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

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
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.
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.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
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. 
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.
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...
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

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