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Families of the Mobilized Turn into Latest Anti-War Protestors
The voices are so familiar to me. The women of the mobilized soldiers, those still alive, are appearing daily on social media in Russia. They are telling the stories of their abandoned husbands — abandoned by the “great, and brave Russian officers.”
I know these women. 10 months ago, I would have been asking things like “Are you getting off at the next stop?” — this is common in crowded mass transit. Asking in advance of the actual stop can prevent you from getting stuck back inside thus missing the stop.
We would have been passing each other, both weighed down with so many bags of groceries heading home from the “Pyaterochka” — supermarket — on the corner. Ever seeking a less slippery path through the deep snow of winter, it is common to watch the person ahead of you to see how best to proceed through Russia’s snow-covered streets. These women would have been my guides; or, I would have been their guide.
Irina Sokolova’s husband, a Russian soldier mobilized to fight in Ukraine, called her from a forest there last month, sobbing, almost broken. “They are lying on television,” he wept, referring to the state television propagandists who play down Russian failures and portray a…
