June 14, 2023

"Go Defend Your Homeland"


"Go Defend Your Homeland"
Chechen troops on the Russian side in Donbas, June 2022 Gennadiy Dubovoy, Wikimedia Commons

The human rights project SK SOS reported that law enforcement officers in Chechnya are using blackmail and threats to send local residents to Russia's War in Ukraine.

A recruitment campaign for volunteers was launched by Chechen authorities following the war's outbreak, promising generous rewards for army service. Yet when this initiative failed to yield the desired results, law enforcement officers adopted a new approach.

The SK SOS project discovered that Chechen security forces maintain a comprehensive database of individuals previously detained for drug and alcohol offenses, expressing critical views about the government, or being suspected of identifying as LGBTQ. In the past, such individuals were exploited for financial gain through a detain-and-release-for-ransom scheme. However, now authorities are forcing these individuals to sign contracts and go to war. Should they refuse, detainees are threatened with persecution, or with the prospect of their family members being sent to the front lines.

"People are simply faced with a choice: either a lengthy prison term or go to Ukraine," said one source "And if you have a big family, then what? If you don’t go, they will frame your brother and send him. They forced a lot of people to go there like that."

According to SK SOS, individuals are detained in secret prisons, rather than official pre-trial detention centers, and thus do not have any legal status. SK SOS provided details about one such clandestine facility, which houses some 70 prisoners, at least two of whom were detained for suspicion of identifying as LGBTQ, while others were held for drug or alcohol-related offenses, document forgery, and theft.

A former inmate of one of these secret prisons said that, at the beginning of mobilization, the security forces asked the detainees if somebody wanted to go to work. Almost two-thirds of the detainees agreed to “go to work,” and a few months later, only about 20 remained in custody. Others went to war.

The war has also become a convenient pretext to eliminate business competitors. According to SK SOS, Tabarik, the daughter of Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov, is associated with Grozny Taxi, a service that has monopolized the market through political pressure. The SK SOS report suggested that, following the announcement of mobilization, security forces launched frequent raids in areas where taxi drivers typically operate. Officers issued fines on spurious grounds or confiscated vehicles, leaving the drivers destitute. They were then told, "You have no money and no job now, go defend your homeland."

You Might Also Like

War and Beef
  • June 07, 2023

War and Beef

Sculptures of soldiers and tanks made from ground meat are making waves.
A Soldier Nation
  • September 28, 2022

A Soldier Nation

"We are a soldier country, a soldier nation. We will fight, it's not our first time, and so on... I feel that a rather gloomy period is ahead." – Alexei Levinson, Levada
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
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.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
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.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.

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