‘God will ask me why’

How a St. Petersburg draftee won an exemption from military service based on his Christian faith

Pavel Mushumansky, a 23-year-old native of St. Petersburg, was drafted in September 2022 but refused to bear arms. His Christian faith, he said, does not permit killing or taking part in combat. Hearing these arguments, two Russian courts ruled in his favor. Meduza tells Pavel’s story, based on an extended profile published earlier by the local news outlet Fontanka.

Growing up, Pavel Mushumansky went to church with his parents, but his real conversion happened later, when he was already a student in a technical college. Faced with a personal crisis, he “sought the Lord’s help.” “The Lord did help, and I have since tried not to steer away from him,” he says.

A few years ago, Mushumansky graduated from the St. Petersburg College of Industrial Technology, Finance, and Law. In 2019, he was called up for mandatory army service — a biannual process known as conscription in Russia. Having filed an application for alternative service in advance, Mushumansky was assigned instead to work in the laundry room of a mental hospital, where he spent the next 22 months.

In September 2022, Mushumansky was one of hundreds of thousands of Russians to receive a mobilization summons amid major setbacks in the invasion of Ukraine. Instead of trying to evade the order, he challenged it legally, arguing for his right to conscientious objection. Mushumansky went to the draft office and explained that his Christian faith does not permit him to take part in combat. The officials refused to release him, however, and he was sent to a regional army base where the officers there would supposedly “sort this out.”

When Mushumansky arrived at the base, he told the other draftees that Christ had taught his followers to love and to forgive their enemies instead of going to war with them. As a result, he was left out of training exercises. Although many of the people he talked to seemed surprised by his behavior, no one pressured or abused him, he says. Several days after arriving, Mushumansky stopped wearing his uniform and started walking around the base in civilian clothing. No one challenged him for doing this, either, he says.

Shortly afterward, several officers summoned Mushumansky for a talk and invited him to accompany the rest of the unit to Ukraine. If he joined the group, he was told, he’d only have to do camp chores and wouldn’t have to fight. He didn’t believe this and declined, explaining, “As far as I know, no one over there bothers with distinctions, whether a person took an oath or not, or what his views are. If I refuse to follow orders, they will talk to me differently.” “I realize that Christ has died for me,” he went on, “and this is true of all the other people as well, friends and enemies alike. If I pick up arms and take another’s life, God will ask me why I took the life of a person whom God had died for, and whom he loves.”

After this conversation, the young man was excused from all training. He thinks this was done to keep him from “corrupting” the other draftees. He spent six more months at the base, left to his own devices most of the time. “I read the Bible and prayed. I took part in community life by helping to clean. When everyone had to clean the barracks or the grounds, I went with everyone else,” he recalls.

While this went on, Mushumansky’s parents challenged his mobilization in court. In an unprecedented ruling on November 30, 2022, a court invalidated his draft order. Military officials appealed this verdict, but a higher court upheld the decision on March 16. Today, Mushumansky’s is once again in the hands of a military committee, which must decide whether to compel him to alternative service. “There’s no definite law here,” says his attorney.

Translated by Anna Razumnaya