Maria Fedulova

Russia is a country that has compulsory military service for young men, but has no Veteran’s Administration, the way we do in the US, so that vets get little, if any, assistance. Eleven years after the war in Chechnya began, in 1989, mothers of soldiers gathered in Moscow to discuss what to do about their children who would surely be sent to Afghanistan to fight. Maria Fedulova helped to start the Mothers of Soldiers organization to help veterans and to prevent young people from going to war. The organization effectively stopped 600 young people from going to Chechnya to fight. The government does not help soldiers find jobs, and many become addicts. In 1996, the Mothers of Soldiers began a campaign for a voluntary, rather than compulsory, military service. They have successfully gained legal support so that boys who go to study in the university don’t have to go into the military. Maria described how all wars start with men and finish with women; it is women that often do the clean up work and take care of the wounded. Maria said that her group tried to stay away from politics, but considering what they had been through, it became very difficult to stay away, so they engage in the political struggle to affect change. They have now helped start a political party to campaign against military recruitment. Mothers of Soldiers is funded by Soros in the US and often the organization is helped by journalists who look for sponsors for the young vets who need surgery and other resources.

Maria has lived in hell—she goes into Chechnya and negotiates with the combatants for the release of prisoners or dead bodies. While I never really got her full story, I did understand that in one situation, she was involved in the negotiation process for the trade of prisoners for dead bodies. Chechen culture requires that the dead be buried within one day of their death, a cultural law to which the Russian soldiers paid no heed. In this case, the Russians crushed the bodies with tanks, so the Chechen combatants murdered the hostage POWs. This is hell—where hate is matched by hate.

Maria is one of the strongest women I have ever encountered. Even with the language barrier, I understand that she is a force to be reckoned with; she is powerful beyond measure and I believe that she is both persuasive and stubborn. She is weathered by a thousand images of torture and risky situations—you can see in the lines on her face, in her darting eyes, in her shoulders. But you can also see that she has absolutely not given up, that she is hopeful beyond belief and wholly determined to change the military situation in Russia. On the last night at the fancy Christmas dinner I get to sit next to Maria. Maria gets Tinkerbell sparkles in her eyes when she watches me laugh and eat strange new candies and foreign vegetables. It is like she is awestruck by my youthfulness. I am grateful for the way that I have been able to add such a lively presence to this group, though it feels a little funny to constantly be like the bambino of all these materi.

I discuss the CODEPINK plans for international protests on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2006, to ask US Embassies to help stop the war in Iraq. We come up with the idea of having women in the US protest at the Russian embassy asking for answers and reparations for the Beslan terrorism and women in Russia protesting at the US embassy against the war in Iraq… both in solidarity with each other and for peace. We also talk about having a reality tour to Russia, and about meeting again to continue this work.