structures there either.
The invitation organization is outdated
Melnikova says that in Russia, the reforms of the armed forces never extended to the agency responsible for mobilization and conscription and the conscription boards under it.
The same problems were seen in the launch of the business as in the call-ups for military service. Melnikova paints a dark picture of the system.
– They don’t have computers, internet, electronic accounting, Melnikova describes.
– The people who serve there can’t even imagine what happens to those they send to the troops. All their lives they have lived on the floors of the Ministry of Defense and have not been responsible for anything.
Therefore, men who have serious illnesses or other reasons that would make it possible to avoid military service end up in the forces.
When the president Vladimir Putin announced the launch of the campaign on September 21, the requests for help for Soldiers’ mothers grew like a landslide.
The biggest problem is that things are not handled according to the law: invitation letters are distributed on the streets, health checks are not carried out, and so on.
The experienced activist is downright angry that conscripts and their families wake up to complain about their treatment far too late.
– If people don’t resist themselves, nothing can be done for them anymore, says Valentina Melnikova.
– And people don’t resist. They got an invitation letter and went and then it starts: ‘Ah, oh, what, he’s sick,’ Melnikova gasps.
Now in Russia, the fall call-ups for military service are underway. The Ministry of Defense has assured that conscripts will not be sent to the so-called special operation or to the territories of Ukraine that Russia said it would annex.
That can also be circumvented by pressuring conscripts to become contract soldiers.
– Three months pass there and they start telling the soldiers that you have to sign the contract, you’re a patriot. They start to be pressured and humiliated, says Melnikova.
– They sign these stupid papers that mean nothing and then they are sent there.
Society is under stress
Opinion polls by the independent Levada research institute show that the mobilization announcement aroused sharply negative moods in Russian society: shock, depression, anger.
– Correspondingly, all cheer-patriotic views, enthusiasm and joy about the activities of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine fell sharply, from 51 percent to 20 percent, Deputy Director and Scientific Director of the Levada Center, well-known Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov tells.
October of Levada publication (you switch to another service) it was titled: Society in a state of stagnation.
In 2014, the rise of nationalist moods and outright euphoria following the occupation of Crimea was not seen in Russia at the time of the “military special operation”, even though in opinion polls the majority of citizens constantly express their approval of the state leadership and the military operation.
– It shows that people accept this situation as having no alternative, obediently, passively, without great enthusiasm, Gudkov describes.
He mentions a parallel he heard: In the Soviet Union, citizens were occasionally sent to kolkhozes to pick potatoes. It didn’t arouse much joy, but people went obediently.
As a result of the launch, indignation, helplessness and depression became the prevailing tone of the social atmosphere.
People take this situation as having no alternative, obediently, passively, without much enthusiasm.
sociologist Lev Gudkov
It is estimated that up to 700,000 Russians left the country. The numbers are exceptional.
– I would say that it is also a passive reaction, adapting to the actions of the state like other forms of submission, says Gudkov.
There was a decrease in the support of the central government, but in October the numbers improved to roughly the same level as before.
– Propaganda and typical passive obedience worked in this case as well, says Gudkov.
Moods also started to improve again in the October survey (you switch to another service)the results of which Levada published after Gudkov’s interview.
The number of people talking about tension and irritability decreased from 32 percent to 27, and about fear and pain from 15 percent to 9.
Gudkov reminds that almost complete censorship and information embargo has been created in Russia in more than eight months.
– People know little and don’t want to know, because it evokes a very difficult set of emotions, says Gudkov.
Identification with those in power and conformism, on the one hand, a bad conscience about the illegality of war, and on the other hand, the fear of one’s own soldiers dying on the front are arguing with each other.
– The mixture of very difficult emotions, dependence and obedience colors the psychological state of Russian society, Gudkov describes.
Different groups experience the situation differently. Approval of the war is highest among pensioners, elderly people, and those living in the provinces, villages, and small towns. Young people support the war to a lesser extent and anti-war sentiments are growing.
– In September and especially in October, the first signs were clearly noticeable, not so much of fatigue as of fear and reluctance to participate in the war, says Gudkov.
Hopes for an end to the war began to rise and the number of those who wanted to bring the war to a victorious end decreased.
Now, Russian officials say the partial mobilization has been completed.
Many doubt the announcement, especially since President Vladimir Putin has not issued an official presidential decree ending the motion.
– Nothing ends with words, in principle, Andrei says.
– There are rumors that there will be a full business launch after the New Year.
Andrei would no longer avoid that because of the postponement of his studies.
You can discuss the Russian business proposal until Friday, 11.11. until 11 p.m.
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“There is now a partial suspension of operations and a partial state of war in Russia,” says Ylen’s Moscow correspondent