“Russians in the lists of mobilized should not be more than 10%, i.e. one Russian for ten Bashkirs and Tatars”: how mobilization is going on in Bashkortostan

Even people who are not interested in politics and who do not disdain working in the state bodies of the prison of peoples began to understand that during the mobilization, the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation is going on. A letter from such a person was published on the KushTay on-line Telegram channel, confirming that these were not “excesses on the ground”, but a targeted approach. With all his naivete, the author cannot fail to notice what is happening.

Here is the full text of the letter.

It is not the first year that I have been working in the military registration and enlistment office in the Republic of Bashkortostan. This is far from my dream job. But I have always tried to honestly fulfill the duties entrusted to me, and I have never been ashamed of my service, especially now, in this difficult time for the country and for the republic. Everything has changed this year.

At the beginning of October, I noticed for the first time that military service, military specialty, and the military department are important, but not decisive moments in partial mobilization. Several times the military commissar refused some candidates and pointed to others who were clearly inferior in all respects … Such approaches surprised me greatly – after all, earlier, in peacetime, nothing like this had happened with conscripts. Yes, there were cases when the military commissar gave instructions for this or that conscript – there were no questions, I do not deny … but those were special cases. Here, the intervention had a clearly systemic nature – they regularly returned cases with Russian names and family names to me, often twice (“look for others”), until guys with Bashkir and Tatar names and family names were included in the list. This was really affecting me. A week later, the military commissar called me into the office and said that there was an oral order from above to mobilize mainly Bashkirs and Tatars. This was said in an official tone, while casually, among other organizational issues. I was dumbfounded by such a statement and I asked for an explanation. The military commissar, obviously irritated and dissatisfied, said that Russians in the lists of those mobilized should be not more than 10% – that is, one Russian for ten Bashkirs and Tatars. I objected, to which the military commissar replied in the style of “the instruction came from you know where, don’t speak out, and do your job if you don’t want to have problems for yourself and for all of us.” What does 10% mean – is this the norm for our military registration and enlistment office or for the entire republic? I don’t know. The military commissar assures that he does not know either.

In any case, the military commissar began to carefully check all the lists for compliance with quotas.

Now my personal attitude to this problem. I don’t know who came up with this “great idea” and what goals the authors of these quotas pursue, but I know for sure that this will not end well. I know the mood in our area, I know what ordinary people are talking about. I will say diplomatically – the people were not very rich before, but now they are not like that even more. We have never been greatly spoiled by the attention of Moscow and the republican authorities. Everyone adapts to survive as he can, without waiting for help from the state. People are scared and depressed. Everyone understands that the situation for 

Russia is far from developing in the best way, and no one has thought and will think about the fate of the families of the mobilized. It is becoming more and more obvious that the Bashkir men are taken to the front by whole villages. No one thinks about their provision, as well as about the maintenance of their families – neither in the region, nor there, above.

Please publish my letter. I still believe in the decency and prudence of our military and political leadership. We have already mobilized so many Bashkirs, and even 

Tatars, that mobilization in the republic must be stopped. Behind the Tatars there is the Republic of Tatarstan and influential people at the federal level. If no one stands up for the Bashkirs, a demographic catastrophe awaits us.