A year ago, 42-year-old Mikhail Smirnov from Rzhev, Tver region of Russia, was mobilized to the Russian army.
Friends told him not to go to war, but Smirnov was afraid that his property would be taken away. He owned a modern house and 2 apartments.
His concern was unfounded: there was no law allowing the state to confiscate property for not showing up to the enlistment office, but Smirnov decided to show up. He was sent to the front.
Last month, a closed coffin was brought to Rzhev.
Locals were told that it was the body of Mikhail Smirnov. The city administration announced that the body would be buried on October 2 and invited residents to the funeral.
Mikhail Smirnov.
Smirnov’s acquaintances (he had no close relatives) suspected a substitution: they were told that the body was brought from Luhansk (Smirnov said that he was fighting in Bakhmut), and the death certificate indicated the year of birth in 1995, although the Rzhev man was 42 years old.
Friends demanded to open the coffin.
When they looked at the body, they realized it wasn’t their friend Smirnov in the coffin: the person in the box was much younger, no gray hair (the face was disfigured). The teeth were different.
The funeral has been postponed.
DNA was taken for analysis, which will take at least 3 months.
The administration insisted that the body needed to be buried, just so that it wouldn’t lye in the morgue.
The relatives agreed to hold the funeral without waiting for test results.
On October 9, an unknown body under the name of Mikhail Smirnov was buried in Rzhev.
Not in his parents’ grave, but still as Mikhail Smirnov. Because the heirs — not close family members (Smirnov’s mother and sister died last year) wanted the death payout.
After receiving the death money, the relatives stopped answering messages from Smirnov’s friends.
Funeral ceremony in the church.
What happened to Smirnov is unknown. And who was the person buried? How many other coffins that families didn’t open, had bodies that weren’t their sons or husbands?
About 30 coffins arrive to Tver region from the front in Ukraine every second day.
The city of Tver is the regional center, population 400,000. It’s only 180 km from Moscow.
In 2023, the average monthly wage in Tver is around 52,000 rubles ($520).
Rzhev is a much smaller town, population only 55,000. The average monthly wage in Rzhev is 48,000 rubles ($480).
Rzhev is 220 km from Moscow.
That’s Rzhev city centre and the main hotel.
Russians often say, “Moscow isn’t Russia”.
Russians living in cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg have no idea how people live in regional towns. They have absolutely no idea.
They don’t understand the type of relationships in the families, the struggle, the everyday poverty.
Russians living in cities like St. Petersburg live in their own bubble. They’ve never seen hospitals that haven’t been renovated since 1975. They don’t understand the level of depravity and hopelessness, driving people to alcoholism.
Simply because of money and the desire to live problem-free “outside of politics,” people cease to be humane.
They rejoice at the school desk named after their murdered son.
They thank the authorities for the bag of dumplings they received for their murdered husband.
They bury a stranger’s body and put a sign on the grave with the name of a relative.
And then they happily rush to buy a white Lada.
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