Jakarta –
When Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization of Russian men in September last year, it took Adam Kalinin – not his real name – a week to decide that the best thing he could do was move into the jungle.
The information technology specialist opposed war from the start, once being punished with a fine and two weeks of detention for putting up a sign saying “no to war” on the wall of his apartment building.
So when Russia suffers defeat on the battlefield and says it will call in 300,000 grown men to help turn the tables, Kalinin refuses to be sent to the front to kill Ukrainians.
However, unlike hundreds of thousands of other people, he did not want to leave Russia.
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Three things made him want to stay in Russia: friends, financial constraints, and reluctance to leave the things he was familiar with.
“Moving abroad would be a difficult step and out of my comfort zone,” Kalinin, who is in his thirties, told the BBC.
“It’s also not very comfortable here but anyway, psychologically, it’s very difficult to leave.”
So he said goodbye to his wife and headed out into the forest, where he had been living in a tent for nearly four months.
He uses antennas tied to trees for internet access and solar panels for energy.
He has weathered temperatures as low as -11C and is surviving on the food supplies his wife brings him regularly.
Life off-grid (without connecting to the utility system), he said, was the best way he could think of to avoid military service.
If the authorities can’t hand over the summons to him in person, he can’t be forced to fight.
“If they can’t physically hold my hand and lead me to the registry office, that’s a 99% defense against mobilization or any other form of abuse.”
In some ways, Kalinin is still living his life as usual.
He still works eight hours a day at the same job, even though during the winter – with the short daylight hours – he doesn’t get enough solar power to work a full day, and thus make up for his short weekend hours.
Some of his friends are now in Kazakhstan, also leaving Russia after the mobilization began, but his internet connection via a remote antenna tied to a pine tree is reliable enough that communication is not a problem.
He is also a lover of the outdoors, spending many vacations camping in southern Russia with his wife.
When he made the decision to move permanently into the wilderness, he already had much of the equipment he needed.
Adam Kalinin Kalinin did not know how much longer he would stay in the forest.
His wife, who visited the Kalinin camp for a few days at New Year’s, played a big role in his survival.
The wife brings food supplies every three weeks to the point drop-off where they can meet in person briefly.
He then took the supplies to a safe place, which he visited every few days to replenish his stock. He cooks using a wood-burning stove that he made himself.
“I have oats, buckwheat, tea, coffee, sugar. Not enough fresh fruit and vegetables of course, but not too bad,” he said.
Kalinin’s new home was a large tent used for ice fishing.
When he first arrived in the forest, he set up two camps five minutes apart; one with internet access for his place of work, the other in a more sheltered location for his bed.
As winter approached and the weather grew colder, he brought the two areas together so he now sleeps and works under one tent.
Recently, the temperature dropped to -11C, colder than expected. But now that the days were getting long again and the snow was starting to melt, he planned to stay where he was.
Although Kalinin himself has yet to receive a call-up to war, he says the situation is constantly changing and he fears being called up in the future.
Officially, IT workers like Kalinin are exempt from military service, but there have been many reports in Russia of waiving such exemptions.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization on Sept. 21, shortly after Ukraine’s blitzkrieg in the Kharkiv region where they recaptured thousands of square kilometers of territory from Russian forces.
Putin said the mobilization was necessary to defend Russia against the West.
But many people in the country protested, and there was chaos on Russia’s borders as hundreds of thousands of people tried to flee.
The mobilization had a huge impact on Russia. Until then, many Russian citizens can carry on with their pre-war lives.
Granted, some Western products are disappearing and sanctions are making financial transactions more difficult, but the direct impact on society is largely limited.
Mobilization brought war to the door of many Russian families. Suddenly, sons, fathers, and brothers were deployed to the front in record time, often poorly equipped and with minimal training.
If before this conflict seemed remote, now it is impossible to ignore.
Even so, public protests are rare in Russia – something that has been criticized in Ukraine and in the West. But Kalinin says people are really scared of what might happen to them.
“We live in a totalitarian country that has become so powerful. In the last six months, many laws have been passed at an incredible speed.
“If someone speaks out now against war, the country will come after them.”
Kalinin’s life in the jungle has made him quite popular online, with 17,000 people following his updates almost daily on Telegram.
He posts videos and photos of his surroundings, his daily routine, and how his camp is set up. There are lots of wood chopping activities.
Kalinin admits that he does not really miss his pre-war life. He calls himself an introvert who doesn’t mind being alone, although he misses his wife and wants to see her more often.
However, he explained that his current situation was still better than being sent to the front lines or to prison.
“I’ve changed so much, that things I might have missed have faded into the background,” he says.
“Things that seemed important before are not important anymore. There are people who are in a much worse situation than us.”
Adam Kalinin The snow is starting to melt and the days are getting longer, Kalinin said.
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(it/it)
