“I didn’t ask to teach my child to pull the trigger.”

Mom refused to send her schoolboy son to military training. She was convicted of “discrediting the army”

On October 7, the Berezovsky City Court of the Sverdlovsk Region fined Yana Lisitsina, a resident of the village of Staropyshminsk, 30 thousand rubles. She was tried for “discrediting the Russian army.” The reason was the woman’s reluctance to send her son, an 11th grade student, to military training.

During the proceedings with the school, which involved the military registration and enlistment office, the police and the FSB, Yana was threatened with taking her child away. Novaya publishes her story.

"Contradicts beliefs"

Vanya is now 16 years old, and in November he will be 17. Next year he may be drafted into the army, and I am afraid for him. We know that conscripts have already participated in hostilities - in border regions. If it weren’t for this, maybe I would have been calmer about the army.

My son is studying in the 11th grade, at gymnasium No. 5 in the city of Berezovsky. There is also a school in our village, but the level of training in it does not suit my husband and I - we always wanted our children to have a good education. Our eldest son, Danil, is already studying at Moscow State University.

When we sent Ivan to the gymnasium, we knew that Margarita Dmitrievna, who was the director at that time (now the director is her son) was a great patriot. Well, in the modern sense of the word. But we could not even imagine what we would have to face.

It all started last year, in the 10th grade, at a parent meeting, where we were told that basic military training would be introduced for boys at school. The teacher said: “Don’t worry. They’ll just run around and pass some standards.” But I knew that these standards included everything, including the handling of weapons. And that this will completely close the possibility of performing alternative civil service (ACS), because a person who has already held a weapon in his hands cannot say that this contradicts his beliefs.

Vanya really has convictions: he is a young man of democratic views, with developed critical thinking.

He doesn’t even want to go to AGS - he says that he plans to go to the Ural Federal University to study as an engineer. But you won’t be able to get away with higher education from the army until you’re 30 years old.

After discussing everything as a family, we decided that we would refuse military training. And this is where the troubles began...

Individual plan

Initial military training should be carried out within the framework of life safety. I knew that this subject had two programs. One is military: with the basics of state defense, the basics of military professional activity and with that very initial military training, which should take place in the format of five-day training camps. The second is exactly the opposite: only about civil life, about road safety, safety in the natural environment, about the basics of medicine.

I submitted an application to the director that I wanted my son to study in the second program. She demanded that an individual curriculum be drawn up for him—every student has this right. I also know other parents who were against military training, but they were scared by saying that my Vanya would have problems, that he simply would not be transferred from 10th to 11th grade, and that if they did not want difficulties for their children, then it’s better for them not to write anything anywhere.

Thus, our family was the only one who waived the fees.

At first, however, we had no problems either. Something strange was happening, but it could not yet be called trouble. Director Alexey Dorokhin responded to my statement in writing, saying that the school had already chosen a life safety program that included studying safety not in military, but in civilian conditions. I was surprised: where did basic military training come from then? After all, it is included precisely in the “military” life safety program.

I wrote a new application and received a similar response. Moreover, each time it took 30 days for a response. I began to write to the Ministry of Education and indicate that if they do not draw up an individual curriculum for us, we will consider this as consent to my son’s non-participation in military training.

And neither the school nor the ministry, it must be said, denied us an individual curriculum - this is truly our right. But the problem is that no one offered it. Applications asking for it were followed by responses in which we were told: “To switch to training according to an individual curriculum, you must submit an application to the director.” And this was the director’s answer!

At some point, I realized that they were simply stalling for time so that in May, when military training had to take place, they would present us with the fact that Vanya had to go to them.

I contacted human rights activists from Soldiers' Mothers, they advised me to complain to the prosecutor's office and the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Sverdlovsk region. And the appeal to the ombudsman gave a result, but not at all the one we would have liked.

In May of this year - shortly before training camp - I was summoned to the Berezovsky education department. From one of the official responses, I understood that it was initiated by the Commissioner for Human Rights and that we would discuss an individual curriculum there. I went there without any fears, not even thinking that events would happen there for which I would now be judged.

First treatment

In the office sat the school director, the military commissar, the head of the education department, an employee of the education department Zinaida Sadovnikova (she was a teacher of Russian language and literature for my eldest son) and a representative of the commission for minors.

Each of them began to make his own small report, convincing me that I had no right to refuse military training. But the main ones, as I understood, were two speeches: from an employee of the commission on minors’ affairs and from the military commissar.

The commission representative said: “You know, it seems to us that you are a bad influence on your son. We will have conversations with him. We will question him in tests - psychological, socio-psychological... Do you understand how this will end?” I say: “I don’t understand.” He: “We can take your child away from you.” I asked: “On what basis?” He began to list some articles, but then the military commissar got involved.

The military commissar began calling Ivan a draft dodger. And also - he abruptly brought up the topic of SVO... He began to say that “now bombs will fly on our heads, and your son does not want to defend the country.”

And then I kind of threw out a phrase... I said, (...) [we cannot quote this phrase verbatim, its essence is that the country was not in any danger in February 2022 - approx. ed. ]. I didn’t say anything else, but then, in the protocol about “discrediting the army,” completely different phrases appeared. Which I didn't say. [The protocol is at the disposal of the editors.]

These are fictitious phrases. And very stupid ones: why should I say “I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to serve” if I’m not liable for military service at all?

As it turned out, there is no audio recording that would confirm that I allegedly said these words. But two people: the head of the education department, Natalya Ivanova, and the former teacher of my eldest son, Zinaida Sadovnikova, signed witness statements that I allegedly said so.

But that was later. From that meeting I was quietly released.

