September 26, 2024

Another Year, No Signs of Their Husbands


Another Year, No Signs of Their Husbands
Wives and daughters protest in front of the Ministry of Defense holding signs reading "Demobilization" and "Bring dad back, I have been waiting two years." Paulina /Mobilizatsia i Lyudi, Telegram.

On September 21, wives of mobilized soldiers commemorated a grim date. They gathered in front of the Ministry of Defense building in Moscow to protest the second anniversary of the "partial mobilization" of Russia's war in Ukraine.

The wives of the drafted men have long advocated for their return from the front and protested the "indefinite mobilization" of their husbands. One of the most vocal members, Maria Andreyeva, was declared a foreign agent in May.

On September 20, the Telegram channel Put' Domoy (The Way Home), which advocates for the wives of mobilized soldiers, announced the women would go to the Ministry of Defense to ask for the demobilization of their loved ones. Soon after, participants of the movement got warnings from police.

On September 21, twenty women attended the protest with signs reading "Demobilization" and "Bring dad back home, I have been waiting for two years." They were not alone for long. Agitators approached and began recording the protesters, shoving phones in their faces. One of the wives was filmed saying, "You are violating the personal limits of the Ministry of Defense," while the men insulted her. In another video, a passerby tells the women they were paid to protest for their husbands.  Regardless, the Telegram channel Paulina / Mobilizatsia i Lyudi (Paulina / Mobilization and People) announced that the women planned to spend the night in front of the Ministry of Defense.

Before the protest, two journalists from SotaVision, Maxim Seramush and Denis Panteleyev, were detained in front of the Ministry of Defense. They were released shortly after and given "warnings."

Prospects for the return of the soldiers mobilized in September 2022 are still grim. In the fall of 2023, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, said the soldiers drafted in September 2022 would not return until the completion of the "special military operation." President Vladimir Putin confirmed that the draft decree did not include rotation terms.

Meanwhile, many convicted felons who signed contracts with the military have been allowed to return home. 

You Might Also Like

One Country, Two Wars
  • September 16, 2023

One Country, Two Wars

The Kremlin is currently conducting not one, but two horrific wars.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

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.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
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.
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.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
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 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.
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.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
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.

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