A Siberian newspaper reports on the course of military mobilization from the provinces of the Republic of Buryatia, located on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, to its capital, Ulan-Ude. For these men and their families, behind the apparent courage and sometimes drunkenness, fear dominates.
On social networks, the Buryats immediately christened the night of September 21-22 “the night of judgment”. On the evening of the 21st, officials and teachers prepared the summonses before beginning to distribute them to households. “We received verbal instructions to get the mobilized men out of their beds, put them in cars and immediately take them to the military police station,” said an official at a district administration in Buryatia. From there they were all sent to Ulan-Ude.”
International mail
In the capital, on Shumiatsky Street, an elderly woman wrapped in a woolen scarf holds a plastic bag with five packs of Peter I cigarettes. She awaits arrival at her son-in-law’s collection point. This Bargouzinsk region resident, 35, received his mobilization order last night. It shouldn’t take long to arrive in Oulan-Oude.
“I already have three sons,” blows the woman. And now they’re going to get my son-in-law. And everyone wants to fight, everyone. Men really are crazy.” Her phone rings, she responds by shouting, “Pacha, are you coming? Yes, I have the cigarettes. tell ’em all you have four kids, do you hear me? Maybe they’ll let you go.”
Since the morning, buses filled with mobilized men have been following one another on Choumiatsky Street at the assembly point of the Military Commissariat of the Republic of Buryatia. It is a large fenced lot adjoining a multi-story apartment building. A ten-minute walk away is an archery range where memorial services are held for soldiers who died in Ukraine.
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Predictable mobilization
The men from Tunkinsky District are the first to arrive. According to a local government official, 130 men from the area’s 20,700 residents arrived that night. Buryatia has a population of 980,000, so the number mobilized could reach 6,000 to 7,000 men.
Among those already mobilized is the director of the school in the city of Kyren. No one expresses resentment or unwillingness to fight. “They all knew there was going to be a mobilization and they were preparing internally that we would come and get them,” said an official who asked not to be named.
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