"Welcome!" Under such a poster in the village they said goodbye to the deceased contract soldier

On November 4, 2025, the coffin with the remains of 45-year-old Rinat Mamatov, who died in the war, was brought into the House of Culture of the village of Barda (Perm Territory) and placed next to a banner on which the greeting was written in Russian and Tatar: “Welcome” and “Rakhim itegez.” Relatives and friends of the deceased did not notice “this mess” at first, says his brother. They realized under what slogan the coffin stood only when a photograph from the funeral appeared on social networks. At the same time, Mamatov’s relatives still do not know for sure whether Rinat’s body was in the closed coffin. They could only see some kind of military uniform.

Text: project “Window”

In a small village with a predominantly Tatar-Bashkir population (10 thousand inhabitants), the local cemetery already contains 50 graves of those killed in the war.

“I still hope my brother is alive!”

Mamatov’s relatives don’t even know whether he managed to live to see his 45th birthday.

“It’s his birthday on September 2, and Rinat disappeared on January 7,” says his older brother Elvir, who lives in the same Barda. – He left as a volunteer on November 24, 2024, took with him only a push-button telephone and never contacted us - neither me nor his sister. We don’t know why he decided this and what happened to him. They also didn’t say anything about how he disappeared. Until the last moment I hoped that he was alive and in captivity. In the fall, we were given documents - it says that the body was allegedly found and “embalmed.” But in fact there was nothing there! During burial, we have a tradition that the body must have air, so we broke this 20 by 20 window in the coffin so that oxygen could enter there. Then they saw that the body was not there! One officer's uniform, a body bag and that's it. Therefore, even after the funeral, I still hope that my brother is alive!

On January 7, Rinat was declared missing. Before leaving for war, he separated from his second wife and lived with his father.

– I was in the north, the men from Barda mainly earn money by doing shifts. Dad died on October 11, he was 64 years old. “I didn’t live less than a month before my son’s funeral,” says Elvir. – And on November 4th we buried Rinat. About 50 people gathered in our cultural center. It was cold outside, so we decided to go inside. Rinat’s son came from his first marriage, Rustam, he visits us often and doesn’t forget. He also came to my grandfather’s funeral and helped us both physically and financially. We didn’t care about anything, of course, so we didn’t notice anything wrong with the posters. Then people from outside began sending us messages.

After the photo with the inscription “Welcome” appeared on the networks, it was removed from the official public pages of the city administration.

“We ourselves were more indignant than Rinat’s relatives,” says Kamil, a friend of the deceased (name changed at the request of the interlocutor). “The relatives don’t care anymore, but in every yard someone has gone there.”

This is how the residents of Barda prefer to talk about the participants in the invasion of Ukraine - “went there.”

– The last time Rinat held a machine gun was in 2000, when he served 2 years in the army after school and polytechnic college. At school he was a real authority: an athlete, only two B's, the rest - A's, and in college he was given the nickname "Handsome"! After the army, he worked in security - first at the central bank, then at various large institutions. Well, children of the 90s. You understand what times were like,” sighs the brother of the deceased.

Mamatov’s relatives do not directly say in which “big institutions” the “handsome” Rinat worked. But the editors managed to find information about at least one criminal case against his full namesake. The consideration of the theft case took place less than a month before Mamatov left for war, on November 1, 2024. The case file states that Rinat Failyevich Mamatov found someone else’s bank card and used it to pay for small purchases at least 23 times in rural stores, kiosks and canteens. He bought vodka, cigarettes, shawarma and other products, spending 5,831 rubles in half a day. The victim, the deputy director of a local store, said at the trial that the card could have fallen out of his pocket, the stolen amount is not significant for him, and he knows the defendant, nicknamed “Handsome,” - he communicates with local homeless people and abuses alcohol. The court took into account Mamatov’s admission of guilt and sentenced him to 2 years probation.

“She went crazy at the sight of the summons”

According to calculations conducted by BBC and Mediazona journalists, the Perm Territory ranks 4th among Russian regions in terms of the number of deaths in the war with Ukraine - 4,601 people. More people died only in Tatarstan, Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region.

The entire Bardym region, whose administrative center is Barda, is called “mostly Tatar” by locals. People here speak Tatar and celebrate national holidays every year. Barda itself stands on the left bank of the Tulva River; three of its tributaries flow right through the village - Barda, Kazmakty and Syuzdeelga.

“The village was named after the tributary.” In Turkic it means “grayling”, there were a lot of fish here. Now too. In principle, the village is being built - an indoor hockey building has been built year-round. They started laying asphalt,” says a resident of Barda (he asks that his name not be used). – We even have a Tatar folk theater! And the people know their language and speak it. Friends from the north came to visit me, we work together - they are Tatars, but they speak mostly Russian. They said how they arrived - as if they had arrived in their native land: everyone spoke Tatar and everyone was polite. The work here is basically in the fire department. We have a motor transport enterprise here and a forestry enterprise. But in general there is such a thing - the men from Barda mostly work in the oil fields on a rotational basis. They are leaving a thousand kilometers from Barda. I myself am now on shift, in the north, 1758 kilometers from home. But it’s better to earn money this way than to fight. Well, who goes there on their own - only marginalized people who have forgotten how to work. They think that they will restore their good name and will be considered heroes. It seems like he’s not a thief, but a soldier.

There are already 50 names in local public pages that publish obituaries of Barda residents who died in the war.

“Many acquaintances returned with a load of 200,” sighs Ramin Aliyev. – Some had reservations. But, you know, it doesn’t always work.

32-year-old Ramin knows what he's talking about. In September 2022, he was almost mobilized, despite a reservation from the company where he worked as a driller at an oil well. Locals still remember with horror exactly how he was “freed” from participating in the war.

“My wife Indira went crazy when she saw the summons and tried to kill herself. It’s still very hard for Ramina to say that before that she stabbed their common 4-year-old daughter, Azalea. – My wife is now in a mental hospital, they have been declared unstable, that is, insane. That’s why they didn’t take me: my son remained, now he’s 8 years old. I already work as an operator in the same oil company. In theory, all of us oil workers are entitled to protection from mobilization. Why didn't mine work? I can't know. But just like that, they don’t always work. Now they don’t touch me, only because I’m a single father.

Ramin's neighbors sympathize.

“It was hard for him.” The wife was also barely saved - she was operated on for a long time. They say she went crazy at the sight of the summons, they had a big quarrel, she drank, and then decided to commit murder and suicide - she stabbed the baby in the heart, and then herself in the stomach, says Alina (name changed at the request of her interlocutor).

Locals say that there are similar “failed armor” throughout the Bardym region and name several of the dead.

- In April, Ildar Abdulov was buried, he is from Bichurin, but consider him one of your own - here the village is only 15 kilometers away. Survived by a wife and four children! - says Alina. - Or Ilfat Khalilov died - four daughters left behind as a widow! But he was only 55 years old. He worked as a dentist. So Sarashi ( Khalilov’s native village of 1,400 inhabitants is located 22 kilometers from Barda, in the same Badimsky district ) was left without a dental service.