June 10, 2024

Forced to Go Back to War


Forced to Go Back to War
Russian tanks abandoned by the Russian army in the retreat from Izyum. Ukrinform TV, Wikimedia Commons.

Mobilized soldiers who escaped from service are reportedly being held in military units throughout Russia and then being sent back to the front as punishment for desertion. These soldiers are transferred to assault detachments, Verstka reported.

By January 2024, at least 800 mobilized soldiers are reported having fled Russia's War on Ukraine. Those whom military police located were locked up for several months in military units, then they were offered the choice of returning to Ukraine or awaiting trial. None were convicted. 

Approximately 170 were sent from Yekaterinburg to Ukraine at gunpoint. “Forty men with batons come onto the floor, and if you don’t go, they knocked you out and loaded you up unconscious,” one soldier said.

Similar cases occurred in other locations, including Rostov-on-Don, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, and Moscow Oblast. Among the soldiers forcibly sent back to the front were those who should not be fighting, due to health problems or family situation, such as being a sole breadwinner. Relatives of the mobilized soldiers complained that the military deprived the soldiers of their right to a trial.

The ASTRA news outlet reported that a 48-year-old father of three was forcibly taken to the front, despite his willingness to serve a prison sentence to avoid deployment.

One reason for these actions, according to a lawyer who spoke to Verstka, is Russia's lack of soldiers for the siege of Kharkiv. The Russian army needs at least 300,000 men, sources told Verstka in March. Since the spring conscription, which began April 1, 2024, Ministry of Defense employees have been persuading conscripts, demobilized soldiers, draft dodgers, and reservists to enter into contracts.

Meanwhile, the number of soldiers leaving service without permission is, reportedly, growing. According to calculations by Mediazona, in March 2024 alon, Russian military courts adjudicated 684 cases of unauthorized abandonment of military units.

You Might Also Like

Make Fairy Tales, not War
  • June 05, 2024

Make Fairy Tales, not War

Russian authorities are spending more on the production of fantasy films than on war films, according to a recent study.
The Path to Foreign Agenthood
  • June 01, 2024

The Path to Foreign Agenthood

A grassroots organization fighting for the rights of mobilized soldiers has been declared a foreign agent.
Victory (Kinda) on Display
  • June 02, 2024

Victory (Kinda) on Display

Russian diplomats recently perused a display of captured Western equipment brought from Ukraine to Moscow.
Disability Numbers Soar
  • May 30, 2024

Disability Numbers Soar

Disability numbers have seen a drastic increase since the beginning of the war. 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

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. 
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955