The Ukraine war knows almost only losers among the Russian population. A war opponent evades conscription by fleeing into the woods – alone.
Moscow – The Ukraine war claims countless victims, on all sides. Many Russians try to avoid this because they don’t want to be part of a murderous war of aggression, the price for which they too are expected to pay. Among them is a man alias Adam Kalinin, a staunch anti-war fighter. Unlike many others, he has not left his homeland – at least not across the border: Kalinin’s escape took him to the lonely forests of Russia, with temperatures sometimes well below zero. What remains is his hope for peace.
The Ukraine war, Russia and a war opponent who doesn’t want to become a statistic
As is well known, the Ukraine war has long presented Russia’s armed forces with difficult tasks: the combat operations are not proceeding as expected at the beginning of the war, military progress is only being made slowly and casualties are high. The partial mobilization in September was met with protests despite the massive threat of repression, because there are many who do not want to be part of the war of aggression against Ukraine. As a result, many men left the country, while others went into hiding within Russia. They also include a Russian opponent of the war, whom the BBC “Adam Kalinin”, an alias, to protect his identity.
Kalinin himself works according to that BBC-Report in the IT department, which would actually exempt him from military service, but there are reports of cases in which this did not protect him from conscription. He, too, has already had experience of repression against opponents of the war: Kalinin had hung a “No to war” poster on his house and received a fine and two weeks in prison for it.
He says: “We have a totalitarian state that has become so powerful. Laws have been passed at an incredible rate in the last six months. If anyone now speaks out against the war, the state will persecute them.” The only option for Kalinin: escape.
Escape from Putin’s Ukraine war – last resort wasteland
But Kalinin’s escape differs from that of so many others since the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war left Russia. The difference: the man in his thirties never crossed the national border, but fled to the loneliness of the Russian forests. He lives there, according to reports BBC for almost four months now. The British journalists wanted to know why he hadn’t left the country. According to Kalinin, there are three reasons for this: friends, financial difficulties and the uneasiness of giving up the familiar. He explains: “It’s not exactly comfortable here either, but psychologically it would still be really difficult to leave here.”
There can be no question of cosiness, especially since the temperatures at Kalinin’s new place of residence have reached minus eleven degrees Celsius during the cold months. The young man defies them in a tent of the kind often used for ice fishing. He gets groceries from his wife, electricity from solar energy and internet via an antenna. Even in his loneliness there is no way around wage work for him, because he still works eight hours a day if possible. The only exception: short days when the lack of sun generates too little electricity. In this case, Kalinin makes up for the “missing hours” at the weekend.
War in Ukraine now: Kalinin’s case cannot be romanticized either
Kalinin explains the BBC on the war in Ukraine, “if they are physically unable to take my hands and lead me to the enlistment office” this is “a 99% defense against mobilization or other harassment”. Even if he himself says that many are worse off than he is, one thing is unmistakably clear: his escape leaves no room for romanticization, because it is the escape from a war that only knows losers. And so Kalinin is one of the many Russians who do not want to take part in the war, but who are rarely talked about.
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