Second treatment

Soon I was provided with an individual curriculum, according to which my son was supposed to study instead of military training. But, of course, he was completely different from what we expected. It consisted entirely of military themes and included shooting. Do you understand? Shootings at a school under the direction of a teacher... Have we opened a shooting range there?

Vanya said that he would not do such a thing. I abandoned this individual plan - after all,

I didn't ask for my child to be taught to pull the trigger. The school management said that their son would be transferred to the 11th grade “conditionally” - with arrears for health and safety.

Well, a new school year has arrived. Both the teachers and I understand that something needs to be done about the debt. In September I am invited to a meeting with the director. I arrive, and the entire delegation of six or seven people, including the military commissar, is sitting there again. And the military commissar starts talking about the North Military District again.

At that time, an administrative case had already been opened against me, but I still knew nothing about it. Now I understand that the main goal of that meeting was to get me emotional and make me say something about Ukraine. Because then they would be able to draw up a second protocol and initiate a criminal case. But I wasn’t going to say anything like that - I just told the military commander that I didn’t come to talk about politics. He still tried to stick to his line. He asked: “So you are probably for LGBT*?” Then I almost broke down: “What does LGBT have to do with it? - I say. “I came to discuss my child’s problem.” In the end they relented. They offered to give Vanya a bad grade for training. Then his final grade in life safety would be three. We consulted with our son and agreed to this.

The issue was closed. But a week later I received a call from the police.

Duty to convey

There was a woman's voice on the phone. The employee introduced herself as Anastasia Filonova. She said that our family had written a lot of complaints about the school to the prosecutor’s office and they would like to talk to me about this and figure out what’s what. The tone was quite friendly and even seemed interested, I agreed.

At the appointed time, I arrived at the Berezovsky police department, but Anastasia was not at work. I called her, she said: “Sorry, I’m late. Are you in a hurry? I need another half hour." It’s stupid, but I stood at the department and waited for her, not even thinking that I would be detained now...

Finally they arrived - Anastasia and her partner, who introduced himself as Alexander. They invited me inside, sat me down at the table, and started asking about the situation with the preparations. I noticed that they were younger than me—very young guys. Everything was within the bounds of decency, but the question remained: why the police? Finally, they said that they had been conducting a case against me for three months about “discrediting the army”, that they had received information that in the education department I had said those phrases that were included in the protocol... That at first they wanted to open a criminal case about “fakes”, but there were no grounds for this was not found.

I was perplexed. I didn’t understand what was happening at all. There was extreme stress.

Anastasia said that she and Alexander would now go to sign the protocol on my case from the witnesses. They left me at the entrance with the attendant. I didn’t understand what was happening at all, I said to the duty officer: “Can I go to Pyaterochka to buy water?” And he: “No. Now I’ll assign an employee to you, and go with him.” Only then did I realize that I was detained.

I didn't go to the store. I wrote to my husband that I needed food and water. He brought it. Then the police returned and took me into the office.

Next came a man who did not introduce himself, but I remembered that the police called him Evgeniy. I realized that this was an FSB officer. He came to talk to me. Like the police, he was very friendly, even sweet. I tried to start conversations on various topics, including political ones, but I said that I didn’t want to discuss them. We spent most of the time discussing the baby. He said that our fight for Vanya could end badly because we contacted human rights activists. I recommended not to communicate with them. And he also said the following thing: “But at the second meeting [which was at school] you didn’t say anything bad...” That’s when I understood why the military commissar was so incensed about the SVO for the second time... They needed to at least pull something in for the second “ discredit." But it didn't work out.

After talking with the FSB officer, we went to court. But the meeting did not take place that day. I was sent home.

The lawyers recommended that I not go to the meeting. On October 7, I was fined without my participation.

You know, I asked myself how I felt about this. It pains me, because I am a teacher myself - I worked at a school, worked in kindergartens, I even had my own private kindergarten and development school. I'm sorry that some people in this system have fallen this way. I asked my eldest son if he would like to call his former teacher, who testified in my case, confirming the words that I did not utter. The son said: “Mom, you know, I don’t want to talk to her anymore.” It seems to me that

school should be a place where teachers are your child’s protectors. It's terrible to realize that this is not the case.

After I was sentenced to a fine, I sent a message with this story to the class’s parent chat. One mother wrote: “They had to report you, so they did so.” What can you say to people who believe there is a duty to report?

Recorded by Ivan Zhilin

Since 2024, in Russian schools, instead of life safety, a new subject has been introduced - OZR (fundamentals of security and defense of the Motherland). The military module is mandatory, and even the “peculiarities of contract military service” must be studied within it. It is now impossible to achieve an individual curriculum that would include exclusively peaceful topics. In these conditions, human rights activists recommend turning to the federal law “On Education”, which gives the right to family education and self-education.

“It is not necessary to switch to self-education in all subjects. You can do this for a select few, in this case, for OZR, and for the rest, leave the previous form of training. Students who study in the form of family education or self-education undergo intermediate and final certification. But you can take it either at your school or at another organization that has the right to conduct such certification. For example, there are private schools that have state accreditation. Accordingly, they have the right to conduct (and do) certification of children studying in the form of family education or self-education. Usually this certification takes place in all subjects, but there is no problem in conducting such certification in one subject <...> We don’t think that a school that conducts certification of such students will have the task of failing you or tormenting you specifically for this particular module about military service, - says a memo prepared by human rights activists. — We recommend submitting an application for transfer to self-education . Moreover, we would not write anything about our beliefs in it. And when asked by the administration about the reasons for the transfer, they would answer that these are personal reasons and there is no desire to discuss it.”

* The “LGBT movement” is recognized as extremist in Russia.