March 30, 2025

A Deserter's Dilemma


A Deserter's Dilemma
From the battlefield to the home front to the prison cell. The Russian Life files.

Viktor Svetlichny, a 35-year-old Ukrainian, has been sentenced to seven years in Russian prison for desertion, after having lived in Russia as a citizen for almost two years.

Svetlichny is from the Donetsk region and was mobilized into the "people's militia" of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; one of the Russia-aligned breakaway regions of Ukraine) in 2022, at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was discharged in March 2023, when he moved to Russia and acquired Russian citizenship.

He was detained in October 2024 in a small town in Karelia. Initially, he was accused of "unauthorized abandonment of his place of service," but this was later escalated to "desertion" — a much more serious charge.

Court documents label his nationality as "Ukrainian" and seem to cover up what appears to be a bureaucratic blunder causing Svetlichny seven years in a penal colony.

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Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
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Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
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Life Stories
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The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

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Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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Faith & Humor
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Faith & Humor

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