Hello from Moscow, which has changed since Sep. 21, when a mobilization campaign sent men fleeing across borders or to the army. Barbershop chairs are empty, pool halls full of women, the women left behind try to keep things going—until they can leave too.
nytimes.com/2022/10/19/wor…
nytimes.com/2022/10/19/wor…
“I feel like we are a country of women now,” Stanislava, a 33 yo photographer, said at a recent birthday party that was attended mostly by women. “I was searching for male friends to help me move some furniture, and I realized almost all of them had left.”
She plans to leave too.
She plans to leave too.
“These men are like toys in the hands of children,” said Ekaterina, 27, whose husband Vlad, 25, was being mobilized. “They are just cannon fodder.” She wished he had evaded the summons, saying it would have been better for him to sit in jail for a few yrs than to return dead.
“My friends and I meet for wine, and talk and support each other, to feel that we are not alone,” said Liza, whose husband, a lawyer for a multinational company, received a draft notice. He quit his job and escaped but Liza stayed behind bc their daughter is in school.
Moscow's mayor announced Monday that mobilization would end that day. But people are still worried that there could be another wave or that their husbands could still be called up.
Single girls will struggle: “All of the most reasonable guys are gone,” said Tatiana, a 36 yo who works in IT sales, as she watched a game of billiards with her friends at women’s social club in the trendy Stoleshnikov Lane. “The dating pool has shrunk by at least 50 percent.”
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